Paper And Time Management
Success Stories

A Mastermind leader referred me to an owner and CEO of a small company. He was managing a large staff and struggling to keep the business successful. In addition, he was dealing with a number of family and personal situations, which added additional layers to the stress.

Over a period of several years, I served as an independent consultant as we addressed the areas of:

• Space planning for his home and office
• Filing systems
• Personal finances and bill paying
• Personal changes in life style
• Legal and financial issues
• Sale of the business
• Starting a new career

It has been a journey through some difficult times, and a joy to see his current success.

A bank trust officer referred me to her clients in a life-care facility. They had downsized and moved into a two-bedroom apartment. The papers and files had not been addressed prior to the move, so everything had come with them.

We set up a simple “finding” system, based on current needs and a system to archive those documents that should to be retained, but not as a part of the active system. Together we “purged” old files, set up new categories and filled the recycle bins and shredding box over and over again.

They now have “homes” for their papers, an index for the system, and lots of room in the filing cabinet!

While assisting an elderly couple downsize and move into a residential facility, again a referral from a trust officer, we needed to address the paper and filing situation. Because they didn’t know where to keep things, they were using box tops as a filing system – each one labeled and supposedly containing a major category. But sometimes the papers got into the wrong boxes in the stacks and they were spending hours trying to locate important documents.

In addition, the concept of moving open boxes of loose papers to the new home was a nightmare to everyone.

We created a “finding” system, establishing “homes” for these loose papers within major categories of their choosing. Again, while reviewing the current boxes, a majority of the items could be discarded.

We also created a portable file system to include the bill paying information with extra checks, information on the sale of the home, the new facility, medical information, address changes, etc. This would be hand carried during the move process, and not on the moving van.