A woman noticed the magnets on my van, and asked me about my business.

She said “I always say, I need someone to help me with my files.  I always think that it’s just me, and there is something wrong with me”.

No, there is nothing wrong with you, and you are not alone in struggling with your papers. Here’s why:

• Most of us keep too many papers, and / or keep papers for too long.
• Most of us name our files the wrong thing, if we even have files.
• Some of us have barriers to filing, either real or imagined.
• Most of us don’t maintain our papers often enough.

We keep too many papers, and we keep them for too long:

We keep receipts / business cards / post-it notes / grocery lists far longer than they are useful.

We keep newspapers / children’s daily school work / magazines long after they’ve been read.

We keep papers out of habit, because they started out as “important”, but now they are just old news.

We want to hold on to our papers for “just-in-case”.  HOWEVER, You can purge your papers if:

• The information exists somewhere else (medical records or on-line banking information);
• The information is not pertinent to you (flyers for activities that don’t interest you or past events)
• Purging the paper will have minimal consequences (who reads the privacy notices from credit card companies?)
• You can’t imagine when or why anyone would ask for that information (utility bills or grocery bills from more than a few months ago, account information from long closed accounts, etc).

We name our files the wrong things, if we even name them at all:

Never name a file Miscellaneous.  Ever.  Either a paper is necessary enough to warrant a file named for it, or it isn’t important and it needs to go.  If you have a “Misc.” file, perhaps it could be more aptly named….:

• marketing ideas
• Action Papers
• general credit / banking information
• Work To Do
• You choose…. But make it meaningful.  Name your files, name your papers and get to work.

We have barriers to filing, either real or imagined.  They may include:

1. Non-existent filing systems (your important papers don’t have a final “Away” in your home or office).
2. Antiquated filing system (what worked 20 years ago doesn’t anymore).
3. Physically inconvenient filing: perhaps the file cabinets are under other things, or in a remote corner of your home or office, so papers never get put away, reviewed or purged.
4. Too-Full file drawers – you have files from 2007, but no room to file the papers from last week.

The solutions are simple: purge the clutter, move the file cabinets, purge or shred the unneeded content.

Most of us don’t maintain our papers often enough.

I know that sounds scary.  As though I am telling you that you have to find more time to work on your papers – ahhhhh!!

But remember, I just told you how to keep a lot less.  Really, we just need to perform maintenance more often but for less time total.  Five to 10 minutes a day to:

•          Open today’s mail;
•          Shred today’s shredding (a few pages);
•          Toss the recycling (a few pages);
•          Pay this week’s bills (once a week);
•          Enter a few items into your calendar; and
•          File the few papers that you actually need to keep.

So, to the lady at the gas station and to you, try one of these ideas this week, and you are not alone in your struggles with paper management!