Links for Setting Up a Filing System

Everyone needs some type of filing system. Even if you are attempting to go paperless, chances are you will still need some type of filing system–even if it is computer based. The five articles below look at different ways to setup and improve your filing system. They deal paper based systems, but some of the principles will apply to paperless systems as well.

Taking a little time to improve your setup can be a very good investment. If you can reduce the amount of time you spend hunting for things each day by even just two minutes, it will save you 12 hours per year. If you have an article that you would recommend on filing, please add it in the comments.

• Filing Organization Tips For Fast Office Filing - Jill Chongva
  A simple five point article on setting up an ideal filing system for small business. The entire task of setting up a filing system is given in five detailed steps Simple and effective tips that can keep you from having to do a reorganization of the filing system in the future.
• 10 Ways to Improve Your Filing System - Lisa Kanarek
  This article is a very detailed reminder of tips that make filing system; your business time saver. Emphasis is given on choosing the right type of folder – hanging interior color coded files. Common guidelines that are often overlooked while maintaining files are mentioned elaborately. The content of the article truly depicts the expertise of the author in this regard.
• Setting up an Organised Filing Cabinet or File System at Home - Susan Whelan
  The article highlights the logic behind a simple and organized filing system. The entire procedure of maintaining a good filing system are listed under three main headers – Access the available space, Set up folders and Keep it simple. Options provided to choose a filing cabinet is something that you can lookout for in this article.
• How to set up an effective filing system - DeskDemon.com
  Starting from scratch, the author has provided the step by step procedures involved in creating a well-planned filing system. The advantages and disadvantages of different types of filing arrangements makes the article a must read one.
• Filing Systems : A Four –Step Formula That Really Works - Sally Allen
  Best practices to make your filing system a neat and effortless one. A four point article, that will help you maintain an organized, hassle-free, and untiring filing procedure. Suggestions to maintain a retention schedule for files and options to file official documents including catalogs, prints, and envelopes are also listed.

9 Programs Worth Buying for OS X

Here some of the software I have spent money on and that was well worth worth the cost. Most of these deserve their own post and screencast just to show you how truly useful they are, but for now, here is a high level overview of each program.

