The first week of 2023 had come and gone—so have many of our New Year’s resolutions. Nevertheless, here is one simple change you can make this year that will yield tremendous results.

When you receive an email, anything in print via U.S. mail, or any other paper item, the goal is to handle each item immediately by completing it, delegating it, or dumping it.

To keep you on track, when it comes to paper items such as bills, place a red mark on each item that you touch more than once. In other words, if you don’t handle the item immediately when you touch it for the first time, place a big red mark on it.

For items such as email, if you don’t handle it the first time you read it, highlight the first line in red. It won’t take long to realize how often you are handling the same pieces of paper or digital communication over and over. What you’ll really appreciate is all the extra time you save.