The Lazy Genius Podcast - #410 - How to Deal with All the Paper

Episode Date: March 24, 2025

I did an episode on organizing paper over five years ago, and it’s solid. But it’s time to look at it again. Because paper is everywhere. It’s like Michael Scott said in that episode of The Office where they make their own TV commercial: limitless paper in a paperless world. Helpful Companion Links Order my new book The PLAN or ask your library to consider carrying a copy. Episode #91: The Lazy Genius Organizes Paper Sign up for the Latest Lazy Listens email. Grab a copy of my book The Lazy Genius Kitchen or The Lazy Genius Way! (Affiliate links) Download a transcript of this episode. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey there, you're listening to The Lazy Genius Podcast. I'm Kendra Adachi, and I'm here to help you be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't. Today is episode 410. How to deal with all the paper. I did an episode on organizing paper like five years ago, and it's solid. It's great, but it's time to look at it again because paper is everywhere. It's like, it's like y'all remember when Michael Scott said in that episode of The Office where they make their own TV commercial, limitless paper in a paperless world. So good. That's kind of how we live, though. Like somehow, somehow in this paperless, highly technological world, we are still getting so much paper. You get it in your mailbox from work, from your kids' schools.

Your kids make it when they paint and stuff. It's relentless. Maybe you have a system. Maybe you just deal with it whenever you have the energy. Maybe you don't even care. But today I would like to offer a couple of very simple choices in the area of paper to make dealing with it a little easier. Remember, lazy geniuses are not trying to make things perfect, especially all at once. We're not trying to fix it all or make sure there are no hiccups or no

wrinkles or no obstacles ever. Pivoting is more important than planning to us. Having a couple of reasonable choices that we can apply to paper is way more effective than building some giant system from scratch. We don't do that here. In episode 91, 91, you guys, 91? When I talked about this for the first time, I said that there are three problems with paper. There's too much of it. We don't know what to keep and we don't know where to put what we keep. I still think those are solid and true and you can totally listen to the breakdown in that episode if you want. But in the spirit of simplification, I really think that paper poses two primary problems. Every piece of paper is a deadline and every piece of paper is a decision.

Every single one. Even the ones you don't think have either. So just to kind of get going on this, let's look at some examples. So a birthday party invitation that has multiple deadlines. There's the RSVP deadline, which is really you're like, am I going to this thing? Deadline. The get the person a gift deadline and then the actual event. there are also decisions like am i am i actually going to this thing or if it's a kids party does the adult

have to stay that's like the question always you have to decide on the gift and then you have to get it you decide how the party fits in with the logistics of the rest of the day multiple decisions and deadlines with this one now something like a catalog at first glance doesn't have a clear deadline or decision it's just there but y'all it still does it still does At what point do you toss it? At what point have you had it long enough that it causes more stressed now than any potential enjoyment later? Do you decide what to do with it now when you pull it out of the mailbox or later when you're

going through the stack of forgotten papers? Catalogs are like they're a rather innocuous example, but I think that those pieces of paper that don't have obvious deadlines and decisions are like the most stressful, especially when they pile up like kids art flyers for things you don't know if you're going to programs for events paid paper bills and financial information that feels important but it's like no longer relevant but like do you keep it all of those papers accumulate in our homes and in our heads until we're finally overwhelmed and then we like rage throw everything into the recycling bin and vow to have a better paper system because somehow we think that we're supposed to that we're supposed to have like a complex paper system

number one the vows here are not necessary like you're not a lot a night you know we can relax about the catalogs but but also like it's okay to not have a complicated system it's actually probably preferable because complex things do not pivot well so just be kind about the paper okay be kind about the paper but i want you to take this in just from a practical standpoint that every piece of paper, no matter what it is or where it comes from. It is a deadline and it is a decision, if not several of both. So what do we do? What do we do with that? I'm going to give you three principles of paper, followed by two classic lazy genius principles that work wonders in this area. I think that once you listen to this episode in its entirety, you're going to have at least one,

more actionable steps and clarity of thought around the paper coming into your home you're going to be able to problem solve this so much better it won't be completely solved but few things ever are but it will make paper a little easier to deal with okay so let's start with the three principles of paper i still sound like michael scott okay number one is to prioritize flow over urgency prioritize flow over urgency. Flow is steady. It's expected. It's even a little slow sometimes.

