From the time we are born, right through to our death, paperwork is a prevalent part of our lives. We first feel its impact when we leave school and home. Why then, you may ask? That is the time that our parents happily hand over the reins and we start to take control of our lives.
Any interactions we have usually include paperwork (in either digital or manual form) and that first deluge comes thick and fast: Applications for college, university, jobs and housing; your driving licence; multiple insurances; mobile phone contracts; travel cards; and many more!
Some of these are important: You need them for ID purposes. You need to keep them safe and to make a note of when they are due for renewal.
So how do you manage all of that without becoming overwhelmed? How do you not lose them, so you can get hold of them when you need them?
For many years, the filing cabinet was king. From small box cabinets to desks with drawers to five-drawer monsters, they held our precious papers. But let’s face it – filing bits of paper is not the most exciting thing to do, and we only ever retrieve 20% of what we file!
So how can we build good paperwork habits that will stick?
- Firstly, realise that our papers reflect us and our lives, so it is important to spend some time finding our methodology.
- Decide your filing style. Do you like papers you can touch, or are you happy for them to be stored digitally? Don’t buy any filing products until you have done an initial sort and you have an idea of how much paperwork you have.
- Take some time to think about what paperwork you have and create some broad categories. I work on a ‘Basic 5’: Financial; things I own/where I live; social/friends/family; work/business; and personal documents/health.
- Sort your papers into your broad categories. L-shaped plastic folders and Post-it® products are great for an initial sort-through.
- Have fun investigating some filing solutions! There are lots of options – including things that double as furniture (great if you have limited space).
- For digital options, identify what cloud storage you already have: OneDrive, iCloud, Google Docs etc. One of my favourite emerging apps is FYIO (who I met at the Clean & Tidy Home Show in 2023). It is free of charge and has all the categories already sorted for you, as well as lots of other benefits such as file sharing. Whichever app you choose, make sure it is secure. You will be saving documents in a third-party environment, so you want to be confident they have your security as a priority.
If there are things you need to renew, put the dates in your diary/online calendar or app reminder (another tick for FYIO).
Why is this important?
Without some order to our papers, we risk:
- A hit on our budgets with late fees and missing optimum insurance renewal dates.
- Wasting time looking for lost papers.
- Breaches of security – especially with so many documents being transferred around digitally.
If our worst paperwork-related fears come to pass, the impact on our mental health includes feelings of overwhelm, stress and anxiety.
Facing piles of paper often brings about feelings of hopelessness and negative thoughts. It is difficult to get started and make decisions.
If you would like to find out how paperwork ready you are then try some of the quizzes at PlanwithJustinCase.co.uk and learn more about how to get started organising yourself to becoming Paperwork Happy!