Decluttering the paperless office.

According to a paper expert, we're still using a lot of paper. There's more mail, because there are more people and businesses to mail to. An irony of the situation is that bills are being prepared electronically and still being printed on paper as well, because people need the security of the printed word. So, I guess we're not nearly paperless yet.

Use your email program to reduce paper.

For more mature customers, like me, Microsoft Outlook email program might not be the newest of the online office products, but it sure is easy to use. One of its goals is to help users print less and read more and they’ve sold me on it. The program has calendar reminders, flags to prioritize emails and great search tools that help you find messages faster, when sorted by date, size, importance, subject and more.

The younger generation (like my nephew and his friends at Northwestern University), has caught on to something called Gmail by Google, a free, search-based web mail service that works on the premise that you should never have to delete mail and should always be able to find the exact message you want. Currently, you can't sign up for it, Google is offering the service as part of a preview release and limited test. They say there are no pop-up ads, just small, unobtrusive relevant text ads.

If you’re still using paper (like the rest of us)

Here are two tried and true tools for keeping clutter at bay:

Touch management
This system helps you to decide when to discard every sheet of paper that lands on your desk. Just put a check in the upper right hand corner of the paper, every time you touch it. When you see three checks, it's time to process or discard it.

Tickler file
You'll be able to remember and track time-sensitive items efficiently with this simple, powerful organizational system. With a tickler file, you only need to keep today's folder on your desk. What a pleasure. It's called a "tickler" file because it's designed so your memory will be triggered or "tickled" about events, bills, reports, etc. Here's how it works:

You need to make a folder for every day of the month (31), every month of the year (12) plus one for each of the next two years (2); that's 45 folders total. Paper is filed in the appropriate folder for any day this month or in a future month's folder, for follow up at a later date. Each daily folder contains forms, reports, bills, follow-ups, reminders on bits of paper, etc., to accomplish on that specific day. When you finish with today's folder, it goes into the next month's file for the same day. The system is self-perpetuating. In order for this system to work, you need to open the correct folder every day and deal with whatever it contains.