You're not rushing or hustling to deal with everything at once. You have decided already that it is more important, for example, that you consistently sort the mail into its proper places right when you walk in the door, then to just drop it all on a pile and deal with the urgency later down the road. Now, I know some of you thrive on deadlines and procrastination. Frankly, it's the only way you get anything done. And that's great. But I would also like you to consider what this principle might mean for you anyway.

When we prioritize flow over urgency, we're not waiting for things to become urgent. We're dealing with the necessary things before they become urgent. Why is that? because life already has enough urgency. We're already pulled in too many directions at once. We're already a fragmented people. So if we can choose one area, one consistent area of life, where things keep coming in and going out like paper

and prioritize the flow of our choices, rather than waiting for urgency to compel us to move, we will experience less urgency overall because we're tending to this one area. We don't have that like that, oh no, I left the stove on feeling about paper, right? You're in a flow. Now, it does take time to understand the logistics that you personally need to support your personal flow based on what matters to you in the season you're in as it revolves around paper. it's like a steady patient process of starting small, seeing what works and then adjusting as you go.

Okay? So the system is going to be built slowly and I know that's annoying. But the mindset, the mindset of thinking about flow over urgency, that can start right away. That can start right now. Flow over urgency. As much as you're able and in the smallest ways possible, do the things. do the thing now. Don't wait until it's slapping you in the face needing to be done. That mindset to prioritize flow over urgency is huge telling yourself, I would like to not wait

until all this becomes urgent. That's the mindset I want to adopt here. So that's paper principle number one. Paper principle number two, the tighter the timeline, the smaller the spot. The tighter the timeline, the smaller the spot. No more. matter what papers that you have coming in and out of your house, you need to pay attention to deadlines and the timelines of those papers, right? And you need a signal of when to deal with them. And I think that the tighter the timeline or the sooner the deadline, the smaller the spot that you keep it. So like the fridge. That is a very limited space for papers. You're not going to have like file folder sort of stuff hanging on your fridge. So the most urgent things go there. They go in the

small places. Or maybe there's like a tiny basket next to your front door where you only put, only put the most urgent things there. Catalogs and stuff with like a looser, longer deadline, they do not go into that small basket. They go into a larger container, a bigger basket, a drawer or something. The vessels don't really matter, but the principle does. If you want to deal with all the paper in ways that flow that make decisions easy, you need to remember that the tighter the timeline, the smaller the spot. Finite space compels you to deal with the urgent stuff because you have so little space for it. And paper principle number three, paper can accumulate.

deadlines should not paper can accumulate deadlines should not what are the categories of paper that are low risk where the deadlines are not consequential kids art catalogs random pieces of mail that you want to keep for some reason but they they have little to no urgency to them birthday cards and notes from people that you're saving for now these are all categories where the deadlines are singular and relatively unimportant, right? Your kids' art, it's actually easier to handle like all at once when there's a lot of accumulation because the deadline for every single piece is the same. It's like whenever you decide for it to be. But deadlines should not accumulate. This is why having one big catch-all location where all your mail and papers go, where the bills and the catalogs and the kid art and the

permission slips and the invitations. That's why that's a nightmare because it is a series of different deadlines, some that are actually urgent, but there's nothing in that pile related to each other, really, or easy to find based on their deadline. Paper that accumulates, that's not necessarily the problem. Deadlines that accumulate, that's definitely a problem. So paper principle number three is paper can accumulate, but deadline should not. Okay, now that we have those three paper principles in place, we can more efficiently and kindly apply two classic lazy genius principles to our personal paper problems. That last sentence was like an audio test sentence for microphone plosives, like so many peas. Okay. Since we all have different types of paper, frequency of getting that

