Oh, the paper possibilities! You can pile, you can procrastinate, you can create problems for yourself, or you can prepare a system.
Maria Gracia describes the 4 D’s of Effective Paper Management at Lifeorganizers.com. They are:
- Do It
- Delay It
- Delegate It
- Dump It
Stephanie Winston is known for her TRAF system of dealing with paperwork, with four things you can do with paper:1. Toss it2. Refer it3. Act on it4. File it (I prefer to consider filing under the Action heading, leaving F to stand for Follow-up.) I don’t do much delegating or referring, so the R can be for Reading. Toss:Questions to ask when deciding whether to retain or toss a piece of paper:1. Is this only for my own information, and now I know it?2. Is this quality information? Objective? Reliable? Timely? Useful? Clear? (Keep the best, and forget the rest)3. Does this information exist elsewhere? If needed in the future, could it be replaced? Reading: Clip articles that look interesting. After reading, use criteria above to evaluate the information and make a decision whether to toss or file. Action: Files could include a red file for priority items, to read, to file, ideas and projects, etc. Filing: Set up a file system that works for you.
Resources
File It, Find It Home Filing System (pdf)
LifeOrganizers.com-office
OrganizeYourWorld article: Organizing Paper Files & Desks
Record Retention Guidelines (pdf) NOTE: There are different record retention guidelines online that can vary on what they recommend. I am not an expert in this field! This one is nice because it’s easily printable, thereby adding to your paperwork!
Books:
“Taming the Paper Tiger at Home” and/or “Taming the Paper Tiger at Work” by Barbara Hemphill
“Organizing Your Home Business” by Lisa Kranarek
Filed under: information management, productivity
[...] and desk, to process paperwork and [...]
[...] here, files there, files everywhere! There is so much paper to manage, and all kinds of files. Action files, financial files, tickler files, household records files, [...]