How to Be Organized at Work With Better Filing Habits

It is not uncommon to struggle with how to be organized at work.  Bad filing habits are the source of a good deal of the frustration, stress, and wasted time.  Or in reality having no filing habits at all!  A lot of people find filing to be a low priority on their to-do list.  Papers piling up around you just don’t have an assigned home.  At the end of the year when it comes time to condense and archive your work files or complete your shredding for the past year you are in for big trouble.  There are two main aspects to the common filing problem.

Number one is that people don’t know how to set up a system.  It is crucial to know you NEED a filing system when learning how to be organized at work.  But where do you even begin?  You don’t understand how to put together a system that will be successful and work for you.  So you simply do nothing.  Those papers stacked everywhere are not in their homes because you haven’t assigned them homes!  You are not alone. 

Contemplate how you would like to file AND retrieve your information.  Do you have preferences?  People remain frozen because they are worried if they file away their paperwork they won’t remember where it is. Or worse forget it ever existed at all.  Out of sight, out of mind is the fear and it stops people from filing paperwork at all!  The use of color can make your filing system straightforward and fun.  We tend to be very visual beings that is why I use orange or yellow hanging files for bill pay files.  You won’t have to search when you open your drawer these files will jump out at you.  Don’t be afraid of losing bill pay files use color!

Solving your first filing problem on your path to learn how to be organized at work means using color, keeping it simple, spending time thinking about and deciding on your preferences about filing and retrieving information, and finally customizing a system just for you.

The second widespread filing issue is a good number of people keep their bills in individual file folders.  A file folder is created for each paid bill by supplier.  This is incredibly time consuming!  Every year you need to go through the process of setting up the files and then having to file one paid bill into its folder.  If you are anything like most everyone else you hate to file.  So you will put off the task of filing and start collecting these single sheets of paper.  The big problem is many of us don’t ever actually get around to filing them.  You blink a handful of times and twelve months have passed.  Your file cabinet is empty and organized!  Your office, however, has stacks and stacks of paper everywhere!  Your desk, the top of your file cabinet, every surface in your office have heaps of papers across it.  Receipts, statements, and paid bills scattered from one end of the room to the other. 

What is the solution?  Simplify.  An expanding plastic hanging file labeled for each month from January to December is what I suggest using.  Pay your bill and then you can file all your paid bills for the whole month behind that months tab.  At the end of the year it is an easy one step process.  Remove your plastic hanging file and put it into an archive box.  Then start again for the new year by labeling a new plastic hanging file.  This system is easy to understand and maintain for twelve months.  Get rid of the out of control stacks of paper. 

Many people fight with how to be organized at work.  Creating a simple functional filing system will help you immeasurably.  Remember you are not the only one with this struggle.  Take the first steps in winning the battle with paper today!