Do you love to see things grow and blossom? Your kids? Your puppy? Your Christmas amaryllis? Your spring flowers? Your summer veggies? Your piles of paper? Say what? What was that last one – paper? No!
If you’re like many of the people I work with, paper is not your thing. You didn’t ask for so much mail, you don’t know what to keep vs. what to discard and you don’t enjoy processing it. I’m going to help you reframe the way you look at paper by comparing paper management to gardening. Stay with me here! It might be more motivational than you think.
So, what are some of the components of both gardening and paper management?
PLANNING
When planning a flower garden, consider color schemes, the timing of the blooms, the height of the plants, etc.
Create a plan for where to place paper, i.e. unopened mail, papers to be acted on, papers to be filed, papers going out of the house, etc.
PREVENTION
Perhaps you use Round Up to prevent weeds (an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure).
To prevent unwanted and junk mail, sign up using an online service, such as dmachoice.org (an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of MAIL).
MAINTENANCE
When gardening, you periodically fertilize, weed, dead-head the flowers, and of course cut the flowers for indoor appreciation.
Establish daily, weekly and monthly routines to open the mail, address action items, pay bills, file, read, etc.
STORAGE
You’ve dedicated a place where you store your pots, tools, soil, etc. for easy access.
Use file cabinets or file boxes to store reference papers and keep papers you need to act upon on your desk.
END OF SEASON CLEAN UP
Gardens get ‘put to bed’ in the autumn by cutting back plants, etc.
Purge your files annually. The best time is when you’re gathering papers for income tax. Shred paid invoices you don’t need for taxes and make room for a new year.
I wish you much success in your garden and office. KEEP UP in order to thrive and blossom!
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