Here is what would happen if I only touched my credit card bill once.
- Pick up bill from post office.
- Immediately run to home office (do not stop to take off boots & coat).
- Turn on computer, login to online banking.
- Pay bill (if sufficient funds are not available, then take overdraft loan).
- Put bill through shredder (even if I may need it later for tax reasons)
In effect, by touching the bill only once, I’ve made more work for myself. I have to clean the floor because I didn’t put the bill down and take my boots off, I have to pay interest on the overdraft loan and I may need to request the bill from again should I need a copy to do my income taxes.
Here is how my bill paying process REALLY works.
- Pick up bill from post office.
- Put bill in inbox.
- On payday, move bill from inbox to computer and pay using online banking.
- Place bill in filing cabinet in appropriate file (eg. utility bill in utilities folder).
- At year end, do taxes. If bill is not needed shred it, if it is needed for taxes file it with tax information for seven years.
- At the end of the seventh year, shred the bill.
The system I have created to pay bills has minimized the number of times I touch the bills and allows me to minimize other work as well. The system has logical stop points or “homes” where the bill “lives” until it moves forward to the next step in the process.
Take a look at the process for your bill paying. Make sure there are designated areas for each step in the process then see how you can eliminate steps in that process.
You will never touch something only once but you can reduce the amount of times you do touch things.
Have you streamlined systems in your home or office? Share your ideas with readers by leaving a comment!
So true. I wish I could only handle a piece of paper once. In a perfect world yes, but I don’t live in a perfect world and I am guessing most of our clients don’t either!
I never liked that myth. Placing paper in it’s proper place the first time works better for me. Having a home for all papers in one place works too.
A shining example of why “rules” don’t work! Although systems are helpful, they do need to make sense.
I also rebel against the OHIO rule. It’s counter-intuitive to anyone who thinks beyond the acronymic name to what labor it really entails, as you’ve nicely done, Jacki. The intention behind it, to stop picking things up, failing to make decisions and putting them down (instead of away), is honorable, but like most mythic rules, fails to take reality into account. (Your bill example is so vivid, it almost needs to have Benny Hill music running under it!)
Sure, it works if you’re willing to wait until you’re in your home/office before you open mail that’s received elsewhere (and sometimes you need to review something as soon as it arrives, to keep from wasting more of your time, later on), and if the piece of paper can immediately go from arrival to final resting place without any intermediate actions being taken on it. Otherwise, as you’ve implied, it’s a myth that it should be the rule of the paper jungle.
My steps would be almost the same as yours. Receive paper, review it for the next appropriate action, put it where I’ll be able to quickly access it at the appropriate time of my choosing (with most, that means the tickler file) unless it’s going straight to the file archives, and follow from there pretty much as you noted. My retention schedule might be different, but the need for multiple “touches” to get paper to all of its stops, is exactly the same. Thanks for debunking the OHIO rule!
@Melissa – Agreed! Nobody lives in a perfect world!
@ Kathleen – OHIO really is a myth.
@Janet – I guess I’m a rebel as I don’t like rules either. Guidelines are good. Rules suck.
@Julie – The music I was humming as I was writing this post was the “10 second tidy” theme from “Big Comfy Couch” where Lunette just crams everything under the couch cushions
There are so many methods of handling paper effectively and efficiently but they are all dependent on the lifestyle of the client. OHIO doesn’t work and there is no “one size fits all” approach.
That was hillarious!! Loved it.
Jacki, I’m confused, I thought you weren’t going to blog anymore–how have I gone wrong?
@Marilyn – Glad you enjoyed the post. And no, I’m not blogging anymore, I’m writing articles. Seriously, there is no real difference except in my own head
I disagree. OHIO has worked very well for me. You are taking it too literally. The point is that you do not move it from one place or pile to another to avoid dealing with it. Many people shuffle paper around their desks and think they are doing work. The “H” stands for HANDLE, not TOUCH. It does not mean: only TOUCH it once. You prioritize it immediately, then deal with it when it’s the appropriate time.
Hi Trish,
You’ve actually AGREED with the points I was making. You can’t take the OHIO rule literally. Every time you handle a document it is to move it FORWARDS in the system of processing so that it is in its appropriate place for the next step. Not only do you need to prioritize it immediately, you must identify when and where the next steps take place so that the item is not forgotten – either accidentally or on purpose.
I’m so relieved to see others “on my side,” that there’s often just no way to “handle it once.” In a job like mine, paper keeps coming in to my office, to my desk, from a variety of sources, and a continual triage process is going on every hour, every day. I can’t even realistically prioritize a lot of it in a lasting and meaningful way and then “deal with it when it’s the appropriate time,” because tomorrow and next week and next month there will be whole new sets of priorities to deal with.
My rule seems to be more of an OHITTT thing; only handle it thirty-three times. Agreed, I could do better, but running a “need it now” kind of office for 30+ commercial real estate brokers, and having to handle AP/AR/HR, supplies, licensing, web inquiries, subscriptions, legal issues, and making the coffee; well, I do the best I can.
It certainly is irksome though to be made to feel that I’m doing it all wrong because I’m handling each piece more than once. Most of the time management rules I’ve ever read are a bunch of happy claptrap, and I’m happy that (as I believe) you all see it too.
Thanks for commenting Keith. I know it is hard to manage everything from HR to making coffee! Have you considered hiring a professional organizer? We can streamline many processes to ensure you spend more time working IN your business rather than ON your business.