In every organization both large and small, there is a demand for optimum efficiency and a productive work-flow. The fact is, no matter how much business you conduct or how busy your personal life is, we still have to deal with actual pieces of paper. Luckily, Paper Tiger Filing System Software for Document Management makes it almost fun to organize and track your documents.
Paper Tiger makes filing-as-you-go a breeze. Use Paper Tiger on your Ipad, Iphone, or your personal computer network. Today I’ll provide 3 excellent tips on how Paper Tiger can turn your office from a zoo to a state of the art file repository system.
One of the biggest headaches with file management is clutter control
Your goal is easy retrieval, and if you can’t find a file, you might as well not have that file at all. In Paper Tiger, the user has the option to assign reminders and action dates. Assigning toss out dates for replaceable files can become prudent to decluttering a disorganized office. If you never throw anything away, you’ll make the filing cabinet manufacturer very happy, and waste time trying to find anything. You simply don’t have to keep every scrap of paper forever. But keep in mind that some documents, for legal or financial reasons, must be kept a specified length of time. See our Retention Guidelines blog posts that you might find helpful.
Organize by Categories
Make files easier to find by creating a list of detailed categories in every database, and try to place every file you have within a specific category. For instance, Star Wars, Star Trek, and Avatar would all reside within the same category of “Science Fiction” within your “DVD” database, though they may be in entirely separate locations. Having a relational organization system will limit office redundancy by a ton. Whatever method you choose, make sure your system is obvious and consistent throughout your files to make retrieving paperwork as simple and thoughtless as possible.
Back up your files regularly
Whether you’re backing up files for an office move, or to reorganize your filing cabinets, it’s important to follow a regular back up regimen. Archiving business data is more than a matter of good housekeeping; it could be a matter of your business’s survival. There are two steps to archiving business information for successful backup. Identifying the critical data that needs to be archived, and abiding by a regular schedule. Backing up your actual files may seem like a daunting task for any secretary or file administrator, but this is another hurdle which the Paper Tiger is able to leap. With Paper Tiger, you can also print out a hard copy of your database so that you can find your files in the event your computer or the internet is down.
By Denise Landers
Key Organization Systems, Inc.
If you do not have vacation time blocked off on the company schedule now for the end of the year, do not despair. It seems everyone wants to have the holidays off, yet when we submit our annual vacation request, we may be turned down. If you are glum over the prospect of limited holiday time off, console yourself with what you will actually be facing:
Throughout the year, it is easy to be swept up by the crisis du jour. You may be responding to constant interruptions, multitasking all the time. There is often no opportunity to pause for thinking and planning. More involved projects get set aside for a “better” time when you can concentrate. Many times these delayed activities are the most “important” projects, the ones that will actually make a difference. However since they did not have a deadline or an “Urgent” tag attached to them, they were shuffled aside.
Here is your chance to catch up. Rather than joining the throngs at the airports, jostling through overcrowded stores, or fighting for a spot on the lift line, enjoy the opportunity that is presented to you in the office.
What can you do that would make you feel energized for the new year? After catching up on key projects, look around and see where organizing could help you be even more productive. Areas to examine:
Daily Systems: Do you have an effective system for handling all of your daily incoming items? A good system will allow you to easily prioritize each day and ensures that you will never overlook and opportunity or miss a deadline.
Desk: Only what you use on a regular basis needs to be close to you. Remove the accumulation from the past year.
Email: When was the last time you zeroed out your inbox? Set up folders both for daily action items and for reference files.
Filing: Are your file folders stuffed and drawers overflowing? Clean out unused, unneeded items. Do you hesitate to file anything because you will never find it again? A good program to help with that is the Paper Tiger Filing System Software for Document Management.
When you find yourself at the office during those holiday lulls, enjoy the peace and look forward to another time when you really need a break. Hopefully it can be a time without peak fares, overbooked resorts, crowded slopes, and too many obligations. Meanwhile you are organized and ready for a productive new year!