paper, even priorities on what to keep and how to keep it, right? We need organizational principles that can help any of us, no matter the details of our lives, make paper feel a little bit easier. Those two principles, no matter who you are or what kind of paper you're dealing with or what kind of house you're in, any of it, those two principles that we're going to lean on are, decide once and put everything in its place. Classics, classic principles. Since you have, a lot of paper decisions to make because remember every piece of paper is attached to a decision every single one so since you have a lot of those decisions to make simplify those decisions by making some of them one time and since we're trying to prioritize flow we're trying to create

smaller spots for tighter timelines we don't want our deadlines to accumulate we need places for our paper. We need places to put things with deadlines, places where paper can accumulate, but deadlines don't. So for paper to be easier, we need decide once and we need put everything in its place. So I'm going to share how we deal with all the paper in our house using these two classic lazy genius principles. So let's just start with my list of what I already decided once. Okay. First, I do not get the mail and just put it down. In fact, I don't even get the mail out of the mailbox if I know I don't have time to deal with it right now. And by deal with it, I really just mean put the pieces in their places.

That choice, that singular decision of dealing with the mail right away, that's where it all starts for me. In fact, I'll just leave it in the mailbox for the next day if I can't get to it right now. Second decide once. We don't keep catalogs. I've spent too much time and space saving them for some. one to look through later, they just accumulate and they annoy me. And I just don't do it anymore. We never buy anything from them anyway. So what's the point? Decided. Done. We don't keep catalogs. Number three, I don't look through those like neighborhood coupon books. When we eat out or when we use a

service, it's not because of a coupon. It's because something, like we like something. We trust something. We got a recommendation from someone else. And even still, our preferred places are never coupons in those books. And even if they are the effort to look through all the coupons and to store them in order to save a dollar on a meal that we probably aren't going to eat, we're not even going to go to the place anyway. It's just not worth it. It's not worth it for us. I'm not saying it's not worth it for anybody. But it does not matter to us at this point. So coupon books are automatic junk. Decide once.

Done. I don't have to think about it. Number four. Anything that we don't need. So junk mail catalogs, stuff that's just irrelevant after reading it, it just immediately goes into the recycling bin. Sometimes I don't even take the mail to the inside recycling bin. I don't take it in the house.

I just walk directly to our outside bin and I drop it in. We can't bag our recycling anyway, so why not? So those are some ways that I have decided once around paper. Okay, what about putting things in their place? So we have a three drawer nightstand by our side door that it acts as like a mail keys hub. You know, it's just all the things. And many of our paper things, they have a place inside that little dresser. So bills and urgent papers with an obvious deadline go in a small basket in the top drawer of that little nightstand. Now remember, we don't want deadlines to accumulate.

So the basket is small on purpose. It's small in purpose. It's not going to get filled up with everything. Outgoing mail or sign papers, like sign permission slips, that kind of stuff. They go in another basket in that top drawer because those papers need a place too. Like things that you have to put in the mailbox or drop off to someone or you got to give a kid to turn in to somebody else. We have an urgent inbox and we have an outbox. And so then once a month when it's time to pay bills, because that's primarily what is in that basket, I go through that inbox basket

and I process all the things. I don't have to worry about what's in there because I know I'm going to get to it within the month. Which begs the question, what about things that need tending before the month is out? That's usually stuff like field trip information or permission slips or party invitations, right those for us their place is on the fridge that is our tightest timeline spot okay now papers that the kids want to save either like their schoolwork which my kids love to keep their schoolwork uh or art projects stuff like that we have a big art basket you guys have heard me talk about that before. It's enormous. Once that basket is full and I sort it, but I do not look at it like a second before it's full. I don't care. Like I'm saving those decisions for later because I can. There's no real

deadline. The deadline is its fullness, right? There's no urgency here. And then other non-urgent papers, like things that I do want to sort through that don't automatically go in the recycling, but they don't go in the month basket, right? They go in the second drawer of that little nightstand and I deal with them when I feel like it or when the drawer is full. Remember, it's okay for paper to accumulate. As long as it has a place, it's not great for deadlines to accumulate. So if stuff doesn't have an obvious deadline, if you have a place for it and it's out of the way, out of your vision, doesn't bother you, let it accumulate. Don't feel bad about it. And I've also got some like file folders for things to save and store.

