Paperwork
To combat this problem I used to have a very unique filing system. The prerequisite Inbox was there as was the Outbox, the bin with the shredder in it, and also a tray marked “In Progress”. These are things that you’re supposed to have, right? These little oddities of nature are supposed to be able to keep even the most disorganized person – that’s me – organized. This is a bare faced lie people. Unless you’re willing to devote even a modicum of time to your filing system you will end up with your Ins in your Outs, your In Progress files sharing space with the Ins in the Outbox, your Outs stuffed into the bin, the shredder miles away in the kitchen and your Inbox completely empty. And if that was confusing think how bad it would have been trying to live with it on a daily basis. It was even worse during tax season but we won’t even go there for now because even thinking about it causes me to break out in goose-bumps! So how do you manage to keep everything in its place and your sanity intact? I can tell you straight off that if you hate paperwork of any sort it will be with difficulty. At least in the beginning. Once you get yourself started and sorted out you will find that it becomes easier as you go along. The first thing that you need to do is to sort out a large enough space either on the floor, a bed, or a table for you to be able to work. You might want to consider a room where you won’t have to frequent too much over the next few days. Most of all though you should be somewhere where you’re comfortable and where there is plenty of light, natural and artificial. By this time you should have sorted through most of the house and will have nearly a ton of paperwork in assorted bin bags, crates and boxes. You will need to get yourself more of these. Sort them out keeping aside one or two bags or boxes for waste, because that is one thing that you won’t be short of when you’re going through your paperwork. You might want to arm yourself with the tools of the trade I mentioned earlier and get yourself settled in with a cup of coffee. You’ll know better than anyone what you paperwork entails, but generally you should be able to keep each group of things separately. Maybe something along the lines of bank documents separately, insurance documents, medical insurance, birth certificates, marriage certificates etc., in different places. Someone I know has resorted to color coding their files so that they will immediately know which file needs to go where, or if a file has been misplaced. The problem with this is that you will need to remember what your color coding stands for. I had to resort to writing everything down in a chart so that I could keep track. It might sound laborious but it really does work, even with the whole chart problem. So get yourself a few crates or trays, folders by the dozen, and also those colored stickies which you can find in just about every office store these days. Sort your files out one by one putting them into various piles and place your sticky color of choice in, near, or on the piles. Whatever you do though, don’t start reading through them the various piles. Just like when you were sorting through them in the different rooms, it will be the death of your filing project. Read just enough to find out the importance of the file and what type it is. This should keep you going at a steady rate, and you will find that your paperwork has been filed almost without your being aware of it. After that it’s just a matter of getting your filing in order and this can even be accomplished over the following days in your own pace. At that time you will be able to go over each separate filing item at your leisure and you won’t feel pressured for time to get everything organized. After you sort the paperwork into their own separate categories place them in the crates and the boxes. Keep your filing cabinets and book shelves free for the moment. If you start piling your files into them without order having first been restored you will end up at square one, right back where you started. Take your time over this job unless you like paperwork and going through it all. If you find that you have piles and piles of paperwork from the past few years, file everything for one year in one crate. If and when you get the urge to do so, you can find your way through to organizing these into manageable and readable filing systems. Don’t worry too much about this as these are files of days gone by and you will only really need them if the tax man comes knocking on your door telling you that the tax return you filed is in some way messed up. After I went through and categorized all my paperwork, I then went through them one by one in the nights usually right before bed. It was easier to get it accomplished because everything was in one place together. If you’re not into the whole color coding thing, you could do what I ended up doing after I gave up the color coding system after six months because I kept forgetting to attach the stickies in the first place! You can use either a few half a dozen plastic boxes for this, or you could use crates, whichever takes your fancy. Stick a unique label on the front, back, sides and top of the box /crate. This will make it easier for you to know what’s inside them, regardless of where you push them up against. Place only one category of paperwork into the box or crate, and you will find that you now have a variation of the perfect filing system. If you’re piling the boxes or the crates one on top of the other, then be smart and place the ones that are used or needed most on the top, and the least used ones on the bottom. You’re probably thinking that it makes common sense to do this, and why did I even bother mentioning it. Two reasons really, and what I consider to be an oxymoron, Common Sense. In real life they never go hand in hand, and you would be hard pressed to find someone who can exhibit these on a daily basis. |
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