Archive for ‘Digital’ Category
Slam the Scam! Organize to Protect Against Scams
Being organized and productive depends on having systems in place. The problem is that sometimes things happen that throw all of our carefully curated systems out the window. Things like getting the flu, having your car break down (or get stolen), your computer crashing — or getting scammed.
It’s shockingly easy to fall for a scam, and frustratingly difficult to recover financially and legally after being a victim. It may require time, money, the services of specialists (like attorneys) and more. The best thing you can do is to organize yourself to protect against being victimized.
SCAMMERS PREY ON EVERYONE
You may have heard about a recent viral article in The Cut by Charlotte Cowles, the online magazine’s financial advice columnist. You wouldn’t have expected someone with that professional identity to write a column entitled, The Day I Put $50,000 in a Shoe Box and Handed It to a Stranger. But she fell for a scam, and she fell hard. And now, risking public and professional embarrassment, she has spoken out.
For weeks, there’s been debate online regarding what happened to Cowles. Many people can’t imagine that a grown woman with a professional background in financial writing could have been fooled by the ring of scammers who convinced Cowles that they were representatives of Amazon, of the Federal Trade Commission, and of the CIA.
But scams are real, they are everywhere, and we need to organize ourselves (and warn our loved ones) to be vigilant. Gallup found that 15% of American households were victims of financial scams just last year.
Graph provided by Gallup
And, while we tend to think of victims as being older, every demographic group is at risk. In fact, younger adults (like Gen Z and the youngest Millennials) are overrepresented as victims of scamming (at 22%); meanwhile Gen Xers like Paper Doll and Baby Boomers are somewhat less likely to be scammed, at 9% and 14%, respectively.
The rate of victimization is lower among adults without a college education and with lower incomes than those who have college educations and who earn at least $50,000 per year. One might surmise that both of the latter groups have more opportunity to be warned and prepared to identify elements of scams.
But people with education, experience, savvy, and money can also be scammed. Last month, author Cory Doctorow wrote How I Got Scammed, explaining how a Christmas holiday travel week, a failed ATM transaction, and the post Alaska Air 737 Max door-plug disaster created a perfect storm for him being taken advantage by a phone-phishing fraudster pretending to be from his credit union.
Sometimes, a scam is obvious. Out of nowhere, you’ll be cooking or watching TV and the phone will ring. A mysterious and heavily accented speaker will say that there is “something seriously wrong with your Microsoft computer.” It doesn’t matter if you actually have a Mac, or if you don’t even have a computer. They’ll use that wearily patient voice so identifiable as IT customer support.
You immediately know it’s fake; but would your grandparents? Would your teenager?
Other scams are less obvious because they come wrapped in the kind of tech-related language we see every day. In just the 24 hours prior to writing this post, Paper Doll and Paper Mommy experience attempted scams.
I received an email claiming that I’d purchased $500+ in services, and if had not made those purchases, I should immediately click to be connected with the company’s fraud department. Of course, merely hovering my cursor over the return email address (displayed as the company’s name) showed it was actually sent by gibberishletters@Yahoo.com. Real companies don’t use Yahoo addresses; in theory, they shouldn’t even use Gmail addresses. Dependable companies have their own domains.
Meanwhile, Paper Mommy got the all-too-common email advising her to click because her iCloud was full. [Be assured, her iCloud was not full. It has a backup of her iPad and probably a few dozen photos and not much more.] Paper Mommy may be 87, but she is one smart cookie, and even if she hadn’t received one of these same phishing attempts previously, she knows enough to verify such things.
However, it’s common enough to get random notification texts, popups, and emails claiming that something is awry. One of the immediate clues is bad spelling, grammar, or punctuation, something that older generations are more likely to take seriously; a 50- or 70-year-old is more likely to immediately realize that a poor command of English (in an email sent, ostensibly, by an American company to an American customer) is a sign of a scam. Thus, given the propensity of younger people for text-speak and a lesser reliance on standard usage, younger adults might be more easily tripped up.
Still other scams prey on the inclination of individuals to be good natured. One popular scam comes in the guise of a text regarding a sick or injured dog. The sender addresses you by the wrong name and says that they’re at the vet; their dog won’t eat and is whimpering, and they’re waiting for assistance. I “fell” for such a scam a few months ago, in that I replied and said, “Sorry, you have the wrong person. I hope everything turns out OK for you and the dog.”
Sad Doggie Photo by Bruno Cervera at Pexels
I thought nothing more of it until the person kept texting and trying to inveigle me in conversation, asserting that I must be a dog lover, too. (Readers, while I’d hate for you to think I’m a Disney villainess, I’m not fond of animals in person, though I do love monkeys, puppies, kittens, and penguins, as long as they’re on my device screens and nowhere near me.)
I Googled, and immediately found that this is a long-running scam to convince text recipients to get emotionally enmeshed in the condition of the dog, and end up giving money. One can understand how Congressman George Santos managed to set up fake Go Fund Me accounts for animal care and steal the proceeds. People are softies and want to be kind.
We’re also inclined to be law-abiding. There have been a number of jury duty scams where recipients get calls or texts saying that there’s a bench warrant for them to be arrested because they have not shown up for jury duty. Sometimes, recipients are warned that deputies are on the way to arrest them unless they pay a fee over the phone, or buy gift cards and send them to the caller.
Government agencies don’t text you out of the blue. In most cases, none but teeny, hyper-local government offices will even email. They certainly don’t take payment in gift cards.
Scams are designed to prey on your lack of experience or information, your good nature, and your fear of getting in trouble (as with Cowles’ example). Do not let scammers waste your time, ruin your productivity, or take advantage of your goodwill.
SOCIAL SECURITY: SLAM THE SCAM DAY
The Social Security Administration has declared this Thursday, March 7, 2024 Slam the Scam Day!
On National Slam the Scam Day and throughout the year, the SSA provides tools to help seniors and others recognize scams related to Social Security and prevent scammers from stealing both funds and personal information.
Social Security and Paper Doll want you to protect yourself, your loved ones, and people in your community this Slam the Scam Day by educating everyone about government imposter scams. Discuss the issue and let people in your life know they shouldn’t be embarrassed to report if they shared personal information or suffered a financial loss. It’s important to report scams as quickly as possible, both to aid recovery and identify the culprits.
The Social Security Administration encourages us to share their Scam Alert fact sheet to help educate others about how to protect themselves. Report Social Security-related scams to the Social Security Office of the Inspector General (OIG).
If you do encounter scammers in any way related to Social Security, report the scam online with as much information as you have regarding the characteristics of their claims.
Social Security encourages you to visit www.ssa.gov/scam for more information and follow the SSA OIG accounts on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Those accounts aren’t going to share the newest viral dances or memes, but will keep you informed of the latest nasty tactics. Please consider sharing this post with the #SlamtheScam hashtag on your social media platforms.
OTHER SCAMS TARGETING SENIORS
Scams targeting seniors aren’t limited to those involving Social Security.
The “Grandma, I’m in Jail!” scam has been prevalent for more than a decade. Your phone rings and you hear a young person’s distraught voice begging for help. The caller, ostensibly your grandchild, has somehow accidentally run afoul of the law and is in jail. “Please send bail money but don’t tell Mom and Dad,” the caller begs, providing a phone number and case number; you call as directed and the faux police officer verifies the case number and takes your money. These scams assume Grandma doesn’t hear your voice often enough to recognize it on the phone.
Help your grandparents not fall for such scams by 1) explaining how they work and 2) calling them more often so that they recognize your voice!
Photo by RepentAndSeekChristJesus on Unsplash
Elders are often the victims of medical scams designed to impersonate legitimate agencies related to Medicare, diabetes supplies, medical equipment, hospice, and more. Romance scams, which prey on lonely people of all ages, but especially tender-hearted seniors, are also on the rise.
The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) is great resource for keeping on top of scams targeting the elderly. Bookmark AARP’s Scams and Fraud page to learn about new schemes as they become known.
KNOW THE SCAMMERS’ TRICKS
Similar to “Grandma, I’m in Jail” is “Dad, I’ve had a car accident!” There’s loud traffic noise (and perhaps sirens) in the background and the faux-distraught caller is saying that they’ve caused an accident and that the police say they need to pay a fine right away. Don’t fall for it.
Remember how I said that government agencies won’t ask for payment in gift cards? Neither will your boss. The Do Me a Favor scam shows up via email or text, when your boss (or maybe the CEO of your company) sends a message asking you to purchase gift cards for a work-related charity promotion, promising to pay you back after he receives them.
Yeah, no. The email or text may look like it’s coming from your work contact, your church leader, or your Facebook friend, but it’s almost certainly not.
Similarly, your friends aren’t going to be at the Paris Olympics and lose their wallets and ask you to send them money via Facebook.
The best way to organize yourself against scams is to stay informed of what scams are popular. When you know what to expect, it’s easier to identify scammers and avoid engaging.
- 5 Financial Scams To Avoid in 2024 as Expert Warns Fraud Has Reached ‘Crisis Level’ (NASDAQ)
- 6 Top Scams to Watch Out for in 2024 (AARP)
- 10 Scams You Should Know About in 2024 (Express VPN)
- 17 Facebook Marketplace scams to avoid in 2024 (Lifelock)
- Credit Card Scams to Know in 2024 (and How to Avoid Them) (Time Magazine)
- Five Biggest Frauds To Watch Out for in 2024 (Kiplinger)
- The Latest Scams You Need to Be Aware of in 2024 (Experian)
- No Love for Romance Scammers in 2024 (IRS)
DON’Ts AND DOs TO KEEP YOURSELF SAFE FROM SCAMMERS
DON’T CLICK — If you receive an email or text with links to your bank or other financial account, go instead to the official website and log in from there. If you don’t know the URL, look it up on the back of your bank or credit card or on your statements. And, as you’ve been told since the dawn of email, do not click on attachments from somebody you don’t know.
DON’T TRUST — The Caller ID may say that the inbound call is coming from your bank or the IRS, but it’s ridiculously easy to “spoof” (that is, fake) the identity of a caller. Consider not answering; scammers rarely leave voicemail.