I've got a basket where I put documents that need shredding. Guess when I will shred them when the basket is full, right? Now, those are just examples of ways that I've decided once and places where I put the things. You don't have to have the same decisions and places that I do. That is absolutely not the point. The point is that you embrace these three paper principles. You're going to prioritize flow over urgency. You're going to remember that the tighter the timeline, the smaller the spot.

You choose your timeline window. You decide the spot. But that's a principle to live by. And then that paper can accumulate. That's fine for paper to accumulate. But deadlines can't. That's where it gets you. And then you use two classic lazy genius principles.

Decide once and put everything in its place to make some decisions that you don't have to think about anymore based on your own mail. And then you find some places for the paper in your life based on what matters to you. Now, you might eventually use binders and like tiered paper holders and complex systems and all that. But you cannot start with that. You can't start with that. You start with a mindset. You start with simple principles. You decide once about one thing. You create one place for those tightest timeline things and then let the rest find its way. You don't need to create a complicated system all at once, nor should you. It won't work anyway. You know why you haven't found your flow. You can't find a flow in a brand new complicated mini step system.

flow, listen to me right now, flow is not built. It is discovered. Okay? Flow is not built. So discover it. Start small. Be kind. And you will find the flow. You'll find what you need. But don't try to build it all at once. And that's how to deal with all the paper. Now, obviously, I cannot talk about decide once and put everything in its place without plugging the lazy genius way, you guys. So if you're like, huh, I wish I knew more about these classic lazy genius principles. Also, do we love that they're called classic principles? I just started that in this episode, and I will never stop because I have so many principles for so many things. But these are like the OG principles. So if you are unfamiliar with my book, The Lazy Genius Way, it is the foundation of how to think like a lazy

genius, where you learn how to name what matters. And then you explore these 13 classic principles that are the foundation for all of it. You get practical principles like Decide once that we mentioned today. Ask the Magic Question is another really great practical one. And then you get more like philosophical ones that you need more than you realize like live in the season and be kind to yourself. It's such a helpful book. It's still selling, even five years later. The thing came out in 2020. It's still selling. And I hope it encourages you wherever you are. Okay. Before we go, let's set. celebrate the lazy genius of the week. I love this one this week. So this week, it is from Chris

Alsom. Hi, Chris. So Chris, let me give you a little precursor here. Chris cares about intentional neighboring as something that matters to her. Okay. And she shared this. I bought a little garden flag that says cheers with two martini glasses on it. I let my neighbors know that if the flag is out. That means we're having happy hour on our front patio from 430 to 6 that day. They need to bring their own chairs and drinks. I just provide the time and place. And it worked. Such an easy way to get people together, start relationships with people who have lived on the street for years, but never sat down and chatted like this. Chris? This is magical in every way. I know that this is likely much easier for folks in like a traditional suburban setting. But what I really do,

really want all of us to pull from this is the simplicity of Chris simply providing permission for people to gather. It's just the time and place, not the seating or the drinks or the details. It's a flag in the yard and her presence on the porch. That's it. This is absolutely beautiful, so doable, totally in the spirit of being a lazy genius. I love it so much. So thank you for sharing and congratulations on being the lazy genius of the week. This podcast is part of the Odyssey family and the Office Ladies Network. This episode is hosted by me, Kendra Adachi,

and executive produced by Kendra Adachi, Jenna Fisher, and Angela Kinsey. Special thanks to Leah Jarvis for weekly production. And thank you all for listening. With all the podcasts out there, it's a real gift to have your attention. So thank you. Until next time, be a genius about the things that matter

and lazy about the things that don't. I'm Kendra, and I'll see you next week.