One thing about solopreneurs—while the challenges they face may be similar, each person has his or her own way of dealing with them. Every business has its own personal style, and so does every business owner.
Take paperwork. Despite everyone’s intentions to move toward paperless offices, many of our documents remain in hard copy. And when it comes to keeping that paper organized, there’s no single method that works for everyone. Most would acknowledge, however, that traditional filing is a chore they’d rather avoid altogether. Therefore, they keep postponing it until all that loose paper degenerates into unidentifiable stacks of stuff scattered all over the office. Then, when something truly important can’t be found, panic ensues—followed by renewed resolutions to stay on top of this tedious task.
Things can get really bad. I had one client who was so disorganized that whenever he got a call from a customer, he claimed to be on the “other line” at just that moment, and would need to call back. Which he did—as soon as he was able to locate the client’s file! Clearly, there should be a better way.
For those who hate filing, but also hate disorganized paperwork, you may be interested to know that it’s possible to avoid both. Begin by minimizing the amount of paper you need to deal with in the first place!
Try these strategies:
1. Stop incoming paper at the source. Paper you never receive is paper you don’t have to file. Or keep organized. Or keep at all. Eliminate this excess paper altogether by unsubscribing from magazines, catalogs, and other mailings that aren’t useful. Often, these publications have a website where you can easily do that.
2. Don’t hang onto printed matter just because you think you might want to refer to it “some day.” Chances are, it will never cross your mind again. You won’t even remember that you have it. In the meantime, you’ll have spent valuable time and energy creating space for it to just sit, doing nothing useful. These days, printed information is outdated so quickly that it’s just not worth keeping up with. Go online and get the latest.
3. Have your bills sent by email, and pay them online. Nothing could be easier. Many vendors prefer paperless transactions and they make it convenient to check a box to that effect or do something similar on their website. You can usually click a link to pay directly, or pay with an e-check by setting up an account through your bank. You’ll always be able to locate the digital record if there’s ever a question about what or when you paid.
4. Work online as much as possible. Correspond by email. Archive emails and documents you think you might want to refer to in the future. Digital documents are easily searchable, while paper documents end up in the last place you’d ever think to look.
Now, what to do with the paper you just can’t eliminate? There’s no point in creating an elaborate system in some file cabinet you’ll never open! Here are a few alternatives:
5. Try magazine files. You can label the short side, line them up on a nearby shelf, and just drop papers in. They’re also ideal for containing booklets and other multi-page documents that aren’t structured enough to stand on their own. Of course, individual sheets of paper won’t stand up in these, but at least you can keep related documents together.
6. Tiered desktop boxes can work well, too. These are especially good for work in process that you don’t want to lose track of. Files stay in your line of sight and it’s easy to grab the right one when you’re on the phone.
7. Racks you can hang on the wall keep files within sight and within reach, but off your desk. The ones pictured here are called RackItFiles,™ www.rackitfile.com, but there are other wall configurations from other companies. Keeping papers organized doesn’t seem so burdensome when you don’t even have to get up from your desk!
8. And if that still seems too much like filing, Pendaflex offers a PileSmart® desktop organizer tray that lets you simply pile papers in a way that keeps them organized and find-able without doing any filing at all! You simply insert tabbed dividers between topics, days, clients, or however you segment your paperwork.
Office supplies have come a long way since the days when companies employed file clerks and secretaries whose primary purpose was to manage office paperwork. Nowadays, even corporate executives are responsible for their own files. That means there are lots of new products out there designed to make life easier for the end user. They can help you keep paper under control without spending time creating and maintaining corporate-type file systems. For those of us working in home offices, this lets us personalize the way we organize our paperwork so it exactly suits our own personal style! Spend some time exploring your local (or online) office supply store to see what will work best for your way of doing things. There’s really no need for your paperwork to be disorganized!
