A Place for Everything: Organizing that Never-ending Paperwork at Home and at School

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Seriously, as a teacher the paperwork is NEVER-ENDING!!! And how do you keep track of it all so that you might come back to it AND actually finish it??!! Here is how I have managed to keep my sanity and stay on top of the paper game.

2 IN-boxes! (in the classroom..for HOME keep reading)

The first IN-box is for papers that I need to deal with directly. Notes home, lunch money, permission slips, etc. This is on my desk and the kids know exactly where it is and what it is used for. This keeps them from handing me notes in the morning or at any time during the day. It also keeps them from setting notes on my desk and me from losing them in the deep abyss that is my desk during the day.

The next basket is in another location, but still remains remotely close to my desk so that I don't have to travel across the room to get to it. It contains all turned in work. Throughout the day, kids turn in work from all class periods. Another student, (class job - grading helper) organizes the pile multiple times during the day using a class list designed specifically for this. This way all of the piles are paper clipped according to assignment and organized in alphabetical order so I know exactly who has turned them in and who is missing the assignment.

The SECRET to managing ALL the paper is to have a place for it! This goes for the classroom as well as at home! It's frustrating to have papers all over your desk and similarly all over the house. The IN-box is your starting place at HOME. It contains the papers until you can get to them. Place a basket in a convenient place and add all of the mail, notes home from school, bills, virtually everything that comes into the house weekly.

Here's where the magic happens!

Now, pick a time during the week to go through these papers. Maybe Sunday afternoon for example. Sit down, shred the junk mail, sign the papers from school, pay those bills, whatever it takes to get through the stack. But whatever you do, make sure that basket is empty when you get done! Make sure you are accomplishing the task at hand or moving the paper to another location for storage. For example, the Explanation of Benefits from your last dental appointment needs to be filed in a space labeled EOB's.

There is something freeing about having a place for every piece of paper. It's either thrown away, shredded if you don't need it, or its filed where you can find it if you do!

Remember! Baby steps! Start with the IN-box. Then as you come up with papers that need a home, start a new file. Move that shredder to a place that is close and convenient (ours is in the garage right next to the door, so some junk mail doesn't even make it into the house). Start today! By doing this you are on a real track to freedom from paper!

Always cheering you on!

Angie