Organizing Myths

Have you ever heard yourself say, "I'll get to these papers when I have some free time." Seriously?

How much free time do you have in a day? Maybe you have a few minutes a day totaling maybe an hour or two a week. Most of you probably have even less spare time.

So, in that free time you would like to...File? I'm guessing that was not the first thing that came to mind. No, sorting and filing papers is not usually thought of as America's number one past time.

So this brings me to a very big misconception that many people have about organizing: They'll get to it in their free time. In order to be organized, you'll want to make time, and yes that means scheduling it. Schedule organizing daily or at the minimum once a week. Work it into your daily routine starting Today!

Disorganization's best friend is procrastination.

So now you're asking what do I do with all these papers?

1. Take a pile of papers and sort them into these categories:
shred (most of the papers will be in this category)
file (only if you will truly refer to it in the future)
action (needs some type of action such as reading, phone call, fill-out and mail, payment, etc)
relocate (belongs elsewhere in the home or office)

2. Each day for the rest of this week, spend a few minutes accomplishing these tasks. Tuesday do the shredding, Wednesday do the filing, Thursday complete the necessary actions, and Friday relocate any papers that belong elsewhere.

3. Now as papers come into your home or office try practicing the rule of handling it only once. Put it where it belongs now. And if it needs action, put a post-it note on it to remind you what is needed and set it in a specific inbox or basket for you to do.

Try this for a couple of weeks and let me know how's it going.