Tag: organizing school papers

Conquer School Papers! (from finish to start?!)

Last week, my friend Julie mentioned “the back to school paperwork is out of control”.  Since she mentioned this on her birthday, this week I am offering tools for conquering school papers, for Julie, and Nancy who shared her paper management questions and Hershey Pumpkin Spice Kisses at the soccer game.

School papers.  Ugh.  I get it, trust me.  Three boys, 3 schools, 3 team schedules, Religious Education, Boy and Cub Scouts (did I mention I am a den leader and Cubmaster this year?!), 3 choirs, 2 bands, blah, blah, blah…

But be strong, friends, you can clean up those school papers, and here’s how!  (I’m starting with the end, in case you’re in a hurry!)

The vitally important final steps to successful School Paper Management are:

  • Put everything away.  AWAY.  File what needs filed, purge what needs purged, put the bills-to-pay with the other bills-to-pay,put academic papers in each child’s binder (past blog on binders). AWAY.       You’ll have a small pile of papers that represent actions to take or information to add to your calendar. That’s it.  Everything else goes away.
  • Make and keep a daily appointment to add info to your planner and to fully complete the action papers and send them on their way.  Complete forms and return to school; follow up on memos; send the emails, place the orders.  No, really.  Get things all the way done, and file what is left.  And then give the nice clean counter or desk a pat, turn off the light and go to bed.

Now, back to the beginning:

Pick a location to collect and process your papers.  Outfit that location with a garbage can, recycling bin and shredder.  Consider them all pets that need regular feeding, and make sure to toss, recycle and shred often!  In addition, assemble the following:

  • Your papers and mail (obviously) in Mom’s InBox (I just have a spot on the counter, but you can get a real in-box if you would like);
  • Your mom-file (Are you drowning in Kid Papers?  http://colleencpo.wordpress.com/2011/02/22/210/)
  • Stapler, paper clips, pen;
  • Calendar or planner;
  • Check book, and an envelope of small bills.  During the school year, I always seem to send in $4 here for one little thing or $7 there for another.  We keep an envelope with $20 worth of small bills in the desk drawer to keep our tasks / sign-up sheets / permission slips / raffle tickets / etc., moving along.

Process your papers once and only once a day.  Save time and hassle, and wait until ALL the papers have arrived for the day, in the mail and backpacks.

Dedicate 10 minutes a day to process your papers, maybe 15 to start.  Sort through everything, and make decisions today, right away.  There are only a few options for your school papers:

  • Recycle, toss or shred what you can.  Ads, unsolicited mail, catalogs, notices for activities your family does not participate in (father daughter dance?  Not this house.  Martial arts classes? Been there, tried that.)
  • Actions to Take / Stuff for Mom or Dad:  permission slips, forms to complete and send back, order forms, checks to write, memos to read, etc.
  • Dates and contact information to add to your calendar / planner.  Make a habit to commit everything to your calendar / planner, so you can trust the planner when you need to make decisions.  This is the best time-saving organizing tool you can use. Keep paper schedules or memos as back up, if you feel you need to, but file them – do not put them back in your pile.
  • Homework to complete – hand this right back to your children, unless they are 6 and under!
  • Completed and graded daily assignments / homework. For goodness sake, get this out of your in-box or to-do pile.  Look at it, commend or comment with your student, and then file it for a predetermined amount of time (we purge all but the treasures after the end of every quarter).  Put one a week on the fridge if your student reallllly wants to see it.
  • Important documents (certificates, records or report cards).  File until the end of the year or longer.  We have binders for each student, with pockets in the binder for papers from each school year. (“Bind Up That Paper Monster!”  http://colleencpo.wordpress.com/2011/02/20/bind-up-that-paper-monster/)

     And the two most important final steps to successful School Paper Management are.. oh, right, you already know those.  Now, no more dawdling, take courage and go tackle that paper.  Let some go, get some done, and put all away!