Take Control of Your Paper in 3 Easy Steps

Home
>
Business Management
>
Take Control of Your Paper in 3 Easy Steps

Take Control of Your Paper in 3 Easy Steps

Do you have piles of paper on your desk. Many do and don't know how to deal with them. They have no working system to deal with the day to day influx of paper, email, magazines and other information. Worse yet, after a while that pile on your desk gets moved to the top of the file cabinet. And the pile on the file cabinet gets moved to the window sill. Pretty soon you have piles of paper all over your office. Are you or someone you know in this situation?

That's how my office used to look back in 1985 when I decided to stop this insanity and get control over my work life. It only took about 2-3 hours to get totally organized and I have never again returned to those days of piles and piles of paper cluttering my workplace and causing the anxiety that comes with not knowing if something, anything in there is important, forgotten or needed to be done. Here's what I did.

I brought in a big 30 gallon trash can into the office and closed the door. I also made sure I had one legal pad of paper, a pen, a marker, a stapler and a box of manila folders. Put these supplies aside until Step three of the process. Step one involves getting control of the paper. Stack everything from every pile into one big pile. Include every piece of paper you see in your office or work area notes, reports, phone messages, bills, letters, receipts, calendars?.everything. Your stack will be quite high but fear not. You are starting to gain control. Now instead of a few or a few dozen piles scattered all around the room you have one place to put all of your focus. By the way, my stack when I did this was literally 3 feet high. Step two is another easy one. You will look at every piece of paper one by one and make this determination - is there anything on this paper I need. If the answer is yes then start a save stack. If the answer is no then throw it in the trash can. Do not stop to do anything about any thing on a piece of paper. Just rip through each piece and determine if it stays or goes. If there is an address on it that you want to keep put it in the keep stack. Maybe it's a flyer reminding you of an event you might like to attend. Save stack. Maybe a report you need to file, a receipt you need to record for reimbursement, a phone message that you need to return the call. If there is anything on the piece you are reviewing that needs some action, save it. Otherwise, throw it away. You should rip through your pile very quickly and be able to throw away quite a bit. It took me about a half hour and my 3 foot pile had now become about 1. Wow! Two-thirds of the stuff I was keeping wasn't even important. This feeling alone of reducing your paper piles to just the stuff you really need causes a great feeling of control over the situation. But it gets even better.

Now you are ready for step three. Get out your legal pad and pen and have it right next to your newly created save stack. You are going to make a master task list and reduce your stack even further. Even if you have another master task list or to-do list go through this exercise. Go through each piece of paper again. This time you are going to write down on your legal pad the action you need to do to get rid of the piece of paper you are looking at. Use one line per task. If what you write down eliminates the need for the piece of paper, throw it out. If there is further need for the paper like to read, to file, to distribute to someone else then start a new save stack. Phone message? Write down to "return phone call from Bob" and throw it out. Major report you need to review? Write down "review accounting report on first quarter sales" and place in your save stack. Letter from someone whose contact info you want to keep? Write down "Bob Smith, 123 H St., Anytown, 555-1234, bobs@smith.com and throw the paper out. You get the idea. For each and every piece record a related task in you new master list and either put the paper in the save stack or throw it out. You'll be amazed at the further reduction in paper as we tend to keep five page reports because there is a phone number on page three that we need. My experience was an hour and a half and my leftover paper was now about four inches high. Remember we started with 3 feet of paper.

I would venture to guess that most of what is left after going through this three step process is paper that needs to be read or needs to be filed. Use your marker and folders to create the necessary files. Do not file paperclips and such. Staple multiple sheets together for easier filing. To stay on top of this in the future, get yourself a three bin unit and mark one "to read" and one "to file". The top bin make an "in-bin" and anytime paper comes into your office put it in there. When you have time make sure you process your in-bin in a similar fashion that has been described here. Transfer info from your in-bin into action tasks or put on your to-do list and get rid of the paper. The trick is to handle any piece of paper once.

Mike Shannon is the owner of Shamrock Business Coaching, a coaching practice that helps business owners increase profits. You can visit Shamrock Business Coaching on the web at: http://www.ShamrockCoaching.com.

In The News:

Yahoo! News: Top Stories

Gaza violence rages on despite UN cease-fire call (AP)

AP - The U.N. Security Council called for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza, but an intense bombardment of missiles from Israeli jets and helicopters early Friday and a barrage of Hamas rockets indicated there may be no quick end to the fighting.

