Tallulah Falls, Tallulah Gorge, Habersham County & Northeast GA

The Rising Tide

In 1991, U.S. users consumed about 5,000,000 tons of paper. By 1998, that number had risen to about 8,000,000. The information revolution was supposed to stem the flood of office paper -- it didn't. America's offices are swamped with paper. Studies show that e-mail alone has increased printing volume by 40 percent, while some estimates say that Internet users print an average of 28 pages daily. According to the Wall Street Journal, the average U.S. executive wastes six weeks a year scrabbling through disorganized files and desktop piles. Six weeks! It's time to get organized. But how?

Act-Toss-File

You have exactly three choices for handling every piece of paper that crosses your desk:

Act: Do something with the paper immediately or make a decision on whether to file it or toss it.
Toss: Dump that paper right in the trash. Not sure if you should throw it out or not? As you debate with yourself, keep in mind that we only refer to about 20 percent of the paper that crosses our desks on a regular basis. As for the other 80 percent? A lot of it is useless.
File: If you do decide to keep the paper, don't just leave it on your desk: put it in a file.

Those words -- Act-Toss-File -- should become a reflex refrain every time you confront a piece of paper.

Action: An Overview

Every time you look at a document and decide not to throw it away, you also make a determination about what action it requires. For any given piece of paper you can:

Fax it.
Copy it.
Sign it.
Mail it.
Delegate it.
Toss it.
File it.

Many of those actions are self-explanatory. But suppose your answer is, "File it". Believe it or not, filing is a real art. It's also a science. Remember the Dewey Decimal System? Good filing systems require a little effort. However, the payoff in time saved down the road can be thousands of dollars and, over the course of a year, weeks of work.

Sorting Papers for Immediate Action

As you decide what action each piece of paper requires, the first obvious thing you determine is how "hot" each piece of paper on your desk is. If it's hot (a.k.a. urgent), you should put it into a hot file. You might have one hot file for faxes you need to send, another for documents you need to sign, and yet another for letters you need to mail today.

TIP
For your hot files to be effective, be sure that the documents you place in them are actually hot. If something has been in your hot file for more than a week or so, your definition of hot may be a little too broad. Typically, papers should move in and out of your hot file at a good clip instead of a leisurely stroll.

Your hot files need to be immediately accessible, so they should sit somewhere within arm's reach. Desktop files or project file boxes offer easy access to these papers. Whenever you want to work with the files, all you have to do is reach out and move the hot file across your desk. Now, what about the files that aren't hot? As you sort them, you should have an established filing system that allows you to categorize with your end strategy in mind.

Standard Filing Schemes

There are four common filing systems:

Name filing means that you set up your files by name alphabetically, like the White Pages of your telephone book. As you might have guessed, name filing is the most popular way to file, probably because it's the easiest. Name filing is best for you if you want to arrange most of your business files by contact name, supplier name, employee name, or any other name.
Subject filing is a way of putting similar types of information into the same group. The Yellow Pages of the phone book are a good example of subject filing. If your business files depend on what the information is about (such as financial records or marketing reports), rather than whom the information is about, subject filing is right for you. In a home office, you could arrange your files according to subjects covering such topics as automotive repairs, personal taxes, and family estate planning.
Numeric filing means that you set up your files by number. Each number refers to a name or subject that you list in a separate index or register so you can find the papers you need easily and with pinpoint accuracy. Numeric filing systems are the smart choice if you need a lot of security or privacy in your files, because nobody can tell what's in each numbered file just by opening up a file drawer.
Geographic filing might be important in a company whose sales regions are structured into four areas of the country -- north, south, east, and west -- and customer records need to be filed within those respective regions. If you're setting up a geographic file for contacts within the United States, you'll also subdivide your records by state, county, city, and even possibly by neighborhood.

As a rule, name and subject filing will work fine in almost any office. However, if you have especially large amounts of materials to file, or if the privacy of your files is a concern, numeric filing is probably the best choice for you. If location is a critical issue in running your business (as it might be in a large sales organization), then a geographic system may be your best option.

Avoiding Lost Documents

To save time and trouble later on, take the following steps before you place any document in any file:

Put related papers together.
Replace paper clips with staples. Paper clips can catch on other papers and files, leading to missing files.
Repair torn pages. Tears can catch on other pieces of paper, leading to you guessed it: Lost files.
Keep good records. Document each date you use a document, along with the file it belongs in, in its upper right-hand corner.

Now that you've sorted your files, let's look at some strategies for setting up quick-access storage systems.

At-a-Glance Organization

Perhaps the single most important factor in setting up and using a filing system is doing so in a way that allows you to find and retrieve files right away. Think about it: have you ever been driven to the boiling point because you couldn't locate a specific folder, even after spending many, many exasperating minutes plowing through the file drawer? There are some simple ways to avoid that frustration.