Don’t assume that the caller having the last four digits of your Social Security number or even all of the digits of your account number is on the up-and-up; there’s just too much of our private information on the dark web. Instead, hang up and call the official number for your financial institution and request to be connected to the fraud department.
DON’T DIVULGE — If a stranger claiming to be from your bank or credit card’s fraud department contacts you, ask for a case number. Do not give out your personal information. Do not give out your PIN.
DON’T SAY YES — Do not answer questions in the affirmative. That is, if they ask, “Is this Jane Smith?” don’t say yes; if you must say something, reply, “What is this regarding?” Your voice could be recorded and cloned for AI-related scams. The less you say, the better.
DON’T RUSH (OR BE RUSHED) — It’s the nature of scammers, like the stereotypical used car salesman, to use the pressure of time to get you act against your best interest. Don’t be fooled into making a decision or taking action quickly. Check with advisors, whether more technologically savvy friends or relatives, your accountant or financial advisor, your attorney, or the police.
DO READ UP — The American Bankers Association has a nifty website called BankersNeverAskThat.com. The site explains what to watch out for in terms of email, text, phone, and payment app scams, and also has a great eight-question quiz where you can walk through the situations (on your own, or as part of coaching with a loved one) to identify whether something is a scam or legitimate.
For reference, I did pretty well, but I dithered on the question regarding payment app alerts; if you’ve only recently begun using apps like Zelle, Venmo, or other peer-to-peer payment services, you might find the example sneaky, too, so read (and share) AARP’s How to Avoid Scams on Zelle, Venmo and Other P2P Apps.
The site offers a goofy “retro” scam-themed video game and a series of lighthearted videos to drive the point home.
DO HAVE FAMILY PASSWORDS — Schools have security that was non-existent when I was a kid; there are lists of who is allowed to pick up little Johnny or Janey from school to ensure not only that there’s no Stranger Danger but that wackadoodle exes and pushy in-laws don’t insert themselves between you and your kids. Modern parenting includes having family passwords so that if someone says, “Hi, your mommy told me to come pick you up from soccer practice today,” even if the child recognizes Mommy’s best friend as Auntie Karen, the kids know to wait for the official password.
This concept should be applied to families at all ages. Have a communication password designed so that if Grandma or Dad or College Kid gets a call purporting to be from one of the others and is in in need of emergency funds, there’s a level of security involved. (But, y’know, if Grandma calls from jail too often, maybe let her think about the consequences of her actions for a little while.)
DO TELL THE AUTHORITIES — No matter how embarrassing it is to have been scammed, it’s important to report suspected and actual scams.
- Notify your bank, credit card company, brokerage, or other financial institution immediately. If scammers have actually taken your money via credit card, the company should be able to flag the transaction as fraud and reverse it immediately; other financial institutions may also be able to freeze the transaction and save your money. Take screenshots of texts or emails, and don’t delete the original messages in case law enforcement wants to dig more deeply into the source code.
- Contact the police, and file a police report. Do not be dissuaded if the police officer seems blasé about the crime.
My credit card company once notified me that someone had used my card number to buy an inordinate amount of mail order men’s underwear and stereo equipment. Algorithms had already flagged the purchases as fraud, but they asked me to file a police report. The police officer who took the report at my workplace could not have looked more bored if I’d asked him to watch paint dry. It doesn’t matter. Report!
- File reports with applicable state and federal agencies. Whether the case involves the Social Security Administration, Medicare, or other federal crimes, report scams to the applicable agencies. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), as well as your state’s bureau of investigation all have fraud departments. Learn more at the FTC’s Reportfraud.ftc.gov and the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center at IC3.gov.
THE FUTURE OF SCAMS
Scams — and scammers — aren’t going away. There will always be scammers who take advantage of anyone more easily duped because they have less information, less experience, and fewer people watching out for them. But, as I alluded to earlier, there are higher tech scams on the horizon.
Artificial intelligence is scary. I bet you’ve heard about deepfakes, video imitations made to sound and look like a real person is saying something they never actually said.
Voiceprints and voice cloning constitute the audio version of deepfakes. A scammer can record you — or take your teenager’s Instagram or TikTok video — and create a completely new message using words and expressions that were never actually said, and then create an “emergency” where it’s believable that money or your Social Security number or other private information is requested. If your college-age kid still hasn’t memorized his Social Security number, you might be tempted to believe it if “he” calls from a spoofed number that looked like his and says he’s filling out a form at school and needed his (or your) digits.
Voice cloning is already being used. Scammy deepfake videos could just as easily be to sent via Facetime or text video. Be careful.
FUNNY THINGS (NOT) TO DO TO SCAMMERS
You shouldn’t engage with scammers, so don’t emulate Paper Mommy or her friend in the stories below. Still, it’s fun to imagine retribution against bad guys.
When I was a teen, my mother was visiting a friend, a suburban woman of (shall we say) means. A phone scammer interrupted their visit and was urgently pushing some sort of financial scheme. Mom’s friend told the caller that she was sorry, but he’d have to wait, that her husband busy shoveling the cow s***.
Later, my mother spoke of her friend’s response with a twinkle in her eye.
Paper Mommy, as longtime readers know, is a hoot. After a friend briefly fell prey to the “Grandma, I’m in jail!” scam (until she learned that her teen grandson was fast asleep in his own bed), Paper Mommy began plotting her revenge on scammers. A few years ago, she called me with delight to report that the day she’d been anticipating had finally arrived.
“Grandma, I need your help!” the voice implored. The scammer had already made a tactical error; much to Paper Mommy‘s chagrin, neither my sister nor I have made her a grandmother. My mom tut-tutted as the scammer wove his tale, offering periodic, “Oh, no, darling! … Oh, you poor thing? … You need me to send you money?”
She kept him on the line for eons, repeatedly leading the evil-doer to believe she was prepared to turn over her credit card number to secure grandson’s release. Oh, she just had to find her purse. Oh, fiddlesticks, where was her wallet? Just when his frustration led him to almost crack and he implored, “Grandma, aren’t you going to help me?” my mom uttered her Oscar-worthy line:
“No, Sweetheart. I never really liked you that much.” Click.
#SlamTheScam
Paper Doll Post:
Celebrate the Global Day of Unplugging
From the moment you open your eyes in the morning until you finally nod off at night, do you experience over-stimulation? Do you suffer from over-availability, whether to your boss, colleagues, or clients, or to everyone who wants to talk to you about their political campaigns or your auto warranty?
Even if you’re overly connected with the world via glass screens, do you feel a lack of connection — with your loved ones, nature, or even your inner self?
Have I’ve got a holiday for you! From sundown this Friday, March 1, 2024 until sundown on Saturday, it is the Global Day of Unplugging!
WHAT IS THE GLOBAL DAY OF UNPLUGGING?
The Global Day of Unplugging is an annual campaign to bring attention to the importance of taking a break from 21st-century technology, whether that’s your computer, your cell phone, or your brand new Apple Vision Pro. The goal is to embrace person-to-person connection, the kind where you can see deeply into someone else’s eyes because you’re in the same space at the same time.
It’s not that digital engagement is bad, per se. Zoom meetings and remote work means we reduce our overall carbon footprint from work-related road trips and airline travel. Cell phones (even if people mostly communicate by text) let us know when our friends are running late or if the kids need someone to pick them up.
But being on-all-the-time keeps us from ever refreshing. When it’s our boss that keeps us connected, that’s toxic, as we’ve discussed previously:
- Toxic Productivity In the Workplace and What Comes Next
- Toxic Productivity Part 2: How to Change Your Mindset
- Toxic Productivity Part 3: Get Off the To-Do List Hamster Wheel
- Toxic Productivity, Part 4: Find the Flip Side of Productivity Hacks
- Toxic Productivity Part 5: Technology and a Hungry Ghost
I mean, we could move to France, as covered in the first post above, or to Australia, which has just voted to allow workers to ignore after-hours phone calls and email from their companies. That could help reduce any employer-related tethering to our devices.
But we do this same damage to ourselves! Like a digital pacifier, we reach for our devices when we’re bored or anxious: in line at the grocery store, waiting for a doctor’s appointment, on the other end of the couch from our kids or significant other.
Technology is pushed on us from above and from all sides, but it has the potential to become an addiction that pushes us further away from our loved ones.
Wouldn’t you benefit from a little escape? For one 24-hour period starting on Friday, people from all four corners of the globe (yes, I know globes have no corners), will intentionally walk away from their digital lives and meet IRL (in real life).
WHY UNPLUG?
Let’s look at the dangers of the attention economy, which treats our eyeballs (attention) as a scarce commodity. We can prevent some of the problems by decluttering our digital spaces; other parts require concerted efforts at unplugging.
Distractions
Our computers and devices bring so much digital clutter to our attention. Some of it involves what other people want us to pay attention to, things we may or may not find important. But other distractions we bring on ourselves by clicking our way into deeper and deeper rabbit holes, directing us to an article online or a video on TikTok, but then we stay, enraptured and forget what we were doing.
These distractions take our focus off where we intend it to be. Intention is how we make sure we handle what we prioritize and not someone else’s priorities. Decluttering minimizes those distractions.
When we’re organized in our homes or offices, the clutter and inefficient systems make it hard to find what we want when we want it. Digital clutter is more insidious because we don’t even realize that we’re being distracted — we’ve become so used to it, and because nobody else sees our digital clutter they don’t call attention to it.
When we eliminate digital excess and distractions and create new, more efficient pathways, we feel calmer and more in control. When that happens, we’re in the zone, better able to do deep work and get into flow, with less wasted time searching for whatever we want — or what our boss or client wants.
However, of all the ways digital addiction hurts us, perhaps the distractions and lack of productivity are the least important.
Physical Health
Digital overuse is bad for our physical health. We develop bad posture from shlumping at our desks, gripping our phones, and hyperextending our necks.
Tech Neck is an informal term for the medical condition we experience when we use our devices. We flex our necks and shoulders, causing strain strain on the muscles and joints; the more we do it, the greater the build-up of tension, leading to muscle pain and headaches. Some research even suggests that overusing mobile devices can cause bone spurs to form at the nexus between the neck and head!
