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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Fachliteratur
- Sprache: Englisch
Have you ever wondered what your life would be like if you had a reliable, fail-safe paper system in place?
Organise Your Paperwork is your easy guide to handling your paperwork, from bills and receipts to invitations and letters.
Sit back and let the paper flow in, through and out of your life forever!
MaryAnne Bennie is an organising expert, speaker and director of in8 home office and life organising. Brigitte Hinneberg is an author, presenter and business coach.
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Seitenzahl: 97
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013
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Organise Your Paperwork: From paper Mess to Paperless
Table of Contents
First published in 2013 by Wrightbooks an imprint of John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd 42 McDougall St, Milton Qld 4064
Office also in Melbourne
Typeset in ITC Berkeley Oldstyle Std Book 11/13.5 pt
Organise Your Paperwork © MaryAnne Bennie and Brigitte Hinneberg 2013
Excerpts taken from Paper Flow, first published in 2011 by Wrightbooks, an imprint of John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd
The moral rights of the authors have been asserted
National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication data:
Author: Bennie, MaryAnne.
Title: Organise your paperwork: from paper mess to paperless / MaryAnne Bennie and Brigitte Hinneberg.
ISBN: 9781118626542 (pbk.)
Subjects: Paperwork (Office practice) — Management. Filing systems. Time management. Life skills.
Other Authors/ Contributors: Hinneberg, Brigitte, 1970-
Dewey Number: 651.5
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the Australian Copyright Act 1968 (for example, a fair dealing for the purposes of study, research, criticism or review), no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, communicated or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission. All inquiries should be made to the publisher at the address above.
Cover design by Susan Olinsky
Cover image: © iStockphoto.com / milalala
Internal design by Peter Reardon, www.pipelinedesign.com.au
Printed in China by Printplus Limited
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Disclaimer
The material in this publication is of the nature of general comment only, and does not represent professional advice. It is not intended to provide specific guidance for particular circumstances and it should not be relied on as the basis for any decision to take action or not take action on any matter which it covers. Readers should obtain professional advice where appropriate, before making any such decision. To the maximum extent permitted by law, the authors and publisher disclaim all responsibility and liability to any person, arising directly or indirectly from any person taking or not taking action based on the information in this publication.
About the authors
MaryAnne Bennie is an organising expert, speaker and director of in8 home office and life organising. As a busy working woman, with a husband, three adult children and four grandchildren, MaryAnne understands the struggle of the juggle of home, office and life. In 2002 she created the Paper Flowsystem and has since introduced thousands of people to the system through numerous workshops and private consultations. She is a former university lecturer and holds a Bachelor of Education and a Master of Business. In order for this book to come alive, MaryAnne joined forces with author Brigitte Hinneberg and this book is the result of their combined strengths.
Brigitte Hinneberg is an author, presenter and business coach with a passion for helping busy people achieve work-life balance by encouraging order. Brigitte’s first book, Did You Remember The Milk?, is the essential home organiser for very busy people. Brigitte is a certified lifestyle coach with a degree in Economics and Commerce. After a successful 12 year marketing career, Brigitte founded Momentum Coaching and Consulting, a coaching practice helping executives and private individuals save time, money and stress. Brigitte lives in Brisbane, Australia with her husband and three children who provide plenty of inspiration for her books and organisational resources.
Introduction
Go with the flow
Marcus Aurelius
Paper flows through our lives. It maps our journeys, showing where and when we were born, our progress through school, where we travel and where we choose to call home. Paper celebrates our life achievements through school reports, diplomas, degrees and work contracts. We accumulate permission documents such as licences, accreditations and endorsements. Marriage and birth certificates are evidence that we loved and we left living legacies. Invoices, account summaries and receipts show what we exchanged our hard-earned money for, be it electricity, lounge suites, houses or holidays.
We begin life with a single piece of paper — the birth certificate is the wellspring — and we gather more and more simply by living. At times the paper flows like a torrent, and just like any river, it is a great servant but a poor master. When the river bank breaks and paper floods our lives, all we can do is try to keep our heads above it all and hope that we don’t get snagged by a lost tax receipt, misplaced warranty or unpaid insurance reminder. This can put enormous stress on relationships, as well as create serious consequences downstream.