• 1Password - I owned this software for about a year before using it. It was part of a MacHeist packaged deal. I didn’t think I would ever want to use a password manager. (Real men keep their passwords in their head right?) Grant mentioned that it was a must have piece of software, so I finally decided to try it out. It really is incredible. I’ve been blown away by how much time I was wasting dealing with passwords. If you deal with passwords for multiple clients, this really is a lifesaver. All of your passwords are protected and encrypted by a single strong password on your machine so your single password gives you access to all of your sites–even though they all have different randomly generated passwords. It will also act as a bookmark manager for sites that require a login. A single click will open the site and log you in. It can generate secure passwords and handle filling out forms with multiple identities and credit card information. There are plugins for pretty much every browser so if you create a password in Firefox, it will still work when you need to login from Safari. There is also a way to sync between multiple computers.
• JungleDisk - This piece of software lets you use Amazon S3 for storage and mounts it as a local disk. It also has a fairly good backup mechanism so you can schedule backups. You pay Amazon for your storage. JungleDisk also offers a $1 per month service that gives you some nice features like resuming downloads and updating only the changed portion of a file during backup. This handles the backup of important folders that I need to keep backed up, even when I’m on the road and not near my TimeMachine disk.
• ForkLift - This allows connections to SCP, SFTP, FTP and S3 storage locations. The big draw for me was the ability to quickly put something up on Amazon to make it downloadable without putting the strain on my server. (This is how I serve up the ambient sound files.) The ability to stay in the same program and deal with all my hard drives as well as any storage I have on servers or Amazon S3 has really made my life easier. The interface is very much in the style of the OS X finder which helps keep things easy to use. It also support quicklook and icons for images which makes it easier to navigate and find what you are looking for on the server.
• DevonThink Pro Office - This is where I put all my pdfs. Probably the best thing about DevonThink is the auto-categorization. It looks at the text of a document and then figures out where the other similar documents are and suggests the folders to move it to. You can literally categorize 100 documents in 3 to 5 minutes. DevonThink uses its own database, but you can easily export all of your documents out to the filesystem preserving the database hierarchy. Hopefully future versions will let you keep everything directly in the filesystem and just use DevonThink to manage it.
• Skype - I didn’t buy the program, but I did pay for the package that gives you unlimited calls in the US. With all my contacts in OS X, it means I can call someone by typing a few letters from their name and a single click. It is amazing how much time this saves over the course of a busy day of telephone calls. If you use Skype on a Mac, don’t forget that the audio in is a line in not a microphone input. You will need some type of amp or a USB headset to get decent sound (I use a Plantronic MX500I and it works well).
• Acrobat Professional - If you are trying to go paperless, there are some things that you just aren’t going to be able to do without Acrobat. Preview is very handy, but there are some features that just work better with Acrobat. In particular you can’t add your signature to documents with Preview and the markup and editing capabilities of Acrobat go well beyond most anything else I’ve seen. The workflow features is particularly nice because you can set it up to do something (like OCR or compress) a whole directory of documents at once and then just let it run overnight.
• Contactizer Pro - This piece of software does a few different things. It integrates with your AddressBook and iCal so if you add a contact it shows up in your AddressBook and vice versa. The program includes some basic project management features and you can do things like setup a process that gets populated with tasks every time you need to replicate the process. The key thing I use it for is for its mail merge functionality. It can merge to Word, Pages, and email.
• OmniFocus - I use this for keep track of tasks. The biggest plus to using this is that I can take an email, select the relevant text and tell it to create a task in OmniFocus. My assistant has a copy as well and I can put items in her OmniFocus so if I think of something while I’m gone I can tap out a note in my Blackberry and send it to her OmniFocus inbox. I believe they have a version for the iPhone and you can sync between the desktop and mobile versions.
• TextMate - A great all around text editor. It is simple enough to not get in your way and it is powerful enough to handle most anything you might need. It can do some tedious things very quickly for example, taking a list of items in a text file and wrapping each line with an html li tag to make a list. Another big plus is the fact you can use regular expressions in search and replace boxes.

Reader Question: Why isn’t my assistant saving me time?

I just got a personal assistant, but they aren’t saving me any time. What am I doing wrong?

Several people have asked me about this. There are many different issues that could be involved, but I see a lot of people who hire an assistant and then can’t think of what they wanted them to do. Either that, or it turns out their original ideas are all things that really can’t be handed off to someone else.

Paperless Infrastructure

Businesses have much to gain by moving to paperless communication with their customers. Just think how much money credit card companies could save if even 5% of their customers switched to paperless communication. The problem is that most companies seem to get the whole idea of “paperless” wrong. Their solution for people who want to be paperless is that they will send you an email notifying you that you have a statement. Then you can log into their website and download the statement as a PDF. This is about equivalent to having a mailman who knocks on your door to tell you there is a letter for you at the post-office.

This reflects a type of arrogance (or stupidity) that is typical of today’s big businesses. It works just fine for customers who don’t do business with other companies. But consider a customer who works with 10 different companies. Every month they have to login and download statements from all these different companies. It simply does not scale. From the companies standpoint, they don’t care about the other companies you interact with and would just as soon have you do business with only them.

The reason businesses are hesitant to send you statements through email is because email is insecure. Theoretically someone might be able to intercept the traffic and see your email. Of course, people could open your mailbox and take a peek at your phone bill as well so in practice it isn’t any less secure than the mail.  Sprint seems to recognize this and they are happy to send you bills as PDFs in an email message.

There are ways to make it secure using public/private keys. You give your bank a public key. They encrypt your statement with this key and send it to you. Only your private key (which isn’t shared with anyone else) can decrypt it.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of people using email aren’t using any type of encryption, so a lot of companies don’t even try to design systems that take advantage of secure email communication. For customers, this type of system is ideal. Your bank sends you a statement. It shows up in email and you simply drag it to your electronic file cabinet. The only better way would be for your document repository to talk directly to your bank and fetch the documents without even going through email.