Additionally, exposure to the blue light emitted by phones, tablets, and computer screens can cause insomnia and decrease the quality of our sleep, which can further impact our ability to focus. Of course, when our attention span is decreased (whether due to sleepless nights or being trained to think in tweet-length chunks of language), it takes ever more effort to interpret complex material or be creative.
And, of course, repeated digital interruptions from our devices leads to higher rates of exhaustion and stress-induced ailments.
Stress
Speaking of stress, staying plugged in messes up our psyches in multiple ways:
- Information overload leads to overwhelm — To borrow a movie title, it can seem like we’re dealing with everything everywhere all at once. Your work, your children’s homework portal, national disasters, politics — it’s all so important.
The problem with everything seeming like a priority is that eventually nothing is a priority. All issues, large and small, compete on a stage the size of the planet, the form of your smartphone, and the synapses in your brain simultaneously.
The problem with everything seeming like a priority is that eventually nothing is a priority. All issues, large and small, compete on a stage the size of the planet, the form of your smartphone, and the synapses in your brain… Click To Tweet- Overwhelm leads to increased anxiety — Think about the last time you were trying to juggle multiple problems at the same time. I bet you were trying to give your attention to so many interested parties that one last, small request (“Honey, where’s the Costco card?” “Mom, can you take me to the mall?”) made you feel like your limbs where going to fly off in different directions.
- Use of social media leads to a variety of emotional dysfunctions. Over the last decade, social media use has grown; in 2022, the average person spent 2 hours and 27 minutes on social media per day. Why is that worrying?
- The more we connect online, the more we experience FOMO (fear of missing out).
- We more see other people having fun (attending parties, going on vacation, celebrating life milestones), the more likely we are to feel lonely.
- Comparing one’s own life to other’s highlight reels can lead to lower levels of self-esteem. If you judge your own self-worth by comparing yourself to others, social media may make you feel like you’re failing.
- As people — particularly younger folks — spend less time developing in-person social interactions and more time on social media and dating apps, there’s an increase in social awkwardness when they finally do meet face-to-face. This contributes to more social anxiety. Additionally, the social relationships we do have tend to fray without positive, in-person interactions.
- Social media makes it easier for people to exhibit bad behavior. Bullied teenagers used to have a respite from their cruel classmates once the school day was over; now, it follows them home on their phones and social gaming sites. And we all know about rude online treatment of anyone who dares to have a differing opinion on anything, whether politics, sports, or music, or has a different religious, national, ethnic, or other kind of identity.
- More nuanced unkindness online occurs in the withholding of likes or social approval, which again, when we compare our “performance” and “appeal” to that of others, can make us feel like we’re lacking.
- All of this can lead to depression.
- We can lose the ability to ability to self-soothe when we’re constantly tethered to our digital pacifiers. On the plus side, our devices can distract us from very real things that, well, suck. But when we become dependent on that kind of distraction, our former life skills dissolve. We used to be able to make polite conversation with strangers in line or read books for extended periods of time. We could go to sleep without an hour of scrolling. Now, we’re often unable to tame our thoughts unless we allow the internet to do it.
WHY IS IT SO HARD TO UNPLUG?
Every app and the whole on the internet is purposely designed to keep you coming back.
There’s a scientific explanation. Every time we use our devices, it reinforces the pathways taken by dopamine, a happy-making neurotransmitter at the base of our reward-seeking behaviors. Just like the bells and blinking lights on a Vegas slot machine condition us to pull the lever or push the buttons one more time, the notifications, “Breaking News” headlines, daily streaks in apps, and aforementioned “likes” draw us back in.
Worse, as with other addictions, when this neurotransmitter pathway doesn’t get reinforced, we actually experience something very similar to a chemical withdrawal. Have you ever found yourself without your phone, feeling jittery and unable to tame your mood?
It’s not your fault. You have to use modern devices for work, and you really do want to have access for many of life’s convenience. But you will feel better if you can lessen your dependence.
HOW TO UNPLUG FOR A DAY
To celebrate the Global Day of Unplugging, you can look for a community event near you. There’s everything from a musical chairs event in Charleston to Yoga and Sound Healing in Gainesville, from a Family Bonfire & S’Mores in Star, Idaho to something called a Disco Get Down-Dog in San Diego. And this truly is global, with events from Denmark to Bolivia, Virginia to Switzerland!
The Global Day of Unplugging organization has listed over 200 ideas of what you can do instead of being plugged in!
The idea isn’t to become a Luddite, but to find ways to feel less isolated or disconnected (whether from others or yourself). Ideas range from the tame (unclutter your pantry, take a hike, do some gardening) to those that indulge your inner child (build a living room fort, blow bubbles, put on a puppet show).
Create art (decorate a lantern, have fun with origami) or go on a quest (create a scavenger hunt or go on a Gnome hunt)! And while I’d be hopeless at crocheting for a cause or going on an ice-block slip & slide, all of these events would definitely be healthier for my brain, heart, and soul than scrolling through the curated slime-fest some platforms have become.
You can also support the global unplugging movement by making a donation or purchasing “merch,” but even joining at the free plan lets you download their “I/We Unplug” signs.
If you enjoy the Global Day of Unplugging, consider taking a tech sabbath as described by Tiffany Shlain in 24/6: Giving up Screens One Day a Week to Get More Time, Creativity, and Connection or doing a digital detox on a more regular basis, so you and your devices take a real break from one another.
TRY BABY STEPS TO GET MORE COMFORTABLE WITH UNPLUGGING
Nobody is saying that you have to become an in-person social diva overnight and join with others. If you’re more the “lone wolf” type, there are many ways to make it easier to unplug.
- Make it less convenient to access your phone when you should be doing something else. At work, put it in a drawer; if you work from home, take it to another room. When out and about, put your phone in your purse or work bag, inside a zippered compartment. Add friction!
- If you can’t keep your hands off your phone, use the accessibility functions to turn your phone to “grayscale.” When the display is limited to black, white, and grey, your brain gets fewer dopamine hits and you’ll be less compelled to reach for it.
- Use positive reinforcement. Doodle a message (like “UNPLUG!” or “Put me down!”) to yourself and take a photo (or create a graphic in Canva) that reinforces your goal on your locks screen.
- Silence notifications when you need to do focused deep work (but set expectations so co-workers or family trust you’ll get back to them).
- Don’t use your devices in the bedroom, at night or in the morning. Remember, the blue light from devices detracts from your ability to get recuperative sleep (meaning you’ll be distracted the next day), and using them first thing in the morning keeps you from starting your day focused and intentional. Don’t get sucked in to what’s trending.
- Don’t text and drive. Don’t dictate and drive. Don’t let your phone read texts aloud. Unless you’re getting directions or there’s an emergency, put your phone away.
And if you’re worried about your family, remember: it’s hard to limit screen time for kids and teens when you don’t model healthy digital hygiene yourself. Work together to support alternatives to an always-online life.
Ironically, the more technology gains a pernicious hold on our attention, the more we may need to consider technological solutions to untether.
For example, there’s an increase in apps to make it easier to not use apps! ClearSpace claims that 97% of its users reduced their screen time in the first week of use. It uses a minimalist design to block and limit distracting apps, reduce time spent doom scrolling, train attention through screen time challenges, and provide screen time accountability and reporting.
Similar apps for helping reduce screen use include Forest, Space, Off the Grid, and Elqi.
There’s even a new phone, the Minimal Phone, designed to make essential work easier but social media use less appealing.
The Minimal Phone uses an E-Ink display that’s supposed to reduce eye-strain and promote healthy sleep. The claim is that it’s “designed to discourage prolonged social media use, while still being perfect for essential tasks like emails and texts.” It’s higher tech than a flip phone, but less inviting than a typical smart phone.
UNPLUG TO ACHIEVE SILENCE
We tend to think of unplugging as it affects our eyes, but our ears get overstimulated, too.
The Sounds of Silence
Even 65 years ago, individuals were trying to unplug from the experience of audio overload, as The Restorative Pause of Silent Record Week and the below video both explain.
(Learn more about the phenomenon of “silent” records in Spin Magazine’s Silence is Golden and Music Weird’s The Sounds of Silence: A Brief History of Silent Recordings.)
A study entitled Is silence golden? Effects of auditory stimuli and their absence on adult hippocampal neurogenesis, published in 2013 in the journal Brain Structure and Function found that, for mice at least, silence can be “a proactive catalyst for neurogenesis.” In other words, silence can stimulate the creation of new brain cells. Stepping away from the pings and buzzes might not just make you calmer, but smarter!
And it’s not just the one-way silence that might benefit us. Last year, researchers found a problematic aspect of video conferencing. When we chat in person, we respond to yes-or-no questions, on average, within 297 milliseconds; on Zoom, it’s 976 milliseconds! We may not perceive the delay, but the slowdown interferes with the neural mechanisms regulate human conversation? Our physiological response? (Zoom) fatigue.
And one study found that two minutes of silence interspersed with, or after, relaxing music increased the calming power of music on cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, and respiratory systems. Silence combats the negative aspects of our online life.
You may find these trends toward silence intriguing enough to consider other ways you might unplug.
Silent Reading Groups
Silent Book Club has over 500 chapters in 50 countries. There’s no assigned reading, and you can meet, eat and drink, and read silently for an hour along with others equally craving silence. (They do socialize after the reading time.)
Carving Silence from Chaos
Earth FM offers a search engine to find the quietest places in the word’s loudest cities. Unplug from your devices, then escape the high decibels of your city and enter peaceful gardens, parks, pools, and arboretums.
Los Angeles Ornamental Japanese Garden, photo by Glen Bowman (CC 2.0)
Silent Salons
In many beauty salons, you can request a silent appointment or silent chair. It might seem contradictory to the idea of unplugging from the digital realm to have more one-to-one interactions. But sometimes, a person is overwhelmed by all auditory experiences. It’s OK to unplug from conversation, too.
Silent Travel
Unplugging is hard. Most of us would feel accomplished enough if we could put our phones away for an entire day. Given that, I’m fascinated by a new trend of traveling unplugged.
