This is Stevea Robbins.

Welcome to the Get It Done Guys, quick and dirty tips to work less and do more.

A listener writes in,

Dear Get It Done Guy, my sweetheart has just moved in, and all is wonderful.

Except that his boxes and file drawers full of paper have also moved in.

When he tries to sort through them, his eyes glaze over,

the papers go from boxes into piles. I get angry at the mess. How can we quickly reduce the paper in his

life while increasing the chance he might actually find some important financial document

when he needs it? Signed, agonized in Arlington. Dear Agonized, I'm so sorry.

The instant I hear the phrase sorting through boxes, my own eyes glaze over.

Smoke begins to wisp up from my ears, and my quiet little inner voice starts shrieking,

No, for the love of the flying spaghetti monster, no!

And spaghetti it is, because when you're sorting through boxes, you're staring at a huge mess of unrelated, unknown stuff.

Financial papers, technical manuals, cookbooks, old bills, important project notes scribbled on napkins and meat sauce, flying spaghetti monster meat sauce.

A big part of what makes sorting boxes a sorted affair is that your brain has to totally switch

modes every time you pick up a new piece of paper. What makes this agonizing isn't the

mess. It's the need for your brain to switch gears with every single thing that you touch.

Your brain goes crazy, and as you've seen, it then helpfully drives everyone around you

crazy too, so they'll

empathize with you, of course.

Fortunately, your nervous system comes with a built-in solution.

It's called your reticular activating system.

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