Organizing the Backlog

Before you get started with creating your filing system, you need to sort through the papers that you already have. Gather all the papers, files, receipts, and anything else that needs filing and put them in a big stack. If you already have some files organized into folders, just dump the folders onto the stack and you can go through them with the rest of the papers.

Now comes the hard part, you need to go through that large stack of papers piece by piece. This process could take a long time depending on much paper you have. Feel free to take short breaks, but you do need to focus on sorting these papers and you don’t need to get distracted. If you leave your stack half done, I can guarantee that it will still be sitting there in a week left undone. It’s going to be difficult, but you can do it. They are just pieces of paper after all.

For each piece of paper there are two things that you need to decide. First thing you need to decide is whether you need keep that piece of paper or does it need to be trashed. I always had a hard time trashing any paper, much less something that seems important. There three questions that you need to ask yourself, the first two are: 1. Do I need this paper to prove something in the future? 2. Could I get a copy somewhere else if I need it? If the answer to either of these two questions is “yes”, then trash it. If you are still holding on to that piece of paper, then ask yourself: 3. What’s the worst that could happen if I trashed it? The third question should put that paper into perspective.

If you are still holding on to that piece of paper then you need to find where to put it. Start making small piles of papers that are related. Put all of your “car” papers in a pile, and you “tax” papers into another. You should be able to naturally place papers into different broad piles. Once you are done with your pile you can start to create your system.

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