Get Rid of Your Paperwork & Still Breathe Easy

Jan 31, 2013 | Blog

Hi my fellow organizational lovers! I have been busy reorganizing some spaces in my home and I hope to post a video and blog about hem tomorrow! In the meantime, check out this guest blog post.  Please note, I do not use or endorse this stuff but I thought it was cool to share anyways.

 

A few weeks before Christmas I got into my very first car accident (having driven for over 10 years, that makes me very lucky). It was scary and painful. I was stopped and someone just rear ended me out of the blue. In a flurry of adrenaline and soreness I immediately started crying as I shuffled around for paperwork. Much to my chagrin, I couldn’t find my updated insurance card amidst the snowstorm of paper in my glove box. By the time the cops arrived, I had successfully remembered I had a cell phone (thanks to the guy who hit me, he was no stranger to accident protocol), and looked up my insurance info online.

It worked like a charm. The cop just took a quick gander at my screen and was able to properly fill out all her paperwork. I had averted an even bigger nightmare than I was already in, but it got me thinking about organizing life in general. I’m a fairly organized person, but the thought of shuffling through my files for an old tax return or looking for an unpaid bill still gives me the stress heebie-jeebies, so I did some research and introspection on how to further de-clutter life and workspace.

An App a Day Keeps the Stress Away

Most of us have smart phones, but few of us take advantage of all the helpful things they can offer us. One might say they are even a godsend when it comes to handling insurance. Companies like Progressive, Geico and Kemper offer sensational digital services. Kemper.com even offers a Free-a-Tree discount for clients that go paperless and use their application.

Remember the Milk is an app that keeps track of your to-do list by date, category, deadline and importance, and you can even swipe through them like a regular to do list-except supercharged.

YouNote is a one-of-a-kind app that also lets you keep to do lists, but in a variety of formats. You can write it down, record it, text it, save images to it, and even draw notes and bookmark web pages.

A Personal Assistant might be the mother of all apps. You do have to pay for it, but it allows you to log into all your accounts in one place, password-free (the average person has 25 online accounts, which can be a nightmare). This app allows you to have a master itinerary, and organizes a complete overview of all your transactions and balances. It costs money, but it’s a lot less than a real personal assistant and complains less!

Keep It Up for Ten Weeks & Your Good to Go

Although improving your life takes time, stick to your new organizational outline once you’ve established it. Keeping up with your digital to-do list and switching your life to a paperless, less-hassle routine will take approximately 10 weeks to get used to. According to a study by the UK Health Behaviour Research Centre, the brain takes about 66 days to form a new habit, but you can’t break the rules within that 66 days or you have to start over.

Whether you’ve had an unfortunate accident that has left you scrambling to find the right paperwork or you’re smart enough to anticipate needing access to it, get organized from your diet and exercise to all of your paperwork. It’s time to start streamlining all that important info in one place, and take time each day to train yourself to stay on top of it!