TOUCH PAPERS JUST ONCE

How many of you feel like you simply move a pile of “stuff” from one corner of your desk to another several times a day?  How often do you waste time searching for that state education letter you know you received but can’t seem to put your hands on it when you need it?  Do you spend countless hours searching for that ONE email you suddenly realize you forgot to respond to (last week!)?  How about this one….how many of you spend vacation time in the office “doing filing” -  trying to get caught up and ridding your office of the piles of papers that collect each week?  Every day we are bombarded with messages, notes, research articles, student discipline referrals, emails, and many other forms of “paper”.   By paper, I mean physical paper or e-paper.

A great time management strategy and effective habit to develop is the act of touching these papers just once.  When you open an email to read it be certain to file it in an appropriate file after reading it, respond to it if needed, delete it or forward it on.  Seek to access and engage with it only once.  Do the same with the physical papers that cross your desk.  Establish a system (and involve your administrative assistant) that encourages minimizing the number of times you engage with or touch papers.

For example, have your assistant open your mail and pre-sort everything for you into four categories, folders or piles.  I used four different colored file folders.  The categories or folders are: Urgent (NOW/ASAP/Pending Deadline); Important (review today -  may need a response); FYI (for your review when you get a chance); and Junk Mail (solicitations, vendor mail, etc.).   Over time, my administrative assistant became adept at determining what I REALLY needed to attend to immediately and helped me prioritize.  She learned to recognize what could be thrown in the trash as soon as it arrived, saving me precious time and minimizing the piles of “stuff” that accumulated on my desk.

Another great strategy I’ve used is be certain everything has a place of its own. Every phone message from a parent receives a handwritten note from me indicating the date, time and general content of my return call.  That physical phone message went into the top right-hand drawer of my desk, every time.  Over the course of the year I collected every phone message from every parent that contacted me and it was filed in my drawer in chronological order as received.  That may sound like a lot of paper collected but, when needed, I could refer back to those messages and notes for important information.   You can do the same by filing your messages electronically if desired.  The important thing is to respond in a timely manner, record pertinent information and file the message.  Address it and be done with it.  Strive to touch it only once.  Don’t leave it in a pile on your desk or on your office floor only to have to sort through it at a later date.

I learned to apply this same strategy at home.  When I picked up the mail from the mail box each day, I immediately looked at everything received and determined what, if anything, could go directly into the trash.  I then determined where everything else would go.  Those items I wanted to read at my leisure (magazines, periodicals, etc.) went in on the livingroom coffee table.  Items with a pending deadline such as a monthly bill went on my home office desk in an “Urgent” file.   We stopped accumulating mail on the counter or table and rarely missed a deadline again (Yup!  We're still works in progress and not perfect).

The goal of touching a paper only once is to gain precious time in your day and to help you organize and de-clutter your work and home space.  Give it a try today.

My motto:  "It's your own fault if something wastes your time...twice."