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Organizing Paper Files

Paper filing tips, Paper Tiger Filing System, organizing paper files, filing systems, records management, information management, document management,

3 Simple Ways to Help You File Correctly

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Misfiling:  It is the bane of the home business owner.  How many minutes or hours are wasted each day frantically searching for that one document, that one letter that has been misfiled?  How many gray hairs have been created as the office personnel searches frantically for the missing folder while you try to placate an irate client?  While mistakes will always happen, there are ways that you can minimize the chance of them happening to you.  Here are a few of my favorites.

Keep it Simple

One of the most common reasons why something gets put in the wrong place is because people don’t understand where the right place is located.  Therefore, it pays to keep your filing system as straightforward and simple as possible.  Personally, I use a combination of numbers and colors- each project is given a unique number, and each section within that project is given a specific color.  For example- all my invoices are kept in a red sub-folder in the project file, and all my vendor information is kept in a yellow one.   Then it’s just a matter of making sure that the project number is placed on all items and that only things of that project are kept in the same location.  While misfiling still can happen, keeping things simple does decrease the odds.

Keep Track of What is Being Used

Often, when a file is out of place, it is simply being used by another person.  If this is the case, one of the easiest ways to prevent a panicked search for the missing file is to simply place an “out” card in its place with the name of the person who has it.  One of the best methods I’ve seen is to take an opaque binder divider and write the word OUT on the tab, and have people write their names in an orderly fashion on the divider, and cross it out when it is returned.  Then it’s easy to see who was last responsible for the file.

Archive What You Don’t Need

Let’s face it; sometimes there are a lot of things in your files that simply are not relevant to the situation at hand.  While you may still need to keep them for record keeping purposes, there is no reason that you need to keep everything right there.  It can be helpful to designate an archival file location where the inactive, or portions older than say five years can be kept.  That way, you won’t have to spend valuable time going through old material to find the current ones you need.

These are just a few ways that you can use your filing system to keep things easily accessible, and help to prevent misfiling.

Home Organizing: Going on an Information Diet

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home organizingOur day sets us up for information overload. Social media, Magazines, T.V., Online Subscriptions, Newspapers, the list goes on. If we don’t learn how to regulate our information you can become overwhelmed. Your home and mind become cluttered. Business and home organizing suffer. We are far from the productive people we could be.

Here’s four simple steps to decrease your information and improve your home organizing, business organizing, and mental space:

Step 1 – Limit Times Checking Email

Harvard Business Review did a study on multi-tasking and time wasted on the psychological switching gears back and forth.  Multi-tasking decreases your productivity by up to 50% and the switching back and forth between tasks or projects also wastes time of 10-45 minutes.

No wonder our to do lists are bulging, desks are piled high with unfinished paperwork, and people are drowning in email. Think about the business and home organizing you could get done with almost an entire hour added to your productive time.

 Step 2 – Group like Activities Together

Depending on your type of work, set 2-5 times a day to check your email.  Turn off all notifications and ringers.

For other activities like project work, making phone calls, responding to emails, meetings, coaching hours, service hours, invoicing, home organizing, and planning to name a few, block out times in your schedule to do similar tasks.  This is also known as batching.  Want to know where your times goes, track your activities for a week!  It will be an eye-opening experience and you’ll get to the root issues of your productivity much faster.

 Step 3 – Set boundaries

Get clear on your desired outcomes and goals and you’ll be more selective on what type of information you keep and let into your world.  Create space by organizing your paper, books, magazines, photos and electronic files.  Only keep what is useful, relevant and easy to access.  Keeping something for “just in case I may need it someday” doesn’t cut it.  This is where people get into overwhelm, waste time, procrastinate and create unnecessary piles of clutter in their offices, homes and computers.  Home organizing suffers greatly!

Also, keep a small basket for magazines and reading material.  When it’s full, its time to purge!  When the filing cabinets are full, it’s time to purge and the same goes for bookshelves, your Inbox and other areas of your office and home.

 Step 4 – Decrease Volume

When you know what your retention guidelines are for keeping computer files, financial files, project and paper files, meeting notebooks, emails, client files, magazine and newspaper subscriptions, and so on, deciding what to keep and what to purge is simple.  You take the heavy thinking out of business and home organizing. Write out your retention policy for the different areas of your business or home office and have it handy on your computer for easy reference.

Recently, an Office Manager asked me what to do with 17 years of meeting notebooks.  After discussing it for 30 minutes and talking with the Health Director, we were clear that all meeting minutes and financials  were saved electronically and any other information that may be lingering in the notebooks were safe to let go.  A week later, I received an email saying “I did it!  I shredded 17 years of notebooks and I feel better.  Out with the old, towards the future we go.  The past is the past!”  A huge load of stress was released, freed up some mental space for creative thinking, and space opened up in his office.

High performers practice the above steps because they are clear about where they are going, what information to let into their world and focus on doing the right actions on a consistent basis.  Going on an information diet will free up physical space as well as space in your mind to be more creative and productive.

 

Want to improve business and home organizing? This is where it starts. What does your information diet include?  Leave your comment below.

 

Going Paperless is a Process

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Going Paperless

going paperless

photo via rosmary

 

Making the decision to go paperless is a great step in the right direction in any home or business.

But it isn’t a single step, going paperless is a process. even after I thought I had cleared everything I could I still find it is important to keep going back in and clearing more out! Staying organized is about staying on top of your systems.

Check out this short video about my system for keeping my closets, desk, and file drawers organized.

 

 

How is your going paperless process going? Let us know in the comments below.