Much of what is holding back paperless communications is a lack of encryption and digital signatures. The technology exists, but it just hasn’t become prevalent enough to make it useful on a wide scale. It is kind of like being one of the first 10 people with a fax machine. Once the novelty wears off and you tire of sending messages to the other 9 people, it doesn’t do you much good.  It only becomes really useful when everyone has one.

Part of the problem is that most companies who supply digital signatures are trying to make a profit. This isn’t a bad thing, but they are aimed at other companies who are willing to pay a lot for their services. There aren’t many companies out there who are trying to sell encryption to home users because there isn’t much demand. Of course, until people use it, companies won’t offer it as a way to communicate with customers. So basically there won’t be any demand until the demand exists–a classic “chicken and the egg” problem.

I think the best solution would be for some type of non-profit company to really start trying to spread encryption in an effort to help make the world more paperless.  It could even be a “green” non-profit that is trying to reduce the amount of paper consumed.  This wouldn’t be a bad role for the government because it is basic infrastructure for doing business.  Of course they would probably want to keep some type of back door access to read your emails and the results would probably be a bureaucratic nightmare.

What are the roadblocks you see toward adopting paperless practices?

DevonTHINK’s Classify Feature

As part of my paperless office experiment I’m finding that scanning is actually the easiest part of the whole setup. A lot of what is difficult is finding a workflow that makes sense.  For example, if your assistant scans in 250 documents from your file cabinet, you need some way to classify and organize those into your system.  Obviously you can look at each one and figure out where it goes, but this is very slow.

DevonTHINK has a feature that helps with this.  It looks at the text in the document you want to classify and then looks at the text of documents already in the system. Then it suggests a location that puts it with similar documents.  This is extremely useful–especially when dealing with bills.

In this video I do a brief demo of how this classification system works.  I’m trying to make the videos a bit more usable, so let me know if this is an improvement over the others or not.

The video is a bit on the rough side, but I wanted to go ahead and get it put up to get some feedback from readers. I’m planning on doing some more with a better camera and in a better controlled environment. (I’m not sure if you can see me trying to shoo the dog away that is trying to rest his wet nose on my leg.)

Credit Cards as a Productivity Tool

Credit cards are an important part of how I manage my finances efficiently.  I don’t recommend them for going into debt, but the can make it much easier to track expenses and do things in a paperless manner.  One big time saver is the ability to give an assistant their own card on your account.  You can setup whatever limits you need (if you don’t trust them completely) but it sure is easier than trying to deal with giving them cash to run errands for you.

How to Make an Insanely Simple Paperless Filing System

This is a guest post by Arjun Muralidharan, author of The Productive Student, a new blog about productivity for college students and all productivity buffs.

Mark’s paperless project has always been a favorite of mine to follow. He uses DevonThink to manage incoming documents from his Fujitsu ScanSnap.

It’s a good system, but for me, it lacks two things:

1. It doesn’t handle all my files, such as Word documents, Keynote presentations and other file types well.
2. Third-party software independence.

In accordance with GTD, I like to have a comprehensive system that’s cross-platform and can live independently from software such as DevonThink.

While a system with DevonThink will work for many of you, I’m sure some of you out there will value a more flexible, portable system.

Here’s my filing system, using just Mac OS X and Quicksilver, and optionally, Leap.

The System

Single Alpha System

I have hanging folders for each letter of the alphabet as my physical storage system. I find this system works extremely well, as far as retrieval is concerned. There’s a maximum of 26 places I can look for in the worst case, usually you can narrow it down to 3 or 4.

It takes 10 minutes to make but is extremely easy to navigate as you’ll see.

This system resides within a Reference folder. This folder practically holds my entire life.

Filing Stuff

This is where Quicksilver comes into play. Quicksilver can be described as a launcher for Mac OS X, but it basically provides instant access to a lot of functionality and interaction with files. You can get it at Blacktree Software.

