Many of us have just come to the end of a fiscal year, matched up to the calendar year. Why not get a jump on tax time for the following year? Your box of receipts may still haunt you until you hire a book keeper for this year’s tax, but next year could be a different story for you.
Pick up at your local office supply store an accordian folder with at least 12 tabs. They are often available as 6, 13, 31 (date) or 26 (alphabetical) tabs. Label the tabs by month.
Use this monthly organization to put all your receipts for 2009. Each time a receipt comes in, drop it in the relevant tab slot. If your business is big enough, you may wish to have one for revenue and one for expenses.
If you are using electronic files, consider the opportunity to convert your paper receipts into electronic documents using tools such as offered by The Neat Company.
Archive for Office Organizing – Page 5
They all want to race down the hill as fast as possible at the age of 7. With no fear of dying, and only 3 feet to fall if they catch an edge, the young skiers head from top to bottom at mach schnell (made up word from KLR) if unchecked. KLR, their ski instructor, patiently and firmly reinforces the basics; you have to slow down in order to get fast.
How often could we all profit from KLR’s sage advice? Are you moving too fast, wound up in the day to day tornado of life at the office, that you can’t get to the end result fast enough?
Try slowing down and reviewing the basics. Is my company clearly focussed on where I want it to go? Have I reviewed and revised the firm’s strategic goals to reflect the marketplace and our relative position in it? Do all my employees understand their role in the strategic goals? Do they understand the firm’s expectations of them?
Do I demonstrate in my behaviour the professional behaviour I expect from my staff? Do my actions reflect the goals I hold for myself and my firm? Do I demonstrate the priorities and focus my attention and resources clearly on their importance?
Slow down. You’ll finish faster.
I first published this post in 2007. The women at iLash Girls have reminded me that we are wise to revisit our focus on a regular basis. Thus I have chosen to republish in the hopes that you will find it helpful to refocus your view of the work to be accomplished this year.
Focus – with a camera? A noun or a verb? And what makes me think it has anything to do with business anyway? Ever try creating something without it?
Probably the single biggest reason employees fail to reach their goals and business fail to succeed is lack of focus. Do you have a mission? Do you know where you are going? Do you know what it will look like when you get there? Do you have a road map? Have you shared the map with anyone else? Have you shared it with everyone else?
If you or your employees are not focused on the goals of the company, they are messing around with what I call corporate clutter; All the stuff that gets in the way of your business, project, division, board of directors or _____________ succeeding (you fill in the blank). It is no different than in your home where clutter takes time, energy and money to manage, and manage around. If your day is cluttered with unnessary and unfocused activity, you are messing with clutter and wasting energy that would otherwise help your business succeed.
Focus: think about it.
You may wish your employees were more organized; that their workspace looked more professional, that the offices represented the values to which your business aspires, that reports were on time and that your directors could find last quarter’s results when you asked for them.
One of the most powerful mechanisms to increase your employees’ organization is to increase your own. They will follow the example you lead. If timeliness and organization are high on your list of priorities, and you lead that example in all that you do, your staff will follow.
What does your workspace look like? What does the top of your desk look like? Does your company hold a clear out day regularly where each employee has to commit to clearing out their workspace?
What message are you sending to your employees through your level of organization?
For many people, today is the last day in the office before a couple of weeks vacation over the Christmas holidays. For others, the last day may be next week or early January before a relaxing vacation in a hot, sunny locale. (I wish!)
Whichever the case for you, take time today to Plan Your Return! Thirty minutes is all it takes to get a grip on the first day back. You will thank yourself – and who knows, maybe I’ll get a titch of credit – when you return and realize that you already have control over the back log of work and your top priorities. Think how impressed your boss will be!
- Clear out the top of your desk even if it just means sorting into piles so that you know what’s there. Make sure the majority of the top of your desk is a clear work space. You will be able to return to your desk, sit down and breath. Breathing is good.
- Schedule your top priorities for your return. Check your schedule of projects and start a list of activities that will require your attention as soon as you return. Book time for these activities into your calendar. Anticipation is powerful.
- Containerize your mail. If you will be receiving mail into your office while you are away, nothing takes the glow off a sunny memory faster than an overflowing Inbox. Consider a larger container for the duration of your time away from the office. It will help to keep the paper organized before it even gets to you! Containing the clutter keeps you in control.
- Clear the floor under and around your desk. Take home the 12 pairs of shoes (at least 11 of them). Return the dishes to the kitchen. Throw out the garbage and recycling (or leave them at the door for pick up). If necessary, resort to containerizing and stacking the rest to open up the space and free the energy around your desk. Energy is good.
- Check the view from the door. You are going to need an organized, powerful view when you first return in order to get a jump start on those ambitious goals to be organized and exceed your quotas for 2009. Organized is powerful.
Have an awesome vacation.
Clearing out a client’s office with them, particularly offices with lots of paper, can be an illuminating experience. Not so much for me, but for the clients.
Typically at the end of the day, we end up with several bags or boxes of recycling mostly paper. There are usually another couple of bags or boxes of garbage. Finally, there is an inevitable collection of material that belongs to other people in the company and will be distributed accordingly or taken to a supply/equipment/archive store room. The end result is a calm and organized work space the even feels more productive, 4 – 6 bags of recycling and garbage in the hallway and a stack of stuff that is doesn’t belong in the client’s office.
When clients are confronted with the debris in the hallway, the illumination begins; “I can’t believe I was so stressed about so much stuff that turned out to be not worth keeping or not even belonging to me!” Bingo.
Take a look around your office. Cluttered? Messy? Paper got you stressed?
I highly recommend a clear out and overhaul. You may be surprised at how much stress you are spending on garbage.
Memory filling up? How many emails in your Sent File?
Try the 15 minutes a day trick. Spend just 15 minutes a day clearing out old, no longer needed files off your computer. You’d be amazed at how many you can clear out in 15 minutes. I’m up to about 250. Multiply that times 5 days a week and you’ve cleared out 1250. That will give your memory some breathing space!
It’s also easier if you switch up the way you sort your files. If you usually sort by name, try sorting by date, by size or, in the case of email, by sender. Changing up the sort helps change your perspective and facilitates the decision making to keep or discard.
I have written a couple of times recently on the importance of establishing hot files in your office or work area, (see Hot, Hot, Hot, The Disappearing Desk). One question which consistently surfaces when working with clients, is “what is the optimal place for the hot files?”
The answer? There isn’t one; the location of the hot files really depends on how you function in your office. The best location will depend on your organizing personality, the nature of your work and the space you have available. Here are some examples in no particular order:
- In a vertical file holder on your desk. Works well if you have the space on your desk, your need to see the files right in front of you.
- In the top drawer of your filing cabinet. Works well if you have the file space, you require visual calm in your office, you don’t need the visual cues to remember what’s there.
- In a vertical file holder on your credenza (table). Works well if you have the space on a credenza or table, you need visual cues to remember what’s in them.
- In the file drawer on the right/left pedestal of your desk. Works well if you require visual calm, have the space in the drawer, are in and out of the files freqently during the day, don’t need them right in front of you to remember what’s in them.
Whether you are small or large business, if you run the show it is important to know where you are going. Here’s an interesting and easy read over on SOHO Blog that will get you thinking.
It seems unlikely to have a professional organizer publish a post, cautioning about being too lean. I would, however, like to recommend this post from All Business, The Small Business Blog, by Rieva Lesonsky. Rieva points out that chopping too much from your small business during tough times may not be helpful in the long run.
