Many times, when you’re overwhelmed by the number of documents you have to deal with, the issue isn’t so much the quantity of documents as it is the lack of routine in how you handle them. You open a file, do something with it, don’t quite finish it, and then leave it. And this repeats itself over and over again until you have a stack of documents that seems insurmountable even though each document is fairly straightforward. Getting a handle on it starts with finding a way to create a routine in how you handle each document. This means making sure you have a way to do something with every single document every day, even if it’s just for a minute or two.
So the first thing to do is separate out the documents you need to do something with from the ones you don’t. A document you need to do something with is one where you need to finish it, revise it, or otherwise confirm it. Gather all of those documents together and put them in one place. Don’t worry so much about organizing them yet as much as getting them all into one place where you can see them. This will reduce the amount of time you spend switching between this place and that place to deal with documents and help you focus on what it is you need to do. Right now, you’re just trying to get to the point where you can make decisions on all of these documents. You’re not trying to organize them all yet. You’re just trying to create a space where you can deal with them.
One thing you can do to get a feel for this is to grab a small set of documents, and just go through them one at a time. Don’t switch between documents. Don’t try to organize them. Just take the first document and do something with it. Maybe that means renaming it. Maybe it means filing it. Maybe it means editing it. Maybe it means marking it to come back to later. But whatever it is, just do it. Then move on to the next document and repeat the process. Doing this will help you to understand how you can quickly work through documents one at a time to make progress. It will also help you see that it’s not as hard as you think to do so.
The thing to avoid here is trying to create the perfect system for organizing your documents and then stopping. It’s easy to get caught up in trying to figure out just the right way to organize all of your documents. But that’s not what you need to do right now. Right now what you need to do is figure out how to keep moving. So as long as each document is moving closer to being done, don’t worry so much about the system. You can refine that over time. What you can’t afford to have is a big ol’ pile of documents that you can’t control.
Speaking of which, to help maintain control, I recommend spending some time each day doing a daily document dump. This should only take about 15 minutes. Just take a few minutes to go through your new documents and your existing documents to make sure you know what the status of each document is. If the status of a document isn’t clear, do something to make it clear. If a document is done, move it out of your action folder. If a document isn’t done, make sure you know where it is and can get back to it. This will help you avoid having documents pile up in the future.
When documents are unclear, it’s often because you’re not making a decision on them. Maybe you’re not sure if they’re done or not. Maybe you’re not sure where to put them. Whatever the case may be, instead of stopping and putting it off until later, create a simple rule for how to handle it in that moment and apply it. Over time, you’ll get to the point where you don’t have to spend as much time thinking about what to do because you’ve already established rules for how to do it.
In the end, it’s not really about making things simpler. It’s about establishing a routine that allows you to handle things consistently, no matter how complex they may be.