Paper Management

"They" say it’s that time of year… however, I actually recommend cleaning out your files in April right after you finish your taxes.  I suppose this is exactly 6 months after April, so if you want to do this twice a year, October and April make a lot of sense.  (Who sets these national observances… Read more »

I work with a lot of high-achieving people, and they are really intent on being the best in their fields and staying on top of all of the information they need to know.  Unfortunately, there is just way too much information for them to possibly consume… and that leads to "READING GUILT."  There is this… Read more »

The PR folks at Pendaflex just sent me a sample of the very cool "On The Go® Desktop File."  (Photo from Pendaflex- click photo for larger view) It lets you organize your papers in six color-coded compartments, and it sits nicely on your desk with its unique "stadium-style" view of the tabs.  When you’re ready… Read more »

One of the clutter traps we see often in people’s homes is reading material… there is this strange guilt hanging over people’s heads about all of the things that they "should" read sometime.  The reading material that stacks up the quickest is newspapers.  Sorry, Lois Lane– the newspapers have gotta go. Here is what my… Read more »

Now is the time of year that you start anticipating summer travel and guests.  I thought I would share something that I like to do to make things easier when guests are coming– having a "Tourist Binder." Recently my Productivity Café friend Susan Sabo visited me and it really came in handy to show her… Read more »

Are you compelled to clip articles from magazines and other reading material and save them for later, or share them with your friends and family?  Is it becoming a problem? Clipping for yourself:  The main question is, do you have an organized system for FINDING the clippings later?  If you do not have a reliable… Read more »

My last post on junk mail prompted one of our team members, Helene, to show me this site she has found:  www.lifelock.com.  It not only claims to reduce your junk mail, but they guarantee to protect you from identity theft.  The interesting gimmick is that the CEO of the company posts his Social Security Number… Read more »

A local friend just told me about www.41pounds.org, a service that claims to eliminate 80-95% of the junk mail you receive.  It is named for the fact that the average adult receives 41 pounds of junk mail per year! You can pay them–guess how much?–41 dollars to use their service, and half the profits go… Read more »

I thought you might like to read another article I wrote for ModernSage.com, called The 7 Biggest Paper and Information Mistakes.  Are you forgetting the vital protection step that only 1 in 4 people take??  On a side note, did everyone know that we are snowed in for the 3rd day in a row tomorrow… Read more »

I have coined this phrase, "Quicken Guilt," to describe the situation we often see in home offices… We routinely ask a lot of assessment questions in our work as organizers, and one of them is whether they use any financial software.  People frequently get a sheepish look on their faces and say they know they… Read more »