The family meeting

18 May 2011

I’ve been thinking about mail a lot, because of the Make Peace with Your Mail contest, which ended last week. As I read the entries in order to determine the winners (whose entries you can read here), a theme emerged.

One of the challenges that many of the entrants expressed is that it’s hard to keep track of the mail when it needs to be discussed with other people in the household (or when family members mess with it). It’s a challenge I see in my clients as well.

So I’d like to propose a solution that has worked for some of my clients. It’s the weekly family meeting. Establish a regularly scheduled meeting with folks in the household (like a spouse) for whom mail sparks discussion. Sunday evenings are often good for this. Then, when that mail comes in, put it in a file labeled “Family Meeting,” rather than putting that mail aside to show the other person (or people) right away. Then when it’s time for the weekly family meeting, all your documents will be in the file, ready for you to discuss.

I advocate having an Action Box, a desktop file box to temporarily store the mail that requires action. (The concept is explained fully in my organizing guide, How to Fall in Love with the Mail Carrier All Over Again, available for purchase.) Adding a Family Meeting file to your Action Box, and an actual family meeting to your calendar, can help you with some of your more challenging mail.

Tagged with: contest, family, mail