How to Sort Paperwork

Buried in a pile of paperwork? Would you rather visit the dentist than face the Herculean task of sorting it? This simply method might just help you get on top of it.

Firstly, we need to look at how you currently do it. I would wager that when you finally get around to trying to do something about it, you start by going through a heap and create an ever increasing number of piles for each subject area, such as bills receipts, letters, customer information or whatever.

After 10 minutes or half an hour (if really motivated!) you end up with a significant number of disparate piles spread over the desk and floor. At this point you lose the plot. At best, you might file one or two piles or you might shove a whole lot back in the box and go off and 'do' something more ‘interesting’.

There are only a few lucky people who are able to sort the paperwork in this way. For us poor dumb asses, frustration soon outweighs the need for organisation.

For us, we need a better method. The method I am about to describe has helped a number of people through my career, so I know it does work.

The way to do it is the way a computer performs tasks. Do it in sequence and perform one task at a time.

The first, and always the first task, is to go through the pile and chuck out the rubbish. So it will go something like chuck, chuck, keep, chuck, chuck, keep, keep, chuck, keep chuck -and so on. Once you've gone through the whole pile, the rubbish is put in the shredder or bin.

Congratulations-The pile is already reduced.

You can stop at this point and go and do something 'interesting'.  Or you can carry on. The point is that you have already made progress and you have control of the paperwork rather than the other way round.

The next step is to pick a task, it does not matter what, you will know roughly what was in the paperwork because you've just been through it. Let us take letters an example - you now go through the pile and you just take out letters and leave the rest. This keeps the tasks simple and requires very little concentration and minimises frustration.

Once you have the letters out if you're able to file them as one pile fine, if you have to sort them further, use the same method go through them over and over again and only do one task at a time.

You can stop at this point and do something 'interesting'

The point is, you have made even further progress and it also means that when you do decide to come back to the task it is easier to decide what single function you want to do - remember, if you have added to the pile in the interim - always do the keep and chuck rubbish method first.

That's about it. It might seem very simple but it is simply effective, and that is the point. Those who have adopted this method have found it a useful method of completing this onerous task.