Let’s take a typical scenario:

You have file that’s landed in your inbox, either by downloading it from the internet, an email attachment, or a direct PDF scan from your scanner. Here, I have an eBook version of George Orwell’s 1984.

I want to achieve the following: Put the file into my system in a folder named “eBooks”.

Two problems arise:

1. The folder eBooks doesn’t exist yet.
2. Conventionally moving a file is a pain in the backside.

With Quicksilver, it’s easy:

1. Highlight the file with your mouse (click once).
2. Invoke Quicksilver.
3. Type “E” to go to your “E” folder.
4. Press Tab, and type “N” to select the “New Folder” command.
5. Press Tab again, and type “eBooks”, and Enter to create the folder.
6. Now type Command+G to drop your highlighted file into Quicksilver.
7. Press Tab, and type “M” to choose the “Move to…” command.
8. Press Tab and type “E” to go to the E-Folder.
9. Use the arrow keys to drill down to the “eBooks” folder, and hit Enter.

While the instructions seem lengthy, once you get used to it you’ll find it extremely fast and comfortable to do. The last two steps are necessary because Quicksilver will not have indexed your newly created folder yet, so you have to manually drill down. No big deal.

Retrieval

Finding a file is extremely simple, thanks to Mac OS X and the OCR software included with most scanners these days, including the Fujitsu ScanSnap. Since the files are simply living as normal files within the OS, Spotlight search finds them with ease.

Hmm… I had that cool novel about Big Brother… what was it called?

Ah, there it is!

That’s my portable filing system. It’s flexible, cross-platform, and I can whack all my files on a thumb drive and walk to Windows as well. If you enjoyed this, be sure to stay tuned to Mark’s blog right here and my new blog over at The Productive Student.

Quick Paperless Update

My paperless experiment is going well.  Most of my incoming paper gets filed in DevonTHINK and I’ve been very happy with the the results.  DevonTHINK will let you do stuff like put the same file in two folders.  Once you get a number of documents in the right folders, DevonTHINK can automatically suggest where to put new incoming documents.  This is surprisingly helpful and extremely accurate.

The ScanSnap is good with flat paper, but sometimes has trouble with items that have been folder (think anything that comes in the mail).  I’m contemplating looking for a higher end scanner just to simplify the scanning process.  It isn’t bad, but it isn’t a smooth as I’d like it to be.

Paperless Office

These links and summaries about going paperless were compiled by my assistant in India. (In an upcoming article I’ll be talking about what it is like to work with a virtual assistant.)

• 6 tips for a ‘paperless’ office - Joseph Anthony
  People get greater return on their hardware, software and technology investments while they partially get rid of the paper clutter. The author focuses on 6 basic things that one has to remember while moving to a paperless office. The reader gets the pointers to remember while shifting to a paperless home or business office; he is also familiarized with the benefits.
• Acrobat to a Paperless Office - Julie Starr
  This article focuses on the benefits of technology for moving to a paperless office. In comparison to any other software, author vouches for Acrobat. The wide range of built-in capabilities would enable the user to add annotations, track reviews, merge multiple PDF files, or add custom headers and footers. Illustrative examples are given to familiarize the reader with the various acrobat options available. The benefit of using acrobat is huge in comparison to the shortcomings pointed out by the author.
• The Concept of the paperless office (d,a,n) - Maricon Williams
  The article brings to light the motive of different authors in having a paperless office. While we foresee an office without paper, the benefits involved cannot be overlooked. The author discusses on three advantage involved in having paperless office but at the same time also alerts the reader of the risk involved. The author’s viewpoint is also featured along with the opinion of many authors on this subject.
• Rethinking Paperless: Efficient Alternatives For The Not-So-Paperless Office - Bill Brikiatis
  While one desires to set up an office with less paper or paperless, few questions are bound to attack. The author has presented his viewpoint on this subject in the form of question and answer. From the feasibility of the idea to cite an example of a firm, which has successfully moved to become paperless has been mentioned in this article. Opinion on usage of apt tool is shared by the author that can minimize the paper-clutter and thereby enhance service efficiency.
• The real paperless office - Joe Kissell
  You might be lost when you are asked to aim for paperless office. This article acts as a guide to help you set it up with more ease. Based on personal experience, the author lists the steps involved in having an organized office with less paper. The reader gets enlightened on selecting the right hardware, software with appropriate configurations and the best suited process.
  

