Need help with your paperwork?
Here’s a system that works:
1. When mail arrives, have a place where it goes first. Recycle, shred, or toss anything that is clearly junk. (It’s worth quickly opening envelopes, though, just in case—sometimes envelopes can be deceiving.) But this is not the time for a thorough review.
2. Open everything else, and sort into 3 trays:
· Bills to be paid. (Open and mark the envelope with due date and send date and move to your bill-paying center.)
· Papers to file. (Set up files with labels that make sense to you.)
· Things to read—separate into urgent and leisure.
· DO NOT set up a “miscellaneous” file—I’ll tell you why!
3. Make a firm date with yourself at least once a week to empty the trays. Once you’ve mastered the system, plan to “attack” the older paper piles—they’ll be waiting for you, I promise!
To summarize:
· Set up a system and keep it up every day. (It takes 21 days to establish a new habit. When you repeat the same small steps and feel good when you do them, you are more likely to do them again.)
· Tweek the system to fit you.
· Be honest. If you can’t do the job alone, get reliable help—like me.
· Step back and admire your work!
