'how to live with paperwork'
home office help
from everyones favourite home office nazi, cvm

i dont know where you live, or if you are talking about a large amount of historical miscellaneous paper or just the day to day chore, or both. either way, below contains my usual advice for my usual client. its long, but can be printed out and referred to as you go along.

dont compromise here, follow the whole plan.
the home office nazi has spoken.

people sometimes think that if they simply pay a few dollars to some genius woman they can have their paperworkpile just go away. that they will just wave a magic wand or something.
well theres only one way to do that, its called a match and gasoline combo. but setting it on fire, as tempting as it is, wont bring you the peace of mind you need in order to fully devote your attentions towards your art.

the truth is no one can help you gain control over your paperworkload without your help. you can make time for this, and it is worth it. no one knows your poop like you do. you must sort the garbage from the relevant material. you must decide what is important to you and what your usual needs are when accessing said materials in the future. no one can know this better than you. everyone is different.

but perhaps you are just a man, and quite naturally need some help.
if you must know, most women are no better at taming the paper tiger either.
so this is where i, or some such individual comes in.

the poopinagroup procedure

often when i begin a home office reno, i start by booking a day (or two, depending on the behemoth) to sit with the victim in their natural habitat.

-first we drag all of it (the paperwork of a lifetime) into one room, from every spot in the house, where anything made of paper might be hiding, to a large room with a clear floor. boxes of miscellaneous papers, handfuls of dog knows what. all of it, no exceptions, and in no particular order.

-then we make ourselves a cuppa and play 'get to know me' while i force you to identify these heaps of paper. things then get sorted into four distinct groups;
-garbage,
-to be done,
-to be filed.
as well as a little pile called 'frick, i better not lose that, i need it this week'.

-have a note pad beside you in order to create a to do list, two columns;
to do eventually,
to do immediately.
this will stop you from being overwhelmed as you are reminded by all that paper that you have been slack about doing at least a thousand things. this will also stop you from halting the sorting process to go follow up on something in case you forget. you wont forget, you just wrote it down.

-rule number one, do not file garbage.
this limits the size and unmanageability of your load. be realistic about the likely hood of your ever getting around to applying for that rolling stones credit card, or having the energy to review the schedules for a revue movie theatre that you dont have the energy to go to. lose the birthday and xmas cards that simply have a signature under the hallmark greeting. be cruel, be free. garbage is easily identified .will you need it in a months time? will it expire? is it wishful thinking? this includes envelopes that come with bills, or special offers, catalogs and rot of that nature. throw it out right that instant. keep a large garbage bag near by. most of your paperpile it will fall into this category.

-rule number two, containment. segregation is the key to sane living. dont mix items. dont colour outside the lines. ask yourself, does everything in this file share something in common? or do they only relate in a kevin bacon six degrees of separation kind of way?
when we go looking for something its either a bill, a letter, or an information document pertaining to a particular project or service. this also goes for what you keep these things in, dont allow one pile to flow into another. keep papers in baskets so that they dont escape down the back of the fridge.

youd be surprised, but the mountain you have been putting off for a lifetime can be tamed in just a couple of days. with someone nasty willing to stand over you until you have at least identified the crap into the four groups, and then throw out the garbage, you can find peace of mind. people simply wont do this by themselves, and yet they are the only ones who can accurately transfer this information. you can even just get a trusted old friend who owes you a favour to sit with you, it can be entertaining, really. but make them promise not to let you stop until everything has fallen into one of the four piles. and remember to start by collecting every scrap of paper from all corners of your home. all of it.

regarding location. sounds to me like you dont need an off site place, just an off limits place in your home. most people find that they spend an equal amount of time preparing stuff for the off-site bookkeeper, forgetting documents as they go along, than they would if they just set it up right at home in the first place. so start it yourself and then you can have someone come in once a month to maintain it.

