How to get your paperwork under control
Do you have too much paperwork at home or at work? Not being in control of ALL THAT PAPER can have so many undesirable knock-on effects. It can even stop us in our tracks when we want to get things done!
1. Everything takes longer! When you need to find a particular document, you can feel like you’re always losing things – When there is too much paperwork, and it is not in any order it’s no wonder you can’t lay your hands on the item you need quickly. What a waste of precious time.
2. Its stressful. Not only does it take more time to find the right document, but often we are looking for something when we need to leave the house, ie we have a deadline. That rising feeling of panic when you are scrambling about is a familiar one and a horrible one – nobody can enjoy that.
3. All those additional and unnecessary piles of paper can have the knock on effect of taking up space that you could use for other things in your home.
So how does it end up like this in so many households? Usually, it’s because there is no system in place in the first place. Nothing has a place, so it just gets chucked anywhere and kept. Also, we can get into the habit of not wanting to make decisions – especially when the decision that needs making is unclear.. e.g. should I keep that, where should I put it? Etc. And then once it builds up - it can feel overwhelming to tackle? Worry no more! I have a step-by-step plan for you to make your house feel less cluttered and save you time, so you can feel calmer and spend time doing more interesting things that bring you joy! 1. You need to do a one-off job to THROW AWAY EVERYTHING YOU DONT NEED. This means allocating a morning or afternoon to the job – when will you do this? Look in your calendar now and allocate a time to it. Set a reminder on your phone. As you are going through everything – remember to check if there are digital options for any of the letters you are receiving eg energy bills and sign up for the online options wherever you can. If you want to keep to paper then just keep the latest. 2. Do you need home filing system ideas? Well – here it is… create a super simple filing system with some box files - don't make the categories too specific - stick to broad ones such as "Insurance" or "house bills" - you need to be able to chuck stuff in. 3. Sometimes it’s hard to know what paperwork to keep and what to throw away. Only keep what you know you might need to refer back to, everything else can be gone. Remember to shred anything that has confidential information on it.
Finally – be sure to set up an “Action in tray” in your living space whereby you can put things that need action so as you get your post each day you can throw away anything you don’t need and you can either deal with anything that needs some action or opop it into your action in tray if you don’t need/ want to deal with it immediately.
Oh – and set a weekly reminder to review the in tray – job done!
