The Theme for May is: Piles of Mail and Paperwork

The Project: Catch Up on Paperwork

Goal: Address any mail (or email) that has built up and develop a system for dealing with it in the future. 

What is the point of this: For some people, unopened mail or large paperwork tasks can pile up and begin to feel daunting. We are going to level set and move forward in a way that this feels more approachable. 

Notes:I will be talking mostly about how to manage physical mail, but a similar approach can be applied to email as well

Time to Set Aside: 2 separate half hour blocks, for phase 1 & phase 2. You might find you need to repeat either phase a few times and/ or repeat the process at a regular intervals to truly get to inbox zero

This Month’s playlist: A “Pure Moods” inspired list of 90’s New Age music to keep you motivated during the more boring parts of this task. Walk away when the list is over, then schedule some time to come back to it!

Begin:

Phase 1: Sort the paperwork. Set your timer for a half hour

  1. Go around your living space and gather any outstanding paperwork or mail you are avoiding. We are talking: junk mail, snail mail, bills, parking tickets, random pieces of paperwork from things like doctors appointments, car maintenance, etc. [If you handle a lot of this electronically, you can take it easy this month, or spend some time organizing your digital information]

  2. Get 3 containers to sort the pile. This is to keep everything in one place NOT to ultimately be how you organize the contents. A used shopping bag (as long as you won't accidentally throw it away) or shoebox are perfect.

  3. WITHOUT OPENING ANYTHING or thinking to deeply, quickly sort the papers and envelopes into the following piles

    • Trash

    • Important

    • Money Related

  4. Throw out the trash pile :)

  5. Self care- as the half hour winds down and your pile is now piles, plural, check to see what, if anything, was triggering for you. If anything made you feel angry, avoidant or upset try to be easy with yourself and find safe ways to experience those feelings. Maybe running, shaking or dancing to music could help. Get it out!

  6. Decide if you will jump into phase 2 or do it later

Phase 2: Scheduling time to address to-dos and organize the piles. Again, try to approach this as a routine task. Note that we are not actually addressing or doing the paperwork at this time. Just assessing what needs more time, and scheduling it (and holding ourselves accountable to complete those tasks when they come along). Set your timer for a half hour. Decide how you want to proceed when the half hour is up and there is still work to do. Either take a break and dive in for another half hour, or schedule another half hour in the near future. 

  1. Decide how you will schedule the work associated with the stack in front of you (for example, if you have parking tickets, you will be scheduling the time when you will actually pay them). Scheduling this directly on a calendar will probably be the most efficient, however if you have big stacks and feel overwhelmed it might be helpful to make a pen and paper list of all of your tasks, so that you can have a better understanding of how much work you have to do, and schedule that accordingly. (for example if you have parking tickets and utility bills, you could schedule a time to pay those all at once versus having random times for each).

  2. Go through each pile (important and money related) and open each item and quickly assess if there is an associated action item (pay the bill, call customer service) and how much time that task would take. Write that down or immediately schedule it. 

  3. As you do this, you might find that some items can be thrown out- do that!

  4. Once you know how many tasks are on your to-do list, organize them by type (for example, items that need a phone call to customer service, items that are paying something on line, items that simply need to be filed)

  5. Schedule that to-do work in a way that is approachable for you. It might be a 3 hour block of admin time for yourself to get everything done at once, or it could be a few half hour blocks to chip away at this. Do what feels manageable for you!

  6. Decide how you want to keep this paperwork organized until you get to it. The bags or shoeboxes you used in phase 1 might still work, or you might decide you want to get folders or a binder to keep items straight. 

  7. Commit to keeping all of your “money-related” paperwork together and start to notice how much time paying bills and budgeting actually takes, so that you can schedule this at a time that works best for you. More on this next month!

Quick Tasks:

  • Set a receptacle near where you bring in mail to immediately dispose of junk/ unimportant mail

  • Create a way to organize mail as it enters your home. There are products made for this (lots of cute mail sorters at the thrift!) but it could be as simple as a basket by the door for important/ money related items

  • Set time into your schedule to regularly attend to paperwork. A goal could be to set aside bills and open them once a month at the time you have set aside to pay them, Try to combine tasks

  • Make sure you work with housemates to find a strategy that works for all, and that the plan is clear. You don’t want someone accidentally putting the junk mail with the bill or vice versa.

  • If you get mail for former residents, put the name of current residents on the mail box to keep things to a minimum

  • For some people, it might make sense to make as much of this as possible paperless, however (!) ebills can actually be very difficult for some people to manage. If this is you, and having a paper bill helps keep you accountable, don’t sweat it! Just have a plan!

Tips and Tricks:

  • Start a new habit! What can you do that will make this chore something more enjoyable? Can you set aside some time with a cup of coffee and music? Would doing it set up at a desk feel more professional? Could you set up a recurring date with a friend where you both take care of business?