I was at a dinner party recently where the conversation – implausibly – turned to ‘paperwork’. We’d exhausted topics like real-estate trends (luxury – in; affordable – out), our ongoing Circus Brexitus, and the ambient geo-political madness. Things had clearly gotten desperate, topic-wise.
I know what you are thinking. It wasn’t a party I particularly wanted to be at either.
Anyway, we got rolling on the paperwork thing after one of the guests mentioned he hated it because it got in the way of his creativity. A woman across the table grabbed the baton and launched into a diatribe about how it was all bureaucratic nonsense. Paperwork – in her world – was life-extinguishing ‘work of the devil’. Another table mate chimed in with what he clearly considered a brilliant solution: he inspected envelopes as they arrived and only opened things that were obviously invitations to parties, or cheques, but left everything else unopened. Our host confessed that the stacks in his office had become so big that they had become a fire hazard. Cue much hilarity.
Not wanting to be the proverbial vegan at the barbeque, I smiled politely and kept schtum. Any pearls I might have cast before these porcine companions would not have been received enthusiastically.
Here’s the thing: paperwork is – of course – not all things that arrive in paper form.
As our friend with the invitations and cheques had established, paperwork, as they were discussing it, is work that arrives in paper form that they didn’t want to do. Bills to pay, friendly reminders from tax authorities, speeding tickets, etc.
Oddly, what they were calling paperwork is not even always on paper. There are plenty of digital things that I don’t want to do either. E-mails announcing gnarly problems, for instance, or with attachments that take time to decipher. For many of my dinner companions these too are left unopened (or – worse – opened, closed, and marked ‘unread’ today, as a reminder to do the same again tomorrow).
In my experience, there are two types of people who have problems with ‘paperwork’:
- Those who have adopted a dogmatic position about the existence and/or usefulness of paper itself. These are indulging in a fantasy that paper no longer exists, or – if they allow that some still use it – that it is no longer of any use for the thrusting 21st century citizen that they are.
- Those who are not terribly keen on the reality of what is coming at them – day-in, day-out – on paper or digitally. The world seems overwhelming, so they have declared a kind of personal administrative bankruptcy. The piles have become normalised, because ‘no one can deal with this much’.
So, is paperwork really the creativity killing child of Beelzebub that my dinner mates were complaining about? I’m not convinced.
For me, handling paperwork, in whatever form it arrives, is simply about dealing with reality as it shows up. The challenges the ‘paperwork’ represents really do exist. I can pretend they don’t, but that doesn’t make it so. I either deal with them now, or deal with them later. I either kill the dragon when it’s small, or try to talk it out of burning my house down when it is fully grown.
Or – to paraphrase the old Buddhist saw – chop wood, carry water, do your paperwork.
Thank you. This reminds me that GTD opens the door to responsible behavior– simply facing up to the reality that an input has come into your world and you’d best do something about it.
Hi Jay, too right. In a way, GTD is about creating a system to help support your integrity (keeping your promises) in the world.
“dealing with reality as it shows up” is a great description – you can also call it one of the major parts of adulting (albeit a less fun part.) And of course, there is no way you can have a mind like water when you have a huge backlog of paper that you haven’t even bothered to open. Opening it and marking it or unread or setting it aside is one issue – at least you gave it a quick look and decided you aren’t going to deal with it.
Those who fail to open it at all, particularly physical paperwork is a different problem; at least with the electronic stuff you can set up rules to route it to a separate mailbox for newsletters, etc., and if you think something is there, you can do key word searches to find stuff. If you never physically open your mail, there is no telling what you might miss that will bite at the worst time.
Hi Lise, you hit it on the head with ‘adulting’ or growing up. Not opening post can – of course – be exciting, in a juvenile ‘where can I get some drama from’ kind of way. When we start to get drama from being in the flow of life, the distraction of random explosions because of inattention is much less attractive.
And how many opportunities are hidden in those piles of unattended to paperwork. Not everything that arrives in a brown envelope is a bill!
Very interesting and a good read! That leaves me with questions about how to deal with paperwork, whether at the baby dragon level or fire-breathing dragon ready to take out my house. Any tips? Something simple re: how to get started? Which isn’t easy when there’s a dragon breathing fire down your neck. 😉
Hi Tamara, not all questions can be answered with a previous blog, but in this case I think it can. I covered the ‘how’ of dealing with ‘paperwork’ here: https://www.next-action.co.uk/2014/02/18/nitty-gritty-clearing-inbox-2/
Hope that helps, Ed
I actually often avoid all my ugly emails by tackling the paper stuff in my in-basket! It’s quite rewarding to physically toss junk mail (after scanning for any interesting blip in it), to fill out a form and OMG actually snail-mail it back somewhere, and to input into Quicken the data from that dorky little paper receipt I got at the florist. I’m in physical flow…I can see and feel progress. I’m more visibly in that mise-en-place state of the great chefs to be able to freely make a mess again!
Nice writing, as usual, Ed.
Thanks David. Yes, there is something very pleasing about the somatics of working with the paper, one piece at a time, until it gets where it is going. And then there is the fact that – absent new inputs from me – that particular inbox will stay empty for 24 hours or so…. 🙂
Ed, great piece. “I either kill the dragon when it’s small, or try to talk it out of burning my house down when it is fully grown.” Wonderful. What a colourful metaphor evoking multiple senses.
There is also something to be said for knowing when to stay schtum, which I have learned the hard way. Especially around GTD – there are those that I see need it most, yet they are unwilling to dedicate the time to learn about how to be stress free and productive. Even when they observe that I deliver on all my projects in time, to budget, and go home from the office at a reasonable time, and in a relaxed state.
I too have now learnt to pick my battles, and especially when I see little dragon eggs hatching in the houses of those around me.
Hi Michael, yes, our enthusiasm for things that might be good for others is not always as welcome as we hope 🙂
I needed a few scars before I got that my well-intentioned inputs were not always well-timed, and even when they were they were still unwelcome.