Interview: Filing System from Scratch

In a recent interview we asked a number of people how they would advise creating a filing system from scratch.  Then the readers of Productivity501 voted for the best one.  Below are the answers arranged with the highest ranked answers at the top.

Don’t forget you can cast your vote for the remaining questions.

Describe your paper filing system along with your advice for someone starting a filing system from scratch.

I like a logical system.  Ask yourself, where would I expect to find this?

Keep and file only what’s necessary.  Tax records are, notes from a seminar are probably not.  Once read and committed to memory that information will probably not be referred to again.

Use specific, plain language file names.  Instead of “banking”, say “X Bank Acc. #”.

For a home-based office, like my own, I think “prime real estate”.  Files accessed most often should be the most easily accessible.  That’s the prime real estate.

I use logic.  And zones.  Finances belong together, as do client records.

Maintenance is the key.  When you take out a file, take a quick look at the contents.  Are they still relevant and necessary?  Weed it.  Is the file still too big?  Divide it into sub-categories.

Any filing system evolves.  If you keep using logic, it will always work.

Angela Esnouf from Organised Thoughts

The idea of asking yourself “where will I look for this” is an excellent tip.  It is easy to look for a place to put something and end up storing things in spaces that make absolutely no sense when you are looking for it later.

First, I do everything possible to minimize paper.  For those papers that I must keep, they get filed in regular file folders in a cabinet.

I find that it works best to create a single file folder for each project or account.  So I have folders for bank accounts, taxes, etc.  Then I put these in alphabetical order.  It makes things easy to find and simple to expand.

Be sure to label your folders well.  I have a great DYMO label maker for this.

Finally, file things as you get them.  Don’t let them pile up or save all your filing for later.  Put things away as they hit your desk.  It will save you from lots of headaches.

Andrew Flusche from Legal Andrew (rss)

I find the labels make a big difference in how I approach my filing.  If things are well labeled I tend to be more careful how I file things because it feels more “professional”.  If my labels are sloppily written by hand (or even non-existent) I tend to be lazy in my filing and things quickly go down hill from there.

I simply have a bunch of folders in a couple of drawers. Neatly organized in an alphabetical order.

Tip: Even when there’s only one piece of paper to file, it’s worthy of a folder.

Tip 2: If you can’t decide on a suitable name, just pick one. If you can come up with it now, you can come up with it when you need it.

Lodewijk van den Broek from How to be an Original (rss)

I am bad about not creating a folder when I need it.  I know David Allen recommends against hanging folders because if it requires more work to make a new folder, you are likely to put it off and not file it.  Tip 2 is related to Angela’s tip of asking “where do I find this”.

Developing a filing system depends on your needs.  I use a filing cabinet and hanging filing folders.  I create a separate folder for everything.  Some people try to keep less folders with more information.  I find that the more folders I have, the easier it is for me to locate what I need quickly.  Don’t hesitate to create a new folder because you feel that you won’t have enough information to warrant a new folder or because the information isn’t important enough to keep in a separate file folder.  If it is worth keeping to you, then create a folder to make it easy to find.  Remember they are your files and the point of having a filing system is to make your information accessible and organized.  I also alphabetize my folders to make locating them easy. 

Vicki from One Big Health Nut

My problem with new folders is when I start creating things that overlap.  I’ll end up with Finances, Banking, Retirement, and Money and it isn’t clear which one is the correct folder.  This probably is more of an issue because I don’t have my folders arranged correctly, so I overlook the correct folder and create a new one.  

My personal paper filing system is arranged in zones. The files I use on a daily or weekly basis are  in a drawer I can reach from my desk chair. Files that are used for reference are in a nearby file drawer.

