Is THIS the Year to Get Your Office Organized?
By Sue K. Weiss
Did you know that ‘Getting Organized’ is among the top ten New Year’s resolutions for most people? Is this the year to focus on your office? While this report focuses on office organization, much of the information can be useful in other areas as well.
What paperless office?
If you’re like many busy professionals, managing the paper in your workspace is a real challenge. There is an unending flow of it into your inbox, and it’s difficult to know how to file it so you can easily find it later. And what about others who may need to find documents in your office when you’re not there? Let’s not forget that, in all likelihood, you also have to manage the endless streams of email and electronic files on your computer. Yikes!
PricewaterhouseCoopers found that the average executive wastes up to 150 hours a year looking for misplaced, misfiled or mislabeled documents. Multiply 150 hours by your company’s average hourly rate and you’ll get an idea of what the annual cost of disorganization is to a company, per employee. And that’s just for paper! Then there’s the added cost of stress to you.
Ready -- Set -- GO (Get Organized)!
What’s it like to walk into an organized office? How about being able to find whatever you’re looking for within a few minutes? Or sending out invoices in a timely manner? Or having more time in your workday to focus on what is most important? Or leaving work at a reasonable hour?
Taking the time to get organized is a challenge -- you don’t have the time to organize, but you waste time as a result of being disorganized. The small time investment required to organize is gained back within a few weeks, resulting in increases to the company’s bottom line, along with employee and customer satisfaction.
Here are some of my favorite tips to help you organize your office. These won’t all excite you, but if two or three can be implemented easily and work for you, then you’re closer to your goal. Some of these apply not only to paper, but to email and electronic files as well.
Tip: Use a daily planner or calendar.
Whether you use a paper planner or an electronic one, find one that works for you that is both simple and portable. And use just one for both professional and personal appointments to ensure that there are no scheduling conflicts. List your “to-dos” on the appropriate days. Along with meetings, schedule regular appointments with yourself to listen to/return phone calls, read/respond to email and file. You’ll find that you will be managing your time better, instead of the other way around.
Tip: Schedule small blocks of time each day to keep on top of filing and other important activities.
Just thinking about getting your office organized can be pretty daunting!
“Doable chewables” -- that’s what I call breaking projects into manageable pieces of time and tackling one piece at a time. There’s an old African proverb that asks, “How do you eat an elephant?” The answer: “One bite at a time.”
Regularly schedule 10-15 minute appointments with yourself, two or three times a day, in your planner. Maybe one chunk of time is at the beginning of the day; another, just after lunch; a third, just before leaving the office. Set an alarm clock or a timer. Use these chunks as suggested in the previous tip and do not multitask.
Tip: Containerize your papers and like items.
Along with the proverbial “Inbox” and “Outbox,” use a “To File” box. This is where to put those papers that don’t require any action, but you want to keep for future reference. This portable box also makes it easy to carry to other areas of your office when you’re ready to file.
Use other containers or attractive baskets to keep like things together and place them close to, but not on top of, your desk.
Tip: Put your papers and electronic documents on a F-A-T diet: File or Act or Toss.
In her book “Taming the Paper Tiger at Work,” Professional Organizer Barbara Hemphill says that there are only three things you can do with any piece of information: File, Act or Toss.
Start with current and new papers first. As you need older papers, just file them into your new system.
Let’s start with Toss. As you pick up each paper, read an email or access an electronic document, ask yourself these questions to help determine whether to toss (or delete) or not:
- Is this already obsolete?
- Do I have its source?
- Is the information available on the Internet?
- Can I readily get it elsewhere if I need it later?
- Have I needed it in the past year?
- Do I want to keep it?
- What’s the worst thing that would happen if I tossed or deleted it?
If not tossed, they will be filed or acted upon. Since what you want to File will be used for reference -- information you need or just want to keep in your office -- file by name, such as company or client, and/or by category, such as ‘Marketing’ or ‘Operations.’ You can have more than one kind of filing system.
I refer to older files that are only accessed once a year or less as archives and suggest that they be kept elsewhere as long as the area is dry, such as off-site storage, a closet or an attic.
Tip: Use a Tickler file to contain papers that you will need to Act on.
Where do you put the agenda and support materials for a meeting in two weeks? Where do you put an invoice so you remember to pay it early next month? Where do you put those plane tickets and itinerary you don’t want to lose? These are the papers you need to see again that don’t require immediate action.
A tickler file reminds you which papers require your action today and allows you to forget the rest until their time. You can purchase an accordion file sorter with tabs for each day of the month (1-31) and each month of the year. As you’re sorting, or as papers requiring action come across your desk, ask yourself, “When do I need to see this again so that I can complete it before it’s due?” and file it behind the appropriate tab.
At the end of each workday, plan for the following day by taking out that day’s contents. Near the end of each month, take out the contents behind the next month’s tab and sort them into the appropriate days’ slots.
I like the accordion file because it’s self-contained and easily portable; however, you can make your own: purchase 12 hanging files for the months and 31 file folders for the days; label and hang them in a desktop holder.
Until using the tickler file every day becomes a habit, remember to write a daily reminder in your planner; e.g., “See tickler.”
Tip: Use vertical step sorters for current projects.
Keep projects you’re currently working on within easy reach. Just a glance at their labeled folders will remind you what they are. Here is where other folders labeled for routine actions, such as “To Read,” “Waiting For” and “To Copy,” might be kept as well. Hint: take the “To Read” folder with you when you’re going to an appointment. If you have to wait, you’ll get a head start on your reading.
Tip: Get rid of the Post-Its® and scraps of paper that either decorate your monitor or are on the loose.
These either wind up stuck on the back of another piece of paper or get lost altogether. Instead, keep a spiral notebook on your desk to record all your notes and ideas; date each page. Used as an ongoing log, it becomes a permanent record you can reference in the future. Or, use a three-ring binder.
Getting -- and Staying -- Organized
Organizing your office is a process. It’s a skill that can be developed, and it’s never too late to start. And as these actions become habit, you'll be on your way to managing paper, electronic files -- and your time -- more productively.
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