Handling your Paperwork

By Sheridan Tax & Bookkeeping

The secret is to handle it as little as possible. The less you have, the easier it is. Encourage your associates to use the phone or email instead of the postal service. And generate as little as possible yourself. Resist the urge to print email messages. Pay bills electronically. Make notes in a PDA. Here are five suggestions for dispensing with the paperwork that ends up in your in basket.

1. If someone else opens your mail for you, make sure they separate it into priority, routine and junk mail using different folders so you can handle it on a priority basis.
2. If you do it yourself, don’t prioritize. Simply allow a scheduled amount of time to dispense with it, and handle each piece of paper only once wherever possible.
3. Use the FAST method as you handle each item. File it. Act on it. (Either do it or delegate it), Schedule it for a later time. Toss it.
4. For the priority items you that you scheduled time for in your planner, place the paperwork in a corresponding follow-up file so you need not touch it until the appointed time.
5. Don’t be tempted by the pieces of paper that arrive between your scheduled mail time periods. Stick to your schedule, whether that is twice per day or once per week.



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