"Power Through Your Paperwork!"
By Marcia Ramsland from Simplify Your Time
The
average household receives fifteen pieces of mail a day.
Five of those are junk mail and can be tossed immediately.
Likely, five more are bills or important papers you can
file appropriately. And the other five, which I call the
"dangling five," start a paper pile on the kitchen counter.
In a year of five extra papers a day on the counter,
fifteen hundred to eighteen hundred pieces of paper, or
fifteen to eighteen inches of paperwork, pile up and send
you scrambling to find the one paper you need when you need
it. That's no longer necessary if you establish a workable
plan to handle your mail.
Five
File Folders Save the Day
What
can you do to overcome the mail pile on your kitchen
counter at the end of each day? Put together five file
folders to take care of what's left after you read and
recycle your paper.
Folder
#1
Calendar
This holds any paper that relates to an event on your
calendar. No more refrigerator clutter.
Folder #2
To Do
If
an item takes five minutes or less, then do it right now.
If longer, write it on a master to-do list you keep
visible. Write the tasks on the three days you can most
control-today, tomorrow, and the day after. Beyond that,
you never know when you'll have time to do
them.
Folder
#3
To Decide
This file contained everything Danielle was thinking about
doing but wasn't yet ready to do. It cleared a lot of
paperwork off the countertop.
Folder
#4
Information
This file held carpool lists, the neighborhood calling
tree, and the soccer schedule to retrieve at a moment's
notice.
Folder
#5
My Interests
Here Danielle dropped in a free fitness center coupon, a
decorator's advertisement, and a phone number for a
landscaper. When she had time, she would turn to this file
and decide which things she was ready to attend to.
Other
Links:
Feeding Your
Family
About Us
Kids Eat
Free
Redeeming Time in the Carpool
Line
Conversation
Starters
Great Web
Pages
Majoring
On Motherhood without Minoring on
ME!
Simplifying your
Life
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