Hanging Files

If quick access is critical, consider hanging files; studies show they're twice as fast as their conventional counterparts. Here are some benefits of hanging files:

No sagging: Non-hanging folders often slide to the bottom of the filing drawer, making files hard to find. By contrast, hanging folders are always visible and easy to locate.
Visible reference tabs: With hanging files, tabs stay upright and aligned, providing a clear view of file headings for at-a-glance referencing.
Ability to browse: Hanging folders have built-in hooks that are specially designed to glide freely on drawer rails, allowing for fast "fingertip" access to individual records.
Easy sub-categorization: Hanging folders are designed to handle interior folders that you can use to sub-divide related records for better organizing and immediate look-ups.

Interior Folders

Among the simplest and most effective methods for dividing your files into sub-sections is to use interior folders, which are designed to fit inside of hanging folders. For example, if you have a hanging folder with the subject heading Customer Purchase Orders, you might include several interior folders, each containing a separate set of purchase orders for a different customer.

Color Coding

One of the best ways to make individual files easier to find is to group same-color folders together within your filing drawer. For example, let's say you use a hanging filing system and your file drawer is filled with a group of folders containing customer invoices, another group containing paid bills, and yet another containing follow-up correspondence. You could assign all the invoices to blue hanging folders, all the bills to green folders, and all the follow-ups to red folders.

This approach will form blocks of color in your filing drawer, making it simple for your eye to go directly to the correct color block when you need to find something. In addition, misfiled folders will stand out immediately, helping to prevent important documents from being lost or misplaced.

Shelving

Shelf filing is the most efficient way to manage large amounts of records, especially frequently accessed records like medical and legal files. The folders that are used for shelf filing systems have tabs on the end instead of on the top, which allow the folders to be placed on their sides on the shelf with each folder's tab protruding out for fast referencing. Here are some tips for easy shelf access:

Label folders clearly. Preprinted labels are neater and easier to read and can make access much more efficient.
Use color-coding. Most preprinted shelf filing labels are also color-coded. Arranging your files in blocks of color speeds filing time. (For example, all the A folders could have red labels.)
Don't overload your shelves. Stuffing every last folder into every inch of space on the shelf is counterproductive, because folders become squeezed tightly together and are much more difficult to pull from the file.
Purge your working system periodically. It's important to remove outdated files on a regular basis. Create a separate archive area to get old files out of the way and make current files easier to access.

A Matter of Inches

How much is too much to stuff into a file folder? Pendaflex has studied the topic extensively and determined some general rules of thumb:

No individual folder should contain more than 3/4" of papers. When you reach the 3/4 inch limit, either add another folder or use Hanging Box Bottom Folders.
Leave a full four inches of space in each file drawer so you have room to get your hands into the drawer to reach individual folders.
Allow a minimum of 24 inches (preferably 36-to-48 inches) between filing cabinets to open the drawers.
Remember that in order to file efficiently, you must be able to conveniently access each drawer in the cabinet.

More Tips

Before we move on, here are a few more file-management tips:

Use enough file headings. Finding individual files is easier when sections and sub-sections are marked clearly and often. As a rule of thumb, you should not have more than four folders in a row without some sort of sub-division heading.
Avoid using too many folders. It can be tempting to create a file for each document, but it's not very efficient. Do not set up a separate file folder until you have 20 papers or more. Use Miscellaneous folders to store only a few records; otherwise, files will get lost.
Throw out worn and torn folders. Beat up folders can cause misfiles and result in lost documents.

Now that you've set up a good filing system, let's look at some day-to-day file management strategies.

Day-to-Day File Maintenance

An office filing system, like an automobile, must be tuned and maintained to remain in peak working condition. And, as is the case with your family car, taking certain preventive maintenance steps for you filing system can mean better performance now as well as down the road.

A Filing Guide

To make sure your filing system stays in place, you'll need a master plan -- a blueprint that everyone who uses the system can follow to understand it. The person who creates the manual should be the same person who is responsible for the bulk of the filing in your office. That same person should also keep the manual up to date so that when a new employee joins your company or department that employee can refer to a consistent operational guide. Your filing manual should explain:

How your files are arranged. Alphabetically, numerically, by name, subject, or any other method.
Where the filing cabinets are located. It should also describe what each cabinet and each drawer contains. For example, cabinet A might contain customer records, while drawer number three in cabinet A might contain customer invoices. Be sure to mark cabinets and drawers so everyone knows which is which.
Your company's methods and rules for filing. For instance, if you are color-coding your files so that red folders mean priority, you must explain your color-coding approach in your filing manual.
How to transfer active files to inactive archive or storage. Also, include the methods you use to destroy or throw away old files.

Now let's examine some filing basics that will go a long way towards keeping your system functional and your papers always accessible.

