I’ve been out of my office for the last two weeks. Although Joanne and I were on the amazing 48Days cruise and then spent another week in Florida I thought I was pretty much up to speed on all correspondence and messages – until I walked back into my office yesterday morning.
My beautiful desk was covered with magazines, brochures, sales information, books from friends and publishers, royalty checks, bills, handwritten testimonial notes, the latest credit card offers, and mounds of coupons from local merchants. 
And I’ve never created a good system for delegating this avalanche. My daughter Ashley did just introduce me to an app called PaperKarma that I’m totally loving. I registered my primary addresses and put in Joanne’s name as well and then I just took a picture of the return mail address of any unwanted mail and simply hit unsubscribe. They say it’s a free app but I was blowing through so many in the first 10 minutes it asked me for an annual fee of $19.95 – which I did. I’ve put in about 40 pieces so far. I know it will take a little time to catch up on scheduled mail but the reviews are very favorable from users.
As we move to less paper it will be interesting to see how much “mail” will be eliminated. I have had a PO Box for years – I now check it once a week. We have two mailboxes at the ends of our adjoining driveways and I frequently go a day or two without checking – and then it’s primarily to prevent an overflow of junk mail onto the street. I can’t believe they still deliver on Saturdays – seems like eliminating that would be a major efficiency and I’d be fine with once a week delivery. One of the major reasons people scream about any change to the current mail delivery system is the ongoing stories of mailmen checking in on the elderly.
Some of the items I received in this mountain of mail were in fact important to me. But it’s discouraging to throw reams and reams of paper in the trash (even if it’s recycled) and it takes time that I could use more productively doing other things. (Yes, I know I need to do a better job of delegating as well.)
So what advice do you have for me on handling physical mail?