Illinois House on verge of impeaching Blagojevich (AP)

AP - Gov. Rod Blagojevich faces almost certain impeachment by the Illinois House, a historic step that would trigger a trial to determine whether the Democratic governor should be tossed out of office.

Rifts show as Obama urges quick action on stimulus (AP)

AP - Lawmakers are under orders to finish action on President-elect Barack Obama's nearly $800 billion economic recovery plan by mid-February. But already it is plain that a set of serious fissures need to be bridged if the bill is to be completed within five weeks.

Democrats begin new session with labor bills (AP)

AP - Democrats are ushering in what they believe will be a new labor-friendly era in Washington with House votes on two bills aimed at helping women fight pay discrimination in the workplace.

Job losses stack up as recession deepens (AP)

AP - Trying to survive a deepening recession, employers are cutting their work forces to the bone, leaving more Americans unemployed and with dim prospects of finding a new job any time soon.

Toxic coal ash piling up in ponds in 32 states (AP)

AP - Millions of tons of toxic coal ash is piling up in power plant ponds in 32 states, a practice the federal government has long recognized as a risk to human health and the environment but has left unregulated.

Obama to finalize national security team Friday (AP)

AP - President-elect Barack Obama is completing his national security team by announcing his unusual choices for CIA director and a national intelligence director who may face tough Senate confirmation questioning over how he confronted the Indonesian military when civilian massacres were occurring in East Timor.

Emphasis on smooth transition to new Cabinet (AP)

AP - Just minutes after George W. Bush took the oath of office eight years ago, he signed papers formally nominating 13 Cabinet-level officials. Several hours later, the Senate, meeting in a special Saturday session, confirmed seven Cabinet secretaries, including the heads of the key posts at State, Treasury and Defense.

Critics' final answer: `Slumdog' wins 5 awards (AP)

AP - The critics have spoken, and "Slumdog Millionaire" is their final answer.

Mini Dynasty: Tebow leads Gators past Oklahoma (AP)

AP - The game defied expectations. Tim Tebow fulfilled them. He rescued No. 1 Florida, running through and throwing over No. 2 Oklahoma for a 24-14 victory Thursday night that gave the Gators their second BCS championship in three years.

World waits on jobs data as recession weighs (Reuters)

Reuters - U.S. employers probably cut the most jobs in at least 34 years last month as the global economic crisis gathered pace and moves by policy makers took time to filter through to struggling companies.

U.N. calls for immediate Gaza truce (Reuters)

Reuters - Israel pushed ahead with its two-week-old offensive in the Gaza Strip, ignoring a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire.

Panel steps up criticism of Treasury: report (Reuters)

Reuters - A report being released on Friday alleges that the U.S. Treasury has failed to reveal its strategy for stabilizing the financial system, not answered questions asked by a government watchdog, and has done nothing to help struggling homeowners, the Wall Street Journal said.

EU seeks gas supply return after deal (Reuters)

Reuters - Europe sought a swift restoration of gas supplies on Friday after striking a deal with Moscow on monitoring gas shipments via Ukraine that have been halted by a pricing dispute with Kiev.

Citi backs measure to help avoid foreclosures (Reuters)

Reuters - Financial giant Citigroup Inc will support a proposal in Congress to rewrite U.S. bankruptcy law to help troubled mortgage borrowers avoid foreclosure, Chief Executive Vikram Pandit said on Thursday.

Illinois panel recommends governor's impeachment (Reuters)

Reuters - A legislative committee on Thursday recommended the impeachment of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, citing widespread abuse of power including allegations he tried to sell the U.S. Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama.

Obama team amending financial rescue package: report (Reuters)

Reuters - President-elect Barack Obama's economic team is urgently overhauling the $700 billion financial rescue package to broaden its scope beyond Wall Street, The Washington Post reported on Friday.

Qaeda Pakistan leader believed dead: U.S. official (Reuters)

Reuters - Al Qaeda's operations chief in Pakistan and a top aide are believed to be dead, a U.S. counterterrorism official said on Thursday, in what appeared to be the latest results of a campaign targeting the militant group's leadership.

Israel and Hamas battle on after UN ceasefire demand (AFP)

AFP - Israel and Hamas launched heavy air strikes and rocket attacks on each other Friday, ignoring a UN Security Council order on the warring rivals to end their conflict.

EU demands immediate resumption of gas supplies (AFP)

AFP - The European Union demanded Friday that Russian gas supplies to Europe resume immediately now that details of a mission to monitor the flow through Ukrainian pipelines have been agreed.

Take Control of Your Paper in 3 Easy Steps

Business Management Business Management