Oraganizational Skills
This is probably my worst trait and my primary mission for 2008 is to break free of my bad habits. I just let paperwork pile up and when they get to be too much I stuff everything in boxes. There are probably 5 bins in the basement full of stuff that should be filed, shredded or trashed.
Right now in my home office, I am surrounded by stuff on the floor. It drives me crazy. We do have a filing cabinet for our important paperwork, but that has become a mess. Evertime I set out to empty those bins, I get sidetracked with other things. The problem is, with work and the kids, I only have a couple of hours a day for housework and cleanup. Add to this that I have been losing a lot of sleep with my late night treks to the little ones room to tend to her feeding tube and you have one tired and grumpy man. The last thing I want to do is open up a box and have to decide what needs to be shredded versus filed.
What am I to do about this? I am going to fix the problem in 2 steps.
1) Incoming mail is going to be sorted right away/end of day
a) Bills are placed in their appropriated slots and filled by due date
b) Junk mail is thrown out/recycled
c) Imported documents( Financial, medical, etc) will be placed in the filling cabinet
2) Old documents will be shredded/trashed
a) Set aside 30 minutes a night to sort piles
b) Once sorting is done, shred/trash docs
I figure that by the end of January, the mess should be cleared and I/we can move on to all those old clothes bins.
Filed under: Journal
As I’m sitting here reading this I relate and sympathize over the clutter. The thing is, I find myself in a similar situation. Though I shred some documents and file things away, there’s far too much coming in! More than I’ve managed to keep up with. Then I laugh because like you I’ve succumbed to throwing things in a box! Ahhh…..
But I will say this, what works for me is waking up early. Sometimes 5:30am - 6:00am. I usually write my To Do’s the night before… So I’m up fresh, I throw on a pot of coffee (or pick up cappuccino), and I get to de-cluttering and organizing my work space. That way I’m more productive! It’s easy to not be productive when there’s clutter all over the place. Isn’t it?
Anyway, nice to meet ya!
Hello Ricardo. I would love to do the 5:30am thing. That is actually a goal of mine, but my sleep starts after midnight, and there is at least one mandatory trip to my younger daughter’s room. That could be anywhere from 2-5am, to shut her feeding pump off and wash out the tube. That kills my waking up early.
I have been slowly trying to reduce clutter here, but it’s one of the goals I have that hasn’t been met. I do rise early, but that’s usually to exercise. I will find a way; I haven’t yet, but I will
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Ryan
http://uncommon-cents.net/