Silent travel is designed to be restorative and mindful, so when you return, you don’t need a vacation to recover from your vacation. Options include:
- Silent meditation retreats — Monks and nuns may be the best-known practitioners of silent meditation, but interest grows every year. A colleague has attended multiple silent retreats over the years, each scheduled in proximity to her birthday. The experience gives her the opportunity to focus on her thoughts and feelings, and do some self-analysis, things that would be very difficult amid the FOMO and constant contact inherent in carrying the internet around in her pocket.
- Quiet and silent nature reserves — Nature is not silent (though I wish the tree frogs outside my suburban home would considering hushing themselves.) Animals are, however, unlikely to buzz or ping or otherwise carry on a loud one-side conversation with a fellow creature halfway across the country. Organizations like Quiet Parks International promote awareness of listening to nature and our inner voices, reduce the impact of noise pollution, and foster the benefits of experiences that allow for embracing silence and the sounds of nature.
- Silent walks and walking tours — We already knew that walking was good for us, and silent walking didn’t begin with the TikTok trend, but it definitely increased in popularity as a result. However, reaping the emotional and cognitive benefits of walking is difficult when one’s phone is buzzing; walking while checking email (or stalking exes on Instagram) defeats the purpose.
For those of us who struggle with traditional meditation, especially the kinds that require sitting still, silent walking sans devices are an anxiety-busting revelation. Several organizations support such efforts by identifying locations and providing advice, including SilentWalks.org, Sharing Nature, and Ideas for Educating.
- Sleep tourism has become a whole thing in recent years, with the hospitality industry investing deeply in wellness options like specialized in-bed therapies, guided meditations, in-room essential oil infusers, and other treats. Sleep retreats offer options to modify sounds, aromas, temperatures, textures, surfaces, and experiences.
Bed in the Clouds Photo by Mo Eid
Escaping the negative effects of your phone is just the beginning; even the most middlebrow of hotel stays now include combination alarm clocks and sound machines so that your business trip dreams can be accompanied by the sounds of rushing water or birdsong.
If you’re a light sleeper, quiet hotels help unplug from other people’s conversations and devices. Quiet Hotels and QuietHotelRooms can help you find quiet spaces is noisy cities.
As you unplug from the digital world and sensory inputs, consider silent options.
READ MORE ABOUT UNPLUGGING
Attention and Mental Health (Center for Humane Technology)
Safe Technology North Carolina
Paper Doll Post:
Reference Files Master Class (Part 4) — Household and Personal Papers
As part of our 2024 refresh of classic posts and essential concepts in paper organizing, we’ve already looked at the what it’s time to let go of, the basic tools for creating a working filing system, and the first three categories of my approach to a personal or family filing system.
- Paper Doll Shares 12 Kinds of Paper To Declutter Now
- Reference Files Master Class (Part 1) — The Essentials of Paper Filing
- Reference Files Master Class (Part 2) — Financial and Legal Papers
- Reference Files Master Class (Part 3) — Medical Papers
In today’s post, we look at the last two elements of the system.
- Financial
- Legal
- Medical
- Household
- Personal
With each of these categories, there are times when a paper, digital, or hybrid approach is the optimal solution.
For financial documents, I encouraged establishing a baseline paper system for building skills in financial management; digital storage is a fine adjunct to that once you have a handle on your money and the related activities. For legal papers, digital storage provides a solid backup, but for your most vital documents, you will need to access the originals.
Last week as we saw with medical documents, paper and digital complement each other, depending on where you need to access the information as well as an individual’s adeptness with apps and software.
Those first three are the most “official” types of documents. If you don’t have access to financial or legal information, it can cause troubles with your credit history or the IRS, lead to you losing property, or even land you in jail. The consequences of not having medical information can range from inconvenient to life-threatening.
Happily, our final two categories are less fraught. Maintaining household papers helps you save money, reduce friction when seeking solutions, and provide quick answers. Meanwhile, an orderly system for personal papers helps generated a biographical history of you and your family members and develop a repository of personal research. Done well, you can avoid piles of random papers.
HOUSEHOLD FILES
You may be pretty proud of how you’ve managed your financials, but if you’re like most people, your household papers are strewn across a series of drawers, a cabinet in the kitchen, or an unlabeled hanging folder.
I get it. It’s probably easier for you to envision when and how you’d need financial — and maybe legal and medical — information. But household papers, while straightforward, can be wide-ranging, and shouldn’t be the paperwork equivalent of a junk drawer.
Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home, and while your home-related papers don’t often shout for attention, they need love.
House drawing created with Microsoft Bing Image Creator
Household Inventory
Both reasons to keep a household inventory require anticipating unpleasantness, so it’s no wonder people avoid the task.
If your house was the victim of a 100-year flood or if robbers made off with your possessions like thieves in the night (or, the way my car was stolen, in broad daylight!), would you be able to itemize your losses to the insurance company? Unless you live as modestly as a monk, you probably need a household inventory, something that identifies all the non-trivial items in the home and their value.
Unless you live as modestly as a monk, you probably need a household inventory, something that identifies all the non-trivial items in the home and their value. Click To TweetThe other situation is no less vexing. When a marriage dissolves, the proceedings require both members of the couple creating a marital asset list. This involves not only financial assets like bank and retirement accounts (as well as liabilities, like debts and mortgages), but also tangible assets, like your Grandma’s couch, his replica of the Stanley Cup (not these Stanley cups), and the antique table you bought together.
While a marital asset list requires more complexity than a standard inventory (specifying how it came how it was acquired, whether prior to the marriage, as a gift or bequest, or as jointly-purchased property), it builds on the information in the version for insurance purposes.
Home Inventory Basics
While a future post will review the finer points of creating a household inventory, there are some basic steps to follow.
- Pair up with your spouse, friend, or a professional organizer so that one person is moving clockwise around the room, not skipping anything, while the other transcribes the information.
- Consider furniture, wall hangings and free-standing decor, electronics, china, silver, crystal, jewelry, clothing, books, music, and personal effects. Note large furniture/items first, then deal with visible decor, then possessions inside of cabinets and drawers.
- Log a possession’s name or description; brand name, artist, or designer, its place of origin or how you came to own it, the general date of acquisition/purchase, and the price you paid. (To start, just log what you have; the rest can be filled in later.) Note where in the house the item is regularly kept.
- Go room-by-room, identifying and logging possessions.
The fastest method is to type it into a spreadsheet like Excel or Google sheets; if you hunt and peck, and can’t type faster than you handwrite, then designate your inventory partner to be the scribe while you circumnavigate the room.
Create a digital inventory file in the computer (backed up to the cloud), but print a copy for your paper files. (Most clients like to keep a copy of their printed home inventory at the front of their Household files section. You may want to put an additional copy behind your homeowner’s or renter’s insurance policy, in the Financial files.) When you sell or acquire something new, or replace a broken or outmoded item, mark it on the paper copy and just update the digital copy periodically.
An auxiliary photographic inventory can support your written one. This can range from something as simple as taking photos from a few different angles in your studio apartment and saving them to an “inventory” album in your phone’s photo app to doing a methodical photographic inventory of every piece of art, furniture, and fine jewelry.
The effort you expend should be proportional to the value of your possessions; nobody needs a photo of your curling iron or your wobbly thrift-store shoe rack.
If you decide to keep a combined written and photographic inventory, look at a spreadsheet/database hybrid like Airtable, which is free for up to 1 GB of attachments per base, and 1000 records per base.
There are also apps to make inventorying your space easier, including Encircle, Sortly, Memento Database, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ home inventory app, and more. We’ll discuss these in great detail in a future post.
Beyond the household
Your household inventory extends beyond your physical home. Remember to log your other spaces, such as:
- Backyard sheds or storage pods
- College dorm rooms (and summer storage if they don’t bring everything home)
- College students’ off-campus apartments
- Off-site storage units (in town, and any you maintain in other cities)
- Anything on your boat (or, if you’re a fancy-pants type, your jet)
- Time-shares
- AirB&B/Venmo properties, second homes, holiday cottages, and other real estate
After you complete your inventories — and it will probably take many sessions to gather all of the information needed — don’t forget to confer with your insurance agent to make sure you’re covered for the replacement value if you suffered losses. You may need to increase overall coverage or add insurance riders for individual pieces.
Home Maintenance Records
Whatever you do to your house likely would benefit from you capturing information about your house. Home maintenance records include:
- Seasonal household maintenance schedule
- Contact list of all the household helpers you use, from cleaners and plumbers to the people who clear your gutters, repair your roof, sweep your chimney.
- Service provider folders — If you have regularly scheduled services, whether indoors, like for pest removal, or outdoors, like lawn care or snow plowing, keep a folder for each company.
- List/description of your home’s light bulbs for under-cabinets, in-ceiling lights, and garage and/or outdoor lights. Don’t count on memory to know what base and light type goes where. (This is a lovely parting gift to pass along to anyone who buys your home!)
- Battery record — Keep a running list of what battery sizes everything in your home needs. Remotes take AA and AAA; toys and gadgets require C, D, and 9-volt; cordless phones use 2.4-volt batteries; personal medical equipment (like diabetes glucose meters) use flat button-style batters, like 2032s. Each time you buy something that requires batteries, log the battery size here.
- Family emergency plans and escape routes — Check Paper Doll Organizes You To Prepare for an Emergency for ideas on what to track.
- Fusebox/Circuit Breaker map — Over time, the labels on your fusebox start to fade. While you should refresh the writing, it’s helpful to have a chart or map to make sure you know what maps to what.
- Trouble-shooting notes — When your toilet glugs or your sump pump whistles or something goes awry, write down what the experts tell you to do so you’ll prepared the next time!
Depending on the size and nature of your home, this section might require multiple interior file folders in a few hanging folders, or you might prefer to create a 3-ring binder with sections for each for easy access by a babysitter or house sitter.
Auto Maintenance Records
Even if you only ever use one mechanic shop and they keep computerized records of all maintenance to your car, storing accurate records helps you financially.