Denise Landers is the author of Destination: Organization, A Week by Week Journey and the owner of Key Organization Systems, Inc. As a national speaker, trainer, consultant, and writer she provides clients and audiences with the time management training tools and techniques that improve daily work flow and increase productivity.
www.twitter.com/@timetrainer
Corporate Training: workshops and consulting to increase daily work flow and reduce stress
Individual Assistance: our onsite and virtual office organizing to bring about changes quickly
On Your Own: books and CDs to work at your own pace
By Bonnie Joy Dewkett
The Joyful Organizer®
Paper is one of the biggest problems we have as a society. Here are ten quick tips to get you organized and keep you that way!
Along with these tips, ask yourself the following questions:
Bonnie Joy Dewkett, CPO® is an organizing expert, author, and motivational speaker. Her company, The Joyful Organizer®, creates and implements organizational systems for the home or office. These changes allow her Customers to create calm from chaos at work and at home. Bonnie has achieved the prestigious designation of Certified Professional Organizer, CPO®, from The Board of Certification for Professional Organizers. She is a member of The National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO) and has published The Joyful Organizer’s Guide to a Joyful Move which is available on her website http://www.thejoyfulorganizer.com.
Phone: 203-731-4651
Email: Bonnie@thejoyfulorganizer.com
Twitter: @thejoyfulorg
Zoos can be a terrific place to visit. Millions of people visit zoos all around the world every year. The range of creatures in captivity is enormous and caring for the animals is top priority. Zoos need a proper filing system, Paper Tiger Filing System Software for Document Management, to help improve efficiency and enable staff to spend more time with the animals.
Zoos have always been popular with tourists as the types of animals kept in each zoo vary from country to country. It also means that the overall care and maintenance of the zoos and their animals has to be different as well.
In 1994, the Born Free Foundation (BFF) and the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) created what is now called “The Zoo Enquiry.” It was a significant file that recommended certain standards in terms of animal welfare and how zoos were to be involved in conservation.
World-wide legislation was created to cover every aspect of the overall health and well-being of all creatures in captivity. This covered everything including: nutrition and hygiene, condition of the animal accommodations, veterinary care and codes of practice to enable self-regulation of the industry.
There are lots of different records that need to be kept. They include: budgets, food and nutritional orders, other requisitions, rostering of staff, feeding time rosters, maintenance of individual habitats, cleaning of the public areas, veterinary visits and health checks and individual records relating to every single creature in the entire zoo.
Record-keeping is an integral part of running a zoo. Because there are so many different factors to contend with, outdated paper-based document management systems are no longer capable of coping with the amount of information needing to be kept.
Therefore, a more sophisticated system must be put in place that will reduce the amount of time wasted on filing and retrieval of documents. This means that staff will be able to spend more of their valuable time caring for the needs of the creatures in their zoo.
A zoo really needs to use document management software that can be tailor-made to the specific needs of the individual zoo. Different countries would have varying needs. A filing system can be created with titles that are relevant to their unique, yet specific, requirements. These titles would be used by all staff and will make it easier to access the location of files and documents within them at any given time.
If staff can file and retrieve documents fast and efficiently, they are free to focus on their other duties and this means that more work can be done in less time, which is a positive thing when it comes to analyzing the zoo’s budgetary requirements. It also means that if they have a fixed amount of money, more can be used for the animals themselves.
If zoos have better record-keeping methods, it will be easier for them to share knowledge with other zoos pertaining to such matters as diseases, differences in behavior when an animal’s habitat has changed, mating issues, family lineage and numerous other pertinent facts that may need to be accessed quickly. It’s vital that accurate records are kept so that zoos can share this valuable information.
The inhabitants of the zoos are constantly being studied to better understand how to care for them in captivity. The actual habitat is analyzed and altered sometimes. They keep a few animals in the one area, either the same species or sometimes they mix them to see how they cope.
They change the way the animals are fed and some also promote closer animal-keeper interactions by instigating different training exercises to see how the animals react. Complete and accurate files have to be kept on everything that occurs within the zoo.
