Do you find yourself wasting time on paperwork and wondering how to get out from under the piles? We are inundated on daily basis with so much to do, in so little time. And paperwork can cause an enormous amount of stress.
PILE MANAGEMENT
Practicing "pile management" is the most popular answer that I hear when I speak to groups of both business owners and homeowners. Quickly, those piles can become unmanageable and multiply. The result:
Missed opportunities
Late payments
Stress and anxiety
Is there a way to avoid all of this?
So what...you show up for appointments on time. You can officially say that you have marked 10 different tasks off of your To Do List today. You can find everything that you need, when you need 
it. But how productive are you, really?
Productive - according to Mirriam Webster Dictionary is defined as having the quality or power of producing especially in abundance or yielding results; benefits or profit;s or yielding or devoted to the satisfaction of wants or the creation of utilities.
So you may have the most organized office ever! People may walk in and actually say...WOW! Your office looks great. Are you simply just walking-the-walk by having people believe that you are productive and successful or are you just organized? Being organized and being productive are not the same.
Productivity is related to us actually completing our tasks, assignments, chores...whatever and however you may relate. Productivity is determined by the results that we achieve. Starting activities, as mentioned above, and then abruptly stopping them is counter-productive and honestly this is where most businesses, especially Entrepreneurs, get lost. I often hear the familiar words..."I tried that but it didn't work for me". My next comment is typically, "Why"? If it is an activity that doesn't resonate with your personality, then you are absolutely correct. The technique that you are using to reach your goal may not work for your personality and affect your productivity. However, there are many cases where things "don't work" and produce the desired result simply because the Entrepreneur gives up. The fact that an activity, application, or system isn't productive may be directly related back to the individual who gave up within weeks, days or hours of starting the process.
Being Productive in our daily lives means having a system, process or "way" of doing everything...mostly very simple things...easily. This is how we will achieve results. What could, should or would take one person 5 minutes to do can take another person over thirty minutes to accomplish. And, no, this would not relate to the amount of time that it takes you to do something that you have never, ever done before. I am talking about simple, everyday tasks that we make more difficult than they need to be. This can be accomplished by over-thinking the tasks, purposefully putting it off (procrastination) or simply not realizing options that are available to us.
Just about everyone "makes" at least one New Year's Resolution. One of the 
most popular Resolutions is to Get Organized. Every year we have the best of intentions that This Year will be The year that it Really happens! Really...cross your fingers, hope to die! You Will make the necessary changes and do whatever it takes, Right? And you are willing and ready to jump in with both feet! You'll even write it all down, put it on our calendar and make promises to yourself that this IS the year.
The truth is that keeping a New Year Resolution takes more than all of this. You must realize not just what you want to change, but Why you want to change. When you look at your space, office, paperwork or life, does it just drive you nuts? What are you willing to do - besides throwing in the towel and saying, I just can't do it?
You may consciously be self-sabotaging yourself , which is the reason that it hasn't changed....Yet! Ask yourself this question - If my space was organized what would it look like? Close your eyes and visualize your space neat, tidy, organized and filed. Picture yourself sitting at your desk writing contracts, filling orders, talking with clients, paying your bills and smiling at the increase in your bank account.
What I know is that nothing will change until something changes. In other words, until you take specific and methodical action to Keep Your Resolutions, they won't happen and you will stay in the same rut in 2012. And, no matter what plans your plans include and how detailed they are, it takes dedication and a change in your attitude to make it happen.
The words and thoughts that we tell ourselves every day will dictate what we accomplish, how we manage our time and whether or not we reach our goals. So here are some steps to hold yourself accountable to reaching your New Year Resolutions!
After you finish your taxes, use this time to get back to daily paper management.
When you get the mail, sort it the same day into different categories, such as trash, mail for yourself, mail for your spouse, and mail for each of your children. Trash should immediately go into the garbage or recycle bin. Bills should go to whoever pays them. Each category should go into a mail slot (a paper tray, cubby hole, file, etc.), and each person in the family should be made responsible for clearing out his/her slot on a daily basis.
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