If your system works for you, keep doing it. Is organization all about neat files, a clean desk, a fancy day planner? No. To me, being organized is all about being able to work well.

Finding things when you need them. Are you able to put your hands or eyes on something you need within a minute or two (assuming it’s in your work space and not in archival storage)? Do you need to backtrack to remember where you put things, or is your system logical (for you) enough that you know where things are? To me, it’s knowing relatively quickly where I put something and that item actually being where I thought it was.

Scheduling time for efficient work. A project doesn’t get done by just throwing time at it. You need a plan. A working list of what needs to be accomplished. Randomly doing tasks in hopes something will get completed by the end of the day gets you nothing except a few checks on your to-do list.

Meeting your goals. Define what you’re working towards. What are your business goals? Personal goals? Is the work you’re doing each day truly getting you closer to your goals? If they aren’t, you need to stop and figure out why you’re spending precious time on them. Once you know what you want to accomplish, define how you’re going to get there.

These are just three things that define organization for me. What about you? What do you think being organized is all about? Are you working on it, or do you feel like you’ve got it under control? Does it feel like it’s something you can achieve?

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Yet you don’t necessarily want to leave it lying on your desktop either. It could get covered up. Things could get knocked out of the file. Or something spilled on it.

You could try stackable trays, but they’re not always the best for storing hot files. If you toss in two or three, you still have to shuffle through to find what you need. What works then? Try an upright file, something that holds your files vertically so you can see the folder label. I like a step file, one that stacks folders just like a set of stairs. I can see the labels on all of the files and quickly grab what I need.

It doesn’t take up a huge amount of space, I can see things at a glance, and I can drop something in the file without stopping to dig through and find it. And it keeps my desk much neater than it would be with a pile of files on the corner. In fact, I had one in my old office and probably need a new one. Right now I have stackable clear trays, but they are just gathering clutter. The only one that really works is the top tray, because I can see what’s in it.

What do you do to keep your hot files easily accessible?

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(www.myorganizedbiz.com) – When it comes to organizing your files, you want to make sure that you can find what you need when you need it. It sounds simple doesn’t it? If it takes more than a couple of minutes for you to find something in your files, then you may need to update your filing process.

I used to file all of my bills by type: electric, phone, car, water, etc. But when it was time to file, it took a while. I had to look at each bill, decide what category it went under, find the right file, and drop it in. It seemed too time-consuming.

This method works for a lot of people. That’s great! Your system is only good if it works for you and you use it. But it didn’t work for me. So I had to find something else.

I started filing things by the month. Everything from January? One folder. February? Next folder. It was much easier for me to find the date and just drop it in the file. I still use this method, partially.

If there’s an odd item, say a medical bill that I’m dealing with and will need to find later, I go ahead and file under medical. Same with insurance. Things that I will need to hold more than a month or two, or that won’t get filed away with my taxes. Things that I won’t remember by the month, but only by their type or the vendor.

Any tax-deductible items, though, go in an accordion file, grouped generally by how I’ll enter them into my financial software during taxes.

My system is a hodgepodge of different techniques. It works for me, most of the time. Realize that cobbling together things is okay if it makes your life easier. If it complicates matters, then experiment and try to see what else will work.

I’ll be doing that with my filing at some point, because I’m not quite happy with it. Filing by month is quicker and easier, but I’m not sure it’s helping my retrieval ability.

How about you – are you happy with your filing system? What works? What doesn’t? What would you like to change?

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(www.myorganizedbiz.com) – I got a notice over the weekend of an unpaid bill. Now that’s not like me at all, so I wasn’t sure what had happened. It was a medical bill, which I hate dealing with. I could have sworn I’d already paid it, but I just had to find the evidence.

Easy, right? It should be if you have your paperwork organized.

It just so happens that the bill was in my “to be filed” pile and I was easily able to put my hands on it. And right on the bill was the notation of when and how I’d paid it. I also found the credit card bill that showed the charge.

With a short phone call, things should be resolved. I’ll check back in a week to make sure that their records have been corrected.

If I didn’t have a designated place for holding files until I can file them, I would have been searching for a long time to find what I needed. And fortunately, I remembered that particular transaction, which made it easier for me to put my hands on the papers.

The question is, do you have a spot for papers before you file them? Do you have a filing system that makes it easy for you to find what you need when the occasion arises?

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