Making Your Filing System Work For You!

July 4, 2008 at 1:13 pm (Blogroll, home organization, organizing information, organizing space, productivity, time management, Uncategorized)
Tags: ,

Conquering the paper issues in an office or home can be the most stressful part of getting organized. Everyone realizes they actually keep too many clothes, or too many pots and pans, or even too many of whatever it is. We’re just so afraid to get rid of the paper trails in our lives that we hold on to every slip of receipt, and every article we’ve ever wanted to read so we are overwhelmed with paper! I know what I’m talking about! Aunt Mary sent you a card! Uncle Jim sent a article on fly fishing! I can hear you now! “If I get rid of it, they are going to ask me for it or about it!”

This week I’ve been out of town working with a woman who is trying to get her papers in order. She is part of a large family corporation that owns a lot of land, ranches, oil fields, farms, etc. She is really great, but she is just like everyone else when it comes to paper. By the way, she is doing a magnificent job at the clearing out process and yesterday began the process of learning how to scan documents and enter them into her new centrally understood filing system! But I digress here. I will explain what this type of filing system is soon! Be patient.

It doesn’t matter if you are a one person family or a ten person family, you will have paper clutter. Clutter is postponed decisions. Everywhere you look some surface in your home or office is cluttered with papers that should have had decisions made about them the minute they hit your desk or counter top! So the first thing I want to address is your lack of habit!

Lack of habit is the cause of clutter. We have tendencies that say, I’ll get to it later. Only we don’t. So it builds up until we have to take entire days to do something that originally should only take a few minutes or an hour at a time to complete. This goes for other things than taking care of paper clutter, but we’ll stick to paper clutter management for now.

If I look around my home office I can see trends that need improvement and I bet you can too. Little slips of paper my adult son left on the home computer desk that should have been thrown away. Or the fact that I went out of town for several days and now have an accumulation of mail on my desk to go through. Or that stack of magazines that only have one article in them I wanted to read. So as I go along I do what I teach my clients to do. Reading that article is first, because I can certainly clear the space if I decide not to keep the article. I definitely will not keep the magazine!

As for the mail, which is the biggest contributor to paper trash in the household or office, it is next. I have to decide to file it for future decisions, act on it if it is necessary, or trash it. While I was out of town I spoke with some ladies at the Millennium Hotel in Durham. Sweet ladies, but they were as mind boggled over what to throw away as the next person.

Keep these rules in mind!

If you need to pay it, sign it, send it to someone else then KEEP IT IN AN ACTION PILE!

If it is a sales circular, flyer, or some other something that you have no interest in, TRASH IT IMMEDIATELY!

If it is something that you have to refer back to, either for information you want to pass along, or for yourself, FILE IT!

The point here is that every piece of paper that comes into your home or office needs some type of Action. You only have three choices. Make them wisely and you will have less and less piles of paper and more desk real estate to use for important things!

A friend of mine, Stephanie Calahan said something recently on how long it takes to create a habit. It is generally accepted that it is a 21 day process. However, I agree with Stephanie that it can take up to seven weeks to create a sustainable habit.

Knowing what you have to do, and doing it are two different things. You know you need to get it under control. Clutter is a stress magnet and if you can get the clutter under control or gone forever wouldn’t you? Reduce your stress, reduce your blood pressure, and try to enjoy a wonderfully new environment by becoming clutter free!

For those of you who didn’t make it onto the conference call on Monday, I will be holding these free conference calls once a month and if you dial in, listen in you can then go to my website and set up a free 30 minute consultation where we can discuss the organizing challenges you are facing!

That’s it for today! I’m off to work with a client on the 4th of July! Then it’s a relaxing afternoon by the pool.

Til next time, enjoy your holiday!

Denise

1 Comment

Space, Time and Information

May 9, 2008 at 6:44 pm (Blogroll, home organization, organizing information, organizing space, time management, Uncategorized)
Tags: , , , ,

Life is filled with moments for a lot of us where we just can’t stand where we live anymore.  We do not have walking room because the furniture is in the way or whenever we aren’t looking someone is putting things in the chairs or sofa so we can’t sit down!

This is also known as Aunt Mary, Joan or Sue just couldn’t let go of their things because they want you to have it.

I know you know what I am talking about.

So how do we deal with the fact that our space isn’t working for us anymore?

You actually need pen and paper for this one.  Or if you have a CAD program that uses dimensions to draw pictures of rooms then go for it, and use it.

Space is finite.  You only have just so much space in your room(s).  Take those measurements and then using graph paper draw out the dimensions.  One box per foot.  So a 12×12 room is 12 boxes across and 12 boxes down, making a square.

Can anyone tell I’m not a mathematician?

Measure and estimate the size of the furniture you have in your room.  If the sofa is 7 feet long and the wall is 12 feet long, do you still have room for end tables on either side of the couch?

I hope you understand where I am going with this.  By measuring and taking those measurements to the store you know that you will come home with furniture that fits your space.

My husband has sold furniture for 13 years and the one thing that happens frequently is that people (that means all of us) go into stores and see something we love and no matter what the size we think ‘yes it will fit, I’ll make it fit’.

Unfortunately, the reality is that once we get that furniture into the home we are never going to be satisfied because it really won’t fit.  We either didn’t account for the window, or that there is not electrical plug on that wall to support a lamp, or simply the couch is too big for the walking space.

Leaving that scenario let’s talk for a minute about your desk.  Seriously, when and where did all those papers, envelopes and things come from?  If you are a home based entrepreneur dealing with the paperwork, filing, electronic files and all the mail you get can be crushing.  So the least you can do for yourself is to get it under control.

In your office take a look around at the equipment you have (or need). Make a list so you can purchase what you feel you need to make you life easier.  You obviously need a desk that gives you a large workspace to write on, have a computer on and hopefully has drawers for you to use.  You also need the basics, a printer, scanner, fax machine (hopefully built into one machine), a telephone for all those great sales calls you need to make and all the sundry other machines you need at different times.  Okay, the last thing is a comfortable chair and something to put on the floor so you don’t ruin the wood or carpeted floors.

Every day we get tons of mail.  If you are like 9 out of 10 people you put it on a table, a chair, the microwave or beside your chair in front of the television to go through at a later time.  Why?

Probably because you always have done it like that.  So the tip of the day is to stop it!

Beside the door that you always come in from outside, place a table.  It can be small.  Put a basket or some other type of catch all on top of the table.  Every day as you walk into the house from picking up the mail put everything that needs to be gone through, but you don’t have the time or want to take the time to do it immediately.

There is a great rule of thumb that I have been hearing from innumerable organizers.  If it takes less than a few minutes to do something, GO AHEAD AND DO IT!

So this tip can save you time and ultimately money.  Get a basket of some sort and keep all the mail in one place.  Every day take a few minutes to go through, shred or tear up the mail that you determine is trash and make sure you stay on top of this.

Your desktop and you!  Your desktop needs to have certain things so that you can find them later on.  Three letter trays (or legal if needed) to hold the in, the out, and the to be filed papers.  So go to your favorite store or look in your closet as you may already have some, and put these on the desk.

Take each paper in hand and tell yourself what you need to do with it.  Remember this is a habit that you need to form and it only takes three weeks to form a new habit!  Put those papers in the proper tray.  When you know you have to file everyday to keep up with the paper flow, take a few minutes and just do it!

For now, take these few tips and try them out.

I have to run to get to an appointment!  Have a great weekend!

Leave a Comment

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.