Take Control of Your Paper

 

How many times have you cleaned off your desk only to have it buried again the next day?  Keeping control of your paper is as much about attitude as it is skill.  You need to be “completely ruthless” about handling it.  You need to keep the paper moving ……… and NOT piling.

 Open your mail when it comes in.  The first thing to do is to slit it ALL open and then begin to sort through it.  This will keep you from getting distracted.  If you can do this standing up you can get through the mail about 20% faster. 

Toss your junk mail.  Don’t even open the envelope.  How many credit card applications can you get in a week?  Best to shred the actual applications.  To make this easier have a recycle bin, shredder and trash can handy. 

Pull out items “to read”.  Keep these in a place where you can actually read them.  Five minutes here and there can really add up.  Try keeping some in your car or your briefcase.  When you have to wait for an appointment bring out something you need to read. 

Sort items by the action required.  You will probably have similar things that result from opening your mail …. like “to call” or “e-mail” or “take to Accounting” or “to file”.  Why not establish folders for each of these tasks or entities thereby grouping similar tasks together. 

Process each of your task folders.  It is much easier and efficient to make several phone calls in a row or send several e-mails in a row than it is to bounce between tasks …. like a pinball. 

Schedule time to do this daily.  Taking the time to handle the mail will actually save you time in the end.  For every minute you spend in planning you can save 4-10 in execution.