Toy Car Photo by Atish Sewmangel on Unsplash
If your car’s manufacturer issues a recall or technical service bulletin, searchable at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, you may be able to recoup money you’ve already paid for repairs. Additionally, if you sell your car privately, prospective owners are more inclined to buy cars with a diligently maintained service history. Maintain:
- Service records — Every time you get an oil change or have a repair done, you should receive a printout of what work was done, on what date, at what mileage. Whether repairs are to the engine or the body work, be sure to request documentation.
- Purchases — Keep records of all purchases for your car, such as tires, batteries and windshield wipers.
- Size list — Unless you naturally remember what size tires or windshield wipers your car needs, writing this down somewhere will make life easier when you’re shopping.
- Mileage records — While not essential, if you do maintain mileage records for purposes other than tax deductions (like monitoring your gas efficiency), keep these here.
Don’t just crumple these papers in your glove compartment! Use interior folders for each category in one auto maintenance hanging folders. You may also want to keep a binder with copies of major purchase records (tires, engine parts, batteries, etc.) in your glove compartment or under the seat in case you need to replace an item under warranty while traveling.
Manuals for Assembly, Installation, Maintenance, and Repair
Do you speak Spanish and Japanese? Do you speak them fluently enough to reprogram your DVR or follow instructions for setting up your Wi-Fi network? If you aren’t fluent in the language in which the manual is written, say domo arigato for the service it has provided and arrivederci before recycling it!
If you don’t still own the thing, you don’t need the manual! If you give donate to charity or sell it in a yard sale, provide the instruction manual; if you throw the item away, toss the manual!
Households have a lot of appliances and random stuff. You may have manuals for:
- Major appliances like your furnace, refrigerator, washer/dryer, etc.
- Small kitchen, household, and personal appliances for blenders and toasters, humidifiers or vacuums, or hair dryers — Once you’ve owned the item a month or so, do you really need the instructions? If you can’t make toast, perhaps organizing shouldn’t be super-high on your priorities right now.
- Electronics, including audiovisual/entertainment devices, computer hardware, and software
- Toys and gadgets
- Furniture — If the manual tells you how to put something together or install it and you won’t ever be disassembling or uninstalling it, the manual may not be particularly useful to you.
A note about warranties
Most warranties aren’t worth the paper they are printed on. They’re either of short duration such that the products all die the day after the warranty expires or you have to jump through so many hoops to ship the product for repair that you’ll probably buy a replacement and not bother. If you decide a warranty is worth keeping, be sure to register the product (per the instructions) and then attach the warranty to the manual.
Organizing the manuals
If you have ample filing space, an interior folder for each of the above categories should suffice, though if any of your manuals are hefty, you might want a few folders for extended categories; if a lot of the manuals are “fat,” you might need quite a few hanging folders. Don’t overstuff!
SURPRISE: Instruction manuals don’t have to live in your regular personal or family file system!
Depending on the number and nature of the appliances in your home, you might use a three-ring binder with all of the kitchen appliance manuals (in sheet protectors). Don’t waste valuable kitchen counter space; just tuck the binder somewhere accessible, like the cabinet above your stove exhaust. Keep hardware and software manuals in magazine holders on the bookshelf nearest your computer.
It’s tempting to keep any paper related to your home just in case, but that leads to clutter. Ask yourself:
Why/when would I need this paper?
What’s the worst that could happen if I no longer had this manual? Most manuals are available online. When Paper Mommy bought a new TV last year, there was no paper manual, so we just Googled the make and model, and found the instructions online.
Check these classic Paper Doll posts for advice on downsizing and organizing your manuals:
- Paper Doll’s Manual Override – Part 1: Declutter and Organize Owner’s Manuals
- Paper Doll’s Manual Override – Part 2: Twelve Resources To Find An Owner’s Manual
- Paper Doll’s Manual Override – Part 3: Create & Organize A Digital Owner’s Manual Library
YouTube is full of helpful videos, and web sites offering online user and repair manuals, like Fix It Now, SkillCat Appliance Manual Lookup Tool, and User’s Manual Guide abound.
There are also apps for finding digital versions of manuals, like The Lost Manual, which you can browse by brand or item category.
Decorating/Remodeling Plans
If all those HGTV remodeling shows give you joy, make room in your filing system for:
- Project notes and plans for decorating and/or remodeling
- Project budgets
- Swatches of upholstery and paint samples
- Receipts — Generally, all receipts go in the Financial files. However, once the current tax year has passed, if these receipts don’t fit your “big ticket item” file needs, they may still be useful for identifying where you purchased items you might need repaired, replaced, or augmented.
Gardening Records
Are you an out-of-doors person? Paper Doll is decidedly in-of-doors. However, if your yard includes plants, shrubbery, or heirloom flowers or you have a vegetable garden for which you need to maintain adequate rotation records year-after-year, make a few interior folders for a gardening hanging folder. (Digital files or apps are equally fine. This is a low-stress category!)
PERSONAL FILES
We are all guilty of keeping excess personal papers out of habit. Maybe some secret part of us imagines we’ll be asked to provide resources for our biographers someday? Perhaps we fear our memories will fail in our later years. (But will memories of having earned Most Valuable Player in 8th grade soccer matter to us in our 80s?) Paper Doll won’t judge you, but make things easy on yourself and those who will come after by making your personal files orderly.
Break down your family’s Personal section by individual (just as we did last week for Medical); each person’s records are divided into items of personal history and personal interest. If your entire family has specific activities or pursuits (like attending your house of worship or planning an annual family reunion), create a “family” section as if the collective family were an additional family member.
Personal History
These represent who you were and are. Each sub-category can generally go into its own interior folder.
Educational History
The older you are, the less important these documents become for use in the outside world; it’s up to you to determine how much you value them for personal use.
- Academic transcripts
- Standardize test scores (SAT or ACT, GRE, GMAT, LSAT, MCAT)
- Letters of recommendations from professors or academic mentors
- Select academic papers — If you have your diploma, I encourage you to toss anything that doesn’t make your heart sing. Unless you wrote a brilliant blue book essay or world renowned paper, only keep what bolsters your self-esteem (and only until you no longer feel the need for extrinsic rewards).
- Continuing education credits or certificates
- Your senior or graduate thesis (If it’s bound and published, display it on your bookshelves or coffee table. Great job!)
Toddler Graduate created with Microsoft Bing Image Creator
Professional History
The longer you have been in your profession, and particularly the longer you have been out of a the workplace altogether, the less you need. Keep whatever records your profession requires; for everything else, pare things down to just what is truly meaningful. These may include:
- Licenses and/or certifications — Only keep expired ones if your profession or insurance requires proof of prior licensing.
- Resumes — Modern resumes are designed to be read by algorithms and are so different from what GenX or Boomers recall. Your LinkedIn is probably more accurate. Keep only what allows you to identify dates and locations.
- Professional letters of recommendation or of gratitude from clients, customers, superiors, or vendors. (Again, this is just for warming your heart.)
- Citations of bravery or success
- Newspaper clippings (but not the entire newspaper or section) noting your professional successes, wisdom, or acumen.
Military History
Basic military service records go in the VIP section of your legal paperwork; things like your separation paperwork allow you to prove your service record and collect VA and financial benefits.
However, your military history also includes the more personal records of your time in the service. You may choose to maintain:
- Enlistment records
- Training and qualification records
- Copies of your military separation papers (the originals will be with your VIPs)
- Citations, decorations, and awards, along with copies of written references submitted in support of you earning them.
- Letters of commendation
- Correspondence regarding replacement of medals
Toddler Navy created with Microsoft Bing Image Creator
Paper Doll Post:
Reference Files Master Class (Part 1) — The Essentials of Paper Filing
COPING WITH PAPER OVERWHELM
After last week’s post, Paper Doll Shares 12 Kinds of Paper To Declutter Now, I had a number of readers mention to me that while knowing what to get rid of helps them deal with their paper piles, they were still sometimes at a loss as to what to do with the rest.
Some fear they should be scanning everything to keep it digital, but don’t even own scanners. Others feel frustrated because even when they’ve arranged to get (and pay) their bills digitally, they still have paper coming to them. Many people feel at odds with the 21st-century pressure to have digital records, and don’t particularly feel adept with handling papers digitally. (They forget to look at email until it’s too late, or they never get around to scanning, or information just doesn’t seem “real” to them if it’s not in tangible form).
Over the 16+ years that I’ve been blogging as Paper Doll, I’ve tried to get across that whether you use analog or digital techniques — whether for paying bills, or keeping track of your appointments and tasks, or filing or archiving your information — doesn’t matter. That is, the method doesn’t matter; the commitment to a system is what is most important.
But 16 years is a long time. Babies born during the launch of my first Paper Doll posts are old enough to drive! To give you a sense of how long ago that was, Desperate Housewives was still a top-10 TV show (and people were still watching broadcast television). The top song was Crank That (Soulja Boy) and we were all trying (and mostly failing) to do the dance.
I originally wrote about the elements of a reference filing system in the first month of Paper Doll posts, back in 2007. It’s time to revisit the topic, see how digital solutions do (and don’t) help with the paper overwhelm, and introduce new readers to the best ways to manage paper.
Over the next several weeks, we’ll be taking a fresh look at how eliminate the frustration of paper files.
The Ice Cream Rule
The key to making any system work is just that — a system. That means having a location where something belongs and behavioral rules to get them there. I often refer to this as the Ice Cream Rule. If you come home from the store with two bags, one holding a half gallon of cream and one with a package of toilet paper, which one will you put away first? And where would you put them?
Even people who insist that they’re terrible with systems laugh and admit that they automatically know to put the ice cream away first; they recognize that they’ll end up with a melted mess if they do not.
They also have no worries that they’ll put the ice cream where they won’t be able to find it again — in the cupboard or the pantry — because their system not only includes behavioral cues (ice cream before toilet paper), but a geographic location (that is, the freezer) where the ice cream belongs.
Yes, people may drop the bag with the toilet paper on the kitchen floor, or hang it on the linen closet door, or actually put away the toilet paper in the bathroom right after getting the ice cream in the freezer.
