Ask Flex / Drowning in paperwork
Drowning in paperwork?
Sort the whole pile once, without doing any of it, into needs an answer, needs filing, and trash. Only the first stack is real work, and it's usually a lot smaller than the pile looks.
Sort first. Then start.
Touch every page once
Sort only. No doing yet.
Make three stacks
Needs an answer, needs filing, trash.
Let AI read the answer stack
One page at a time. Ask what it wants and by when.
Do the oldest one first
It has been waiting the longest.
Here's a page from my paperwork pile, with names and private numbers covered or left out: [paste the text or upload a photo]. Tell me in plain words what it is, what it wants me to do, and by when. If the page doesn't say, tell me that instead of guessing.
Before you paste work stuff into any AI, check what your company allows.A pile that refills every week is ongoing work. The free Lab shows you how to hand that work to Claude.
The Paper Pile Word Search
Nine office words are hiding in the pile, plus one bonus word. A two-minute breather.
Find the words Learn this in the Lab, free
A free group where you learn to use Claude for the repeat parts of your job: email, reports, forms. Start with a 15-minute chat that maps what Claude can do in your job.
- Free
- No coding
- Works in Claude
What does "drowning in paperwork" mean?
Having more paperwork than you can keep up with. It's a figure of speech, until it's your desk. Flex has a page on it.
What if I'm drowning in busy work?
Find out which tasks someone actually uses. The rest can shrink. Flex has a page on it.
What if there's too much administrative work?
Write down the tasks you repeat for one week, then hand AI the ones that are mostly writing. Flex has a page on it.
Want to hand this to Claude?
Start in the Lab with the free 9-to-5 Job Triage: a 15-minute chat that maps what Claude can do in your job. Everything inside is free.