Eliminate the Chaos at Work by Laura Leist

Author:Laura Leist
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781118030448
Publisher: Wiley
Published: 2011-02-19T00:00:00+00:00

Step 2: Gather Supplies

You won’t need a lot of supplies to start this project, just some basics you probably already have in your office: recycling bin, shredder, garbage can, sticky notes, file folders, paper clips, stapler, and, of course, your papers.

Step 3: Establish a Staging Area

Have plenty of work surfaces to spread out your papers when you are working on this project, unless you enjoy working on the floor—which is actually something I don’t recommend, because it may keep you from doing the majority of the work in the space where the papers will live.

Now you’re ready to begin the next three steps.

Step 4: Sort

You will make decisions during this phase about the information you are keeping and begin to break it down or categorize it based on the system in which it will live. If you have a lot of papers to sort through, you may want to consider this a first pass and then fine-tune the categories for each system later. If, on the other hand, you already have your system in place and it just needs a few minor changes, you can approach this a bit differently, since there will be less sorting.

It’s important that you have a vision and goal in mind for the paper and are aware of the kind of systems that you need to create. (You can refer to Chapter 11 for more information on various paper management systems and the type of information contained within them.) As you sort, you will begin to come up with categories for your system or systems. Steps 4, 5, and 6 can be accomplished at the same time when organizing paper.

As you look at each paper or individual file, you need to make a decision on whether you will keep it or eliminate it (step 5). If you are keeping it, set it aside; as you complete more sorting, you will begin to group like items together (step 6). This is the creation of categories. Don’t try to perfect the process at this point, especially if you have a lot of paper to put in order. Instead, take a quick pass to see how much you can eliminate and then worry about finalizing your categories when you get to step 6.

It is no small undertaking to look at documents or files during the sorting phase to determine whether you need to keep them. It’s an added—but necessary—task to then determine how to group these papers in a way that makes future filing and retrieval painless. Though it requires a lot of patience and commitment, you will find that it will be more than worth it in the long run.

Step 5: Eliminate

One of the most challenging aspects of creating and maintaining a paper management system is figuring out what to keep and deciding how long you should keep it. While you can use the previous chapter as an initial guideline for this, I would also recommend that you consult your company’s record retention policy to determine what information should be kept and for how long.

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