{"id":1469,"date":"2013-05-08T19:03:29","date_gmt":"2013-05-09T00:03:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/?p=1469"},"modified":"2013-05-08T02:30:39","modified_gmt":"2013-05-08T07:30:39","slug":"paper-pyramid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/2013\/05\/paper-pyramid\/","title":{"rendered":"Paper Pyramid"},"content":{"rendered":"

Are you trying to imagine a literal pyramid of paper?\u00a0 Fortunately I am not talking literally \u2013 though it might be interesting to see one, though I\u2019d imagine none of us would want to deal with it.\u00a0 Nevertheless, papers are the most common struggle we all face \u2013 and it can feel like a pyramid.\u00a0 And there can be a pyramid effect to papers, just like my recent discussion, The Pyramid Effect of Getting Organized<\/a>.\u00a0 Because papers are challenging, it warrants its own discussion \u2013 these small pieces need to be evaluated and have a decision made about each one \u2013 time and energy consuming.<\/p>\n

First some questions:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Do you currently have a system for your papers?<\/li>\n
  2. Is there room within your system for adding papers? (i.e. is your filing cabinet or whatever stuffed full or not)<\/li>\n
  3. Are you happy (relatively speaking) with your current system?<\/li>\n
  4. How many papers are waiting to be added to your system?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    When your answers to the first 3 questions aren\u2019t all yeses, it\u2019s time to consider using the idea of a pyramid to deal with your papers.\u00a0 And if you answer no to all 3, then the pyramid will be the most efficient way to handle those papers.\u00a0 This also reduces the chaos in the short term.\u00a0 Warning \u2013 it might feel inefficient and time consuming \u2013 that\u2019s because we\u2019re looking at the bigger picture of getting your papers organized in order for you to maintain them and be able to find what you need when you need it, in the long run<\/em>.<\/p>\n

    Think about the base of the pyramid \u2013 it\u2019s wide and broad.\u00a0 Figure out your broad categories of papers in your life \u2013 like financial, health, recipes, articles, personal\/kids, memorabilia, photos, and etcetera.\u00a0 There\u2019s a caveat though \u2013 you don\u2019t want to separate them into file size divisions.\u00a0 It\u2019s too soon in the process to be attempting this \u2013 you\u2019ll get there.<\/p>\n

    One important category will be those papers that need action from you in the short-term.\u00a0 You need to make sure to keep those available during the process, though once you\u2019ve taken the necessary action you can add them to one of your other categories.<\/p>\n

    These categories are also meant to be small enough that when you\u2019re ready to move onto the next step, you\u2019ll be close to creating the files. \u00a0The categories are based on your life, your comfort, and the papers you are dealing with. \u00a0With one client, the bulk of papers we\u2019re organizing are from her years as an art teacher and her own art supplies \u2013 so we created broad categories of images\/pictures, technical art info, projects\/ideas, blank papers, art history, recipes, articles, and health info.<\/p>\n

    Keep going through all the papers you can find, adding them to your broad categories \u2013 fewer than 10 categories total.\u00a0 Ideally you will not move to the next step in the pyramid until you have gotten all your papers into these groupings \u2013 whether they stay in the same category or get moved later in the process.\u00a0 It\u2019s simplest to have all the papers you need to organize all together \u2013 in order that you can figure out what and how much you are dealing with.\u00a0 Therefore don\u2019t forget the papers that are already in your filing system, as these will need to be considered in the next step.<\/p>\n

    Now you\u2019ve gotten all your papers into their broad categories, you pick one of your categories and begin to subdivide that.\u00a0 This is when you can start to think about your specific files, though I\u2019d wait until you\u2019ve sorted everything in that category before doing any actual labeling or filing.\u00a0 As you\u2019re making the piles of papers, you can begin to visually see how small or big they are \u2013 giving you a chance to consider whether another division would make sense in order that a file doesn\u2019t become unmanageable.<\/p>\n

    Once you\u2019ve sorted one category, you can label, put into files (and hanging folders), and into the filing cabinet \u2013 if that\u2019s your system.\u00a0 This can also be the time to consider other approaches since using a filing cabinet is only one option for having a system for your papers.\u00a0 Being at this stage means that you will know what your needs are for your papers \u2013 at least for this category \u2013 and what options are even possible.<\/p>\n

    After doing this with each category you\u2019ve created, not only will the paper pyramid be gone \u2013 it will be organized.\u00a0 By following this process you\u2019ll have created a system that has been tailored to your own needs and will be easy to use \u2013 at least when you get around to putting those darn papers away! Yet, with having gone through this process, when the time comes for adding more papers to your system \u2013 there will be room and no additional dread.\u00a0 Hopefully now there\u2019s less dismay when you\u2019re ready to tackle the paper pyramid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    As with all aspects of organizing \u2013 there\u2019s a pyramid effect \u2013 including when tackling papers. The most common struggle since it\u2019s time and energy consuming to consider each small piece of paper \u2013 yet you can reclaim your space and system by creating a broad foundation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[10,8,5,20,17],"class_list":["post-1469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-organizing","tag-behavior","tag-discipline","tag-household","tag-paperwork","tag-spaces"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7p82c-nH","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1469"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1469\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1473,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1469\/revisions\/1473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}