Brains help! There's a monster in the room! A paper monster. [music intro] If you have ADHD, like me, you know that out of sight means out of mind. If I don't see a reminder for something I'm probably going to forget to do it. Paper reminders can be really helpful. The problem is when those paper reminders pile up and turn into paper clutter. Paper reminders, good. Paper clutter, bad. Paper clutter can turn into paper monsters. How do you know you have a paper monster on your hands? You see a giant pile of papers and you run. You think, "I will deal with this later. I don't want to tackle it right now. I will certainly be a better person tomorrow." The problem with that is if you leave the paper monster alone it gets bigger. And then you don't even want to try to attack the paper monster because it's too big. It will hurt you. It is scary. Plus, paper cuts. Ow. How are we supposed to fight it? Take it down to size! Separate the paper monster into three or four smaller piles based on how they can be defeated. Each pile should represent how to attack that particular paper monster to take it down for good. Aw, little paper monsters. They're not big and scary. They're cute. Meet the paper monsters. There's file! Any paper you're going to keep long term goes in this pile. That would be tax documents, school records. Anything that you might need to go back and look at later. Action! If you need to pay a bill. Make a phone call. Anything. Any action that you need to take goes in this pile. Trash. Don't need it. Don't want it. Tired of looking at it. Trash. If throwing things away feels too scary, there's also a fourth option. The slow paper bin. The side kick of trash. It's where papers go if you don't think that you're going to need this paper again but you can't be totally sure and you don't really want to throw it away with last week's garbage just in case. Slow paper bin! Now that your paper monsters are a more defeatable size it's time to attack! [intense music] Meet your weapons. File folders and a label maker. Markers! [music intensifies] Trash can! Slow paper bin. This is where it gets good. The trash pile goes in the trash. The slow paper pile goes in the slow paper bin. And you already knocked out half the monsters. Now you've only got two monsters left. The file monster and the action monster. But those two are a little bit trickier. The file monster. First of all, file only what you need to. There's a great article that lists what documents you need to keep and which you don't and that's listed in the description below. Second. Use labels that make sense to you. It doesn't make sense to file car insurance under "insurance" or "AllState" if you're more likely to look under "car" when you actually need it. Color coded folders are really helpful. If you use, say, red for school stuff. Blue for house stuff. Green for money. You know that if you're looking for tax documents it's going to be in a green folder. And the biggest and baddest of all. The action monster. Only actions will take this one down and a lot of times it's going to take more than one attack. Take a marker. Write on each page what you need to do next. Not what you eventually need to do with it - pay bill - but what you need to do with it first. Order checks. And don't get complicated with it. You're in the middle of a fight. You don't have time for complicated directions. Call this person by one pm. Turn in homework tomorrow. Pay by the twenty-third. Copy for Mark. Figure out who Mark is! Then you want to put those papers somewhere where you're likely to take that action. If you pay your bills at your computer set those next to your computer. You've got grocery coupons, tape 'em to your fridge. If you like to make phone calls while you clean your room, tape that to your bedroom door. If you get overwhelmed, remember: the paper monster is slow. If you're FAST, you can beat it. File. Action. Slow paper bin. And Trash. Ah. Ah?... Ahhh. That's an acronym. Then all there is to do is celebrate. You have defeated the paper monster. You are a hero. Every conquering hero deserves a party. So pull up a chair, drink some mead and sing. Let me know how your battle with your own paper monster goes and hit me up on Facebook, Twitter, comment below and I will see you next week. And the brain says to subscribe. He's very insistent that this is an important thing. So please do. Oh! I'll play you out. [flute plays] Deep in the paper jungle. [more flute playing] The hero encounters the monster. With nary but a paper cut he takes it down. Fast. The paper monster is conquered and the hero's home is clean once again. Bye brains! [music outro]