Organizing Mail In 3 Easy Steps

In this article I'm going to give you the fast track approach to organizing mail as it comes it. This will solve the issue of mail piling up on the kitchen/living room table causing an unsightly paper mess. Not only that, if you make a small discipline of carrying out these tips you'll find yourself handling papers less with more time for the important stuff. Two Principals of this technique should be understood;

Principal one: Managing Paper while in hand is most efficient.

Principal two: A place for every type of paper

With those two principals organizing mail and any other paper becomes a breeze when using the FAST (File, Act, Shred, Toss) method. Here's what you do right after you pick up the mail from the box; implementing the FAST method.

1. Toss the Useless Junk Mail Instead of putting bringing in the mail and tossing it on the table (which wastes time, because you'll need to come back to it later) you sift out the junk mail while in hand. 50% or more is usually considered junk anyway. Have a waste paper basket right beside the door, so you're prompted to let the junk mail just drop into the basket upon entering the house/apartment. Hey, and when the basket is full it can be brought to recycling. Yay, hug a tree.

2. Bill box the bills Yikes, one thing that irritates me just a smidge more than telemarketers are highly enthusiastic tele-marketers that just don't take no for an answer. Even higher on the irritation scale are the obnoxious representatives from collections department or agencies reminding you you're late on your payment.

"oh hi, wow I'm outstanding that much? Ok, sure I'll get my credit card" don't' worry, I've been there more than once. So that happened? You got bill but it got lost in the mess.

So, a good way to prevent "friendly reminders" is to simply remind you of the bills that have yet to be paid by openly displaying them in a box that holds bills. This box can hang on the wall beside the place where you carry out your financiers once a month. Bill are the "A" (Action) in the FAST Method and they sort out to go directly into the bill box, done. You'll open them up at the end of the month and you'll have your payments in on time.

3. Inbox the other Important Items At this point the mail is significantly reduced, you should have a few items that are will need some further action, so toss it in the inbox for later. Your primary mail sort is now done I have an in-box in my office where all pending items need to be looked over.

This is where further distribution will take place, so when I sit down to do my work I'll go through the inbox and sort it out further, in due time. There you have it! You do a quick sort of the mail when it arrives and you reap the benefits of a clean table, bills paid on time and a greater level of organization.