Zoos need Paper Tiger Filing System Software for Document Management to help improve efficiency because they’re not what you would call a “typical business” and therefore their requirements have to be completely tailor-made. That’s why they need an intelligent, flexible document management software program. Then they can keep up with everything and not spend too much time away from their main job of caring for the animals.
The bottom line for me as an entrepreneur is that using the Paper Tiger Filing System Software significantly reduces the amount of stress and anxiety in my life. When I discovered Paper Tiger, I discovered what it was that prevented me from filing papers away in a timely manner. You see, I’m a perfectionist, and every time I would sit down to do some filing, I was faced with the prospect of having to come up with the “right” way to label a file folder. Let’s say I wanted to file sales literature about a CRM company called Salesforce.com. Should I file it under the name of the company? Should I file it under CRM (Customer Relationship Management), which is the category name for this product, as a subject file? Should I file it under Sales and Marketing for my company, which is what I would use the product for, as a subject file? And where was the other information I had collected about this company? Because the real goal of filing is fast retrieval, I worried that the label name I came up with would not be the label name I remembered when it came time to pull this information out of the file to review it. That made me anxious, and it made me dread filing, so I rarely did it. And I lived in the midst of stacks of paper, unable to find what I needed when I needed it. Oh, the time I wasted looking for stuff I needed at the last minute!
Now I don’t feel any pressure to come up with the perfect name for my paper files. First, I can quickly and easily find out if there is any similar information I’ve already filed by using the search bar to look for CRM, Salesforce.com, Sales, Marketing, or other related terms. If there are already files I’d like to file it with, I can quickly do so by entering the any additional keywords relating to the new document going into the file, and then placing it into the hanging folder. If not, all I have to do is create a new file–perhaps with a general term like CRM–and add all of the keywords that I think I’d use to refer to it later, and I’m done. This little software program has had a profound impact on the quality of my life.
Michele Engel
President & CEO
Insightrak
Whether you’re a small business or a huge multinational corporation, you can’t afford not to be using a smart document management system, like Paper Tiger Filing System Software and Document Management, unless you’re happy throwing away your profits. Did you know that experts estimate that people waste 150 hours per year looking for lost information?
Technology is really streamlining the way that business is being conducted. Gone are the antiquated days of dusty basements filled with shelves and wall units crammed full of paper-based files. The days of tediously trawling through mountains of files to find a single document with that vital piece of information for that urgent board meeting are also gone.
What you really need is a document management system that will save you money and time, and increase your profits while decreasing expenditure. The great news is that the solution already exists. Just decide to make the change.
Instead of the archaic filing system you currently tolerate, your new filing system will be easy to learn and implement. It will be user-friendly for everyone from the CEO right down to the staff in the data processing centers.
All files will use a standardized naming system so that duplication is virtually eliminated. Documents in all formats will be easily stored in the same file. This avoids unnecessary duplication of documents. Desks won’t be overflowing with files and papers all the time and staff will be more productive when they can find what they need when they need it.
Information can easily be shared within departments, no matter where they’re located. Documents can be filed easily and files can be retrieved as fast as necessary because your computer software will tell you the location instantly.
Your board members will be ecstatic when you tell them that your ideal system will help staff provide better service to your clientele because information is more readily accessible. A happy customer is a repeat customer and it’s easier to keep customers than to try and get new ones.
When you think about the return on investment for such a filing system software, that will save you and your staff 150 hours each every year, you can’t afford not to be using a smart document management system.
Try Paper Tiger Filing System Software and Document Management today and see how efficient and organized you and your staff can be in no time!
Paper Tiger Filing System Software and Document Management has changed my life! I support a team of 12 supervisors and am responsible for over 3000 files. When I came into the department, the filing system was a collection of various different filing systems and was mostly organized chronologically. This system worked as the team of supervisors I supported had worked for the county for 20 years and could remember when the projects were completed, etc. I began to get anxious when I realized that these long-term supervisors would be retiring at the same time and, without their knowledge in the office, I would have a very difficult time locating project files.