Every person is unique, in their lifestyle, personal history, needs and goals for the future. In this book, we use the Paper Flow strategy to demonstrate how to create a simple, personalised system for managing the paper that flows into your home and office. We will show you how to make sure your paper buoys, rather than drowns you.
You can start to save yourself from the paper deluge by acknowledging some truths about paper:
1Paper needs to earn the right to take up your space.
Paper will fill the space made available for it. We have an infinite capacity to bring paper into our lives, but we have a finite space in which to store it. Consider your storage space when deciding what to keep. Everything in your home and office is competing for precious space, so make sure your paperwork is earning its right to be there.
2Look after the 20 per cent.
Most paper is unnecessary. Only 20 per cent of the paper we keep is ever actually referred to again. A whopping 80 per cent of it is never going to be looked at again, ever! Look after the 20 per cent you need and release the rest.
3It’s always urgent when you can’t find it.
When paper is needed, it’s needed now! You never know when you’re going to need that important document, but when you do, it’s almost always in a hurry. These unexpected deadlines send you into a spin as you madly search through your paper jungle. The person who can quickly and easily find that document when they need it, wins.
4Paper likes to be with its friends.
Your paper wants to be with paper just like it. It wants to be with similar types of information and with similar shapes and sizes. When the important documents are mixed in with the ‘sentimental’, and the ‘sentimental’ is mingling too closely with the ‘nice to read but not really necessary to keep’, you get paper friction. When large receipts are mixed together with small dockets, neither is happy with the other’s storage solution because of their different shapes and sizes. When paper is disorganised, you feel disorganised too. It’s contagious.
5Your paper will tell you how it wants to be stored.
It really is that simple. Many people get sidetracked by frustrating questions, such as: Does my home insurance information get a file of its own, or should I file it under ‘House’? Do management reports go under ‘Company Reports’ or by subject file? The possibilities seem endless. You just need to listen to your paper, it will tell you what it needs.
6Storage is a tool, not a solution.
Storage is not the answer to disorganised paperwork. Storage containers, files, and stationery are merely tools, and a tool without a system is just clutter. People buy all sorts of tools to contain their mess, only to have it add further chaos as they shift the piles into suspension files, then folders, then boxes and back to suspension files. It’s like the outfit you bought in a hurry that doesn’t quite fit; no matter how hard you try, it’s not going to look or feel good. Paper Flowcreates the right system which then determines your storage needs, not the other way around.
7Paper will evolve.
Your paperwork system will change and evolve, just like you. A good system will adapt, expand and contract as your needs and lifestyle change. A good paperwork system preserves your past, documents your present and anticipates your future.
8Paper needs to flow.
As it flows in, through and out of your home and office it needs a home at each stage of its journey. When paper doesn’t flow, we experience ‘office constipation’. When paper is allowed to flow and is in the right place at the right time you relax and feel supported. You are able to concentrate on the ‘here and now’, knowing that your paperwork is sorted, organised and filed.
These eight truths form the basis of the Paper Flowphilosophy. Paper Flowis a fail-safe, tried and tested approach to paper management that will support you in the real world, through all the ebbs and flows of life.
How to use this book
This book provides step-by-step instructions on how to move paper in, through and out of your home and office. It will take about a week to get it up and running, and then it will take you around ten minutes a day to keep your day-to-day paperwork in check.
Keep a notebook handy as you work through the book so you can jot down any ‘to dos’, key decisions and any items you need to buy.
Case studies in each chapter offer you real life examples of Paper Flowproblems and solutions as experienced by a wide variety of people in different situations.
Tips for success highlight for you some of the key ideas and concepts that will give you the real Paper Flowedge.
Decide now prompters will ask you to pause for a moment and make a decision. If you’re not sure, rather than skipping ahead, just trust your judgement at that point in time and make a choice so you can move on to the next step of the Paper Flow system. Once your system is up and running you can always go back and make adjustments.
