Archive for Office Organizing – Page 2

Tax Time Loomith

Posted by Carolyn on

January 31, 2012

Many of us are planning for the holidays and looking forward to some downtime after a busy fall. Great idea. What’s top of your list when you get back to the office in January?

With a little forward planning, by the time you get to April, you’ll be focussed on those new clients having signed off and sent off your annual tax return. If you are still working on a paper-based system, consider booking time with yourself in your 2012 calendar, before it gets booked with client appointments, to sort the receipts.

An accordion file makes a great receptacle. With 13 pockets it can stand on a shelf, in a file drawer and be labelled by month to receive receipts, invoices and any other relevant paperwork.

Office Organizing

Tags : Planning, Taxes

Tax Prep in the SOHO

Posted by Carolyn on

January 19, 2011

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Are you staring at a shoe box of receipts? Here’s a quick and inexpensive way to get those receipts tamed. Pick up an accordion folder at the local office supply store with 12 sections, one for each month. Label the sections. Start by filing the receipts by date into the appropriate section.

Some people prefer to file by category. Date or category, it doesn’t matter. They all have to be accounted for at tax time and how you group them is up to you and based on the volume of receipts.

If it seems overwhelming, consider contacting a local high school student whom you trust and offer to pay the them to file the shoebox of receipts for you according to month. This is a great opportunity for the student to learn the benefits of organization and practise some basic filing skills. In addition, what you will need to pay the student is tax deductible and much less than your accountant is likely to charge you to accomplish the same thing.

Office Organizing

Tags : E-files, Finances, SOHO, Taxes

Office Annual Review

Posted by Carolyn on

December 8, 2010

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Before working as a professional organizer, I spent several decades in a corporate environment. Those of us who have ever worked for someone are familiar with the annual review process. But have you ever considered applying this concept to the organization of your office? If you were giving your office an annual review, how would it fare?

Are the position description and expectations clear and understood?
Are there annual goals and objectives that are in line with the company’s (yours) strategic objectives for the year?
Do the annual goals and objectives meet the SMART criteria (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time limited)?
Did your office meet all its performance targets for the year?
Did you office meet all its goals and objectives for the year?
What recommendations do you have to offer?

Try this out on your office space whether your run a home office or a corporate environment. And remember – there should be no surprises at performance review time. Regular feedback on adjustment to performance of your office will ensure that those goals are met by the end of the year.

Office Organizing

Tags : Goals, Organizing Maintenance, SOHO

Organizing Experiment

Posted by jennievlietstra on

July 7, 2010

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Organizing is an on going process, one that requires revisiting drawers, closets and surfaces often to keep our organization up to date with our ever changing lives. I’ve been going through this review process with my home office. I recently made the decision to move my desk from the second floor into the basement. This involved the physical relocation of my workspace but it’s also been an opportune time to re-evaluate how I use that space.

I have a two-drawer filing cabinet that fits under my desk. When I moved downstairs I thought I would experiment and try positioning it on the right side, versus the left side where I’ve always had it. I’ve given myself a trial period to see what influences it may have on my workflow. I’ve since concluded that it’s just not working for me. Today I’m moving it back to the left! This really does make the most sense for me, as I’m left handed and therefore the files are easier to access.

It’s okay to try something, to see if it might change your workflow for the better. By trying a different layout I broke the pattern of how I had always done something. In this case I had already been following instincts that were correct. If something is not working for you, in your home organization, it may be time to try an experiment of your own. Change one thing. Move it from the right side to the left, or from a lower shelf to one at eye level. See if that one small change can make a positive impact on the way your space functions.

Office Organizing

Tags : Accumulation, Clearing Clutter, SOHO, Space

Computer Filing Made Easy

Posted by Carolyn on

June 24, 2010

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Keeping track of electronic files can be a challenge even for Professional Organizers. One solution is to let your computer do all the filing work for you.

Your computer reads files names from the left whether they include numbers or letters. It will automatically file letters by alphabet. Alpha filing is great when you have a few files so it is a good solution for folder names.

Consider labelling series of files such as minutes, agendas or regular financial reports by number and let your computer keep track of the order in which they ought to be files. Try starting a monthly series of files with the numbers 1 through 12. The beginning of your year – regardless of what month it starts – will always be at the top of our file list. Using dates can accomplish the same thing. If you have files that make up a series or are date sensitive, start the file name with the date rather than finishing the file name with the date. Remember to put the yymmdd format so that the computer will file in chronological order. Here are some examples:

1 Financial Statements Jan 2010
2 Financial Statements Feb 2010
1 Minutes ABC School Council Jan 23, 2010
2 Agenda ABC School Council Feb 18, 2010
2 Minutes ABC School Council Feb 18, 2010

Let the computer do your filing work for you so you can get on with more important things!

Office Organizing

Tags : Computer, E-files, Email

The Wellrich 10 Percent Email Solution

Posted by Carolyn on

June 24, 2010

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As a professional organizer I am frequently asked how I recommend people stay on top of their email. There are a variety of strategies for managing the actual email when you first open it. Use folders to file information and flagging action items for example. When it comes to the emails that have been left in your Inbox too long here is a process I call the 10 percent solution.

