For starters, I need to apologize for not sending out Julie’s Weekly Tips weekly. I probably should change the name of this blog to Julie’s Occasional Tips or Julie’s Not-so-Weekly Tips. Suffice it to say, it’s not for a lack of great ideas and tips, but more a case of poor time management. Dare I admit that? I think I’ll just blame it on those damn monkeys!

So, back to the purpose of this blog – tips and tricks to stay on top of things. Here’s one of my favorite suggestions when clients ask me how to keep their paper work under control. Over the last few posts, I talked about filing categories and when to archive, throw out, file, etc. But what about all of those papers floating around on your desk? The best system (at least for me) is simple – every piece of paper belongs in one of 4 categories:

1. To Do

This is where you put everything that requires fairly immediate action. Bills to be paid, phone calls and reservations to make, etc. If you have to do something, whatever that something is, it goes in this pile. The real trick is then DOING it. You should ideally check to box weekly, if not daily.

2. Pending

This is where you put something AFTER you’ve taken action on it, but you are still waiting for a response or it requires follow-up action. Examples are travel confirmations, bank account info such as new pin numbers, quotes and proposals, etc.

3. To be Filed

In a perfect world, this category would not exist because we would all file things as soon as were done with them. In reality, that just doesn’t happen. Like most people, I tend to file in sporadic bursts, so I put everything that I am completely done with but need to keep in this pile. Again, like the To Do pile, the trick is to stay up on it so that the file pile doesn’t get overwhelming. Try for every month or, even better, every week.

4. Throw it out

Just because it exists, doesn’t mean you need to keep it. Either you never needed the piece of paper in the first place (junk mail, expired promotions and coupons, etc.) or, if you’ve already completed whatever task it required, think twice before you automatically throw it into the To Be Filed pile. If it’s not related to a business expense and it’s cleared the bank, you can throw out most personal receipts and paid bills. Only keep things if there is a strong reason why you might need to refer back to it. And remember, these days almost EVERYTHING is available online. So let that old phone bill stay in the virtual file folder instead of taking up precious space in your mind and in your home.