It’s not only smart, but essential to have a routine for processing mail and other paper promptly before it gets out of control. Try the following suggestions and checklist and see how easy it can be.
- Install a mail station near the door where mail enters your house. This can be a shelf, a small table, or a spot on the kitchen counter, so it needn’t take up much room, but it should have a sorter with sections for each person and a separate one for your business.
- Resist thinking you’re so busy you can’t spare five minutes to look at your mail each day. Processing your mail daily helps keep you organized, reduces clutter, and eliminates the chance you’ll overlook something important or time-sensitive.
- Get the family in the habit of throwing junk mail into the wastebasket and separating the mail into the sorter for each person to deal with. Put magazines, newsletters, etc. in a reading basket wherever you do your leisure reading.
- Keep a shredder (cross-cut and confetti-cut are most secure) and wastebasket/recycle bin nearby.
The “5-D – Next Action” checklist
As you encounter each piece of paper, you need to make a decision about the next action that is required There are a limited number of choices open to you-and they’re easy to remember, because they all begin with the letter D.
- Discard it
- Delegate it or Direct it to someone else if you can (Write a note with directions if necessary)
- Do it immediately (If it will take 2 minutes or less)
- Defer action until later (BUT, decide what action you will take and when; then enter it on your calendar/planner for that date and place in the corresponding tickler file folder)
- Drop it in a file (only if you really need to keep it.
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