So now here we are in 2010 and the departments of Finance, Agriculture, Administration and Planning are all using the Paper Tiger. My long-term team members have since retired and I have a wonderful tool at my fingers that allows me to retrieve archived information for my new supervisors very easily and quickly. It works so well that they are able to use it while I am out of the office!
The Paper Tiger filing system allows my department to run efficiently and makes me look good!!
Tina Kwirant
Public Works Administrative Assistant
Brazeau County, Alberta
Canada
Tina’s testimony was originally published in Sherry Borsheim’s newsletter. Sherry Borsheim is owner of Simply Productive and a Paper Tiger Expert, has been helping people to work smarter, not harder for years. She specializes in resolving paper, time and information management issues. To learn more about eliminating the paper pile-up and in vastly improving your productively, contact Simply Productive at 604-233-7076.
Getting the most out of your tech support requests
by Nicholas Karonji of Paper Tiger Tech Support Team
The other day as I was walked through the store to buy some milk and eggs for my Sunday brunch, I couldn’t help but notice the young mother trying to calm the persistent cries of her little boy. She repeatedly kept trying to find out what was going on, asking the boy, “What is wrong, tell mama why you are crying?” and all the boy kept saying is “it hurts”.
In a way, this reminded me of my role as a tech support specialist. Everyday we receive technical support requests from customers, which range from simple statements or questions to elaborate error messages that are preventing the user from using Paper Tiger. Our ability to solve customer requests rests in our comprehension of the support ticket. Just like that mother in the store, it is our job to find out what’s going on before we can figure out how to remedy the situation in a timely manner.
The down side to figuring out what is going on, is the time it takes to gather all the appropriate information necessary for us to understand the user’s problem. It is humbling and quite frankly, very enjoyable to serve our customers, but we must know as much as possible about what is going on, if we are to be of any help.
Experience has taught us that well articulated requests, which contain all necessary information pertaining to the problem, take less time to figure out.
1. Search the knowledge base and support site for your answer
8 times out of 10, the answer you are looking for has already been answered and posted in a knowledge base, blog or website. This will point you directly to your answer, and reduce the time between problem and results, without any wait for response time from our tech support team.
2. Let Tech Support know what product you are using (The more specific the better)
For desktop software, if you go to the Help or Preferences Menu and click “About” you can find information about the software product. In the case of Paper Tiger desktop version, let us know what build and edition you have, ex: “Paper Tiger Network Build 4.1.28.” In our new support portal, you will be able to choose the drop down box to select the build and edition you have.
3. Let Tech support know what exactly is wrong (Be detailed in describing the problem)
This can help tech support get the issue resolved in one response without having to write back and forth to figure out what is going on. Below are some classic requests that are impossible to figure out without actually asking like the mother in the store “What is wrong, how can we help you?”
4. Let Tech support know what if you did anything prior to the problem
More often than not problems arise as a result of changes made either by users or by other system and other applications. If you recently installed something, changed the configuration, or dropped your machine, include this information. It is useful in determining how best to solve your problem.
5. Let tech support know what you are seeing
If you can take screen shots of what you are seeing and information on any other errors, please include them. If we can see the same thing you are seeing we can get a better feel on what the problem may be.
Using our new Tech Support Portal will help you get the most out of your tech support requests.
Thank you for using Paper Tiger Filing System Software and Document Management!
Paper Tiger Tech Support Portal is Now Live!
by Andrew Solomon of Paper Tiger Tech Support Team
The Paper Tiger Filing System Software technical support team has been in the midst of creating an interactive support page, to assist customers in Paper Tiger technical issues. This new Paper Tiger tech support portal is now live and we believe that the functionality will improve our customers’ experience in resolving questions or issues they have with Paper Tiger Filing System Software.
The support site is divided into two main sections, Paper Tiger Desktop and Paper Tiger Online. So if a Paper Tiger user has a question or an issue with their Paper Tiger Desktop application, he/she would enter the Paper Tiger Desktop portal. Each portal is customized to assist users in troubleshooting issues depending upon the platform of their software. By searching our frequently asked questions knowledge base section on our site, the customer will be provided an immediate answer and most issues can be solved without opening a support request ticket. The Paper Tiger Support FAQ is not just your average list of commonly asked questions. The functionality has been optimized by our very own Paper Tiger Software engineers to present the user with the most relevant and common troubleshooting issues and articles in order to get to resolution faster.
