Crack Down on Household Chaos
Sherry Borsheim

If cleaning house feels like a daunting task to you – then it’s quite likely that you’ve let your house “work you” instead of the other way around.

You might be all too familiar with the symptoms of too much stuff and nowhere to put it. You might even feel like your walls are closing in on you or that you are outgrowing your space. The increasing accumulation of “stuff” can create outrageous chaos if you don’t have a home for it – and some sort of system for filing it. And, chances are, even if you’ve gotten pretty creative with how you “hide” stuff in your home; you still feel disorganized.

Below are two key elements to will help you crackdown on chaos around the home – they will dramatically improve how you clean as well as the frequency and ease of the process:

1. Storage solutions. Storage does not always have to come in the form of open faced or aesthetically boring cupboards, shelves or bins. Multi-purpose furniture, specialized wall fixtures, magnetic accessories and even creative bowls or jars can become home to many of your most common “clutter culprits.”
2. Label the 13 tabs inside this mini-travel briefcase with the next action “Call, Data Entry, Discuss, Expense Reimburse, File, Meeting Notes/Agenda, Photocopy, Read, or Write”. Their will be extra tabs inside this mini-travel briefcase for you to insert your business cards, small brochures, thank you cards and other items you need to want to have on hand when you travel. You’ll be amazed at the amount of paper that you can get into this sleek travel briefcase.
3. How to use this mini-travel briefcase when outside your office. File meeting agendas under the file tab labeled “Meeting Notes/Agenda so when you get to the meeting it’s all together. If you collect business cards during your trip there are 2 things you can do with the business card: (1) enter it immediately into your PDA, or (2) file it into your mini travel briefcase under “Data Entry”. When you return to your hotel or your office any cards that you wanted to get into your database are all grouped together. You can enter them yourself or delegate the task to someone else.
4. Define the next action. No more putting it aside to deal with it later. This is what I call “deferred decisions”. Instead, ask yourself this very important question: “What is the next action I need to take on this piece of paper?
5. Schedule a specific time in your calendar to handle that next action. This is the key to getting things done. A pile or file labeled “To Do” is only an intention to do something, where as a scheduled appointment is a commitment to take action on something.
6. Use clear project folders to keep like papers together. Go to www.simplyproductive.com to view and order these timesaving and space saving project folders. Use these project folders to keep your agenda and meetings notes together in your mini-travel briefcase. You may be attending several meetings and these project folders are sure to keep your papers grouped together. Do not use paper clips, they tend to attach to other pieces of paper and get caught on other paper clips.
7. 80/20 Rule - 80 percent of what we file we never refer to again. Therefore, ask yourself, "What is the worst possible case scenario if you tossed this piece of paper away?”. If you can live with the results of your answer to this question, then toss the piece of paper.
8. What to file for future reference. If you decided to keep the information on a piece of paper, ask yourself: "If I want to retrieve this information again, what trigger word would you think of?” Write the trigger word on the upper right hand corner of that piece of paper and file it in your mini-travel briefcase under "File".
9. Transferring papers when you return. When you return to your office after the business trip or day of meetings, everything that you’ve gathered during your time away from the office is grouped together by the next action. Instead of a mountain of paper spilling out of your briefcase, you’ll be ahead of the paper chase game because you’ve already defined the next action. All there is for you to do is to schedule time in your calendar to handle the actions in your mini-travel briefcase. Some of the actions like Data Entry, File, and Expense Reimburse you can delegate to your assistant if you have one. That feeling of guilt and shame won’t be there because you’ve handled what you said you would do when you returned to your office.

Travel tips:

• Schedule time at the end of each day when you are traveling to file papers into your mini-travel briefcase
• Schedule time in your calendar when you return from your business trip to handle your action items in your mini-travel briefcase
• Use your mini-travel briefcase as a visual checklist for items you need to bring with you. For example insert items to read under the “Read” tab. Double check that you have enough business cards and brochures, thank you notes, letterhead, postage and return address labels, if you need them.
• Photocopy your passport and credit cards. Store document in a safe place.
• Tradeshows, Conventions, Meetings – write on the back of the business cards the date, location and next action. If you have an assistant, delegate the data entry of the business cards and have the next actions scheduled into your calendar or typed into your Task List.

Implementing the mini-travel briefcase will dramatically decrease your stress level and increase your productivity when you return to your office. You’ll turn piles of paper into valuable resources instead of deferred decisions and guilt. Instead of reacting to emergencies you’ll be proactive on your commitments and follow-up.

Contact Simply Productive to order your "Mini- travel Briefcase" with customized preprinted labels ($25 + shipping). Simply Productive will assist you in getting your paper management system set up quickly and easily. Before you know it, we can tame your papers and find anything in 5 seconds or less, guaranteed. It’s what we call the One Day Miracle. Contact Simply Productive for more information about how this works (604) 233-7076 or www.simplyproductive.com.


About the Author

Sherry Borsheim, owner of Simply Productive, has been helping people to work smarter, not harder for years. She specializes in resolving paper, time and information management issues. To learn more about eliminating the paper pile-up and in vastly improving your productively, contact Simply Productive at 604-233-7076.