More Chaos While Trying to get organized?

I saw a Twitter-tweet recently, “In my attempt to get organized I believe I’ve become more disorganized than before I started.”

It’s quite a strange phenomena indeed, but one that is so common I shouldn’t consider it strange.

See, it often goes like this: When people start to organize an area, it goes from a disorganized mess to what seems like total chaos and then unfolds into an organized area. It’s the cycle of getting organized.

Stopping at the apparent chaos stage is bad. Don’t do that. And, although it’s tempting to run and get away from the scene you created, just keep at it because organization is just around the corner.

I’ve seen this happen time after time, even when I organize someone. Take, for example, a disorganized office. There are piles of paper and miscellaneious stuff all around. You start to sort through the papers and one stack turns into numerous categorized stacks. That can seem like chaos, but it’s really order that looks like a mess.

Eventually, all those now-categorized papers go somewhere (other than staying as piles in view to the world). They go into file folders or filing baskets; they get put into filing cabinets or storage boxes; they are placed into desktop folder holders or action bins.

It’s the putting away so you can find it part that brings total order to disorder. And it’s the last step after all the sorting. So, you’re not far away from a “done” while you’re sorting and creating a bigger mess in the area.

Think of it this way: the mess is just confusion. Confusion is just a bunch of stuff all around and you can’t make heads or tails out of any of it. When you start creating a bigger (but more organized) mess while sorting through the stuff, confusion is just a little more obvious because it’s flying around more (before it was motionless).

That can be overwhelming, so to prevent that, just be sure to focus on what you’re doing, one item at a time. Start with one stack, pick up the first item in that stack, decide what to do with it, and then move on to the next piece.

Pretty soon, whalla! You’ve gone from disorder to order!

Filing Papers

It’s that time of year to archive 2008 records and purge documents no longer needed to be kept. This is also a good time to get into those files and pull what you need for taxes, as well as organize any financial papers that go along with your taxes.

With a new beginning, you have an opportunity to improve the way you maintain your papers for ease of storage and retrieval. I find that a lot of people are going a little less conventional and more trendy with the manufacturing of beautiful ways to store files.

The days of the colorless file boxes are out and the time of color is in. So, why not spice up your work area with some colorful filing boxes found in our product shop?

The key to putting any papers in any box, filing cabinet, or file holder is to ensure that you can find papers easily by using categorized filing tabs. I find the best solution is to use hanging files within the box with file folders clearly labeled on its content.

This generic subject classification system is simple and applicable for any home or business (some subject classifications would not apply to a home filing system however):

Major class includes:

• Administration
• Accounting
• Corporate
• Finance
• HR
• Legal
• Marketing & PR
• Operations
• Personal (for home filing system)
• Research & Development

Within these Major classifications, there would be a level we can refer to as a secondary or primary level within the Major level. This is where it can get extensive and anything goes. One example of this level would be “Banking” which would be grouped in the Accounting classification. The file folders is another level within banking and would consist of your bank deposits, statements, etc. Get the idea?

The subject of filing system is an extensive one that I can get into more detail about later. Meantime, I hope this gives you something to work with! Be sure to take a look at our colorful filing boxes!

Get More From A Few Smart Changes

Many individuals are looking for ways to adjust their business to help them get through this challenging economic downturn. The usual approach to business growth isn’t as applicable during a rough economy, so people need to make changes.

One of the changes a business should look at in their strategy for improvement is getting better organized. And there are a number of ways that being organized can help improve a company’s bottom line.

One very important task to undertake is handling any clutter. Every minute you spend looking in piles, wondering where that document is, or being distracted from where your focus should be costs you. After all, these “minutes” do add up.

Fact is, it wastes time and money. With a business, time is money and the amount of time spent looking for a document or item costs you. So therefore an overhaul of your work area should be the number one starting point to becoming more efficient.

There’s more you can do of course in getting your work organized. Here are a few:

• Organize files into standard categories, properly labeled
• Organize financial information (bills and financial paperwork)
• Establish ways to track your bills to pay on time
• Designate a place for everything and keep everything in its place
• Set up a more efficient work space
• Have supplies at hand
• Streamline your methods of work flow and cut out unnecessary activities
• Use computer applications to automate tasks

The key is to keep it simple. The more complicated something is to do means that task needs to be organized into a more efficient task.

One example of this is how a person processes a new contact or lead. Let’s say you get someone’s business card, then you get back to the office and put that card on your desk or dump it into your phone book to enter into your contact database later. Then when you want to contact that person you’re either sorting through a number of other cards or within papers around your desk.

