This isn’t the first time I have attacked a familiar office convention. There was the accordion file, the spiral notebook, and the rubberband.Today, I take issue with the apparently harmless paper clip. Let me start by saying I do use paper clips myself. I believe they have their place. It’s just that I find they are grossly over-used.
To get organized the word “important” needs to be used carefully. If “important” is used too much then there is no distinction and the most important stuff can get buried in the less important stuff. Put another way, if everything is important then nothing is important. If “important” is used too little then important is seen as a small category unto itself.
Are you flooded with paper in your home? BIG paper challenges require BIG steps. An easy way to be as aggressive with your paper flood as it is with you, is to start by sorting shapes. The biggest deterrent to dealing with paper is making decisions. The vast majority of these decisions are easy, but we tend to tie them to the minority of difficult ones. The best approach, therefore, is to take the majority of easy decisions out of the way first. Here’s how.
There is a time to sort-and-purge clutter and a time to act on your to-do’s. It’s counter-productive to mix the sorting with the acting. To truly understand why these two things are incompatible, it is first important to recognize the difference between getting organized and staying organized. It’s not unlike the difference between cooking a meal and eating it. It just works better to eat a meal after it is fully cooked
One of the most familiar items to go homeless in any work environment is the receipt. You may be frustrated with how messy they look everywhere, but the solution is never as easy as throwing them all out, because they DO matter. Not ALL of them matter, but without a clear plan, one tends to keep them all, just in case.
Would you say there is more of a paper drain or paper trap in your work environment? In other words, does paper circulate easily, like water down a drain, or does it accumulate, like water in a plugged sink? If a sink is overflowing with water, we want the plumber to fix what is plugging up the drain IMMEDIATELY!
It’s a common question but it has an uncommon answer. Mail doesn’t go anywhere. That’s because it stops being mail the second it comes out of your mailbox. Bills-to-pay need a home, material-to-read need a home, and statements-to-file need a home, but it’s a mistake to allow the daily collection to take up residence ANYWHERE.
If your shelves are overrun with binders and they’re busting at the seams it may be time to rethink your use of binders. Binders have their place, but like so many things, they will serve you better if used within limits. Here’s how:
An associate of mine joked the other day about how I was so organized that I had my sock drawer alphabetized. Naturally I took the joke in the spirit of good-natured ribbing it was intended, but for many organizing systems I believe alphabetizing can do more harm than good. Now don’t get me wrong,if you have items like old client files or CDs that are all the same type of thing, filing alphabetically makes the most sense, but...
The number one habit to stay organized is to sort the daily mail DAILY. If your clutter is so overwhelming you don't know where to begin, start with the daily mail. This may seem insignificant next to more monstrous organizing challenges, but the act of sorting your daily mail EVERY day encompasses some of the most fundamental organizing principles. 1. CIRCULATION PREVENTS ACCUMULATION.
Originally from Matt Baier’s Organizing Works Newsletter, June 2007
Focus On Filing, Part Read More
Originally from Matt Baier’s Organizing Works Newsletter, May 2007
FOCUS ON FILING, PART Read More
