How to organise your paperwork [4]

Other ideas for getting organised?

If you are looking for a way to have a to do list that you actually do – oh yes, we all have those lovely lists that we have set up but never done anything with, or the list we have on a phone app that we swore would be the one that made us more organised – so if you are like the rest of us, then try Bullet Journal.  This is a very popular method and there are groups on Facebook and online Forums all about how people use it.  It’s simple, you just need a notebook and it works well for many people.

If you are perhaps a lover of post-it notes, then there are a few blogs with tips on using these to become more organised – Jen Hewett’s guide to managing it all, One good Thing by Jillee and one of my personal favourites, the Online Millionaire – Post it Ninja

How do you keep on top of it?

This is the big question.  We can all spend a few hours getting organised but staying organised takes a different type of discipline or system.

We have a “family station” – this was an idea I borrowed from several American bloggers but one that really works for us.  This comprises a few magazine files (if you don’t have magazine files, then recycle your cereal boxes) .  Have one box as a “to do” box – (a school trip that needs a signature, a newsletter with some dates on that needs to go into my diary; one box for “filing” – bank statements, bills paid by Direct Debit and one box “to read” such as school reports, magazines, etc.  When my kids arrive home from school, it truly is Chaos in Kent and I don’t have time to sign papers, find £1 for child #2 to buy cakes for Children in Need, etc so I file them in these boxes as soon as they come home and then look at them properly after the chaos calms down.

I stick the useful contact number list to one side of the boxes and then on the other side I add a list of “important dates” which has birthdays, anniversaries etc.  That way I can see at a glance what cards or gifts I need to buy each month.

Once a week, I then go through the “filing” box and clear that, I also check that everything in the “to do” box is cleared and either thrown away, sent back to school or filed.

Some people have a little box for saver coupons, others have one for receipts, one friend keeps her receipt album in a box here – again it is what works for you,

The whole idea of these posts has been to help give you some ideas and some support through the minefield of paperwork.  We really hope that one or two of the ideas will help and over the next few months, we will be looking at other ways to get organised when living in the world of SEN and Disability.

The final aim is that you will have a bit more time for you.  Whether you choose to use this time sleeping, reading, bathing, swimming, writing, joining a group or meeting a friend for coffee is entirely up to you but imagine having that time for yourself, isn’t it worth eating a few frogs to get it?