Shoveling Out of the Paper Blizzard

 

              By Roger Martin

 

 

              Paperwork.

 

              Everyone hates it. Many of us fled the conventional office to get away from it. Yet work in

              our homes surrounded by fax machines, printers, copiers, and the mailbox, and wonder why

              we've still got so much of it.

 

              lf your office resembles Minnesota in January, take heart. You can shovel out of the

              blizzard, and it won't require a flamethrower. What it will take is discipline and a little work.

 

              There are two kinds of paperwork, mail processing (and by that I mean postal mail, memos,

              faxes, etc.) and filing. You have to manage both to be successful. We'll talk about mail first,

              because if you don't learn to control your paper flow, you'll never have the time or the room

              to manage your files.

 

              Managing Your Mail

 

              First, get your IN box off your desk top. Your desk top is a work area for current projects,

              not a mail center. Put your IN box on a bookshelf, or the credenza, or even on the window

              ledge. You can even throw it away and put your paperwork in the top drawer of your desk.

              Then your papers are out of the way, but close at hand when you're ready to work on them.

 

              Now, set a time to go through your mail. You may even set several times depending on how

              much paperwork you get and when you get it.

 

              Until the time comes to go through the mail, don't look at it. Too often people succumb to

              the urge to pick through their papers for interesting tidbits and leave the rest for later. Not

              only is this inefficient, it encourages people to delay dealing with the boring stuff. The

              result is that boring, but necessary, work stacks up.

 

              When it is time to go through the mail, go through it all. And here's the real key to managing

              paper. Do something with every single piece you pick up. You have four choices:

 

              1. Take care of it

 

              2. File it

 

              3. Pass it

 

              4. Ditch it

 

              Take care of it when the paper needs your action. Write a letter, make a phone call, set up a

              meeting, outline a project. Whatever it takes, do it and be done with it. If the work is more

              than you can do right then, create a file called work pending and put the paper in there.

 

              Before you put that paper in the work pending file, make a commitment on the day and time

              you're going to work on it and log the commitment on your schedule. When that day and

              time comes, pull out the paper and work on it. That way, every piece of paper that goes into

              your work pending file has a definite time when it's coming out to be dealt with.

 

              File it when the paper contains information you don't need or can't deal with right away, but

              that you will need later. Later means six months or less. Filing should be a last resort.

 

              Pass it when the paper is a "read only." If you're working from home, chances are good you

              have an office staff of one, so there isn't much paper passing going on. Still, you may come

              across information that would benefit a client or an associate. If the paper needs comments,

              write them on the original copy and then send the paper on its way. If it needs an envelope

              and a stamp, fix them while you're still thinking about it. The point to this is to deal with this

              paper now, not later.

 

              Ditch it when the paper has no long term value. What does that mean? If you're not going

              to use the information on that paper in the next six months, throw it away. Only keep

              information you know you're going to need. You're running a business, not a reference

              library.

 

              This is the hardest part of managing paper. Many of us are natural pack rats. We can't bear

              to throw away anything that might be useful someday. But we live in an age of information

              saturation. Keeping 100% of the paper because you may someday use 5% of it doesn't make

              sense. That's what libraries are for. That's what the Internet is for. The point is, if you really

              find you need that information later, chances are excellent you can find it again.

 

              Simple, isn't it? The secret to mail management is to keep the paper moving. Put your mail on

              a schedule. Work through all of it when the time comes. File it, pass it, or ditch it, but make a

              decision about every piece of mail that comes across your desk.

 

              Clear It Out

 

              Now that you've mastered the art of managing your mail, clearing out loose paper is an

              achievable goal.

 

              Your first objective should be to clear off your work space - the place you use (or would

              like to use) to spread out your projects. A clean work space has several advantages over a

              cluttered one.

 

              The first is that a clean space usually makes you more productive because you have fewer

              distractions. When your work space is littered with memos, letters, and the pieces of several

              projects, its natural to let your attention wander from the work you've set yourself to do.