Admittedly, the behavioral part of putting away non-urgent items isn’t perfect. The squeaky wheel gets the oil, and when it comes to putting things away properly, ice cream’s urgency is squeakier than toilet paper. (That said, the retrieval of ice cream is likely to be less urgent.)
A HOME FOR YOUR REFERENCE FILING SYSTEM
The point, and I do have one, is that to create order with the paper in our lives, we must ensure that we know exactly where everything goes. How? Filing papers is easy once each item is assigned a place to live. All of your reference papers need to have a home.
Keep in mind, that home does not have to be a palace. You certainly can invest in filing cabinets. These range from bargain 2-drawer metal filing cabinets to office-style 4-drawer tower-style cabinets.
If you prefer lateral filing cabinets (where you stand to the side of the open drawer, rather than in front of it), there are a variety of styles and materials from which to choose.
However, if you’re new to the process of getting your files in order, or if you’re trying to revamp an old, ill-fitting filing system, I encourage you to start fresh with something portable and accessible.
I’ve always preferred to maintain my files in Sterilite plastic milk-crate style filing boxes, which rarely run more than $7/each. They have internal hanging file rails, usually accommodating both letter- and legal-sized files, are stackable, and come in a wide variety of colors.
Clients are often surprised that I prefer milk-crate style filing boxes to alternate styles, like transparent, lidded filing bins (which tend to warp over time and don’t have secure handles for making them easy to carry).
I also prefer the crates to portable file totes with lunchbox-style handles.
These can be fine if you have a very small number of files, as may be the case if you’re in college or just starting life after school. But most individuals, and definitely families, find that their paper in the five main reference file categories is too much for one box to handle.
Additionally, it’s been my experience with client files that the handles of overstuffed file boxes tend to break off from the lid. Sometimes, that causes the lid to pull open, and files to spill across the floor. That’s almost as bad as melted ice cream!
Of course, if you move homes often enough that protection and coverage of your files is a concern, handled totes are at least better than flat-lidded tubs. But unless portability in the outdoors is an issue for you, given the price of totes (often $25-30), I still lean toward using crates. Your mileage may vary.
SIDEBAR ON ACTION VS. REFERENCE FILING
Please note that this post and the forthcoming ones in this series all address reference files, papers we put away for when something in our lives trigger us to go looking for them, unlike action papers, where the information (due dates, inquiries, etc.) on the papers themselves trigger us to use them.
Action papers tend to get stuck on refrigerators or bulletin boards, or in the file risers on desks, though longtime Paper Doll readers know that for action papers, I recommend a tickler file, something with 31 slots for the days of the month and 12 slots for the months of the year.
Every piece of action-oriented paper gets assigned a day to either begin action or consider it; as the tickler file is consulted daily, nothing action-oriented falls through the cracks.
For more information on using a tickler file to organize your action paperwork, I refer you to my classic ebook, Tickle Yourself Organized.
FILE ORGANIZING ESSENTIALS
To get your personal/family reference files in order, you just need these basics:
A Container for Hanging Folders
For pure reference files that you’ll be dipping in and out of, follow the cabinet, crate, tub, or tote suggestions above.
If you’re holding onto archived files — papers for a closed company, a project long-since ended but for which you have to maintain records, tax folders from more than a decade ago, etc. — Bankers boxes (flat-packed boxes that require no insect-attracting glue) are an excellent option. Avoid random liquor store or Amazon boxes, neither of which are suited to the purpose of long-term, vertical paper storage.
Hanging Folders
The standard hanging folder is an Army green color that has never won any awards for aesthetics, but you’re likely to find that they’re the least expensive. That said, hanging folders are manufactured in a variety of colors. You can pick one color for all of your files, or (although I don’t recommend it), you can color-code the five main categories of your reference filing system.
The standard hanging folder has two metal or plastic rods. The more modern rods are plastic, glide more easily on file rails, and are sturdier and less likely to rip away from the paper wrapped around them. However, they tend to be more expensive than the generic, Army-green basic-rod folders.
Smead and Pendaflex have long been the go-to names in hanging file folders (as with interior folders, below). I think the key is to look for the word “reinforced,” such as with the Pendaflex SureHook Reinforced Hanging Folders, which not only have the plastic rods with tension springs, but also polylaminate strips across both top edges around the rods and along bottom fold for increased durability.
Traditionally, we recommend hanging files like the versions above. They’re expandable (up to a point) though I rarely put more than two or three interior file folders in each hanging folder. There are also 1-inch and 2-inch box-bottom hanging folders (open at the sides, like regular hanging folders) and hanging jackets (closed, with accordion-style side-gussets).
If, even after a serious culling of excess papers, you have catalogs, guides, or thick folders (such as for legal depositions or technical manuals), you may choose one of these options, but they’re not usually necessary for standard filing.
Lastly, don’t worry about tab-related bells and whistles for hanging folders. Most come with the traditional hard plastic label tabs that you can insert anywhere along the horizontal strips covering the metal or plastic rod. More modern hanging folders have fold-up or pull-up tabs you can label; these are often erasable.
I’m a big believer in concentrating your labeling on the interior file folder tabs themselves. Because the basic personal/family file system only has five overarching categories (as explained at the bottom of this post), if your interior files are well-labeled, hanging file labels are mostly extraneous.
Over the years, many of the clients I’ve encountered who had struggle with filing chose to only use hanging files without any interior folders — and they hated filing. No wonder! Hanging files weren’t designed to be precisely categorized folders for documents, but staging areas or category markers for general sections of files, to hold interior folders.
I tell clients to think of hanging folders as warm winter coats (an apt metaphor today, given that much of the country is experiencing blizzard conditions) while the interior file folders are more precise, covering specific topics (much like shirts cover the top half of your body, trousers the bottom half, and socks and shoe cover your feet).
Alternatively, think of paper as having a clothing storage analogy: you have a house, in which you have a bedroom closet, in which you have rods and closets, on which you hang clothes on specific hangers and fold into specific drawers. Similarly, you’ll have filing cabinets or boxes, in which hanging folders will hold interior folders, which are filled with individual papers.
File Folders (Also Called Interior Folders)
For clients just getting started with filing, I encourage using plain 1/3-cut manila folders and not to bother with fancy or obscure tabbing systems or lots of different color combinations.
It’s not that you shouldn’t buy a colorful assortment of folders, per se (though they do tend to be more expensive), but that they introduce a layer of complications.
Let’s say you intend to color-code your files, and you decide that all of your financial folders will be green. What happens when you open a new financial account but have run out of green folders?
Are you likely to notice you’re running low on folders and order in advance? (If you’re like the typical person struggling with organizing paper, the answer is probably no.) Are you really going to jump up right after your current organizing session to run out and get green folders. (Again, probably not.)
So, depending on your style, you might create a folder in a different color, messing up the color-coded system you decided to use (against my persnickety advice), or more likely, you might not stash those papers in any folder at all, planning to attend to them “someday,” which we all know is not a day on the calendar.
As for 1/3-cut, that means the folder tabs are on the left, in the center, or on the right. (Note: if you run short on left-tabbed folders, just turn a right-tabbed one inside out, or vice versa, and you’ll have what you need! Obviously, center-tabbed folders remain the same.)
Some clients experiment with other tab styles. While they’re less common, there are 1/2-cut file folders, sometimes called half-tab folders; the left tabs take up the left half of the folder, the right tabs take up the right half, offering a larger space for labels, like so:
This is mostly a stylistic choice, but you are much more likely to be able to quickly replace your 1/3-cut folders with more 1/3-cut folders than to easily find 1/2-cut folders anywhere but online.
Similarly, there are also straight-cut file folders with just one tab running the entire length of the folder. They do provide the maximum space for labeling, but that’s not usually necessary for personal or family files. Again, this is stylistic.
Finally, I will caution you against 1/5-cut file folders for functional reasons. As you might guess, those have 5 tabs — one on the far left, interior left, center, interior right, and far right. The tabs on 1/5-cut file folders are just too small to label meaningfully. You will be frustrated by these.
If you’re starting from scratch or doing a major file overhaul, buy a box of 100 folders.
Label Maker (semi-optional)
Paper Doll has terrible handwriting. This wasn’t always the case, but the longer I predominantly create using a keyboard, the worse my penmanship gets. If your writing is legible, you can probably get away with using a nice, thick Sharpie to label your folders.
However, I think everyone benefits from using the teeny bit of technology afforded by a label maker. Even if you have good penmanship, the formality and uniformity of a label maker makes a label seem “official.”
For people who are already inclined to keep up with their filing, it probably makes little to no difference. But if you’re tempted to run away and join the circus rather than file away even a small stack of files, anything you can do to make the task more appealing is going to help. That means having “nice” folders (rather than erasing and re-using folders that have been jammed in drawers, stomped on by the dog, or stained by spilled coffee).
Similarly, having labels with crisp, dark text on a white background, in a uniform font, and preferably in all-caps, makes it more likely that you’ll take your filing seriously and pop papers where they belong.
The big names in label makers are Brother and Dymo. Professional organizers are pretty split on their strong loyalty to one of the two, and I’m no exception. I prefer the Brother line of label makers for intuitiveness and ease of use. If you’re hoping to either start a brand new system or refresh the one you have, begin with a label maker with an easy learning curve, like the PT-70MB Personal Handheld Labeler. It’s light-weight, has 54 font combinations and two-line printing, and usually runs only about $20.
For anywhere from double to five times the price, you can upgrade to a version with added options, like Bluetooth connectivity, increased font sizes, increased memory, and number of printable lines. Start off simple, and if you really crave something with more oomph once you’ve mastered the basics, you can pass the basic one along to your teen or donate it.
As we go along in this series over the next several weeks, we’ll talk about how to label your files, but the primary concerns will be clarity, specificity, and consistency.
Finally, where applicable, we’ll be talking about how, if you prefer to organize your information digitally, you’ll want to make sure your labeling system for digital files matches your system for paper files.
Binders (optional)
Some clients have three-ring binders on-hand and plan to use them for their filing system. They quickly come to realize that the more friction — the more added steps — the less likely they are to actually file their papers.
