Reducing Home Office Paperwork Clutter
Posted in Watkins Business by Eldon on January 24th, 2007 I recently read an article about home office clutter, and found a statement that was very interesting to me. This article referred to home office clutter as a consequence of delaying decisions. The more I thought about this, the more sense it made.
Look around your home office, and look at the paperwork that is lying around. Why is it there? Most likely you have made stacks of paper, and placed paperwork in “strategic” positions around your office, to remind yourself to do something. Perhaps you printed some information you intended to use in following up with a business prospect. You may have a reasonably organized filing cabinet, but stacks of papers needing to be filed are just lying around taking up room and making clutter.
The problem is, most of us have a tendency to “delay decisions”, which leads to an increasing amount of paper clutter. We sincerely intend to tackle our pile of papers that need sorting and filing, but feel we have more important things to do. Our good intention is to file that paperwork “when we have time” (delayed decision). Sooner or later, the paper can overtake your home office and make it downright depressing to be there.
Here are some tips for reducing paperwork clutter in your home office. Go through each piece and make one of the following decisions about it.
1) If that paper can be quickly filed, or perhaps is a reminder to make a quick phone call, just do it. Get it done and over with.
2) If the paper represents a task that cannot be done pretty quickly, or has to be done another day, file it in a “pending” folder and make a note in your planner for the day it needs to be handled.
3) Whenever possible, delegate tasks. If the paper represents a task that can be easily done by someone else (perhaps a friend or family member), then delegate the task.
4) If the paper does not represent a specific task that you can quickly do, file in a “pending” folder, or delegate - toss it. I have a bad habit of printing out things to read, then keeping the paper on hand “just in case” I want to read it again. Keep information that can genuinely be useful in the future (file it immediately), and toss anything you won’t need again.
It takes discipline to go through piles of paper, but the feeling you have when you’re done is incredible. Just do it!
About the Author:
Eldon Beard is a Watkins Manager with Associates All Across the USA and Canada
