Paper Piles an ADD Nightmare
Do you struggle with paper piles? Do you have paper monsters that multiply like weebles in Starship Enterprise? Is it a challenge you continue to battle or have you found success with strategies you’d like to share with the rest of us?
Sometimes I really suck at this ADD thing. I’ve started more articles that not only haven’t been finished, have found homes on my computer that I’m clueless to. They’ve been abandoned in piles that litter my office, crept into our living room and somehow climbed into the chair we’ve got in the bedroom.
I’ve come up with a variety of paper management strategies with my clients. Until now, I’ve been one that managed okay with piles. Yes, hunting for a note, a bill, even checks not cashed has caused more than occasional grief. Recently though, the joke I’ve made of my piles has hit the wall. The urgency is my cleaning person, who I hired to help me get and stay more organized, can’t stop herself from moving or stacking or – god forbid – boxing my paper piles.
She was supposed to be in today. But, something personal came up so, I’ll see her next week. Good thing too, cause I wasn’t quite done. It’s okay, make fun. No matter how I grump about this woman, She definitely lights a fire under me.
What I’ve done is grabbed all my piles and placed them each in their own drawer in plastic rolling carts. The carts came set up with either 3 large drawers (all drawers fit 8 1/2 x 11 paper easy) or two large drawers and two small drawers. Think just smaller than the typical deep drawer and short drawers on a traditional office desk.
Playing around, I discovered the drawers could be separated and put back together in any combination of large and small. The best combination for my writing is 4 large on the bottom and 8 small on top. I got a bit irritated at how easily the drawers slid out, uninvited. So I fixed that with stick-on Velcro. I’ll be ready for my cleaner, as soon as I push the carts back into my office.
I’d love to hear your thoughts, ideas, your strategies. If you’ve battled this yourself or are still battling it, what have you tried? Coming together to help each other is a strong place to come from and go to. A tweak may be all it takes for an idea that seems crazy, or plain doesn’t work, to be successful. Please, share your thoughts in the comments section below. And, if you think someone might benefit or could help us out here, please pass this along.
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5 Responses to “Paper Piles an ADD Nightmare”
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What a great solution for you, Cathy!
I have tried most everything….plastic trays, Paper Tiger, tickler file, a stack of trays that can snap together…10 high…all labeled, printing everything to PDF…. All help, but nothing has been a perfect solution that I’ve been consistent with…
I’m intending that this is the year for a clearer environment!
s:)
OH…and I love your site and blog!
Great design and components!
While putting papers in any storage box gets it off your desk, unless you have a way of finding which box it is in you can find yourself still spending hours looking for that elusive piece of paper. One solution is to get a set of 3 X 5 index cards and a card holder box. You will want to organize the 3 X 5 cards in alphabetical order. Then when you file something away, mark on a card the date and box where it was filed. When you get ready to retrieve the paper, simply look in your index card storage box and you will be able to go right to it.
I also keep a card with sign-in names, passwords, etc. for various online sites. There is no way I can remember them all.
One other technique to alert you to get something off your desk. Mark a dot in the upper right hand corner each time you handle a piece of paper. Soon you will get a great visual of how many times you are handling the same piece of paper.
Hi Suzanne, I am so glad you dropped by. And glad you like the site. It’s a lot of fun. About the paper monsters: I am just so tickled with myself. I’m adding tools to organize so the carts don’t end up creeping out of my office like the piles. I choose see through for obvious reasons. And, for more visual help I’ll attach pictures that I connect with what’s in the drawers. I’m looking forward to perusing my magazine collection for that. I’ve never heard of Paper Tiger. Is that something I can google?
Love hearing your intention. Clearer environment. Me too.
John, welcome. You are so right about storage boxes. That’s been a problem in the past. Interesting idea about the index cards. I could see using colored index cards matching box to card info. Visual cues, like matching card to box, can be such a help in ADHD organizing.
Thanks for the tip about the sign-in names and passwords. I just spent about 10 minutes trying to get on to an internet radio talk show cause I couldn’t find my sign-in name.
I definitely get your last suggestion. I’d have to use smiley faces and colored pens so I wouldn’t feel like I was picking on myself.
Just not a fan of that.