When clients contact me for help with managing papers, I always ask them, “Do you have a file cabinet?” The answer almost always is, “Yes, but it’s full.” Usually their file cabinet is full with outdated papers that haven’t been reviewed in a long time. One of the first things I’ll do when I work with these clients is go through the old files and get rid of anything that is no longer relevant. Going through old papers is time-consuming, but it’s…
Read more →Remember back to last spring when you were preparing your taxes. Pretty annoying, right? Didn’t you hate digging through all your papers to find relevant information, some of which was already more than a year old? I bet you made a vow back then that you were going to be more proactive in the future. January is a great time to get things set up for a smooth tax process. As I described in Reducing the Pain of Tax Time, setting up some…
Read more →Like you, I struggle with paper. I no sooner get my desk cleared off than it gets covered up again with the next day’s mail. I’ve written about my struggle and my strategies for mastering paper in some of my previous organizing tips, most notably Divide and Conquer the Pile and What Color is Your Desk? Attacking a pile of paper is very intimidating. It can be time-consuming to figure out what needs to be done with each piece of paper. If you’re like…
Read more →Have you ever felt stressed because you knew you had bills due but weren’t sure where the bills were or if you had missed the deadline? Have you ever been charged a late fee? Have you ever spent hours on the phone trying to straighten out a bill payment that was never received? If these sound like common occurrences in your life, I have three words for you: automatic bill pay.
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