Here are ideas for those lucky people starting a new filing system:

• Use the same system for filing paper and electronic files.
• Keep business and personal files separate.
• Keep the system simple. The more “chores” you need to do to get the filing done will mean the less filing you do. The simplest system uses handwritten labels on manila file folders.
• Invest in high-quality file storage.

Ellen Hankes from Organization, Productivity and Life (rss)

The idea of keeping parallel file arrangements for paper and electronic files is intriguing.  The only downside I see is that deeply nested folders in the physical world can be very difficult to navigate.  On the plus side, it would keep you from creating crazy deep folder levels on your computer if you knew you’d have to try to create them with actual folders.

If you are starting from scratch, my advice is:

1. Keep it simple by getting rid of as much paper as possible and keeping as few files as possible. 
2. Think through the entire lifecycle of your paper and create separate systems for paper you need to ACT on, REFER TO / FILE INTO often, and create an archive system where you can move older paper that you have to keep or keep paper that you will rarely have to refer to.
3. Use high quality tools.
4. Give yourself plenty of filing storage space.
5. Don’t create TO FILE piles! Keep your Actionable paper and reference files handy enough to file instantly. 

Ariane Benefit from Neat & Simple Living (rss)

Ariane makes a good point that we often lump two issues into filing.  One is not having a good idea of what we need to keep and the other is not having a good place to put those important papers.  If you can fix the first problem the second becomes more manageable.

I recommend a basic alphabetical system, with a set of A-Z pressboard file guides to separate each letter. I’ve researched many more complex systems (including grouping, sub-categorization, and color coding), but simplest is best for starters. I’d avoid digital indexing systems (e.g., Paper tiger) until you have a compelling need. Other tips: Get a desktop labeler (I like the Dymo QX50), use 3-cut (or 3-tab) file folders, don’t worry about tabs lining up (i.e., random is fine), and put files that start with numbers under the number’s *letter*, not at the front (e.g., “6 thinking hats” would go under “S” for six). 

Matthew Cornell from Matt’s Idea Blog (rss)

Matt makes a good point that is easy to overlook.  Don’t do anything complex until the benefits outweigh the complexity.  What works well for storing 50 million sheets of paper will not save you time when you are managing 500 sheets.

I scan everything I can with my ScanSnap–it’s incredibly quick and easy. I give each scan a descriptive name and place it in an appropriate folder; I sub-categorize by year or even month for high-volume folders. Finally, I shred whatever original papers I can, and fit the few I need to keep into a single file box. I love having minimal clutter, yet being able to find documents when I need them.

Eva Holtz from College Admissions Secrets (rss)

I’m a big fan of the Scan Snap.  I occasionally run into problems with it grabbing multiple sheets of paper, but usually it works well.  I use DevonThink to store everything which lets me do things like put the same item in multiple folders and automatically assign items to the correct folder based on their contents.  I’m not down to a single box yet like Eva, but I’m working on it.

As a student, my paper filing system is probably very different from most.  I have one binder that I keep all of my papers from my current classes.  I keep handouts, notes, and returned work all in this binder.  Dividers (manila envelopes cut in half) keep the classes separate.  If it starts to get too full, I’ll clear out old notes and handouts and put them in a manila folder named “Class X Archive.”  That folder goes into my “folder-crate.”  My folder-crate has all my archived class work and materials as well as a “Pending” folder for work I can’t do yet, a “Taxes” folder for all tax documents, and individual folders for any completed projects that I feel need to be held on to.

The key to any filing system, however, is not overflowing it.  I try to reduce the amount of paper I ask my filing system to handle.  I carefully consider each paper before I decide to keep it.  Also, purging your file system every so often is very beneficial.

Sam from Sam I Am (rss)

I have used binders and three a three hole punch as a nice filing system in the past.  It works particularly well for bank statements and college classes.