ABC's

No matter what filing system you use, you will probably be faced with the task of alphabetizing at some point. Sounds simple, right? A, B, C, D and so on. Well, you'd be surprised how creative people can get. Follow these basic alphabetizing rules now to avoid headaches later on:

Last names precede first names. This also applies to businesses named after people. For example, in alphabetical order, "Anderson, Bill" would precede "Cummings, Anne" in the file.
Nothing comes before something. A last name, when used alone, comes before a last name with a first initial. For example, "Johnson" would precede "Johnson, L." in the file.
Prefixes come before the rest of the name. Always arrange all prefixes in your file exactly as they are spelled. For example, file "Saint John" as "Saint John," not as "John, Saint."
Spell names of businesses the way the businesses spell their own names. For example, file "Smith Manufacturing Company" as "Smith Manufacturing Company," not as "Smith Company, Manufacturing."
Ignore modifiers such as "The" at the beginning of a name. For example, file "The Widget Corporation" as "American Widget Corporation, The".
Ignore the hyphens in hyphenated words. File these types of names as written. For example, file "Baxter-Brown Associates" as "Baxter-Brown Associates," not as "Brown Associates, Baxter".

Ticklers

Remember your hot files? They're sitting on or near your desk for easy access. But if you're like most people, you'll find that while proximity is great, it doesn't do a lot to help you remember what needs attention when. That's where tickler files come into play. A tickler file is a place to temporarily store papers you need to deal with on a specific date. To set up and manage an effective tickler system:

Put a hanging folder containing five interior folders in an easily accessible drawer.
Label each interior folder with a different day of the week.
As you work, drop papers for review and other project items such as notes and memos into the respective interior folders. You can also create notes indicating action dates for materials in your hot files.
Review all the material in the relevant folder at that day's end.
On Friday, sort through the entire file to determine what to keep in the tickler file and what to transfer to the permanent file.

Tickler files will make your life easier. Because a tickler provides an instant drop-spot for your current project records, it allows you to quickly organize project material the moment it comes across your desk.

Best Practices

When piles of paper build up, like laundry or dirty dishes, it can become incredibly hard to deal with them. It's important to file things immediately -- but that can be a chore. So, when you need a little positive reinforcement whenever filing seems like too much of a pain, always remember that timely filing:

Prevents loss. The longer a document sits around on a desk, a shelf, or anywhere else but in the file, the more chances it has of being misplaced, covered up, hidden, or otherwise lost.
Keeps confidential information secure. Many files contain information such as priority data about budgets or personal information about employees and customers. Filing these promptly keeps this information secure.
Raises productivity. If everything is where it's supposed to be, your department -- and your entire company -- will become more efficient and more productive. This, in turn, will make your job easier.
Makes working easier. Putting papers into the file right away means that you have less desktop clutter, which in turn can change your whole outlook every morning when you start your day.

In this last section, we'll look at some strategies for finding lost documents and preserving the environment.

Staying Sane and Being Environmentally Friendly

It can be tremendously frustrating: Your boss has asked you to find the list of regional sales territories you photocopied just a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, it's nowhere to be found. You're sure you filed it, but you're having no luck at all in your search. Before you go into a free-fall panic, try these seven tips:

Recheck the folder where the paper should be. You might have skipped over individual papers. Go through the entire file slowly.
Check the folders directly in front and behind the folder where the paper should be. The paper might have mistakenly been put into a neighboring folder.
Look between the folders. Sometimes you think you've put a paper inside the folder, but you've actually dropped it between two folders.
Double-check the subject name of the paper you're looking for. Perhaps you're searching for the sales "Territory" list, but maybe you accidentally filed the document in the sales "Results" folder.
Check the pending trays of other employees. It's possible that someone else is holding the paper for some reason. Also, check your co-workers' in and out trays.
Think of who else may have needed the document. Maybe someone pulled the sales territory list and didn't tell you. Use a process of elimination to narrow down the people who might have borrowed the document.
Check the wastebasket. You never know. The paper could have been thrown out by mistake.

Environmentally Friendly Practices

Not too long ago, most people believed that clean air, plentiful water, and thriving forests would always be there. Now we understand that we must actively preserve these resources to ensure that they'll be available for our children and grandchildren. Because paper management is a critical part of this preservation effort, we'll close this article with a few easy-to-implement, forest-friendly tips:

Use recycled filing supplies. These are products, such as EarthWise® brand file folders and index cards and Pendaflex® 100% Recycled Hanging Folders, that are made from recycled fibers and contain maximum amounts of post-consumer material.
Recycle office paper. Set up recycling bins (these can be regular boxes) throughout your office. A great place to start is next to each copy machine. Instead of throwing papers away, put them in the recycling bin. Then contact a recycling company in your area to tote the papers away so they can be used to make new paper products.
Photocopy on both sides to reduce paper consumption.
Consider transmitting documents via e-mail instead of lengthy paper memos when you communicate with co-workers. If inter-office memos are necessary, try to route the same memo from person to person, rather than making numerous copies.
Take discarded office paper home for use as telephone message pads and shopping lists, or for the kids to use as drawing paper.

Congratulations!

You've set up a great, environmentally friendly document management system that will save you time, hassle, and money. From now on, you'll have easy access to your documents whenever you need them.

Business

A Filing System that Really Works