Paperwork

Do you struggle with paperwork?

Paperwork is my hardest category – having lived in several countries, moved bank accounts, bought a house, started a business, there’s A LOT of paperwork I need to stay on top of. But this category, done right, doesn’t have to be hard. Marie Kondo advocates dividing paperwork into 1) pending action, 2) save because you have to and 3) save because you want to. Here’s a bit more about each of these subcategories. PENDING ACTION

These include bills to pay, letters to respond to. By having action items together, they don’t get lost. Put them vertical (NOT in a pile) and somewhere you can see them so that you can deal with them quickly and easily. As soon as you’ve paid the bill or answered the letter – can you let it go? Ask yourself if you need to keep it. Maire Kondo advocates letting go of all paperwork as default. Afterall, do you really need to keep a bill if it has been paid (your account is proof of payment, the bill was the instruction to YOU, after all). SAVE BECAUSE YOU HAVE TO

These include insurance policies, contracts, warranties. I do like to subcategorise into different folders, like home, health and employment. In this digital age, a lot of documents are online, so the number of documents that we HAVE to keep is getting less by the day. You can, of course, scan your document and dispose of the physical paper directly BUT you also don’t want to end up with a mess of unorganised, scanned documents. Before you do discard, check what you might be required to keep locally. Some countries require 5 years of electricity bills, for example. SAVE BECAUSE YOU WANT TO

Be careful not to keep things ‘just because’, but keep things that really #sparkjoy. Think conference notes or favourite lessons. Think about where you want to keep these. They might actually be better in a nice binder with your books, rather than filed away with administrative documents.

This is harder category to LOVE but, by substituting folders with ones you like or with labelling that is clear, you may be surprised that you can master - and maybe even love - this category.