The more friction — the more added steps — in your filing system, the less likely you are to actually file away your papers. Make your filing system attractive and easy to use. Click To TweetThat said, for most of your personal and family papers, using interior and hanging folders will be the simplest way to handle your filing. Match the piece of paper to the right file folder, pop the paper into the front of the folder (using reverse chronological order filing) and you’re done!
Voila!
However, to put papers in a binder, you have to find your three-ring hole punch, punch the holes, open to the labeled section of your binder (because binders will necessarily encase multiple sub-categories), pop-open the rings, insert the paper, close the rings, flip all the paper to one side (or else a full binder won’t close) and close the binder. See? Friction!
And that assumes you won’t pinch your fingers, which is quite the optimistic assumption.
That doesn’t mean binders are never useful. For example, for financial filing, I tend to encourage binder-loving clients to save binders for investment portfolio filing where the portfolio management company tends to send thick stacks of dozens of papers monthly or quarterly. Often, these management companies pre-punch the stacks, making for slightly less friction, and sometimes even provide binders with pre-labeled monthly tabs.
Binders can also server purposes for creating household cookbooks or for building portable family medical documentation. As we go through the next several posts, I’ll note where binders may be good alternatives to file folders.
A RE-INTRODUCTION TO THE FAMILY FILING SYSTEM
Since 2007, I’ve been talking to readers and clients about the family filing system for all of a household’s reference papers. You may have a three-generation family of seven or your household may just be you (and the voices in your head singing harmony with you when you belt out Taylor Swift while filing).
There are no rules legislating where you keep your files. A home office is the most logical place, but if you live in a studio apartment or the only area not overrun by your children or furry friends is the kitchen desk file drawer, so be it. Keep your files where it will easy to put papers away and just as easy to get them out again.
You need good (enough) lighting to read your labels, and you (and the rest of the household) needs to not pile random household stuff (pizza boxes? stuffed animals? dry cleaning?) on top of your filing home. Otherwise, pick an area that makes you happy.
The best personal or family filing system is one offering simplicity and ease of access. You need to be able to keep related papers together. To that end, I teach that all of your personal or family reference files will fall under one of five main categories:
- Financial
- Legal
- Medical
- Household
- Personal
Over the course of the next several posts, you’ll see that everything for you, your family, and your household will fit in these categories. “Miscellaneous” is a thing of the past!
Affiliate Disclosure: Some of the links above are affiliate links, and I may get a small remuneration (at no additional cost to you) if you make a purchase after clicking through to the resulting pages. The opinions, as always, are my own. (Seriously, who else would claim them?)
Paper Doll Post:
24 Smart Ways to Get More Organized and Productive in 2024
Happy New Year! Happy GO Month!
January is Get Organized & Be Productive (GO) Month, an annual initiative sponsored by the National Association of Productivity & Organizing Professionals (NAPO). We professional organizers and productivity experts celebrate how NAPO members work to improve the lives of our clients and audiences by helping create environments that support productivity, health, and well-being. What better way to start the year than creating systems and skills, spaces and attitudes — all to foster a better way of living?!
To start GO Month, today’s I’m echoing Gretchen Rubin’s 24 for ’24 theme that I mentioned recently, and offering you 24 ways to move yourself toward a more organized and productive life in 2024. There are 23 weekdays in January this year, so if you’re feeling aspirational and want to conquer all of these, you can even take the weekends off as the last item is a thinking task rather than a doing task.
I broke these organizing and productivity achievements down by category, but there’s no particular order in which you need to approach them, and certainly you don’t need to accomplish every one on the list, in January or even all year. Jump in and get started — some only take a few minutes.
PUT LAST YEAR AWAY
1) Make many happy returns!
Did you know that shoppers will return $173 billion in merchandise by the end of January? Chances are good that you (or someone for whom you oversee such things) got gifts that need to be returned.
Don’t put it off. The longer you wait, the more clutter will build up in your space, and the more likely you will be to suffer clutter-blindness until the return period has expired. Most stores have extended return policies during the holidays, but they can range upward from 30, depending on whether you have a gift receipt.
The Krazy Coupon Lady blog reviews the 2024 return deadlines for major retailers. She notes that you’ll get your refunds faster by returning items to the brick & mortar stores rather than shipping them back. You’ll also save money, because some online retailers charge a restocking fee.
2) Purge your holiday cards.
While tangible greeting are getting fewer and farther between, you probably still got a stack. Reread them one last time, and then LET THEM GO.
Did Hallmark or American Greetings do the heavy lifting, and the senders just signed their names? Toss them into the recycling bin. Paper Doll‘s grants you permission to only save cards with messages that are personal or resonant.
If they don’t make you cry, laugh, or go, “Ohhhhh,” don’t let them turn into the clutter you and your professional organizer will have to toss out years from now when you’re trying to downsize to a smaller home! It’s a holiday message, not a historical document; you don’t transcribe your holiday phone conversations and keep them forever, right?
The same goes for photos of other people’s families. You don’t have to be the curator of the museum of other people’s family history; let them do that.
3) Update your contacts.
Before you toss those cards, check the return addresses on the envelopes and update the information in your own contacts app, spreadsheet, or address book.
Next, delete the entries for people you’ll never contact again — that ex (who belongs in the past), that boss who used to call you about work stuff on weekends (ditto), people who are no longer in your life, and those who are no longer on this mortal coil.
If you don’t recognize the name of someone in your contacts, Google them or check LinkedIn (is it your mom’s doctor? your mechanic?) and if you still don’t know who it is, you’re obviously not going to be calling or texting them. Worst case scenario, if they text you, you can type back, “New phone, who dis?”
BOX UP YOUR INBOXES
4) Delete (most of) your old voicemails.
How often do you return a call only to hear, “The voicemail box is full and is not accepting messages. Please try again later.” When someone calls you and requests you call them back but their voicemail is full, it’s frustrating because it makes more labor for you.
Do you assume that it’s a cell phone and text them? (I believe texting strangers without permission is a breach of etiquette.) Plan to call back later? Assume that they’ll see the missed call and get back to you, starting another round of phone tag? ARGH!
Dial in to your voicemail and start deleting. Save phone numbers for anyone you’ll need to contact and log anything you may need to follow up on. But unless you’re saving a voicemail for legal purposes or because you can see yourself sitting in an airport, listening to a loved one’s message over and over (cue sappy rom-com music), delete old voicemails.
If you’ve got a landline, clear that voicemail. If you’ve still got an answering machine, how’s the weather in 1997? Yeah, delete old messages.
Smith.ai has a great blog post on how to download important voicemails (from a wide variety of phone platforms) to an audio file. Stop cluttering your voicemail inbox!
5) Clear Your Email Inboxes
Start by sorting your inbox by sender and deleting anything that’s advertising or old newsletters. If you haven’t acted on it by now, free yourself from inbox clutter! Delete! Then conquer email threads, like about picking meeting times (especially if those meetings were in the past).
Take a few minutes at the end of each day to delete a chunk of old emails. To try a bolder approach, check out a classic Paper Doll post from 2009, A Different Kind of Bankruptcy, on how to declare email bankruptcy.
6) Purge all of your other tangible and digital inboxes.
Evernote has a default inbox; if you don’t designate into which folder a saved note should go, your note goes somewhere like Paper Doll‘s Default Folder. Lots of your note-taking and other project apps have default storage that serves as holding pens. Read through what you’ve collected — sort by date and focus on the recent items first — and either file in the right folders or hit delete!
Walk around your house or office and find all the places you tend to plop paper down. Get it in one pile. (Set aside anything you’ll absolutely need in the next few days to safeguard it.) Take 10 minutes a day to purge, sort, and file away those random pieces of paper so that you always know where they are.
HIT THE PAPER TRAIL
7) Embrace being a VIP about your VIPs.
You need your Very Important Papers for all sorts of Very Important Reasons. If the last few years have proven anything, it’s that life is unpredictable, so we need to find ways to make things as predictable and dependable as possible.
Yes, putting together essential paperwork isn’t fun. It’s boring. But you want it to be boring. The more boring your vital documents are, the more it means there will be no surprises for your loved ones in troubling times (like during and after an illness, after a death, while recovering possessions after a natural disaster) or even when you’re just trying to accomplish something like getting on an airplane.
Start with these posts, then make a list of any document you already have (and where it is), and another list of what you need to create, and plan meetings with your family and a trusted advisor to set things in motion.
How to Replace and Organize 7 Essential Government Documents
How to Create, Organize, and Safeguard 5 Essential Legal and Estate Documents
The Professor and Mary Ann: 8 Other Essential Documents You Need To Create
Paper Doll’s Ultimate Guide to Getting a Document Notarized
Paper Doll’s Ultimate Guide to Legally Changing Your Name
A New VIP: A Form You Didn’t Know You Needed
8) Create your tax prep folder now so you’ll be ready for April 15th.
Do you toss non-urgent mail on top of the microwave? Might those important 1099s and 1098s and 1095-A and W-2s get lost? Don’t lose deductions, pay more taxes, or get in trouble with the IRS!
By the end of January, you’ll start getting tax documents in the mail. Pop them in a folder in your financial files or in a dedicated holder like the Smead All-in-One Income Tax Organizer.
Nothing will get lost and you’ll be able to see your accountant (or get into your tax prep software) sooner, saving time and money (in CPA dollar-hours and tax deductions).
SANITIZE WHAT YOU DIGITIZE
9) Delete the apps you never use.
Yes, really. This is even easier than donating possessions you never use, because you can always re-download the apps if you suddenly need them.
Delete the apps you never use. This is even easier than donating or tossing possessions you never use, because you can always re-download the apps if you suddenly need them. Click To TweetStart with the apps you used the least often (or never). To see the last time you used an app on iOS (for iPhone or iPad), follow this path: Settings>General > iPhone (or iPad) Storage. There are a few different ways to check app usage on Android devices. If you haven’t used an app much, delete it. If you’ve used it TOO much, move the icon to a secondary screen so you’ll be less tempted by it.
10) Unsubscribe to all of those emails trying to sell you stuff.
