The Paper Chase...

Feeling a little buried under the mountain of paper encroaching upon your workspace? If so, you are definitely not alone. Research has shown that most people waste an average of 2-4 hours per week shuffling paper. For the next few weeks, I’ll share a system for turning your mountain into a molehill – or less.

All you have to remember are four D’s:
Dump
Delegate
Do
Decide.

Today, let’s cover the basics of DUMPING...

Cut down on the amount of junk mail you receive. Contact the direct marketing association (http://www.dmaconsumers.org/consumerassistance.html) to remove your name from mailing lists.

Cut down on the amount of paper that crosses your threshold. You can usually tell before you open a piece of mail if it’s important. My habit is to quickly sort mail over the trashcan in the garage. I end up tossing most of it before I even come into the house.

Keep a shredder near where you open your mail – and immediately shred any credit card offers or personal information you don’t need to keep.

If you see an article in a magazine you’d like to have for future reference, tear it out and file it immediately. Or place it in a file to read later. Then toss the magazine.

Schedule a day once a year (tax time is great) to purge your files of receipts, records, etc. you no longer need to keep.

Be ruthless when you DUMP -- remembering how much happier you’ll be to spend those extra four hours a week putting words on paper – rather than shuffling it.