Paperwork

I'm a pretty organised person but I tend to be a bit lax with paperwork. To the point where I started getting reminder notices for unpaid bills and penalties for late payment, which was enough to spur me into getting this small but irritating part of my life under control.

It was easy, really. Set aside a day to get to the bottom of the basket I threw everything into and decided to deal with paperwork every Monday. Now when mail hits the letterbox, I open it, throw it in the basket and deal with it on Mondays.

Come Monday, I'll pay what needs to be paid and file what needs to be filed, and then put anything with a due date past the next Monday onto a clipboard. If it's an email bill, I'll put a note to myself on the clipboard. Pretty rare now that I have to spend more than half-an-hour on paperwork - usually about 10 minutes.

My system has been running like clockwork for six weeks now and I feel a bit smug that I've formed a good habit.

If only regular exercise was that easy...