My 5 Favorite Shortcuts
For Handling Paper Clutter

Of all the questions I receive about clearing clutter, paper seems to top the list!

And we keep getting more paper every day, so it's not like you can handle it just once and be done with it.

You need to find ways to simplify and streamline how you're handling papers if you want to breezily stay on top of the new stuff coming in.

Here are my favorite 5 shortcuts for handling paper:

1. Get yourself off as many mailing lists as you possibly can. Stemming the flow at the source will give you much less paper you will need to deal with. Consider ending magazine and newspaper subscriptions that you rarely have time to read or enjoy, ask to be taken off catalogs you receive, and get yourself off junk mailing lists.
2. Use your planner or calendar to remind you of upcoming events and tasks, rather than using post-it notes or pieces of paper all over the house. I realize that many people feel comforted by the idea of having visual reminders; however, those visual reminders can quickly escalate into a sea of papers and notes, which often create an enormous level of and clutter, rather than actually solving the problem. Your eyes can see and notice one reminder note, but not twenty reminders.
3. File less stuff. File papers that you need from a legal, financial, tax-related, business-related, or important personal basis, and be very selective about saving anything else. Studies show that 80% or more of what gets filed never gets used again, so most people spend a lot of time saving and filing papers that are not, in fact, actually valuable. You can find almost anything on the internet or at the library, so let go of all of those articles you've been clipping. If and when you need that information again, simply trust that you will easily be able to find it, and when you do, it will be an updated version as well.
4. Learn how to make decisions more quickly. Most papers pile up because the decision about what to do with them has been delayed. Have your intention be to make the decision right away if at all possible, and then get rid of (or file) the paper immediately.
5. Ideally, handle your incoming papers the same day. When you open and handle your mail or process through your in-box on a regular basis, you will prevent a lot of the paper clutter from piling up. (Once it has piled up, it is even less appealing to deal with!) So stay on top of the papers you generate every day and you won't get up tomorrow morning with a backlog of what didn't get done yesterday.

Taking shortcuts to handle your papers goes a l-o-n-g way in staying on top of the piles and stacks!

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