Saturday, March 8, 2008

Paper Organization Tips from The Organized Lifestyle


Here are five tips that owner and Professional Organizer, Kristin Mastromarino, offers to make an immediate impact in your paper piles:


1. Use one To Do list every day to document the papers that you are keeping just to remind yourself of an action you need to take, then throw away the paper. If you have a place that you regularly refer to you will keep less paper.


2. Use one calendar to document the events you need to schedule. As soon as you get a paper letting you know about a speaker coming to town or a meeting you must go to, write all important information in your calendar and toss the paper.


3. Set a deadline to read magazines and newspapers. Most news is old news by the time the next newspaper or magazine issue comes. In addition, articles get recycled every season. Only keeping the latest issue will help you unbury yourself from too much paper and limit the guilt you have when you look at your pile of unread articles.


4. Use a tickler file system on your desk or on your kitchen counter to file all your current projects. For instance, have folders labeled “Bills to Pay”, “Addresses.” “Schedules,” or “John’s Wedding” and you will have a spot for to place all of that paper that just ends up sitting on the counter or desk.
5. File for retrieval not for storage. Ask yourself when you are about to file something away, “Do I really need this?”; “Can I find this information on the Web?” Most of the time the answer is no. We are just putting it in a file to avoid making a decision on it. (Buy the HomeFile System Pictured above at www.theorganizedlifestylestore.com for $24.95)

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