Pick a time of day to commit 10 minutes to email management. Stick to this commitment until that Inbox is under control.
Change the sorting order of the Inbox. If you normally sort by date, try sorting by sender or subject. This has the impact of immediately changing the context of the emails. With a different context sorting is easier.
Check the total number of emails and then identify what 10% would be. This is your target; the number of emails you are going to file or delete in your designated 10 minutes. For example, if you have 1000 emails sitting in your Inbox, try and remove 100 at the first sitting.
Quickly scroll through the list and try and delete as many as possible i.e. the easy ones you know are no longer needed. If you get stuck or bogged down, switch the sort again and keep going. Try sorting by email topic. This will sometimes allow you to delete the backlog of emails on one particularly topic and then the last one, with all the accompanying conversation, will be the email to file.

You will be surprised how easy it is to remove 100 emails when you have changed the context.

Office Organizing

Tags : E-files, manage email

That Darn Paper

Posted by Carolyn on

June 17, 2010

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With the recent downsizing of my own parent, and the move of my SO to working from a home office, our house has a few too many boxes stashed in a few too many places. SO and I have been making a serious attempt to empty, sort and purge the contents of those boxes. I’ve become my own organizing client. And just like everyone else, it is easier sorting someone else’s stuff.

This week we tackled a backlog of paper. What a surprise I had to discover, as we fought for any extra storage space we could find for SO’s business files, many inches worth of old investment statements that were more than just a few years old. Since many of the statements are available online, and they usually send us quarterly statements anyway, we chose to shred. And shred. And shred. Our recyble bin will be full this week. Our filing cabinet has extra space and even a few shelves were liberated. Goodbye paper.

Office Organizing

Tags : home office, Paper, Recycle, shred, Small office, SOHO

Two Forward, One Back

Posted by Carolyn on

May 31, 2010

· No Comments

You organized your desk top, cleared out your files, set up your hot files and got your income tax in on time with a moderate “clean up this mess” bill from your accountant. Congratulations!

And now you sit dispondant staring at a piles of paper on the floor, an inbox full of unopened mail – both electronic and otherwise – and stuff all over your desk. You’ve spent the last half hour trying to find something you know you had last week and need before the end of the day. It’s 10:00 on Monday and you are already frustrated and ready for the weekend.

Relax. With even the best of intentions most of us experience some form of organizing back slide at some point in our lives. For most of us, it is a regular occurance and merely another facet of staying organized that needs to be managed. Event the most organized professional organizers backslide from time to time and need a little boost to get back on track.

First, realize this is normal and not serious. Cut yourself some slack; you are human.
Second, focus on what is really important right now – if you need that thing you are looking for, is there someone else who can help you look. A second pair of eyes often will see things that you don’t and will find it faster.
Third, recover your organization by scheduling several small organizing sessions for yourself and commit to this time for yourself to get back on top of the stuff. It could be 15 at the end of the day or 30 minutes at the beginning of the day. Pick whichever time your are most productive.
Fourth, start small. Don’t expect to clear all the paper in the first 5 minutes. You may need a whole week to get back on track. Keep your expectations realistic, stay focussed on your goals.
Finally, reward yourself. If you clear the top of your desk after the second session, celebrate. Well done!

Office Organizing

Tags : Backsliding, Organizing Maintenance, Work-life Boundaries

Client Questions – Why do I get stuck on Email?

Posted by Carolyn on

June 1, 2009

· No Comments

The electronic age was meant to speed up the way we work and computers promised to make life easier. They have, however, brought with them their own challenges as witnessed by the common frustrations of managing email. If email is soaking up too much of your day, try these tips:

Turn off the email alert on your computer. You know emails arrive constantly. You don’t need your computer to remind you there is more work sitting in your Inbox.
Schedule a routine time to clear new email messages. Do not schedule this first thing in the morning otherwise it may soak up the rest of your day.
Read, respond then delete or file. Keeping loads of email messages in your Inbox is the same as leaving mail sitting on the middle of your desk. Both practices give you the impression you have yet to deal with the messages when in fact, you have responded.
Use your email functionality – rules and alerts – to sort your mail when it arrives. If you have a big project on the go, create a folder for the project. Add the folder to your favourite folders where you can see it easily in the top left (or right) of your screen. Create a rule to have all new mail with the project name in the heading or body go directly to this folder. Your computer will tell you when there is new mail in the folder, don’t worry. It’s like having an assistant sort your mail before putting it in your inbox.
Limit your time for email clearing. If you need two or three scheduled times to clear – so be it but limit the time of each session.
Be short and succinct in your communication. No one else wants to receive long winded emails at their end since they have limited time to review it as well.

Enjoy shaking off the email shackles.

Office Organizing

Tags : Client Questions, E-files, Email, manage email, Time Management

First Quarter Review

Posted by Carolyn on

April 1, 2009

· No Comments

How it happened I hardly know but here we are at the beginning of April. That means first quarter is over. How are those goals coming?

Have you checked your progress recently?
Do you know where you filed them?
Are they still valid?
Are they still realistic?
Did you implement the tools to measure them?
Were they measurable to begin with?
Are you happy with the progress?
Are you ready to celebrate your successes?

Where are your targets and goals for second quarter?
Are they specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time limited? (SMART)
Have you set up the tools to measure your progress?
Have you set up a review date?
Have you planned your celebration?
Have you shared the goals and your progress with your staff?
Is everyone focusing on the same organizational goals?

See you next quarter!

Office Organizing

Tags : Goals

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Archive for Office Organizing – Page 2

Many of us are planning for the holidays and looking forward to some downtime after a busy fall. Great idea. What’s top of your list when you get back to the office in January?

Banish those Gremlins!

Conquer Procrastination Cheat Sheet