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7 Mistakes that Lead to Paper Clutter, Part 2

Tuesday, October 25th, 2011

In the first part, you met 3 personalities who struggle with paper piling issues: The Visualizer who wants to keep everything in sight, The Generous Shopper who is now the best friend of charities and catalog vendors, and The Librarian who feels compelled to gather information.

The ethics of my profession require that I keep all client identities and foibles confidential. If that were not so, I would be able to describe the clients I have worked with who match these descriptions. I am not making this stuff up!

Perhaps you have already said to yourself, “How did Martha know to describe me so well?” The reason I can do that is you are not alone in your struggle with paper, or the underlying causes. If you haven’t recognized yourself, you may be one of the remaining 4 personalities.

  1. The Go Getter has many projects going on simultaneously. He doesn’t want to put away the projects he is working on because he “will just have to drag it all out again anyway!” Supporting documents become lost in the shuffle. Many times work is delayed because a vital piece has gone missing. Duplicated effort is required to get the project back on track.
    Remedy: First, ask the question – are you able to do an excellent job on all the projects, or are some slipping through the cracks? Which projects are you the best at and will generate the most value? Keep those, delegate others to the person who is better suited, and let the rest go entirely.Second, to keep current projects separated [a project is an activity that has a definite beginning, middle, and en end] use colorful, distinctive and roomy file jackets. Scoop all supporting documents for each project into its file each time you take a break for more than 20 minutes. Use an incline sorter on your desktop so you can find any project file at one glance.
  2. Scarlet O’Hara says “Tomorrow is another day.” She puts off deciding what to do with mail offers, when to pay the bills, what to do with important papers. Because she has no system, there are no homes for paper to land, and she can never find what she needs when she needs it.
    Remedy:A paper management system is simply making decisions ahead of time about homes for the three categories of paper that arrive in your mail/inbox:

    • Action – you have to do something with the information.
    • Finished – all action is done and you NEED this info in the future, so is reference material to be filed.
    • Shred/Toss – done, don’t need it, get rid of it.

    3. When you don’t have a system for paper flow in place, you will essentially be asking yourself this same question over and over, “Where should I put this so I will know where it is?

  3. The Seeker wants to keep on top of the latest breaking news. He has too many subscriptions, no time to read all of the information that pours in, so it piles up. He intends to read each magazines, newspaper, or professional journal, but finds himself 2-4 months behind (or more!)
    Remedy:For non-professional material, decide on a set number of months of magazines, days of newspapers you may keep. I suggest two months per magazine and no more than a week of newspapers. On the first of every month go through your stash and recycle old periodicals. Better yet, if you never get around to reading that magazine, cancel the subscription.Professional material is a must-read, but contains advertising and reiteration. Scan each periodical when it arrives, remove the articles (with small exacto knife) that are key to keeping current. Make a “To Read” folder that you can put in a briefcase, or grab on your way out the door on a slow day.
  4. The Bottom Line Watcher refuses to take the time to deal with paper since there is no money or distinct benefit attached.
    Remedy:Take the time to calculate how much time you waste daily looking for papers you can’t find. (In a survey, executives admitted to wasting 6 weeks per year looking for documents.) Now multiply the time you waste by your hourly rate. Does that make solving your paper clutter problem a higher priority?If you can afford it, hire someone else to set up the system and come in regularly do the filing/follow-up. If you are IT, schedule appointments with yourself to do 30 minutes of filing 3x/week. Start with the current piles – on desk or counter – until they are gone. You can be much more productive on other tasks when that visual clutter no longer effects your concentration!

Paper is ubiquitous – it’s everywhere! You can win, with the right tools and mindset.

Drop me an email to let me know what your paper personality is and how you have cut your piles down to size. I love hearing the success stories!

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7 Mistakes that Lead to Paper Piles, Part 1

Tuesday, September 13th, 2011

7 Mistakes That Lead to Paper Clutter

  • If the entire surface of your desk, kitchen counter, or dining room table is covered…
    you just might be a paper piler!
  • If you have magazines you haven’t read from a year ago…
    you just might be a paper piler.
  • If your filing system consists of “more recent” and “older stuff”…
    you just might be a Paper Piler!
  • If you put the event tickets in plain sight see so you won’t lose them, but now you can’t find them because they are totally covered…
    you just might be a paper piler.

Piles of paper are the symptom, not the underlying cause of this frequent clutter problem.

We can try to blame the information explosion or the 49,060 pieces of mail we will receive in our lifetime.  To find a lasting cure, however, we must look closer to home.

What is your personal relationship with paper?

This is Part I of 7 Mistakes That Lead to Paper Clutter. See which one(s) best describes the way you relate to paper. Use the tips below to find a solution that works for you.

