One of the biggest contributors to paper clutter is the amount of reading material that people collect on a regular basis. It can become overwhelming knowing what to do with all of it. The suggestions below are meant to help you deal with the reading material by having a plan and systems in place to manage it.

• Take your name off of catalog lists by going to www.catalogchoice.org. Control the catalogs, coupons, credit offers, phone books, fliers, circulars, newsletters, and other unsolicited mail you receive.
• Manage your magazine subscriptions by first deciding if you really want to receive all of them. Ask yourself, “Do I have the time to read them?” If they are piling up then you can probably answer no to this question. If you see that you can’t keep up with the reading, cancel the subscription.
• Decide on a plan to tackle the reading of your magazines. When the new issue comes in, throw out the oldest one. Keep moving them on a rotating basis so that you can easily manage and read what comes in.
• If you like to save articles for future reference, clip out just the important article and throw the rest of the magazine away. Have a system to contain the articles such as a folder or binder.
• If you keep lots of books for reference, periodically go through them and get rid of (donate to your local library and get a tax deduction) the ones that are no longer useful to you. This can be applied to fiction books as well. Many places have book exchanges that would welcome gently used books.
• To easily manage your book collection, put like topics together. You can go even further by alphabetizing them by author’s last name.
• To manage your paper mail, put items that you need to read through more carefully into a folder and decide on a time and place to read the material. Take action on the information and/or throw it away after you have read it.
• If you print out a lot of information from your computer to read, again contain it in a folder and decide on a place and time to read through it more carefully. This folder can be labeled and kept on your desk.
• Another great idea for busy people who have little time to read because of their daily schedules or activities, is to take your reading folder with you when you go on errands, especially to doctors’ appointments. The down time you have to wait for the appointment to begin can be easily used to catch up on reading material.

Planning ahead and creating systems for your reading material is crucial to feeling in control of all that you receive. Take time to set up your system before the piles begin.

This article was written by Barbara Boone from Your Productivity Solution