To streamline this process, have a card scanner where you can just quickly scan the card and it goes right into your contact database.

So yes, keep it simple. Being better organized is the road to simplicity and the ingredient for running an efficient business.

The inspiration for writing about this came from an article by Steve Strauss in USA Today, “Get organized to get more out of your business” and one by Jean Chatzky “It’s high time to get organized.”

Organize Bills & Documents

Last night I went to an organizer’s event and walked out with a bag of goodies from the event sponsor, Office Depot.

Usually I don’t expect much in these kind of goodies bags, but I was surprised to find so many useful items! I got Post-it Super Sticky notes and highlighter pens, a Happeez Notepad, Sharpies, a sticky note pad booklet from Container Store, Bongo Ties to wrap cables, and best of all was Post-it Pockets to organize mail, bills and receipts, plus other misc. stuff.

It was the Post-it Pockets that prompted me to write this post. Actually, it is the very solution I had been looking for on the side of my refrigerator to store my menus.

Of course, I prefer highlighting products available in our own Shop here, so wanted to give you some other options in organizing paper. For one thing, the file holder pictured here is a perfect way to store and organize papers on your desktop or work area. Files like this are excellent for those “action files” like bills, mail, etc.

It’s hard to NOT be organized when you utilize things like this!

Organize Files

Going paperless

Go paperless with on-demand document management

I don’t need to tell you that people are drowning in paper. The average American household receives 100 mail pieces a month and, when you add that to daily receipts, emails, school paperwork, medical records, newspaper and magazine clippings and kids’ art projects, it’s no wonder people spend too much time looking for things.

Now, imagine if you will, your own virtual personal assistant to organize, file and fetch all your paperwork .. whenever and wherever you need it. Well, I found a place that will interest you then. It’s called Pixily – www.pixily.com.

Pricing starts out as little as $14.99 a month, and may be worth it in the minutes each day you spend looking for things.

I haven’t tried it myself yet, but plan on doing so. I’m looking at it as a “back up” of all my papers, both electronic and hard copies of things. With all the California fires lately (and one right in my own neighborhood where I had to evacuate!), this service looks like the perfect thing to do!

Hope this recommendation helps you in going a little more paperless!

Organizing paperwork

Neat Receipts Scanalizer Organizes Paper

The Martha Stewart video on YouTube shows it all and makes this scanner a Must-Have! You can scan receipts, bills, recipes, anything … and categorize them in the Neat Receipts software. View the video.

To purchase the product, go to www.artofpossibility.com. You can also view the video at this site as well. The other great feature of the software is that it provides expense reports.

A Home Filing Solution

Organize home papers with MyVitalFiles

There’s a new product in town for those home files. In a press release about it, here is what they say…Whether you are overwhelmed by paperwork, want to help a loved one get organized, you want to help your kids get a great start, or you just make sure you’re prepare for an unexpected event, MyVitalFiles.com provides a place to get started.

MyVitalFiles.com’s aim is to offer an innovative, practical, top-quality organizational product that can shower a blessing of well-equipped, more organized lifestyle than before.

MyVitalFiles.com has many unique features. Their Home Office Filing system design features include: ease of use, color coded labels, zero assembly required, pre-labeled, among many others.

Check out the web site for details and purchasing info.

Manage Notes

Personal Knowbase Helps Organize Notes

I was quite pleased to find a good Personal Information Management (PIM) software that is easy to store and index your notes and information.

I found that the Personal Knowbase by Bitsmith Software does this for me. I downloaded it yesterday and was in full use of it within minutes. That I liked!

It comes with a free trial and costs $39.95 if you should decide you want to purchase it.

I’ve tried numerous ones in the past, but the index feature of this one seems to make it easier to retrieve my notes quicker.

Data Pack Rats

Less is better

I find that a lot of people and businesses keep information they don’t need, and keep it longer than they need to keep it. This can be a risk and is known as “information liability.”

In Baseline magazine, an article called “When it comes to data, less is better” points out the need to minimize the amount of data that is kept for the purpose of cutting risks. They suggest:

“Go through all your processes and purge data that doesn’t serve a business purpose.”

This they call a “data audit” and suggest to classify public information and personal identifiers and separate them.

In my filing classification system, you’ll find it is easy to classify information. Each classification connects it to retention schedule codes and legal citations for that class.

If you think you’ve been keeping information too long, consider a data audit and purging what you no longer need. It’s just good practice.