 

              Another bonus to a clean work space is that it reduces the time you spend hunting. Ever

              spent an afternoon looking for a piece of paper? Clearing off your work space forces you to

              organize and file important information. If you set up your files correctly, you'll always know

              where the information is and be able to go right to it.

 

              The third reason is psychological and has to do with control. We all want to exert some

              control over our surroundings, and we're more comfortable and productive when we feel

              we're doing the driving. Conversely, most of us get anxious and irritable when we feel

              helpless.

 

              Most of what we deal with in a day comes to us via forces we can't control. We can't control

              the world, we can't control our clients, and some days we can't even control our jobs or our

              work load. But we can control our work space. Keeping your work space in order can bring a

              certain measure of peace to an otherwise stressful situation.

 

              Once you've cleared off your work space, you can attack those other backwaters where

              papers like to pile up, like the bookshelf, the window ledge, on top of the filing cabinet, and

              (my personal favorite) behind the computer stand. Remember, the goal here is to ditch as

              much as possible, pass on most of the rest, and keep filing to a minimum.

 

              Filing

 

              You may be wondering what could be difficult about filing. You label the folders

              alphabetically, fill them with papers, and jam them in the drawers. Unfortunately, the files

              you need always seem to be the hardest to reach. You end up using some files so much it

              seems easier to just leave them piled on your desk. Now - if you could just find room to

              work.

 

              Here are three rules to remember when setting up a filing system.

 

              Rule #1 - 80/20. Eighty percent of your file use is concentrated in twenty percent of your

              files. Unfortunately, most of us spend too much time combing through the mass of our

              folders for the few files we use regularly. Why? Because that's the way the files are

              organized.

 

              The first step to organizing your files is to go through them and pull out the ones you use

              regularly. Most office desks have a file drawer. Your goal is to put your most used files into

              a single drawer.

 

              Organize those files in the way that makes the most sense (alphabetically, by client, by

              function… etc.). Before you load them in that desk file, though, go out and buy yourself

              some round, colored stickers. Grocery stores sell them as price tags for garage sales. Pick a

              color for these most used files and put a sticker on each one.

 

              The second step is to go through your files and pull out all the files you haven't opened in a

              year. How many of these can you throw away? How many can you archive? The idea is to

              get rid of as many of these as possible.

 

              When you're done, there will still be a stack of files that you haven't looked at lately, but

              can't afford to discard. Organize these files in a way that makes sense, put another color on

              them, and put them in your most remote file drawer.

 

              Everything in between are working files. Organize them, tag them, and put them in the

              drawers you have left.

 

              Rule #2 - File Every Day. In the same way as you schedule a time to review mail, schedule

              a time to file each day. The best time to file it is right after you've worked through your mail

              because it's still fresh in your mind where this stuff is supposed to go.

 

              Rule #3 - The File that Binds. Several years ago, I began to bind my files. If you haven't

              tried this, I would recommend it. All you need is a two hole punch and some binder clips. I

              use plain files and punch them just like the paper.

 

              The advantage of binding is that it keeps your papers in order. No worries about papers

              spilling out of the folder and ending up shuffled on the floor. Also, since I'm always putting

              the most recent papers on top I automatically know the organization of every file. Papers are

              much easier to locate if they're in chronological order.

 

              Develop the discipline to keep your paperwork moving and you'll be managing your

              paperwork instead of drowning in it. You'll also be less stressed and more productive. The

              paper blizzard continues to rage, but if you're prepared for it you'll never be buried again.

              HBM

 

              Roger Martin learned to manage his time the hard way, as general manager and partner

              in a small consulting firm. Now, among his other tasks, he lectures, teaches, and writes. In

              the past year, he's also written articles for The Writer, The Toastmaster, WordPerfect

              Magazine, and Camping and RV, among others. Roger Martin can be reached at (915)

              697-4342; 3304 Windsor, Midland, TX 79707; or by e-mail: RIMARTIN@JUNO.COM.