In August, I bought one thing at Lane Bryant (prompted by my colleague Danielle Carney, who has impeccable taste), but generally, their clothing doesn’t fit me. When I clicked the unsubscribe link, it offered me an option of getting only one email a week. FIB!!! This holiday season, they sent me up to five emails a day!
A pair of eyeglass frames I liked from EyeBuyDirect was out of stock, so I added my name to a list to be notified if they returned to the inventory. In the month afterward, I got at least three emails a day.
Type “unsubscribe” in your email’s search box and you’ll find newsletters and sales emails. Scroll to the bottom to find tiny links to their unsubscribe pages. Don’t be tempted by their scorned romantic partner act. Buy things when you need and want them, not when advertising (and that’s what this email is!) inveigles you to do it! You can always sign up again to get discount codes (and the unsubscribe after your purchase!
Buy things when you need and want them, not when advertising (and that's what this email is!) inveigles you to do it! You can always sign up again to get discount codes (and the unsubscribe after your purchase! Click To Tweet11) Close the browser tabs.
Your hard drive is exhausted by the oodles of tabs you’ve had open for days, weeks, months. Your phone is pooped, too.
Plan time to read your open browser tabs or store them (with a bookmark or in Evernote/OneNote/Notes). If you know you’ll never look at a stored link, why would you look at a perpetually open tab? Read it, or text the link to a friend who will read it and tell all about what you need to know.
And, honestly, close the tabs in your brain. Whether it takes therapy or a good vacation, let go of the ruminations and recriminations that haunted you last year. Ban brain clutter!
PERK UP YOUR PLANNING
12) Pick a planning system that works for you.
Are you a paper person? If you don’t have a planner that will make sure you honor all of your commitments, buy a planner today. Consider these three guidelines:
- You need a month-at-a-glance view. Daily and weekly views don’t offer enough long-range details to let you plan your life over time.
- You need enough space for you to write. Paper planners force people with messy/loopy handwriting to stay within limits but show vital details. Digital calendars tend to hide most of the details until you click through. (Will you always remember to click through?)
- You need ONE planner for your business and personal appointments. If one calendar has your medical appointments and your kids’ schedules, and another has work obligations, you’ll never protect against recitals or games conflicting with your big presentation. (Yes, digital calendars like Google’s have an advantage; with one click, you can layer or remove different calendar views.)
Organizing your life starts with the ability to visualize your time. Stick with any method that works for you, but if digital has come up short for you, going analog will help you see the forest AND the trees.
13) Update every detail in your planner for the entire year.
Filling in January isn’t enough. Assuming you’ll remember that you always have a specific meeting on the fourth Tuesday of the month is a recipe for disaster the first time you schedule something when you’re sleepy or cranky or ill.
- Go through last year’s planner and copy over everything that recurs on the same dates (like birthdays and anniversaries).
- Add in the things that happened last year and are already scheduled to happen again, but not on the same dates (like conferences, work retreats, mammograms, medical appointments, etc.).
- Use last year’s calendar to prompt you to make a list of everything you need to schedule or add to your long-range tasks, like setting an sit-down with your CPA or scheduling medical appointments.
14) Refresh your commitment to your planning system…daily.
If you’re so overwhelmed that you forget to check your planner (or to write down appointments in the first place), upgrade your accountability:
- Set an alarm on your phone to ring at around 4:45 p.m. daily to remind you to check your calendar and tickler file for the next day and the coming week.
- Have an assistant? Schedule time each day to review revised appointments and obligations.
- Hold weekly family meetings to make sure every appointment and school pick-up is covered.
- Schedule your next appointments before leaving anyplace you visit intermittently (dentist, massage therapist, hairdresser) — but only if you have your calendar with you. Otherwise, have them follow up. Never agree to any date without your planner nearby.
CONTROL YOUR MONEY, HONEY!
15) Wall off your wallet from clutter.
Clutter in your wallet keeps you from realizing how much money you’re really spending. It’s hard to be intentional if your wallet is full of old receipts, ATM slips, and gift cards you’ve forgotten you own.
Purge, then inventory everything you decide to keep in your wallet. Now gather info on your license, insurance cards, and debit/credit cards. Empty your wallet, and line up your cards in two columns. Either place them on your printer to scan/photo copy them or take a snapshot with your phone; be sure to flip each card over in the same position, and capture the backs. Password-protect the document and keep it safe and handy.
If you have to do multiple sets of columns stacks, you may have too much in your wallet. Consider keeping loyalty cards in your phone’s digital wallet (like Apple Pay) or use stores’ apps. You’ll be able to scan a QR code in lieu of a tangible card.
16) Cash in your coins.
Do you have piles of coins next to your bed, in a jar the laundry room, in your coat pockets, and at the bottom of your bag? It weighs you down (literally) and wastes financial potential. If you’ve got kids, let them roll the coins and take them to the bank, giving them a cut. (Make sure they wash their hands afterwards.) Or, take it to a Coinstar machine or a credit union that accepts counts coins for free.
If you find foreign coins in your pile and you won’t be headed back to that local, donate them to UNICEF’s Change for Good program the next time you fly one of their partner airlines.
17) Get the big picture.
Let 2023 be the year you figure out what’s going on with your money. As your bills and statements come in, make a list of all of your credit cards, loans, and other debts, as well as their balances and interest rates. Seeing it in black and white in one place is the first step toward taking organizing your financial future.
PRESERVE YOUR LEGACY
18) Preserve and secure preserve your photos.
Do you have print photos that would be lost in case of a fire or flood because you don’t have the negatives (or store them with the photos)? Would digital photos on your phone be lost if your phone got smushed or stolen? You need backup!
Contact a NAPO member who specializes in organizing photos, or visit The Photo Managers to find experts who can help you safeguard your photo history.
And because I can’t speak highly enough of it, read What’s a Photo Without the Story? How to Create Your Family Legacy by my colleague Hazel Thornton.
I know you don’t want to hear it — but you need to back things up. If your computer crashes (or an asteroid crashes through your roof and right onto your computer), you need to have backups of important stuff of work and life. First read this:
Paper Doll’s Ultimate Stress-Free Backup Plan
If it stresses you out, reach out to a professional organizer who specializes in organizing technology who can walk you through each step.
That takes care of the info as long as you need to access it. But what if your loved ones need to access your digital assets after you’ve reached a higher plane of ascendancy? I’ve got you covered.
Paper Doll Explains Digital Social Legacy Account Management
How to Create Your Apple & Google Legacy Contacts
So far, we’ve hit your paper, your money, your time, and your digital life. But what about YOU? Sometimes, the hardest part of getting organized and productive is getting out of our own way.
20) Declare bankruptcy on clutter debt.
Holding onto something just because you spent money on it, or because it was a gift, or because you feel guilty letting it go doesn’t make it any more valuable or useful; it just ends of costing you time (dusting or caring for it), space (that you could use for more important things), or money (spent on dry-cleaning or storage rental).
Holding onto something just because you spent money on it, or because it was a gift, or because you feel guilty letting it go doesn't make it any more valuable or useful; it just ends of costing you time, space, or money. Free up the… Click To TweetGive yourself permission to declare bankruptcy on the “debt” of clothing that doesn’t fit, unread books and magazines, or charitable contribution requests that aren’t your vibe. Quit clubs you don’t enjoy. Resign from volunteer positions that don’t fulfill you. Whether it’s clutter in your space, schedule, or psyche, declare bankruptcy and move on!
21) Invite support and accountability.
It can be hard to ask for help, but nobody gets to the top of the mountain alone.
- Have a serious talk with your spouse about sharing the load — not just the physical labor, but the mental load, too.
- Be honest with your friends instead of trying to keep up with the Instagram Joneses. Ask for accountability when you’re struggling to fulfill your obligations to yourself. Be accountability partners over phone, text, or Zoom to get tasks done.
- Go virtual for formal accountability. Check out Count on Accountability: 5 Productivity Support Solutions and Flow and Faux (Accountability): Productivity, Focus, and Alex Trebek.
- Hire a professional organizer or productivity expert! Locate a specialist near you (or one who works remotely — more and more of us do that now) by using the NAPO’s search function. You may also want to consult with our colleagues in the Institute for Challenging Disorganization.
We aren’t just experts in organizing stuff, but in helping you figure out how best to organize your ways of thinking and living. As a Certified Professional Organizer®, I guide and support my clients as they surmount obstacles, make difficult decisions, and develop new skills and systems.
22) Take care of yourself.
We’ve talked about the importance of taking breaks as short as 20 seconds and as long as vacations. Revisit Take a Break — How Breaks Improve Health and Productivity and Take a Break for Productivity — The International Perspective to get some ideas on how to prevent burnout.
Then check out The Good Trade‘s 99 Inexpensive Self-Care Ideas For Your New Year.
23) Figure out what you want to do once you feel more organized and productive.
In Toss Old Socks, Pack Away 2023, and Adjust Your Attitude for 2024, I got you started on ways to do your annual review and figure out what you want your life to look like. I used Bing Image Creator to help me design a photo representing something I ultimately want — brunch in Tuscany!
These 99 Reflection Questions To Ask Yourself For Personal Growth (also from The Good Trade) range from daily self-checkins to incredible (and life-affirming) stretches. If you read only one (non-Paper Doll) reference in this post, let it be this one.
24) Let go of the need to be perfect.
Being organized isn’t about aesthetics. Being productive isn’t about doing more things. It’s all about making life easier.
Drop-kick the guilt and negative self-talk. Living rooms in home and garden magazines aren’t real — those rooms were specially designed and curated to look “perfect.” Supermodels on magazine covers are airbrushed and photoshopped. The colleague who got the corner office may have three week’s of unwashed dishes in their kitchen sinks, or might have stayed up all night to finish that presentation. Stop comparing your life to everyone else’s highlight reels.
I’m not a sports person. I call basketball “squeaky floor ball.” However, I’ve been fascinated by Giannis Antetokounmpo ever since I saw him interviewed on 60 Minutes. The wisdom this young man applies to sports is exactly how I hope you’ll think of your approach to getting organized and being more productive.
GO Month is about getting organized, step-by step. You have the rest of 2024 to work on staying organized.
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