I would buy the most expensive, sturdy, and attractive filing cabinet you can afford.  You are going to spend a lot of time there so you better like it.  I would also get a table-top tickler file, straight-line file tabbed file folders and a labeler.  Put all your hot items in categories and build your system from your desktop and start moving the items you don’t need often to the cabinet.  All along the way, you should ask yourself if you need to act on the piece of paper, if it is for reference or can you toss/recycle it.  I also recommend a very big trash can.  The biggest your room can hold.  Like a hamper.  My informal studies have shown that the bigger the trash can is, the less you are likely to keep something or delay a decision.  One thing I can promise you to is that anything you keep today, will prove to be completely useless in 5 years making you wonder “Dude– what were you thinking?”

John Trosko from OrganizingLA Blog (rss)

The big trash can is an interesting tip.  I hadn’t ever thought about it, but my little trash can is a pretty big inconvenience because it needs to be emptied so often.  I wonder if I subconsciously don’t throw some things away because I don’t want to deal with taking out the trash.

I have files dating back to my high school days — primarily because I never know when I’ll be able to turn an idea from way back when in to an article or a story. This translates to a fair amount of paperwork.

My first step to filing paper is determining whether I really need it — can I print it off later? do I have multiple copies? am I likely to need to refer to it? If I don’t truly need it, I shred. (And I shred everything! More noise in the data stream!) This leads to the most important piece of advice I can give anyone starting a filing system: You do not need to keep everything. Get comfortable with purging paperwork you don’t need.

My second is to determine where I file a given piece of paper: I have separate cabinets for current materials — ongoing contracts, open utility accounts, etc. Non-current materials go into another cabinet. I divide both cabinets into such categories as my business, household expenses, tax information… even materials from my school days have their own area. I don’t know that anyone but me could find things in my cabinet very quickly. However, no one else needs to. Every person’s filing cabinet can be different — the important step is to pick an organization method and keep to it.

Thursday Bram from thursdaybram.com (rss)

Thursday makes a good point about your filing system.  Make something that works for you.  If you can find things quickly that is what matters.  Don’t spend time trying to make something that everyone can quickly use unless everyone is going to actually be using it.

I don’t have a paper filing system. I get everything, from bills and invoices to personal communications, all digitally. There are a few bills I get by mail, but I pay them and then chuck them in the bin after making a digital record.

My advice for someone starting a paper filing system would be, don’t.

Joel Falconer from Joel Falconer (rss)

I’m not quite there, but I’m getting closer.  If I had a good portable way to read PDF files I’d be much more comfortable with getting rid of some of the paper.

I have been a Staff Manager for 25 years and every year
companies try to become ‘paperless’.

Whether it is hard copy paper, filed away on your computer hard drive or an email folder, how much time do you waste looking for documents?

Do you lose vital documents just before important meetings?

Will you be prepared for your next staff meeting?

How often do you find yourself in the position whereby you cannot find that important document?

I have a resolution to this.

Have a filing system with 31 sections - one for each day of the month. Can be a paper filing system or folders on your computer or email tool, it does not matter. Then file the document in the appropriate section for the day you need it.

Each morning just make sure you check that day’s section - easy.

You can also use this with your staff. Have a section per member of staff.  Just file anything you
want to keep and raise with that member of staff in their section. It saves so much time. When you next meet with them or interact with them, you will have all the relevant paper work in one place.

Simple, efficient and it maximises your time. Go on try it.

What results will you get?

Andrew Rondeau from GreatManagement (rss)

This type of tickler system can be a great way to keep track of documents that you know you will need a particular time in the future. I once wrote to Merlin Man of 43Folders suggesting that he register the name 198Folders.com for all the people who were going to be going on the Polyphasic sleep schedules.

Filing systems are a paper graveyard. I like calendar based or numbered ones that rotate things in and out.

John Richardson from Success Begins Today (rss)

John has a good observation.  If you don’t have a plan for what happens to the paper over time, it just becomes a graveyard of dead trees.

I have a pretty horrendous paper filing system which I haven’t been able to master. 

Anne from Writers Cabal Blog (rss)

Anne is brutally honest. I imagine this is how many of us feel.  Hopefully this list of tips will give you some ideas for the next filing system you setup or to improve your current system.

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