Four Quick Ways to Stop Paper Clutter

There is a sneaky little monster that creeps into our home offices and brings us grief, lost time, and lots of stress. This monster is known as paper clutter.
Not too long ago, I read an interesting article about organizing your home office. The author referred to home office clutter as a consequence of delaying decisions. This made a lot of sense to me.

Your Home Office Can Be Anywhere
As a home business builder, you have an office somewhere. It might be a small desk in the corner of your dining room, or a spare room where you keep your computer and business tools. Some have their “home office” in the back seat of their vehicle. Regardless of where your home office is, it is the base from which you run your business.
Take a look around your office. Do you see paper? Why is it there? Some of your papers may be there to remind you to do something. Perhaps you printed some information you will use in presenting your business opportunity. Much of this paper is just creating unwanted clutter, and should be filed or tossed.
Not Making Decisions is the Problem
Many of us have a tendency to “delay making decisions”, which causes stuff to pile up and creates paper clutter. We really do mean to tackle our pile of papers that need sorting and filing, and soon, but feel we have more important things to do. Our plan is to file that paper “when we have time” (delayed decision). The problem is, the paper can quickly overtake your office. It can be very depressing when you have to sort through a bunch of papers to find what you need.
Four Easy Ways to End Paper Clutter
Try these four ways to reduce paper clutter in your home office. Pick up each piece of paper, and make one of the following four decisions about it.
1) If the paper can be quickly filed, or is a reminder to do something you can do right then, just do it. You’ll feel much better.
2) If the paper represents a task that cannot be done quickly, or has to be done some other time, make a “pending” folder and put it there. Make a note in your planner or organizer for the day it needs to be handled.
3) Whenever possible, delegate tasks. If the paper represents something that can easily be done by someone else, then ask them to do it. Conserve your valuable time to do the most important things to build your business.
4) Keep information that you can really use in the future (file it immediately), but toss anything you won’t need again. I think we are all guilty of printing stuff to read, then hanging on to it “just in case” we want to look at it again sometime. Get rid of the stuff that isn’t really important.
It takes a lot of self-discipline to go through your papers like this. It can be quite painful to throw things out, especially if you are a pack rat. However, once done, you will feel so much better and productive.