Paperwork can easily become a burden to the average person. From bills to legal papers to digital contracts, it seems there is no end to the barrage of documents you accrue over the course of a calendar year. What’s worse is that this problem does not solve itself. The longer you allow papers to pile on your desk, the more frustrating it is going to be when you need to sift through all of the docs to locate a specific piece of information. To prevent the chaos from getting any worse, it is important to take decisive action tips
Take a moment to look over these tips and tricks for how to best organize the physical and digital documents clogging up your life. With a few simple adjustments to your normal processes, you will be able to create a system that makes the most sense for you.
Toss the Garbage
When you’re first starting on your organization path, you want to do whatever is in your power to weed through the piles of paperwork to eliminate any unimportant papers. You definitely aren’t going to need to organize the junk mail you toss on your desk and forget about over the weeks. The best way to get started is by immediately throwing away any papers that you absolutely feel certain are useless. This can include junk mail, personal papers of no value or use, old receipts that don’t impact current taxes, and any similar documents.
As you begin to go through each pile to get rid of the useless papers, you want to begin separating the rest of the documents into specific piles. Put all of your legal documents in one pile, all of your tax papers in another, and so on. By separating all of the papers as you weed through the piles for junk, you are tackling two big tasks and making the rest of the process a bit easier on you. Plus, getting rid of a lot of paperwork right away can reduce the sheer volume of documents you’re dealing with.
Focus on Active Docs
There are some cases where you might be sifting through piles of documents that are useful to you at the moment. If you are currently engaged in a legal struggle, for example, it is best to keep all of the paperwork handy as you go about organizing the rest of your documents and files. After a car crash results in an injury and you begin the process of settling the matter with those responsible, you want to have all of the information about your car accident attorney readily available. The same goes for any digital docs related to the case.
While you want to begin your organization tasks by focusing on physical papers, this is a good point to start incorporating digital files into the mix. When you realize you have a number of emails and attachments from your attorney on your computer, take a moment to separate all of these pertinent files into a labeled folder on your computer’s desktop. This will put all of these legal files in one convenient place and create a simple system for you to follow when you’re ready to tackle the rest of your digital documents.
Consider External Drives
Depending on how long it has been since you last organized your computer files, you might be dealing with a ton of digital docs from the last few years. Though some of these files are important at the moment, a large chunk is probably not useful in the slightest. In the interest of time, invest in an external hard drive. This helps you move all files you’re uncertain about to a portable location where they can be accessed later and stop taking up vital storage space on your local drives.
It is hard to deny the overall importance of having an organized workspace. Whether you’re dealing with physical papers on your desk or tons of unlabeled files on a laptop, taking time to create order from chaos can have lasting benefits. Find the system that works for you and see how you can get started.
