Organizing Office Paperwork Is a Fluid Process

One of the most common reasons people give for not putting away pieces of paper cluttering up their office is that they don’t have an appropriate filing system.

Organizing office paperwork sounds easy, and in practice actually is, but getting there can be challenging.

Part of the problem here is simply slowing down, and giving yourself time to have a process. Less organized people sometimes imagine that office organizing ideas spring into the minds of people with better organized offices. In reality, the people with better organized offices give themselves the time to work out systems to help themselves. In the process, they end up spending less time organizing office paperwork and other items and more time getting their work done! Being utterly overwhelmed is a very time-consuming thing to be!

So, slow down, even if only for a minute! Getting organized is going to require a bit of time upfront, but in the end it’s going to save you a ton of time!

You’re probably going to need a file storage solution. It may be an old-fashioned filing cabinet or inside-out hanging files favored in some offices these days. Either way, as you start labeling files and creating a working system, resist the temptation to keep every piece of paper in your environment.

That’s an important principle when organizing office paperwork. Keep in mind that 80% of the documents that are stored in file cabinets are never accessed. With the ever increasing cost of rent, floor space needs to be used wisely so adopt a “we’re only holding onto the really important documents” mindset!

An annual purge of the files will help keep the volume of paper to a manageable level. This is the ideal time to remove files that can be archived in another spot or even offsite. Coordinating this task with prepping for tax time is top of the list when it comes to office organizing ideas.

As new files are setup, questions regarding what to put on the label will arise. The objective is to be able to locate a file within seconds when needed. So, the words used on the label are key. The words used could be broad like “office vendors” or very specific like the name of an individual vendor. Either will work… choose the one that you’ll think of first.

Once you have a working filing system, you will look back on the process and be reminded that through slow steady improvements we can all become successful implementers of office organizing ideas!