Published July 21, 2005

Each of us is challenged by the deluge of daily mail. The annual disposal cost of unsolicited mail actually adds up to 450 million dollars! I applaud those of you who manage the influx efficiently. But I have personal experience in my own home and others of the Aviation Response to paper: pilot here and pilot there. (Sorry.)

Piles of paper overwhelm us with their looming and growing presence. When those piles cover every surface – not only desks but tables, couches, shelves, beds, floors, it’s often the result of long term illness or loss of a loved one. In such cases, especially if the cause of stress is still present, it may be appropriate to bring in professional assistance and/or the aid of skilled and well intentioned friends.

Many Americans are in moderate overwhelm, feeling guilty, but not knowing how to even begin to overcome the problem. May I suggest just one strategy that will launch you on a pathway toward clutter control? That technique is to define a mail center in your residence, equip it and promise thereafter to open mail only in that designated location.
First provide a basket for unopened mail and make a daily effort to empty the basket by nightfall.

Secondly, provide a container for paper destined for recycling. Into it toss the junk mail. Since eight months of your lifetime is likely to be spent dealing with unsolicited mail, make this disposal instant and automatic.

Also, toss virtually every envelope you open. Only one bearing a friend’s new address deserves to be kept. I am always amazed to find among unmanageable clutter great numbers of completely useless envelopes that once brought mail to a destination.
Third, provide a workable storage system for pieces to be kept. This will include some kind of filing system because the only reason to keep a piece of paper is that is has some potential future value, but it will provide that value only if it can be found when needed.
And fourth, make every effort to handle each piece only once or at most twice. If a phone call begs to be made, do it now from the phone at your mail center. If an event is pending, write it on your calendar now. If a check begs to be written, do it now. Oh, I know – you don’t want the vendor to have your money too soon. So date the check a few days before due date, writing the check date on the envelope where the stamp will cover it later. Stand these envelopes in date order in plain sight at your mail center so you’ll be reminded to send them on time.

What will be missing when you follow this regimen? The pilots, of course. Aviation Response begone.

In the meantime, how do you get rid of the piles that existed before you started the new discipline for handling mail? First, know that you are not alone with this problem. In fact, the average executive wastes about 45 minutes per day searching for something on his/her desk.

I heard of one individual who “solved the problem” by simply discarding it all! This is not recommended, though he insisted that anything really important would be resent and he’d happily pay late fees on outstanding bills rather than sorting through the mountain of mail.

Short of such an extreme action, there is a recommendation I can make, but it will definitely require a commitment of time. You will want to gather several empty cartons for a general sort. Choose five or six categories and label the boxes with large block letters. You might choose from among TO FILE, TO READ, TO DO, to do ASAP, TO DELEGATE, UNDECIDED and of course the aforementioned TO RECYCLE container.

Then devote a 20 to 30 minute period to a blitz sort. Don’t answer the door or the phone, turn off the radio, assure that you won’t be interrupted by any thing or any one. Lickety split, start tossing things into the various boxes. Do not read anything, just take a glance and make a quick decision. Can’t decide quickly? Then toss into the UNDECIDED box. When time is up, I hope you will be flabbergasted by how much you have accomplished. Congratulate yourself and immediately schedule your next sorting session.

This plan gets things into smaller, manageable increments and imparts a level of tidiness in a very short time. In addition, papers will be much more findable if needed before your final sort.

Such progress can be very motivating for getting the job completed. And then if you remain committed to dealing with mail efficiently in your mail center from now on, you may never see unsightly piles of paper in your home again.

Perhaps you feel this column made light of a major problem, but that was not my intent.
The problem does loom large and I simply want to impart that the only way to solve it is to – one way or another – get things into manageable increments. Happy sorting.