My ADHD Brain: Single Stream Paper Organizing

Hi, everyone!  This is Lara Hammock from the Marble Jar Channel and in this video, I'll talk about my system for dealing with all of the paper that comes into my house. This is part of a series on my ADHD brain and all of the systems that I use to compensate for a lack of internal structure and organization.  

In the overview video of this series, I mentioned that information comes into my life in one of two ways: electronically and by paper. I spent the last six videos talking though my apps and systems for dealing with digital or electronic information, which is by far the bulk of what I receive. This video will be a shorter and a little more obvious and will deal with how I handle paper information. It eventually feeds back into the same systems. 

Single Stream

How does paper come into your house?  Probably the same way it comes into mine: 

• Snail Mail
• Stuff from the kids' schools
• Paper detritus from everything else (flyers, business cards, checks to deposit, print outs from meetings or talks, stickie notes, etc.)

Regardless of how it enters, it ends up in the same place right next to my computer in the kitchen. 

Recycle, File, Act. 

Once a week on Fridays, I have a recurring task in Toodledo to "Deal with Paper."  But, throughout the week, I try to go through the pile and just sort things into Recycle, File and Act piles.  If this sounds familiar, that's because it's essentially the same process that I use with electronic information. If I don't get to do this throughout the week, it just happens on Friday.

Recycle - I try to do this as much as possible before stuff even enters my house. My recycling bins are in the garage and as I'm bringing snail mail or other papers in from my car, I try to make a point to stop and get rid of 90% of it at the recycling bin.  But just like electronic information, this pile is easy to deal with.  Pitch!

File - I'm mostly paperless, but I don't take this to extremes. I'm going to do a full video on my paperless policies and methods, but for the purposes of this video, I either decide to physically file the paper or store it electronically.  For papers that I physically file, I have a big basket that I throw everything into and a recurring task in Toodledo every 6 weeks to file everything in that basket. I used to do this more frequently, but there is really no point until the basket gets full.

Act - if a paper needs to be acted on, it goes in an "Act" folder.  As I mentioned earlier, every Friday I deal with the contents of this folder.  Just as with electronic info, many of the same activities apply: I schedule appointments with Google Calendar, add items or errands to shopping lists with AnyList, and plan future tasks with Toodledo.  But unlike with my electronic info, I set aside time every Friday so that I can complete these paper actions -- primarily because they tend to be time-sensitive financial tasks. Let's walk through those:

Financial Tasks - I really put a premium on being able to complete these tasks without too many steps.  I try to take advantage of all of the ways that technology has made doing financial transactions easier. Let's walk through some of them:

• Pay bills - for every bill possible, I sign up for automatic bill pay. Not through online banking, but through that vendor's automatic system.  To me, it is completely worth the initial time to set this up so that bill is paid automatically from then on. I still look though the statement when it comes, but I don't have to take any action if everything looks correct. For those vendors that do not offer automatic bill pay, I use online banking.  I love not having to get up, write the check, return stamp the envelope, and trot it out to the mailbox. Once I've signed into my bank's web portal, I can pay a bill in under 10 keystrokes. Even fewer if I have multiple bills to pay. 
• Pay people - If I owe someone money, I want to pay them back right away.  By far, my favorite method of payment is PayPal, so I always ask if they have a PayPal account first. If not, here is what I DO NOT do. I do NOT write a check and carry it around in my purse until I see them. I used to do this, but it just cluttered up my brain and sometimes it would be months before I remember I hadn't given them their check. No. I use online Bill Pay for this too. People think this is a little strange, but it takes less than a minute and then it is DONE and can safely leave my brain. 
• Deposit checks - I really don't know how banks can guarantee checks this way, but I deposit almost all of my checks online now.  Log into my bank's website, take a picture of the front and back of the check and it is done in under a minute with no extra trips to the bank. Crazy fast. 

So, that is my paper processing system. Not much different than how many folks handle paper with the possible exception of my weekly Act task.  Let me know what works for you!  I really appreciate any comments below and thanks for watching!