{"id":1526,"date":"2013-06-26T19:03:08","date_gmt":"2013-06-27T00:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/?p=1526"},"modified":"2013-06-26T17:21:49","modified_gmt":"2013-06-26T22:21:49","slug":"herding-papers-into-the-filing-cabinet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/2013\/06\/herding-papers-into-the-filing-cabinet\/","title":{"rendered":"Herding Papers into the Filing Cabinet"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I have a vision of trying to herd cats \u2013 with them flying in all directions!\u00a0 I\u2019ve only met a few people who actually enjoy filing, and the rest of us try to manage it.\u00a0 This can be especially challenging if you have put off handling your papers once you\u2019ve finished the action they needed \u2013 as well as if your filing system is over-full from lack of purging.\u00a0 When you are facing this situation you have a decision to make about what your first step will be \u2013 do you begin with thinning your filing system or by corralling all those loose papers?<\/p>\n<p>First some questions: (familiar from my <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/2013\/05\/paper-pyramid\/\" target=\"_blank\">\u201cPaper Pyramid\u201d<\/a>)<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Do you currently have a system for your papers?<\/li>\n<li>Is there room within your system for adding papers? (i.e. is your filing cabinet or whatever stuffed full or not)<\/li>\n<li>Are you happy (relatively speaking) with your current system?<\/li>\n<li>How many papers are waiting to be added to your system?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>If you can answer yes to the first 3 questions, then your progress can move forward more easily \u2013 how much so will depend on your answer to the final question.\u00a0 (If you answered no, check out the link above to Paper Pyramid.)<\/p>\n<p>The most satisfying first step regardless of your answers is typically to get all those loose papers together.\u00a0 Toss all those that you don\u2019t need or want to keep \u2013 as long as it\u2019s obvious quickly; otherwise wait to decide until you get farther along.\u00a0 There will be more opportunity for purging in the process.<\/p>\n<p>Just like if your answers from above were no, the foremost consideration as you look at each piece of paper is whether you will need this in the short-term or not.\u00a0 Depending on the amount of papers, this might be all the distinction you need \u2013 2 piles of papers: needs action and to file.\u00a0 It\u2019s critical that you keep all papers that need your attention separate and together through this process \u2013 until they can be tossed or moved into a pile for organizing\/filing.<\/p>\n<p>Hopefully if you answered yes, you\u2019ve already made the decisions about how long to keep papers that are exempt from governmental guidelines.\u00a0 If not, there\u2019s still hope \u2013 you just need to think about and decide for yourself how far back you need to keep certain records.\u00a0 There are many opinions out there about how long to keep your papers (besides property and tax related) \u2013 which I talk about some in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/2012\/08\/paper-retention\/\" target=\"_blank\">Paper Retention<\/a>.\u00a0 Remember at this stage it\u2019s fine to add all papers to their pile, the decisions can be delayed for the time being.<\/p>\n<p>Depending on your answer to the last question, \u201cHow many papers are waiting to be added to your system?\u201d the next probably step is to subdivide.\u00a0 For instance, get all your financial papers together, all the instruction manuals, everything that can fit into a category \u2013 make sure the pile of papers is relatively small so that the filing process can move along smoothly.<\/p>\n<p>Since you answered yes to the first three questions, consider another question:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>When was the last time you purged papers from your files, even if they are not overflowing?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If you don\u2019t know or it\u2019s been more than a year &#8211; as much as you might not want to hear it, this is the ideal time to organize your files.\u00a0 This is <strong>not<\/strong> about emptying the file drawer and surrounding yourself with piles of papers.<\/p>\n<p>It is about taking the best opportunity to make sure only papers you need and want are taking up the valuable space in your system.\u00a0 Therefore, you have a pile of financial papers ready and waiting to go into their file.\u00a0 Pull out the file \u2013 completely out of the filing cabinet.\u00a0 Look through it, this doesn\u2019t need to take much time once you\u2019ve decided how long you\u2019re keeping each type of paper \u2013 and remove all those papers that are older or no longer relevant.\u00a0 Then add the sorted papers you\u2019ve gathered from around your house into their appropriate file.\u00a0 Continue with each file.<\/p>\n<p>One of the things I\u2019ve done to streamline the purging of older papers is to place a single tabbed divider between each year in every file.\u00a0 This means that at the beginning of the next year I pull out all papers in front of the first divider and shred them, and move the tabbed divider to the back of the file and add all current papers behind it.\u00a0 This makes regular purging a simple process that requires virtually no thought.<\/p>\n<p>Remember that one of the things that can break a filing system down is having too many papers in one file.\u00a0 There\u2019s a fine balance between too few and too many papers in one file.\u00a0 And to state the obvious, if we don\u2019t purge the papers from our files, they will overflow \u2013 or more likely we\u2019ll stop doing the filing to avoid dealing with that cramped file.\u00a0 Any way that you can make purging papers an easy part of the process will save you time, energy, and most importantly \u2013 your sanity throughout your life.\u00a0 Your files will no longer threaten to explode and any resistance to getting those papers into the filing cabinet will come more from just the dislike of the filing process than actual problems.<\/p>\n<p>Getting papers from around the house into the filing cabinet should not at all be like herding cats.\u00a0 Ideally it\u2019s not a chore, it\u2019s something that can happen fairly easily.\u00a0 Although I admit, filing remains a chore for me.\u00a0 It\u2019s still not like herding cats \u2013 I have an inbox designated for papers that need filing in a discrete place that also has limited room for growth \u2013 the paper corral.\u00a0 If my papers have moved past any necessary action, they go directly to the \u201cinbox,\u201d and this is where they stay until I manage to get them into the filing system.\u00a0 This means my papers are in one of three locations only: action needed, the \u201cinbox,\u201d or in the correct file.\u00a0 It\u2019s only the last step that I can still struggle with \u2013 yet it\u2019s completely organized as it is.\u00a0 It\u2019s all about finding what works for you \u2013 so herd those papers into the filing cabinet and regain control of your space.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s all too easy to allow papers to surround you \u2013 they\u2019re constantly coming into our lives whether we want them to or not.  Therefore, use the systems you\u2019ve set up with some fine-tuning to limit the inevitable papers you need to save.<\/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":[10,8,18,5,20,7,22,15,4,17],"class_list":["post-1526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-organizing","tag-behavior","tag-discipline","tag-goals","tag-household","tag-paperwork","tag-procrastination","tag-productivity","tag-resources","tag-routines","tag-spaces"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7p82c-oC","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1526","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=1526"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1526\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1529,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1526\/revisions\/1529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}