  1. The Visualizer is afraid that out of sight will mean out of mind.
    Bills to pay, party invites are left where you can see them and not forget to take action. Soon the “important” is covered by “everyday” and gets lost.
    Remedy:Visual/tactile people need to find a filing solution that is in plain sight, yet keeps paper contained. Two options are:

  2. The Librarian feels compelled to store valuable information.
    This person prints online research as well as emails to answer later, and has a hard time parting with newspaper articles and magazines.
    Remedy:Save only the information that is imperative to your job or that you think will be hard to replace. Think about scanning hard copies, bookmarking email sites on your browser, or noting the article URL on a resource list.Sally McGhee, author of Take Back Your Life, says we only use 15% of what we file. We never retrieve the other 85% – a waste of filing time and of valuable space.
  3. The Generous Shopper gives to charities and orders gifts from catalogs. Her name has been sold repeatedly so she now receives dozens of gift requests and catalogs.
    Remedy:One of the best ways to reduce paper in your home is to reduce the amount coming in. At home, the #1 paper dropper is the mailman. Always open your mail the day you receive it. Return unsolicited charitable requests to sender. Shred unwanted credit offers.Use these sites to opt out of catalogs and credit offers:

Four more common errors are yet to come in Part 2. Did you see yourself yet? Don’t worry, you will…

“Ask the Expert” Event Tomorrow: Register Now!

Wednesday, September 14, 2011 from 6:30 PM to 8:00 PM (ET) in Columbus, OH

Click here to register.

Stop the paper piles from multiplying with a proven self-purging paper management system, the FREEDOM FILER. Professional Organizer, Martha Clouse, has successfully implemented this system with dozens of clients. YOU bring your banker box full of paper piles to train and begin your personal FF system.

Learn ways to reduce incoming paper and practice your paper tossing technique!!

Materials FEE: $52 paid at time of class – this purchases your Freedom Filer which has a retail value of $99.

Class is also scheduled to be held on 9/29 from 9:30am – 11am. Tickets purchased above will be honored at all event times.

 

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Maybe Not Paperless, Definitely Less Paper

Friday, March 19th, 2010

As a professional organizer, I want to communicate how organizing makes life simpler. I often speak at community events in libraries, Mom’s groups, and civic organizations. Most often I am asked to talk about organizing home or office spaces. However, during the closing Q&A portion, someone inevitably chimes in with, “What am I supposed to do with all the paper I am bombarded with?”

I have to laugh. Never do I say what I am thinking, “I could have spent the last hour giving you a system to help with that.” Instead I ask for one specific area where paper is a problem and try to give a tip or two.

We all struggle with the ubiquitous paper piles.

The piles pop up everywhere – in the kitchen, on the dining room table, on our desk in the office or at home. These are some startling facts about paper that do not even surprise us anymore:

  • The world consumes five times more paper now than in 1950.1
  • Each person in the United States uses approximately 750 pounds of paper each year. This equals approximately 187 billion pounds per year.2
  • The average American receives 49,060 pieces of mail in their lifetime; 1/3 of it is junk mail.3
  • The United States annually consumes 4 million tons of copy paper, 2 billion books, 350 million magazines and 25 billion newspapers.4

Perhaps the most telling statistics about the proliferation of paper are those describing the meteoric rise of the paper shredding industry.

In 1982 there were about two dozen document shredding companies. That number grew to between 500 and 600 in 2002 according to the Petersburg Times, Feb 2002.

As of 2008, the National Association for Information Destruction (NAID) reported that document shredding was a $1.2 billion a year industry in the U.S. and is growing at a rate of 35 percent per year. NAID membership grew from 150 to more than 1,000 in the span of five years. (Sacramento Bee, May 2008)

What does this rise in paper generation mean on a day-to-day basis?

The average desk worker has 36 hours of work on his or her desk and spends 3 hours per week sorting piles trying to find the project to work on next. (Richard Swanson, The Overload Syndrome)

The paper piling problem is not limited to the average Joe or Jill.

Studies have shown that some executives will pick up a single piece of paper from their desk thirty or forty times before acting on it. “Don’t use your desk as a storage place for items awaiting action. If you can’t dispense with it immediately, at least keep a follow-up pile.” (Michael Woolery, Seize the Day)

FreedomFiler

Without a plan, paper will win.

We can be overwhelmed, finding ourselves debating which information to act on first, crippled by visual and mental clutter. The best defense is a good offense. These are three strategies every office and household must plan and carry out to eliminate paper piles.

  1. Establish a paper flow system with standard operating procedures (SOP) for the three main categories: reference, action, and junk. When you make decisions ahead of time on how to deal with incoming information, you don’t have to think so hard or reinvent what to do with that everyday-the-same-old-stuff paperwork.
    Get more in depth instruction and a step-by-step system to get the mountain of paper under control with the e-Book 7 Must Have Tools to Conquer Paper Piles Forever!
  2. Schedule regular times for follow-up activities. Some actions are never ending: to phone, to write, to email, to delegate, to discuss. Make standing appointments with yourself to “bundle” like actions into one time slot for completion. This approach can save you a bundle of time!
  3. Reduce the volume of incoming paper as much as possible. Let friends and colleagues know you much prefer an email to a written note or a phone call (where you have to take notes.) Cancel magazines and newspapers you do not read.
    Use these websites to cut down on unsolicited advertising and credit offers:

The information age has changed the way we think and live. Like any tool, ready access to information can be a good thing when we are careful to wisely regulate its use. Take steps now to implement these three strategies to be more productive… and to maintain your sanity!

  1. Paul Hawken, Hunter Lovins and Amory Lovins: Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution (Little, Brown and Company 1999) Synopsis by Stephen Marx. [↩]
  2. Rainforest Maker: paper facts. [↩]
  3. National Association of Professional Organizers’ organizing statistics (PDF). [↩]
  4. Rainforest Maker: paper consumption. [↩]

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