There is an incredible way to declutter paper.
You get 3 trays and put them on your desk. You label them. The top tray is labeled simply "In Basket" the middle tray is labeled "Pending Basket" and the bottom tray is labeled "Out Basket."
As the mail and other paper comes in they are placed in the top basket the "In Basket." When the time comes for you to deal with the paper and mail you take a piece from the top basket. Now you do one of four things with this piece of paper. You can
Deal with it
Delay it
Delegate it
Or dump it
By the way this is easy to remember because it is called the 4 "Ds."
If you deal with it you put it in the bottom basket the "Out Basket." The out basket is like a distribution basket. This is where you put any out going mail or things that are done but need to be filed away.
The next D is you can delay it. This is stuff that's going to take more time then you have right now so you do what you can with it and you put it in the 2nd basket the "Pending Basket." However before you put it in the pending basket you take a sticky note and you write down what the next step is for the paper. Yes all the paper in the pending basket should have little sticky notes on them stating what the next step is.
The third D is delegate it which is pretty obvious. If you have people working for you, you give it to the proper person. You could put a sticky not on it too with instructions if you think it needs it.
The forth D is dump it in the garbage.
When you are through with the 4 Ds the top basket is now empty, there is paper in the pending basket and the out basket has outgoing mail which you take out to the mail box. And then you start working on the pending until they all get done.
If your office gets a lot of mail or gets a lot of complex paperwork that you have to deal with you can actually use several baskets for your pending system, one may be "Urgent Pending" one may be "Relaxed Pending" or different categories depending on the particular needs of your office. But it's easy because the top will still be "In" and the bottom will still be "Out" with everything in between all "Pending" baskets.
You should never have half done paperwork in a drawer. Partially done paperwork should be in the pending basket with a sticky note on it. You can have the current page that you are actively working on, on your desk top.
That's how you declutter paper. Now let's have some fun and declutter a lot of paper, in fact let's do all the paper in the room. Grab up all the paper on your desk and around the room and put it all in the top basket. Now just do the 4 Ds and you're home free.
Isn't that a fantastic way to declutter paper?
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