-this can be simply achieved with the purchase of one multipurpose filing unit, come to think of it, you can probably just build one. make it large enough to hold one or two large drawers of hanging files, and a couple of shelves with a door that closes on them. this is a worthwhile investment and will serve as the holding place for all things financial or so important that you would be screwed without them.
put this unit somewhere away from food, children and creative endeavors (not including related income/expenses, all of these, and any accounting should end up in this unit).
put it near by your computer.
do not put it in your bedroom.
if you segregate all of your paper into this new system, it wont be hanging out in every corner of the house causing you unnecessary stress and anxiety at times when you should be doing something else.

purchase or make 5 legal sized baskets.
-put three baskets on the shelves above the filing cabinet drawer.
-one basket on your bedroom dresser,
-and one in the kitchen by the door.

most people start with the best of intentions and then consequentially set themselves up for failure. they do this by not starting out with a firm dose of reality instead. the truth is, we arent going to put that piece of paper neatly back in its file right away, not a chance actually. we are more likely to simply add it to any pile we see laying about, or tack it to a message board, covering up the last thing we didnt get around to. hence the baskets.
the three in the filing cabinet are for this purpose. they will be the mid-stage before actually filing into there own little hanging homes.
-one for bills to be paid, or things to be done, this is your pending area.
-one for things to be filed when you get around to it. these are things you dont need to act upon, but cant throw out in case it comes up later, and it will.
-one for receipts. thats all those little gems we wish we had kept when it comes time to do our taxes.

this way even if you dont file those baskets for another couple of weeks (or months), you know enough that if you saw the document recently, but didnt need to do anything with it, its probably in the to-be-filed basket. you can then file that basket whenever you actually feel in the mood to, without having to sort through the whole house to find the thing in the meantime. the receipt basket means you can shove every little slip in there, but only have the receipt basket to go through when you need to return those running shoes that you realized would be better worn by someone who might actually run eventually.

you can create optional category if you are especially prone to rat packing called reference material. this will house items that you might want to investigate one day, but are in no dire need to have access to. make this a large box, big enough to hold books and magazines. you can have a couple of these if your have multiple interests that constantly garner bits and pieces. put them beside the filing unit.

but how will all of this stuff make its way into the filing unit? well, there are two other baskets out there, lets go see what they are up to.

-the basket in the kitchen is for incoming wounded. when any scrap of paper that might one day be filed comes through the front door, put it in this basket. again, one place to look if it was a recent arrival or has yet to be opened.

-the other basket goes on your bedroom dresser, where you are most likely to disrobe. pockets empty and little pieces of paper come crawling out with nowhere appropriate to go in the old boudoir. give them a home, this basket should not contain lipbalm and guitar picks, just paper.

these two baskets can regularly be brought to the filing cabinet and sorted into one of the other three baskets. and you also have the option of taking a basket with you to your perch in front of the tv in order to go through it and remove the garbage first. this will give you peace. believe me. the important thing to do is make sure that any and all paper bits in the house make it into a basket, any basket.

this means that if someone were to attempt cleaning the house, they could simply plop any bits of paper they find into the nearest basket, without fear of you coming along later screaming "where the hell is my extremely important blah blah... i left it right here under yesterdays newspaper on top of last months wired magazine!'. our friends, spouses and children would like to help us keep things organized, but fear that they will mess up your so-called organization system, and so do nothing at all. so give them an idiot-proof option.

the poop
all of this might strike you as 'no easy answer' or 'no longterm freedom' from the crushing paperpile that haunts you. but you would be surprised how easy and freeing it can actually be. invest in yourself. just a couple of days to get started, then a little bit of retraining in order to facilitate the change. you will find that you become more productive, and will actually get around to a myriad of things that have been niggling you for a lifetime. life is long, dont put off getting organized and taking control of your life. it aint goin nowhere. at least not without your help.
its funny, but people who are capable of quite complicated equations when it comes to regular math or musical scores, can become paralyzed with fear when faced with the simple pluses and minuses of filling out a gst return. its all psychological, hence the need to contain it all so that you only think about it when you are in the mood. and when you do go looking for something in the meantime, you can usually find it quickly in one of three places. dont try to deal with it all every day, and dont expect to get around to things you know that you wont ever get around to.

so try it. take the time. its not really all that much, it just has to be concentrated and complete. one week will do it if you are prepared for it and supported.

and if you are in the hood, and want a trained professional to kick your butt, just drop me a line.

cvm

CVM