Home Paperwork Filing Tips (part 2 of 2)
By Steve Thayer
Tip #3 – The Making of New Habits
We usually hear that bad habits are hard to break. A more accurate statement is that good habits are hard to make. Since our focus is on helping folks with their home paperwork filing, I am going to use that as an example.
In Tip#1, I talked about starting your new filing habits by looking at that day’s mail and taking it one day at a time. In Tip #2, we looked at the “one-touch myth” of sorting and dealing with the mail that comes in. Now, take a look at what you are currently doing and see if you can integrate one or both of the prior tips.
If you repeat the same small steps and feel good when you do them, you are more likely to do them again. Reward yourself when you accomplish the small steps. Do something you want to do.
You may be saying, “let’s move on to new tips,” but in my experience working with people, we need reminders of what we have covered to build new habits.
Tip #4 – A to Z or 1 to 31?
A couple of years ago my father-in-law passed away. It was our job to find important documents and organize what he had left for his wife. My father-in-law was an organized person. No doubt of that.
What we quickly discovered, though, was that he had several different systems for filing documents. One was alphabetical, one was chronological, another was topical and another was just a stack of random papers.
Our Home Filing Solutions are set up alphabetically within categories. Is that the best approach? We think it works best for most people, but the key is to use one approach. That way it is easier for you to file paperwork, but also makes finding documents less arduous for you and others who may need to find them.
Steve Thayer is a California State Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist, a Certified Financial Planner, and co-owner of MyVitalFiles, a home filing solutions company. He has written articles for various publications for 30 years. His goal is to help make life less tedious and more fulfilling for people by developing paperwork filing solutions.
