tl;dr: Do you guys know any good tools or techniques for checking unprocessed papers on your desk (or other places) and dealing with them in the proper timeframe? This would ideally be a method that lets you file the papers off the desk and then take them out when they’re needed.

Paperwork, paper mail, and all kinds of paper most often have three fates:

1. Processed immediately. If it’s interesting, this is most likely. Checks, payments, acceptance/approval letters, and stuff I knew was coming tend to fall into this category.
2. Added to the paper queue. This is the most common; papers that don’t need immediate processing or filing tend to go onto the paper queue “to be dealt with later.” How far into the future “later” is can vary.
3. Added to the filing queue. This happens if I’m finished with the papers, but the file folder or storage area isn’t close enough; in practice, this is an ever-growing pile of stuff to file.
4. Photographed and put into Evernote or Shoeboxed^aff…then added to the paper queue.

Eventually (usually when I move), the paper gets filed appropriately, at which point it becomes records.

The problem I want to tackle, however, is not so much that paper is lying around, since the solution for how to get papers filed faster is to work it into my schedule. What I want to improve on is knowing what the unprocessed paper is at any one time and to be able to check this in one place.

What do I mean? Well, let’s look at what types of things are on my desk at the moment:

• Transactional letter from the bank - ah, I can stick this one in the filing queue.
• Information from my credit card company; I want to take a photo of this and then file it.
• Another transactional letter from my bank…filing queue.
• Packing slip from a previous purchase - filing queue. Not sure why this was in my paper queue (this happens a lot)!

You get the idea. I don’t need this level of complexity. All I need is a better way that isn’t insanely time-consuming but lets me know what’s dealt with, what needs dealing with, and when said dealing-with needs to occur or occur by (or that it doesn’t have any set timeframe).

The solution need not be technological, but that’d be neat. I think I will start by sticking post-it notes to each item with a date and any relevant notes, and then sort these in date order. But a “paper dashboard” with a supporting mobile app (and maybe reminders to enter in unentered new stuff) would be cool. I’d (probably) pay money for this. And tell this. Hint hint.