Works for me Wednesday: Papers

I am not a very organized person in general. When it comes to papers, as both a teacher and a homemaker, I suck. They would get everywhere and completely overwhelm me if I didn't have a system.

My years in a classroom actually taught me (through trial by fire) the necessity of two things when it came to papers: having a place for everything and handling every piece of paper only once.

So at home for all my papers, I have a three shelf tray (actually this one from Ikea). I place it on top of my filing cabinet and next to my shredder and recycle bin.

Every day, when the mail comes, or really any time papers come into the house, I open them immediately. I recycle or shred everything I don't need to keep, and everything else goes in one of my three trays. The top is for things I need to be able to see and grab immediately: checks that need to be deposited, reminder cards for upcoming appointments. The second tray is for "action items": bills that need to be paid, rebates that need to be filled out. The bottom drawer is for things that need to be filed.

Then, every few days or at least once a week, I go through my trays in order. Anything that needs my immediate attention gets dealt with first (appointments getting added to calendars, RSVPs), then if I still have time I pay whatever bills I have, then if I still have time I do my filing. In all honesty, I haven't filed very many times since I had the baby, but at least I know that everything that needs to be filed is in one safe place, and even if I don't get to my filing all my bills get paid on time.

(I also keep my stamps, checkbook, and address stickers right in the tray where I keep my bills. That way I always know where everything is and can get through the task faster).

It isn't a perfect system, but it works for me.

To do lists and other nonsense

I’ve never been much of a list maker. My husband (who very much is) always tells me to add things to my list when I think of them. I’ve always told him I’m more likely to lose the list than to forget to do it.

These days that doesn’t seem to be the case. Since I had the baby (and really a few months before), I have been operating in a sort of fog and constantly forget what it is that I need to do. I have decided to resort to the lists as a necessity. The daily chores get done and the weekly chores usually get done, but all the picky things like making appointments and writing thank you cards were falling through the cracks.

The problem is, to do lists still make me cranky. I forget to write things on them, then I forget to look at them, then when I do look at them I only see things I can’t do at that particular moment, and by the end of the day I just look back at the list and see a bunch of things that I still haven’t done and feel defeated.
So I think the solution (and this makes me even crazier) is to maintain two separate lists: a master to do list, and a basic daily plan. The purpose of the master list is to “catch” all the stuff that’s floating in my head, so that I don’t think later “what was it I said I needed to do?” The purpose of the daily plan is to actually have a reasonable and actionable set of things to do.
So, here’s how my strategy looks these days – this is a work in progress:

• I keep a master list on a pretty notepad of all the things I need to do. As soon as I think about it, I get my rear end to the notepad and write it down. My notepad is on my refrigerator so I don’t lose it, but I should probably put it on my nightstand when I go to bed and in my purse when I go out because things are still getting away from me.
  
  
• I take 5 minutes at night before I go to bed (but after the baby goes to bed) to read my list and choose a few things from it that I really need or want to get done the next day. If I choose too many, I won’t get through them or I’ll be overwhelmed and not do any. I also try to cluster tasks – I pay bills in a block a few times a month, I do errands once or twice a week when things are near each other – but not schedule huge things like “file 3 months worth of papers,” a task which would stay on the master list forever.
  
• I take 5 minutes in the morning to think about how those tasks will fit into my day. Are they desk tasks that I can do while holding the baby? Are they errands I should schedule around naptime?
  
• I cross things off the master list as they get done, and I throw away my daily schedule every day, whether I got to everything on it or not.

It’s not a perfect system, and I can’t believe that I actually gave in to using lists. Right now, it works for me, but I’m very open to suggestions. As you can see, I’m orgazationally challenged!

Getting my life in order

So I've been home from work for about 2 weeks now, and I just started to realize that in that time I haven't done anything. I had piles of laundry, an overflowing to-be-filed box, clutter all over my apartment. I hadn't read started reading any of the books that I wanted to read, and I hadn't written anything. Worst of all, I hadn't had any fun!

So, yesterday I sat down and started to reflect on what it was I wanted to do with my time. I started by writing because that is the way I begin everything in my life. As I was writing and trying to reflect on the things that I needed to do, I found my stream of consciousness turning into lists and the things I wanted to do falling into categories.

1. I wanted to get organized with my money and papers.
2. I wanted to clean my apartment.
3. I wanted to read and write more.
4. I wanted to have fun.

So I decided to dedicate time every day to each of those things, come what may. I set aside an hour for each of the first three: from 2-3 I would have a quiet hour when I would turn off all podcasts, music, and television and just write or read. From 3-4, I would have a desk hour when I would pay my bills, file papers, check my bank balances, balance my checkbook and budget, and maybe apply for a few work at home jobs. Then from 4-5 I would clean: I would empty my dishwasher, fold my laundry, dust, clear off any surface clutter, and do as much deep cleaning as I could do in about an hour. Then I'd be done. I made a separate list (when did I become such a listmaker?) of things large and small that I wanted to accomplish during each time period; some were recurring, some were small scale, some were ongoing. I even made a list of fun things I wanted to do when I had time to play, so that I wouldn't forget and just waste away the time on the Internet or watching TV I don't even like.

It is amazing to me how much has gotten done in just two days of this. I feel more centered and settled, my life feels in order, and I have the whole rest of the day to play, take naps, or do whatever else I want. How liberating! Why haven't I been doing this all along?