FILING- Anyone have any tips?

Question

I have piles of paper at my home office and I am so overwhelmed! Does anyone have any tips so I can get started!?!?!

Answer 1

1. Start out with the essentials
"determine what's critical, instead of trying to figure out what to get rid of...Build your system around the pieces of paper are you often looking for, worried about or constantly referring"

2. "Ask yourself these questions—if you don't answer yes, toss it."

- Are there tax/legal reasons to keep it?
- Will it help me complete a project I'm working on right now?
- Do I have time to do anything with this piece of paper (e.g., product solicitations)?
- If I ever needed it again, would it be hard to get from someone else?
- Is the information up-to-date?
- Would my work/life change if I didn't have it?

3. Find a central location to sort through and organize, avoid headers like "'Bills Due' in favor of hard-to-ignore names like 'Maintain Good Credit.'"

4. "divide the folders into three to five broad categories. For example: Finance (receipts, investment and bank statements), Family (vital documents; medical, education and career records), Lifestyle (travel plans, hobby info, articles of interest)."

Answer 2

I once solved this problem. Made a list having three columns.

First column had a searchword, or searchwords. Second column had the title, like letter from Bill. Third column had a file folder number..I thought eventually there would be as many as a thousand folders, so I numbered them 0001 up.

The first piece of paper I picked up was marked 0001, because that was the folder it was going into. Then I did the same thing for several more pieces of paper. When I thought the folder had enough, I put the next papers in 0002.

There was no need to put like things in a particular folder. I never searched through folders to find something. I simply did a word search on a searchword or title, and the folder number would come up too.

The key to finding something is having the right words in the searchwords and titles, so any word you might search on will be associated with that paper.

Answer 3

Go through one pile at a time. Throw out or shred whatever should go. Usually I start dividing the pile up into smaller piles - one for each file. Then I file those stacks all at once. You could do a pile or 2 a day to keep it manageable rather than trying to do it all at once.

Answer 4

before going through the piles of paper go buy one of those plastic drawer towers (with the wheels on them) i have one next to my desk and have the drawers labeled including a junk drawer. i also have a mini one stacked on top of it for pens, pencils, stamps etc. keeps all the junk off my desk and when i want files separated i use folders. it works for me in my small office space and i never lose track of things.