One of the biggest challenges to effective time management is locating the right information. This becomes very evident when digging up a year’s worth of receipts prior to filing annual income taxes.

Every time you have to hunt for a record, you are losing time that could be applied productively elsewhere. At that point you may realize how much useless information you have collected through which you need to sort.

A good shredder could become one of your time management tools. I recommend to my clients that, for their home use, it should handle at least twenty sheets of paper together, with staples attached. There is nothing efficient about putting two or three receipts at a time into a shredder when you have a large accumulation of paper in front of you.

What can be shredded? Among my time management seminar topics, I always include a section on “tossing.” Unneeded information might include:

Ask yourself, “What is the WORST possible thing that could happen if I did not have this piece of paper?” Then make a decision now to file it or toss it so there are no accumulating stacks of papers hiding important information.