Many people struggle with how to be organized at work. A great deal of frustration, stress, and lost time surrounds bad filing habits. Or for that matter no filing habits! Filing is a low priority for a lot of people. It is a common struggle that the papers piling up around you simply don’t have an assigned home. This can be a big problem at the end of the year when it comes time to condense and archive your work files or complete your shredding for the year. There are two main components to the filing problem.
The first is that people don’t know how to set up a system. When learning how to be organized at work it is important to know you need a filing system! But you don’t know where to begin. You don’t know how to put together a system that will be effective and work for you. So you do nothing. Your papers are not in their homes because you haven’t given them homes! You are not the only one.
Think about how you would like to both file and retrieve your information. What are your preferences? People are afraid if they file their paperwork they will forget where it is. Or forget it exists at all. These out of sight, out of mind fears stop people from filing paperwork at all! Use color to make your filings system easy and fun. People in general are very visual that is why I use orange or yellow hanging files for bill pay files. The moment you open your drawer these files will jump out at you. So put aside fears of losing bill pay files by using color!
So to solve your first problem on your path of learning how to be organized at work use color, keep it simple, spend time thinking about and deciding on your preferences about filing and retrieving information, and then customize a system just for you.
The second common filing issue, most people keep their bills in separate file folders. A file folder is created for each paid bill by supplier. This takes up so much of your time! You have to go through the process of setting up the files each year and then having to file one paid bill into the respective folder. If you are like most people you hate to file. So you will start collecting these single sheets of paper until you get around to it. Unfortunately most people don’t ever actually make time for it. Before you know it twelve months have passed. Your file cabinet is empty, but you have stacks and stacks of paper everywhere! Your desk, the top of your file cabinet, every surface in your office has a mountain of paper on it. There are receipts, statements, and paid bills scattered far and wide.
The solution? Simplify. Use an expanding plastic hanging file labeled for each month from January to December. This way when you pay your bill you can file all your paid bills for the month behind that months tab. At the end of the year it is a simple one step process. Pull out your plastic hanging file and put it in your archive box. Then restart by labeling a new plastic hanging file for the next year. This system is straightforward and easy to maintain for twelve months. Eliminate the unruly stacks of paper.
Many people struggle with how to be organized at work. Creating a simple functional filing system will help you immensely. Remember you are not alone in your struggles. Take the first steps in winning the paper battle today!
Want to learn more about how to create filing systems for work or home? Click here.