Search and See as You Type
We wanted to build a support page where users can get what they need in a fast and efficient way. The Paper Tiger Support portal is built with a powerful live search engine, which is able to scrub our entire knowledge database and return the most accurate search results with easy to see keyword-highlighting. Please give our support portal a try the next time you have any Paper Tiger questions or issues.
Open a Ticket:
Paper Tiger Support team guarantees that our well developed support articles will ratify 95% of your Paper Tiger issues, but in rare cases when our support pages are unable to assist you, don’t hesitate to open a ticket with our technical support gurus. After completing and submitting a short form, a Paper Tiger technician will be able to process your request, and handle your situation appropriately. This will give our technicians a greater understanding of exactly what the client needs, and will enable us to deliver the best customer service possible and in a more efficient manner. Users can also attach as many databases and screen shots as they may need to any support ticket filled to assist our tech support reps in responding to issues more efficiently and effectively.
Thank you for using Paper Tiger Filing System Software for Document Management!
Did you know? In the typical ‘In Box’ …
* 40% can be tossed or recycled;
* 40% can be filed, and
* only 20% require action
Let Paper Tiger Filing System Software and Document Management help you keep track of the 60% that you need to keep for various reasons! Also for those files that can be archived out of your frequently referenced filing cabinet, how to archive is simple with Paper Tiger.
For many years I have struggled with keeping my desk cleaned off. Not only was this a chore that never seemed to go away, but I would often feel overwhelm just by the idea of having to get out the label maker, figure out what to call the file, and then have to thumb through the alphabetical files in order to get the new file where it belonged. Because it was often too great a chore for me to engage in, I often put it off until I couldn’t handle the site of my desk or “organized piles.” Moreover, the old system worked fine for annual bills and such, but miscellaneous papers would forever be filed into a state of “organized lostness” somewhere within the confines of the file cabinets; never to be seen or heard of again.
Then I discovered Paper Tiger Filing System Software for document management! It did not take me long looking over the website before I realized that this was “must have” software. I ordered the desktop version and shortly thereafter discovered that Paper Tiger Online was in Beta, and that I could sign up to test the software for free! This was exactly what I needed as I have computers in multiple locations in the home (my home office, my wife’s desk upstairs, and a laptop that floats throughout the house), and having the ability to access Paper Tiger from anywhere was a huge bonus.
We set up the database with several locations. My wife has her lateral file close to her desk that we called “Mum’s” location. Then I created an “Action” location close to where I work most. I use one location for “admin” documents in another lateral file, and I have a “reference” location that I use to archive anything and everything that comes across my desk. Although the numbering system seems awkward at first, it is actually incredibly useful and fast. Essentially Paper Tiger acts as a powerful index system that tells you what numbered file is empty and available for a document, or it will let you know if there is a match somewhere that would fit the type of document that is being filed. Since the index numbers are set up ahead of time on the hanging folders in the filing cabinets, it becomes a breeze to file papers as they come in.
For the sake of efficiency (or at least what works best for me), is that I take the document, look up the index file location (by utilizing the search feature), or I set up a new index number for item if I need to. Once I know where the document is going, I write the file number on it, and I place it in my Action drawer in a file called “to file.” If my wife has something that needs to go down stairs in one of the files in my office, she “Paper Tigers” it, and she will put a yellow sticky on the page with the file number and put it in my inbox. This too will make it into my little “to file” file. Then once a week or so (or when I’m feeling disengaged from my work), I will take out the “to file” file and in about 10 minutes or less have all the papers in that file put away where they belong!
One last use we have for Paper Tiger at the moment is that we have taken all our DVD’s and put them in a big leather binder and have thrown the cases away. Each slot in the binder that has a DVD has a number assigned to it, and we wrote the corresponding number with an indelible marker on the actual DVD. Once this was done we cataloged all the DVD’s in Paper Tiger. This has been a great tool since our kids will often get out a bunch of movies all at once and we can easily find out where they go by the number. Also, if we want to watch something, all we have to do is search for it in Paper Tiger, find out the reference number and easily turn to it in the DVD binder.
