If you are fed up with your office space, have to hunt for a pen like you are on safari, and spend more time hunting for documents than working on them, this article is for you. As you forage through the “one week ago” pile, and try not to topple the whole thing into an unworkable mess, read this article for tips on how to reverse and improve your home office world.
Every office deals with an excess of paper and whether large or small, your business is suffering when you are not operating in an organized space.
So, how do you regain control of the paper monster that is cluttering up your business?
Space to Organize Is Essential
One of the largest challenges of staying organized is the ability to set up a system where you have room to grow. Space is essential.
If you organize a drawer, take everything out and replace it in the drawer but still have no space to put anything else in that drawer, you have pretty much wasted your time. The un-filed pile of papers remains and will simply grow again.
Having space to add home office furniture in the form of filing cabinets and storage bins will help considerably with organization. Be sure and have at least one quarter to one third or more growing room when you implement your system. Extra space encourages you to keep up with your organization efforts.
This system includes everything from architectural drawings to products and documents you accumulate in the course of doing business.
Set aside time to purge unnecessary documents. Not only will this provide more space but it will save you time that would otherwise be wasted looking through worthless paperwork.
Implementing a Filing System
Do not make your system too complicated or it will be hard to follow through. Color-coding can be the easiest if you do not have too many categories. This is effective for systems, which only require ‘Income’, ‘Expense’, ‘Projects’, ‘Correspondence’, or something similar.
When filing large groups of projects, clients, or invoices, try utilizing a single draw for each group of like files. Get a tall filing cabinet that can be divided into either chronological or alphabetical systems.
For things that you use very frequently, consider getting a cork, posting or white board that you can place near your desk. This works for phone number lists, client projects and outlines, ‘To-Do’ lists and appointment calendars.
Maintaining Order
A system is only as good as the person using it is. If you do not keep it up, no system is useful. Starting with a smaller, simpler system of files in a cabinet near you is good. You can then take your daily or weekly items and store them in a more permanent place when you are finished.
The system will also work for stuff that you need off and on as the project you are working on progresses. Things like price lists, if you’re dealing with products, lists and articles that you need to add to a website, rewrites and the like. If you need to refer to it continuously, then you want it close.
Filing Style
Take a realistic look at how you file and consider the filing system. It might work better if you use labeled boxes or storage boxes if you tend to pile papers. This might be in addition or replace the standard filing cabinet. You need to find something that makes you feel comfortable, something you want to work with so that you continue to maintain it.
Everything in Its Place
Everything MUST be assigned a home. By giving each item a place, you will not loose pens, cell phones, glasses, and so on. Do not crowd the items or you will get frustrated. Recognize that all of your efforts will help you run your business more efficiently and thus productively. Reward yourself for keeping the system working!
Tags: Business
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