PAPER MANAGEMENT

Paper….paper….paper…

Even in this electronic age we are still inundated with paper. The mailman brings us stuff that we don’t even want. Junk mail, bills….. A never ending cycle.

So what do we do with it? Besides let it pile up and ignore it?

Where do we put it…besides the kitchen table? Or dumping it on our “office desk”? Where it sits…waiting for us to “do something with it”.

If you want to cut down on mail and paper there are a number of options:

* Send a letter to DMA and request that they stop sending you “junk mail”:

DMA Mail DMA Preference Service
P.O. Box 9008
Farmingdale, New York 11735 – 9008

* Cancel your magazine and newspaper subscriptions and read them on-line.

As soon as the mail comes immediately sort it into piles:
* Junk (immediately sort that right into the garbage can)
* Bills to pay
* Personal mail (letters, cards…)
* Business Mail
* Magazines & Newspapers

Pick a specific day or time that you are going to sit down and go through each pile. In business you will probably have to deal with it more often than on a personal level.

Set up a schedule where you will deal with your bills. Once a week, once every other week…whatever works for you. But then stick to it.

For business mail you should also have a schedule where you will sit down and deal with your mail. When you go through it put it into piles of things that you need to deal with immediately, things that you can deal with later, information to keep or things to toss.

By compartmentalizing your mail you are able to focus on one thing at a time and actually able to accomplish something instead of going from reading a letter, to paying a bill, to dealing with a business issue…and so on.

It is very important to remember that when you are tossing out mail or any papers that you remember to protect yourself and your identity by shredding personal or business information that has your social security number or credit card information or any other information that could be used for identity theft.

Another important aspect of paper management is “paper retention”. How long do you really need to keep information? There are record retention laws that relate to personal records (taxes, financial info….) and business records. Be sure that you know how long you actually need to keep things. There is no reason to keep papers forever…unless you happen to have lots of extra room that you have no other use for.

In your filing cabinet you should only have records for the current year. Last years information should be taken out of your files and stored elsewhere (basement, attic….).

Cutting down on your paper usage and paper shuffling saves you time, money and storage space.

Organizational Consulting Services

www.organizationalconsultingservices.com