When my desktop hard drive died, I had to reinstall from my backup. I did not, however, transfer my inbox. I left it on my laptop, instead deciding to start from scratch and see how I could do. That doesn’t mean I gave up on my other email. I just wanted to see if I could keep my inbox as small as possible.

It worked for a while. But work, life, family and oh, I don’t know, sleep, got in the way. And sadly, I’m back up to around 300 emails in there. Many of them are just email alerts that I need to read through and discard. They just keep adding up, though. I unsubscribed to alerts and newsletters that I didn’t use or need. I try to archive things immediately after I read them if they don’t need any action.

I’ve basically been glancing at them as they come in. I reply if it’s something I can deal with in less than a minute. I haven’t left anything important unanswered. So the question is, what’s in there?

Well, that’s what I should find out. I need to schedule some time to clear out my inbox a little. At minimum, I need to delete the email alerts that I’m not going to read. File away those newsletters for some down time, or re-evaluate whether they are useful to me.

Maybe keeping my inbox completely empty isn’t realistic. I do tend to use it like a to-do repository. And that doesn’t have to be a bad thing, as long as I don’t lose track of important messages.

How do you handle your inbox? Is it realistic for you to keep it close to zero? Obviously 300 emails are a bit too many to keep track of easily. But what about 100? 50? 10? What’s reasonable for you? And is it actually working for you?

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Post from: My Organized Biz

Take some time to think about how you use your computer. What items do you save on it? How often do you need to refer back to it? How easy is it to find things?

A little time spent forming an electronic file system will help you feel on top of things. There’s nothing like being on a phone call with a client and realizing you can’t find a file without a long, drawn out search. It’s embarrassing to ask them to let you call back once you find it, since it can make you appear unprofessional. You don’t want your client wondering what else you have lost, do you?

You can file items by project, by client, or whatever reference point makes sense to you. Make sure, though, that it will still make sense to you several months down the road. And keep things fairly simple. If you have too many subfolders, you’ll still have trouble putting your finger on your file quickly and easily. The idea is to get your mouse pointing to your files as quickly as possible.

Spend time getting more clients, making more money, and improving your business. Not searching endlessly on your computer for a text file with someone’s phone number in it.

Find what works for you, what makes sense to how you organize information. Then stick to it. When tax time comes, you’ll be glad you did.

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Post from: My Organized Biz

Visually grouping your files will help when you’re filing. You can quickly see where something needs to go. An invoice? Oh, that goes in green (it’s okay to have more than one green folder, of course). You zero in on the section you need and then you can look at labels and find the correct file.

And those same groupings will help when you need to find something. That draft marketing plan? Oh, it’s under red. And then you easily grab the proper folder.

The exact categories and colors will vary by what works for you. Don’t get too carried away with 15 different colors. You want just enough to easily remember what you’ve set up. Too many colors and you’ll take just as long remembering what goes where as you will looking at every label in the drawer.

Have you tried color coding? Does it work for you?

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Post from: My Organized Biz

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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Post from: My Organized Biz

But you don’t have a lot of office experience when it comes to managing your own stuff. Did someone else always do it for you? Was it just not necessary when you weren’t “officially” doing business? Or are you being drafted into the family business?

There are many ways to stumble into doing business for yourself. And it can be overwhelming. So how do you go about setting up your files?

First, figure out what you need to file. What do you need to keep? Contracts, legal documents (incorporation papers, any lawsuits), insurance papers, tax info, and receipts are just a few of the things you’ll need to keep. If you have any doubts, consult your lawyer and tax professional.

You should keep invoices, and mark them paid and file them. Whether you’ll need to keep them depends on what the invoice is for. If it’s a business expense, you’ll want to keep things until tax time.

A lot of your file setup will depend on what type of business you do. Let’s take me for example. I’m a writer. I set up my files so I can keep track of my expenses, and I have categories for various types of those expenses. Anything that’s a business deduction gets put in a tax file for computing later.

I keep copies of my paid invoices, in case there’s any question of payment. As I’ve mentioned before, I file many things by the month, but you may find that a category works better for you. Maybe you want to put utilities in one file, warranties in another, and medical expenses, auto expenses, and home expenses all in separate files as well.

If you print out correspondence, you will probably want a copy of that as well. You can file it by the subject matter or by whom it was sent to.

There’s no absolutely correct way to set up a file system. The only right way is the way that works for you. It has to be something you can use to actually find things when you need them. Where’d I put those incorporation papers? Where’s last month’s utility bill? Didn’t I already pay the service bill for the copy machine?

If you can’t put your hands on it, your filing system isn’t working. It takes some thought. Don’t just throw things in a drawer. Take some time to think about your needs and then design your files around that. Need help? Email or leave a comment and we can go over specific examples for you.

Have you ever had trouble setting up your office space?

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Post from: My Organized Biz

Honestly, I think that may be a little bit of overkill. Unless you have a lot of filing cabinets, is this really necessary? Most of us have one or two – maybe even three – file drawers of stuff. Can you remember what’s in each of them, generally? I can.

Additionally, I file my business files in alphabetical order. At most, I would only need an indicator of which parts of the alphabet are in a certain drawer. I try to keep as many electronic files as possible. So for paper, I don’t have a lot and can mostly remember what goes where.

In this case, I tend to go for simplicity. I think a table of contents is more effort than I’m willing to extend, even if it’s just a small thing. The content of my files change, too, and I don’t want to keep updating a table of contents. As long as I label my file folders, I think I’m all right.

So tell me, is this something you would want to use? Does it make sense, or is it overkill for you?

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Post from: My Organized Biz

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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?

Post from: My Organized Biz

I bring up this topic because long term projects are a part of every business. We all have marketing ideas, product ideas, and a gazillion other things on the back burner that we’d like to do someday. The fact that they get started at all is remarkable considering how busy life is!

A client recently asked me how she could track these long term projects she dreams up. She’s super visual, so we talked about ways that she could remind herself to take the next step. After a great conversation, we came up with a great solution and she’s jazzed to try it out.

And it made me wonder, how do you tend to track long term projects? What works really well for you? Where are the places and times that you get stuck?

Everyone’s got their own unique approach to managing long-term projects. Would you share yours?

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