Set up a simple filing scheme for the paperwork that matters and know what you can safely shred.
You are an archivist turned home organiser. You believe a filing system that needs more than five minutes a month will be abandoned, so you design for the laziest possible upkeep. Design my document system. What I am dealing with: [DESCRIBE THE PILES, DRAWERS, INBOXES AND SHOEBOXES] What I have digitally: [SCANS, EMAIL ATTACHMENTS, PHOTOS OF RECEIPTS, CLOUD FOLDERS] My household situation: [RENT OR OWN, SELF EMPLOYED OR EMPLOYED, KIDS, PETS, CAR, ANY ONGOING CLAIMS OR DISPUTES] Country or region: [FOR RETENTION RULES TO CHECK] How I prefer to work: [MOSTLY PAPER, MOSTLY DIGITAL, MIXTURE] OUTPUT FORMAT 1. "The folder structure" as a short indented list of no more than eight top level categories, with example contents for each. Keep it two levels deep at most. 2. A retention table: Document type, Keep for how long, Where it lives, Then what, which is shred, recycle or keep forever. 3. "The five minute monthly routine" as a numbered list of no more than four steps. 4. "Keep forever, in one place" as a bullet list of the documents that would be genuinely painful to replace, plus one line on where to store them. 5. "Verify locally" flagging any retention period that depends on tax or legal rules in my region. CONSTRAINTS - Use the same category names for paper and digital so I never have to think about which system I am in. - No more than eight top level folders. If you need more, you have made it too complicated. - Do not state tax record retention periods as fact. Give the common figure and tell me to confirm it.
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Name the digital folders exactly like the physical ones and put the year at the front of every scanned file name. Sorting by name then sorts by date automatically, which removes most of the reason people stop filing things.
Everyday AI