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Sherry Borsheim

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Aug 04
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How to Get Organized at Work With a Tickler System

By Business Organizing, Home Office Organization, Organizing Paper Files, Quick Organizing Tips No Comments

Are you looking for a tool that will show you how to get organized at work?  The paperwork surrounding your day to day activities and follow ups can be a serious impediment to getting organized.  A tickler system reminds you of your important follow-ups and other things that will require your attention at a future date.  This is how you should use your tickler file system.

 

Set up Your Tickler System

Want to know how to get organized at work?  Set up your tickler system.  You will need to start by purchasing plastic tabs, hanging files and containers to store them in.  Your tickler system should be set up in an accordion file.  This file should have a tab for each day of the current month (1-31), and then tabs for each month of the year (January – December).  The next part of the system is personalized to your specific needs.  Your hanging files with tabs behind the accordion file can be tailored to the repetitive actions that best apply to your work.  This could be calls to make, calls expected, bills to pay, data entry, expense reimbursement, read, to write, ect.

 

In my opinion there are two reasons that people stack up papers all around themselves instead of filing them in a system.  The first is they are afraid they will never find them again.  Customize a system just for you and you will never lose paperwork again.  And second, they don’t want to act on the paperwork, they are avoiding it.  A tickler system will make taking action simpler and easier.  You will dread it less and have a clear idea what you need to accomplish each day.

 

It is important to get in the habit of checking your tickler file system every day.  This is the only way it works!  Here is what I recommend for developing a habit, make a daily appointment with yourself.  Write it on your calendar, program an alert in your computer or phone.  Just make sure you are reminded to check your tickler file daily, every day for a month.  After that it will become an automatic habit.  If you find yourself missing days put it back on your calendar.  You’re making a commitment to get organized at work.

 

Choose a location for your tickler system that makes it easiest to check every day and to file things into it.  This can be a desktop file frame or your desk drawer.  Making your system easily accessible means no more papers stacking up all around you.  You won’t put off the job of filing any longer.  Now there will be a home for all the papers cluttering up your desk, even piled on the floor!  A tickler file system will give you a home for phone messages, invitations, tickets, bill receipts, claim stubs, and anything that requires action by you in the future!

 

Want a plan for how to get organized a work?  Start your plan with putting together a tickler file system.  This will give you your daily to-dos right at your fingertips.  A tickler system will give you a place to file those small slips of paper, phone messages to be returned, tickets for an event, ect.  Don’t be afraid of losing a piece of paper again it will be filed on the exact day you need it again!  Make it a daily habit to check this file system and you will be more organized at work.

Jul 29
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Overcoming Work Filing Problems

By Business Organizing, Home Office Organization, Organizing Paper Files, Quick Organizing Tips No Comments

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.

Jul 24
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The Secrets to Organizing Microsoft Outlook- Rules Wizard

By Business Organizing, Home Office Organization, Organizing Microsoft Outlook, Quick Organizing Tips No Comments

Microsoft Outlook can be an extremely useful productivity tool when it comes to prioritizing the time you spend on email. However if you are unfamiliar with Outlook’s functions you may not be getting any of the benefits it has to offer to you.  This article is part of a series of articles that will help you as begin organizing your Microsoft Outlook.

 

Email should be used as a tool to help manage and process the projects that are important for your life and work.  But with the hundreds or even thousands of emails coming into your mailbox it’s difficult at times to effectively use and process email.  Microsoft Outlook Rules Wizard helps you manage your incoming emails.  You can use Rules to automatically sort, prioritize, and reduce the flow of your email.

 

Why you should use rules when organizing Microsoft Outlook

If you have a ton of email to go through using Rules Wizard can be like having a personal assistant to help you organize Microsoft Outlook.  There are a number of different ways to use the Rules Wizard. You can use it to have emails sorted into different folders based on who sent the email, the type of message or subject line, even whether you are CC’d or the primary recipient on the email.  You can flag messages that come in from certain people or have an alert set for when you receive an email from a specific person.  Use it to plan ahead with a function that can even delay the sending of a message.

 

I suggest this super helpful way using Rules. If you are receiving multiple e-newsletters, direct all of your e-newsletters into a folder to be read.  Create an Action folder titled “.Read” and then follow the instructions below to create your rule that will direct your newsletters there.  This will help reduce the flow of email in your inbox.  It is important to schedule a time each week to go through this folder and read what has come in.  The goal of this folder is to help you organize your time and inbox, not to create a place for emails to pile up and collect cyber dust!  If you find you receive an e-newsletter that you don’t read over and over again consider unsubscribing.  Being honest with yourself about what email you do and don’t need will help you while organizing Microsoft Outlook. Don’t waste time glancing at and a deleting an email every week or month that isn’t pertinent to you if you don’t have to!

 

How to use Microsoft Outlook rules

 

Creating a rule:

Before you begin create the folder you will be directing your email into, or confirm that it already exists.

1.  Select Tools, then Rules and Alerts, and then New Rule

2.  Select Start From a Blank Rule

3.  Highlight, Check Messages after Sending, and then click Next

4.  Check off with specific words in the subject.  Next click on specific words and choose a unique keyword for your rule, for example “newsletter”.  Click Add, OK, Next.’’

5.  Uncheck move a copy to the specified folder.  Then click on specified folder and choose from the list. Click Finish.

 

A quick tip

There is such a thing as too much of a good thing.  Don’t abuse the Rule Wizard.  If you overuse the Wizard by creating a ton of folders this tool will become a hindrance.  Instead of being a helpful personal assistant your Rules will become a time waster!

Organizing Microsoft Outlook by creating rules to better sort and filter your email today means less wasted time, energy, and money tomorrow!