Reducing your paperwork woes will reduce your fear of paperwork and will put you back in control of paperwork rather than having it control you. Who doesn’t dread the thought of sitting down and doing paperwork? The mere mention of the work paperwork brings up visions of boredom and tedious work sorting through stack of papers and, dare I say it, the task of filing.
Why do so many people have such an aversion to filing? Is it the “work” part of the word paperwork? Or is it the thought of filling out forms and filing papers. Filing is one of the easiest and most productive tasks that you can do for yourself and your business. Filing not only saves you time it saves you money, and lots of it. There are three easy steps to reducing paperwork woes.
Step one is to recognize the immense benefits you receive from doing paperwork timely. Filing legal and tax paperwork timely reduces penalties and interest costs. Being able to locate documents and information immediately can save you hours of fruitless searching. Being able to put your hands on what you want when you want it is as satisfying as it is efficient. Time you do not spend searching for papers save you money by allowing you to use that time to actually produce income or enjoy personal time.
Step two is to be consistent with completing paperwork. Set aside one hour per week to update accounting records, file completed items, make backup copies, and prepare paperwork needed for the upcoming week. Once you are in the habit of completing paperwork tasks regularly you will find that it takes less time to do the repetitive tasks and takes away worrying about it. Time spent worrying about what you need to do and are not doing just uses time better spent elsewhere. Think about how much time you spend thinking about how much paperwork and filing you need to get done and how much you don’t want to do it? Take Action. You will spend less time actually doing the paperwork than you would have spent thinking about not doing what you know you should be doing. You have to do it at year-end anyway. It takes the same amount of time to do anyway, regardless of when you do it. Spend your time thinking of creative, easy ways to handle paperwork and then do them!
Step three is to rejoice in the fact that you are in control of the paperwork in your life. Think about this. Why are you in business or work for someone else? If your answer is to make money, then guess what? The more money you make the more paperwork of one sort or another you will need to do. Whether you do it or you hire someone to do it, it still needs to be done. What is money made out of? If your answer is paper, then are you willing to drive away THAT type of paper from your business? Probably not. The law of attraction listens to what you want most. I want to make more money but I hate paperwork more. Are you willing to drive away money for the sake of doing less paperwork?
Reducing your paperwork woes will reduce your fear of paperwork. Reducing your fear of paperwork will free up your ability to make more money or at the very least allow you to keep more of what you do make! The added benefit is the satisfaction of knowing your paperwork is organized and well-prepared with easy access to what you need when you need it.
Copyright © 2012 Ellen Brockway