Do you have a huge challenge coping with the incoming paperwork? (Whatever happened to the paperless office?) Paperwork lands on your desk and somehow finds its way into your in-tray. Eventually the in-tray becomes so high it explodes and ends up all over your desktop.

That's because you avoided taking action on those messy pieces of paper the moment they arrived. Now you have no option but to sort through the explosion and tidy up the pile or actually do something with the paperwork.

How can a pile (or piles) of paper cause you so much stress? If only you could organize it so that it would disappear! Looking at it is enough to raise anyone's blood pressure. Also it could be costing you money!  How?

Well let me tell you about Gary.  He had a computer business, employing 3 staff and no administrative support prior joining my coaching program.  Because he was so disorganised, he would procrastinate on sending his invoices out because the paperwork was so overwhelming.  And when he eventually did he would often miss charging for parts because he couldn't easily find the supplier's invoice. So two things occured...he lost money and often his cash-flow would dry up because he was too slow with his invoicing.  He had not established effective systems. There were simple ways to rectify this and very quickly I had Gary turn this situation around.

Here's one way that can help you tame the mess on your desk:

 
1.    Purchase a large vertical wire step file (available from stationers)

2.    Sort through your in-tray/s or piles and organize the paperwork into similar 
       categories, i.e.

       ·        Correspondence
       ·        Reading
       ·        Clients
       ·        Invoices
       ·        Staff

3.    Label manila folders with the above categories.

4.    Read, sort and action or file 'snail' mail and email daily.
       This will avoid a big build up.

Now you'll have all your work to do sitting in manageable files. It's much more effective than shuffling piles of paper.