Hello Brains!
I promised you guys "Overwhelm Part 2: Paper Clutter" this week,
and as much as I would really like to avoid doing it, here you go:
I'm tackling my paper monster.
I actually already have a system in place for dealing with paper clutter.
But... turns out, it's not enough to have a good system.
You actually have to use it.
Youtube: Play.
Brains! Help!
There's a monster in the room!
A paper monster!
paper reminders: good
paper clutter: bad
Paper clutter can turn into paper monsters.
How do you know you have a paper monster on your hands?
You see a giant pile of paper, and you run.
You see a giant pile of paper, and you run. Do we have to do this today?
Separate the paper monster into three or four smaller piles based on how they can be defeated.
Each pile should represent how to attack that particular paper monster to take it down for good.
Alright: piles!
Part of the problem with dealing with paper clutter overwhelm
is you often don't know what something is just by looking at it...
or what it is you're supposed to do with it.
Ooh, residual stress department. See, this could be money.
A recent review of our records indicate that we are holding residual payments for Jessica McCabe.
We require the following documentation to authenticate identi- okay
I don't know what I need to do with this yet.
All I need to know is that there's something that needs to be done,
so this goes into the "action" pile.
That's the action pile.
Envelopes can be recycled. Even the little plastic parts: recycled.
Recycling wasn't in my original paper clutter video.
Past Jessica! You didn't know about recycling!?
This looks big and scary and important, which is probably why I never opened it.
Here we go:
This is... huh... I owe money.
Shoot.
Something has to be done about this: action pile.
Important information enclosed: do not discard. Okay. We'll see.
That actually is important. This needs to get filed.
This goes in the "file" pile.
As you go through this process, you'll notice that you're not always sure what you need to keep.
That's where this comes in: a list of things to keep.
Coupons: actually not the best idea for most of us with ADHD,
because, chances are, we're going to go buy something we didn't know we needed.
Recycling.
So this has an account number on it.
Anything that has your social security number, or other personal information, like account numbers
needs to be shredded.
I don't have a shredder.
What do I do?
I... gotta clean that up now.
Shredded documents are generally too small to go in the recycling
because the fibers aren't long enough - it's a whole thing - so shredded documents just go in the trash.
And we're going to call that the "trash" pile.
Special offers: recycling.
Getting kind of stressed, you guys.
This, I'm not sure if I want to keep yet or not.
I think that it's fine; I think that it's trash, but just in case, this is for the "slow paper bin".
We're going to be here a while.
You know what we need?
Some music.
Am I done?
I'm done!
Now what do I do with these piles?
Meet your weapons:
File folders and a label maker
File folders.
And a label maker.
Slow paper bin.
Trash can.
And: recycling bin.
This is where it gets good.
The trash pile goes in the trash,
the recycling goes in the recycling bin,
the slow paper pile goes in the slow paper bin,
and you already knocked out half the monsters!
So, I'm down to two piles.
One is "file", and the other is "action".
The action's a little more complicated. We're gonna... we're gonna just push that over there for a second.
File: this is all we have to do
So what I have here is some nice durable folders, and these for the sub-folders that go inside the folder.
Ooh, see that?
Brilliant.
I had a color coding system. Let's not reinvent the wheel. What was it?
Let's see.
Red for school stuff, blue for house stuff, green for money...
So most of my stuff is mail that I clearly did not open for a very long time,
so most of my stuff that I'm filing is financial.
I'm going to call this my financial bin, and we're going to get started.
Okay, so I read that a great way to do finances is by month rather than by thing.
So I could do all: this credit card, that credit card, this bank statement, this other bank...
but, the better way to do it is actually go to by month.
We're going to actually make sure that we have twelve of these folders.
The system breaks down already.
Yellow and green. Close enough.
This is where the label maker comes in. You want to label everything.
So that you know where to find it again.
This does not have to be perfect.
I started by labeling twelve green (and yellow) folders: one for each month of the year.
Then, inside each of those, I labeled four sub-folders.
Bills due on the first through the fifteenth,
Bills due on the sixteenth through the thirty-first,
statements,
and receipts.
That way, as soon as I get my mail, I have a place to put it.
Bonus: I only have to worry about paying bills on the first and the sixteenth!
I'm almost done, you guys.
After filing all my bills and financial papers, I still had some things left I needed to keep.
So I created a second filing box with red folders for "show stuff" and blue folders for "home stuff".
I didn't sort it by month - just alphabetically.
Okay: filing's done.
All we have left is the action pile.
What do we do with the action pile?
Only actions will take this one down,
and a lot of times, it's going to take more than one attack.
Take a marker: write on each page what you need to do next.
Not what you eventually need to do with it:
Not what you eventually need to do with it: pay bill,
but what you need to do with it first:
but what you need to do with it first: order checks.
Okay! This is a bill I need to pay.
Call this number.
Did you guys know you could write on this stuff? It's not sacred.
Email info to me.
Order checks.
Read me.
And I think we're done!
All I have to do now is go and throw things where they need to be.
Where am I most likely to read something? Probably on my couch.
So I'm going to put this by my couch.
When am I most likely to call these numbers to pay bills? Probably when I'm paying bills.
So I'm going to go ahead and stick those in the "bills" folder.
This one requires going to a web site, which I will most likely do if I am sitting at my desk.
So this will go on my desk.
This is a bill I need to pay.
Another bill to pay.
another bill,
another bill...
I'm going to be broke tomorrow.
but...
Checks!
This is why it's important to go through your paper monster.
Not only will you save on late fees from actually paying your bills on time,
you might actually find checks in the mail you didn't know were coming.
(relieved sigh)
I'm done, you guys!
I actually tackled my paper monster.
That is it for this week. Let me know how it goes for you with your paper monster.
Comment below, hit me up on Facebook or Twitter, and I will see you next week!
Bye Brains!
Special, special thanks to my Patreon Brains.
You make every monster seem more defeatable.