Did you know the two most common questions I get are about paper and email?

Personally, I hate filing.

I’m not quite sure why people are surprised to hear this?

The way I deal with my filing issues is to keep very little paper.

Brilliant idea, right?

The most important thing to remember about filing is that the more you keep, the more you have to file.

And we all know we only ever access less than 20% of the filed paper ever again.

Let’s show you how I do my filing…

I toss the papers I really want to keep in this basket in a far corner of my study. It’s about 5 cm deep (2 inches).

I tossed a good number of those items.

The thing is that with the passage of time, so our intense need to hang onto things diminishes. Or at least for me it does.

I found I could toss the older things that had since been resolved.

E.g. We pay our telephone account every month. When I get the statement, I check to see if my payment is reflecting. If it is, I toss the old statement.

Look at this note.

I kept this note on the bottom of that tray so I could see how long it had been since the last time I filed.

This year I’ve only filed 3 times – 13 Jan, 30 June and 30 Oct.

Be honest – are you shocked?!

So now that my secret is out, how often do you file? Be honest, do you enjoy filing?

Marci @OvercomingBusy.com has left a new comment on your post “You ask, I’ll answer“:  

Here are my suggestions for temporary paper storage:

If you’re a visual person who has to SEE things in order to remember to do them, then I’d suggest a vertical organiser.

Look in the corner of my work desk and you’ll see an example in action. It’s that ugly brown thing.

You could also use a buddy drawer system like this one with clearly labelled drawers as to what’s inside. This works great for a bill-paying system. Make sure you go through those drawers regularly though.

or last but not least, you could use a tickler file system similar to this… but you’ve got to make sure you actually check those folders regularly. This will not work well if you’re an “out of sight, out of mind” kind of person

How I store my paper temporarily:

I’m all about simple so I try not to overcomplicate things.

The type of paper applicable to our situation is typically a water and lights or telephone bill. I mark down the due date and amount due in my daily planner (and in Outlook – I hate unnecessary interest charges due to disorganisation) and then toss the bills in my “to file” pile in the study.

Once I pay by internet banking, I note down the date on the actual bill and when I do my filing, I file (but I only keep 3 months’ worth except for the water and lights bill because we have a very disorganised service provider).

That is it – couldn’t be shorter and sweeter

So, how do you store paper for a short time?