My biggest problem is mail. I HATE getting mail. I wish there was some way to make it illegal to send it to me. Processing the endless quantities of crap every day probably detracts more from my happiness than anything else in my life. I most loath having to figure out if pieces of mail from my bank are important in any way or just another preapproved credit card that I will never need in my life.
The biggest effect is second order. If I don't process it immediately, it piles up on the desk where I normally study. Once it has piled up, it becomes a barrier to studying, and I stop doing serious learning too.
I hated mail until I started treating it as a business problem: if it is a bill, I pay it immediately and then spend time figuring out how to make sure I never get another one. (Getting my bank to set up automatic payment of 8 recurring bills was one of the best things I ever did for my peace of mind.) If it is from my mother, I put it on my PC to be read later. If it is from the government, I grudgingly put it on my PC to be read later.
Everything else gets discarded immediately into the recycle bin kept next to the door for this purpose.
Oh, that's easy. If the mail doesn't have the word "revenue" (as in "internal revenue service" or "department of revenue") on the envelope, you don't need to open it.
That's your biggest problem? Either you're getting an ass-ton of mail or you are the luckiest SOB on the planet. I get what I assume to be an average amount of mail. Takes five brainless minutes a day to deal with. If you only have to deal with 5 minutes of bullshit a day you're pretty well off.
My advice is to get a second desk and put all the mail there.
Other than the space it takes up, keeping your mail in a pile is a pretty efficient system. The important stuff like this month's bills are usually near the top, while stuff that's not that important has probably been buried by a few layers.
I process my mail like this: anything that's clearly junk goes in the trash immediately. The rest goes into a box. I process everything in the box at the first of the next month. Takes maybe 30 minutes to an hour.
Set up your regular bills (mortgage, utilities, anything else with a draconian late fee) to be paid automatically.
The biggest effect is second order. If I don't process it immediately, it piles up on the desk where I normally study. Once it has piled up, it becomes a barrier to studying, and I stop doing serious learning too.