Manage Your Business

More Timewasters - Paperwork Disclaimer

We live in an information society & we need effective ways of dealing with its consequences... The most effective way of dealing with it is... to throw it out! Did you know that over 90% of paper saved is never looked at after 3 months?

You should be aware of a rather horrible phenomenon - every spare horizontal surface will quickly be covered in piles of invoices, statements, papers, pamphlets, letters JUNK!

Have you ever considered the amount of mail you receive? How many times did you handle it and the other pieces of paper coming your way unnecessarily? Probably thousands, which adds up lo a helluvva lot of time wasted!

Many people scan their mail for "important stuff" and then set the stack aside... Later, they review the stack again, and again - continually handling the same pieces of paper.

This pile of clutter also reduces your concentration. Because your eyes are attracted to it, you'll find yourself constantly sifting through the slack looking for more pleasant (and low priority) tasks to do instead of important ones.

Winning the race against paper is like picking horses - you gotta have a system! Unless you have a system, you'll have to handle all this paper over and over to find or use what you want. Develop an information retrieval system (rather than a filing system). Decide on a particular system, & stick to it!

The problem with any system is that it requires conscious, sustained effort to implement. Because it challenges ingrained habits you must make that effort!! If you DO have an organising system, then when you handle a piece of paper you actually DO something with it, instead of letting it pile up which will make you feel like you're drowning in paperwork (see Procrastination again)!

It is very important that you set aside time to discard or file anything that needs it. Think how better you feel after you've thrown out junk that's three years old and got yourself, and your office, organised!

Handle it ONCE!

The secrets to any system is to decide what to do with the paperwork the FIRST time you touch it. Either reply to it, file it, or throw it out then.

A golden rule of efficient business is to handle each piece of paper once, or at the most, twice.

If it sounds difficult, a good system you might like to try is the A R T S system:
A ction
R econsider
T hrow out
S tore

You have to have a certain place (one of the above) to initially sort the tonnes of paper coming across your desk.

Now, set aside a time each day for going through your mail. Don't even touch the pile until then. When you're ready to take action, do something with each item, and get rid of it.

If it doesn't need immediate action, put it into a folder which you'll handle "Later this week". Set aside a block of time later that week to get to that folder (making sure you DO take action) and then get rid of it!

Simple as A.B.C.

A good system to develop would be sorting your mail and other paperwork AS YOU GET IT into one of these categories:

A MUST be done this week
B has a DEADLINE soon
C would be nice lo do if I have time but NOT essential

As you pick up EACH piece of paper, identify its category and Lake appropriate action THEN. These categories will need to be handled again later (sorry).

To cheer you up, there are another three categories to consider. These definitely fall into the "handle it once" area.

D DITCH it (round bin)
E DISPLAY or circulate relevant information
F FILE it

MAKE SURE you do NOT fall into the trap of creating a BUNDLE of stuff to file/display, because you'll find yourself sifting through that bundle again and again looking for something, since you didn't act in the first place! Delegate the filing job to someone else!

What would happen if you didn't have categories A to C and you were reviewing your stack, deciding what to act on. It's a natural human tendency to work on things that are nice and/or easy, so many important things get delayed.

Once you organise your paperwork and priorities into A, B and C, you'll see that lower priority things are in C, and if you didn't have A or B staring at you, you would most likely do the C things.

But, you've been smart... you HAVE prioritised things! Whatever goes in the A bundle simply MUST be done - it is deemed to be MOST IMPORTANT and it forces you to act. It WILL get done! You'll do it once and get rid of it!

As far as B is concerned, you must stay aware of when things must be moved into A. Set aside time when things MUST be moved into A (leave enough time prior to the deadline to do it!).

The most interesting aspect of categorising your work into parcels like these, is to watch what happens to C these nicer-to-do things never get done!

After a couple of months, you move them to D, E or F with the realisation that they aren't essential, and they'll be overshadowed by newer, more important A and B tasks! You might be able to file them in the ROUND TIN!!

Another good idea is to make your C file in a special drawer with no back to it. Put a rubbish bin at the back of the drawer. Put the new C items in the front. As more C things are added, the older ones automatically end up in the rubbish. You'll find that if you ever really need anything out of the C file, it'll be in the front 3cm of it!!!

Other tips for handling paper include: file as you go, a few minutes a day, recent information to the front, using staples instead of paper clips (they don't come undone), write a "use-by" date on each file. If material is borrowed, replace with borrower's card so you know where it went. Avoid large "misc" files, and cramming things into drawers or piling things on top of one another.