It's Thursday! And it's time to organize our files! We have been having a great time getting organized using this Organize Now book.
I would highly recommend checking it out and joining in. It's never too late to get organized:)
If you are catching up you can see the past posts here:
Week 1 about Organizing Your Mind and Life Vision HERE,
Week 2 about Organizing Your Priorities HERE,
Week 3 about Organizing Your Schedule HERE
Week 4 about Organizing Your Cleaning Schedule HERE.
Week 5 about Organizing Your Personal Information HERE.
Week 6 about Organizing Your Finances HERE.
Week 7 about Organizing Your Bill-paying System HERE.
Week 8 about Organizing Your Receipts and Taxes HERE.
Jennifer, the author, talks about how much she dislikes organizing paperwork. I completely agree with that! Papers are everywhere and they are constantly coming in. If you are not on top of it, it can get very overwhelming very quickly. Would you agree?
I remember when I started my Waterways business in 2006. I was so excited to start fresh and one of my favorite first purchases for my business was a shiny new filing cabinet. I really enjoyed organizing all of my music therapy information and paperwork so I could easily access it and it was great for organizing tax time info too. I don't think I was more organized then I was at that time in my life. I knew then that one of the keys to having a successful business was staying organized. And it helped me so much!
Fast forward to post children, and many of my early files had not been touched since we moved here in 2008! Sad, I know. Since wasn't working, I had no real reason to look at them let alone go through and organize them. Until now of course! lol I hope this post will inspire you to get going and go through your paper work too. Get it organized. You will feel like a weight has been lifted from your shoulders.
This Week's Goals:
1. Gather your papers!
For those of you who already have your filing systems, go through and purge things that are outdated. For the rest of us, gather your papers and purge things you don't need. For me, this meant doing both. Jennifer said that 80% of what we file is never looked at again! I found that to be true when I started going through my filing cabinet. There was a lot of paperwork there from San Diego that I will never need again. Some of it I needed to shred and some I could just recycle. She also suggested that if the info can be easily found on the internet, you don't need it. It's amazing to me what we can find on the internet these days.
2. Create a filing system for your paperwork
I like filing cabinets myself and I use hanging files with tabs that are easy to see. I did find a couple nice filing cabinets for my flute music years ago at a garage sale. They can be pricey when bought new but I think it is nice to have a fireproof one with a lock on it if possible if you have a lot of personal and important info stored in it. My husband and I just have 2 drawer ones. (one for my business and one for our personal) They hold a ton of files and info so bigger isn't necessarily better in my opinion.
No better time then the present:) Set up your file folders by category.
Tips
Have a place on your desk for incoming paperwork that is waiting to file. We have a simple tray that has a few slots that stack on our desk. I put things in it that need to be organized and filed. They don't get lost if they are put in one place!
Shred anything with personal info on it and recycle!
www.manualsonline.com is a website that you can check to see if your appliances and electronics manuals are available online. If they are, recycle them! You don't need to store old manuals from a microwave you owned in the 1990s! :)
I think that does it for another week. How do you keep your paperwork organized? Do you have a system that you would like to share? I always love hearing your tips and suggestions!
Thanks for reading! Next week we will organize our magazines and newspapers!
Have a great day!!
Rebecca
No comments:
Post a Comment