When I help my clients organize their offices during a green office organizing session, the first place we always start is with reducing paper. The most common request I receive is to help people "unbury" themselves from the mounds of paper they have accumulated in piles on their desktops and in their workspaces. There's mail, to-do lists, printed emails, information printed from the Internet, newspaper articles, stacks of business cards, letters and more! Sound familiar?
Our busy home and work lives have contributed to our lack of time to manage our paper. And unfortunately, paper clutter is environmental clutter. And when paper isn't organized, we have the potential to waste even more paper. How many times have you looked for a piece of paper that you needed and couldn't find? And then instead of taking the time to search through your piles of paper for it, you just decide to reprint it (because that's easier and faster). Eventually, that original piece of paper will show up but by this time it's too late – you've already created more paper waste!
Statistics show that we keep too much paper anyway. According to the Small Business Administration, 80% of the paperwork we file is never referenced again. So the key is to stop printing, saving and keeping so much paper. That means making a conscious decision about whether we really need that piece of paper in the first place! Being eco-conscious individuals gives us one more reason to manage our paper. We care about not bringing MORE of anything into our environment than is necessary. Commit to having a greener office by reducing the quantity of paper in it. Be proactive and when you come across information you need, think about whether you could store it electronically versus printing it. Manage important information the eco-friendly way – on your PC. Your PC has the capacity to store more information than your physical space does and it allows you to create a virtual filing system to access what you need with just a couple of clicks.
If you're buried in paper and need help to reduce your way to a greener office, just go to my website, submit your contact info and type "Reduce My Paper" in the comments/questions box for my FREE Green Office Paper Assessment offer (offer applies to Tampa Bay area only). What have you got to lose (except for excess paper)? Together we can reduce your mounds of paper "one piece of paper at a time" and do something good for the environment along the way.
Make today a Green Day!
Lisa Assetta, President, Office Assistance Plus
Your Green Office Specialist (Green Office Makeovers, Office Organizing, Virtual Assistance)
This article appears in May 27 – Jun 2, 2009.