Well, we may not be “singing” Paper Tiger praises, but my wife and I are constantly commenting on how immensely useful and efficient it is. Thanks to Paper Tiger, our desks are cleaner, our work is less stressful, and things don’t get lost in file cabinet. Thank you Paper Tiger! We look forward to many happy years as customers.
Kevin McAllister
Lead Pastor of Family Worship Center (www.afamily.cc)
http://www.namelounge.com
Augusta, ME
Running a home office can be very trying no matter whether you are using it to keep track of the family’s finances or running a small business there. If you don’t keep track of your papers and other items in a manner that makes sense, you will never be able to find things as you need them. Bills may not get paid on time, incurring late charges and other penalties simply because they were buried under other items. There are a number of systems that you can use to make your home office that much more efficient but there are a number of drawbacks to consider with them.
Systems that Require Scanners or Labelers
Some document management systems require that all your paper files be scanned and then formatted to a disk drive for “filing.” There are often many things that cannot be scanned and there are issues with the scanner itself. If you don’t have a scanner, this type filing system would suggest that you buy one. And this document management system may not be ideal because once you have scanned everything and put it on the computer, what if that system crashes or you are not near your computer for that moment?
With a scanning document management system, labeling everything does not always work either, especially since it does nothing to get everything organized. Sure, you know that those are all the home bills sitting there in the nicely labeled file folder, but they get moved from place to place because they have no real designated spot and they end up buried once again.
A Hybrid, Better Solution
The Paper Tiger Filing System Software and Document Management is a hybrid of traditional filing and computer search ingenuity with the ability to help you streamline your filing system and find your items without having to run out and buy expensive equipment. You don’t scan your items so you can use the same filing system software to organize books and other items that would not be able to be scanned. (See our Not Just for Filing Paper webpage) Your files are set up in index numbered, hanging files with labels that you print from the Paper Tiger Software. These file numbers never change, but the information that is stored in them can: It is all taken care of by the filing system itself. After everything is where it needs to be, and item names and keywords relating to the items being indexed entered into the software’s database, the information is converted to searchable files. All you need to do is access a computer and conduct a google-like search to find exactly what you are looking for.
Your home office is now organized like a miniature databank, like your own personal version of the World Wide Web. All of your files are right there to be accessed by a quick search. The computer will generate a search result, showing you exactly which hanging file folder the requested information is in and where to access it. There is no searching through several different files to find an item because of differing thought processes of filing from day to day.
Tame your paper files (and other items) with Paper Tiger and get organized today!
While setting up and running a small electrical contracting firm, based in a home office, I tried three, separate and distinctly different filing systems. The third system was “Paper Tiger – Professional version”. That was over 2 years ago and it has only gotten better.
When combined with Barbara Hemphill’s teaching on “FAT” (File, Act, Toss), and the six questions of “Wastebasketry”, which I now have framed on the wall for easy reference, I haven’t looked back. (See Paper Tiger Filing System Tutorials)
I am now able to sort, search and track over 1000 individual locations with confidence. Not to mention how it has helped clear my desk space and helped me focus.
After some experimentation, my locations have developed to suit three requirements:
Requirement One the physical thickness of items I need to file.
Anything from that proverbial single sheet of paper through to some quite thick and bulky brochures and technical specifications.
Requirement Two control over the sensitivity of a file’s contents.
Be that due to tax, financial or customer information. These files are simply more “mission critical” than the latest plumbing magazine or scribbled notes of meetings.
Requirement Three retaining conveniently short memorable names.
Short also means larger, clearer text printed on the physical hanging file “tab” or label.
It also uses up less space on screen for the location column, which means more space for keywords.
Thus the names and types of storage have become:
ACT & REF for my “Action” and “Reference” files.
CSO is my “Customer, Supplier, Organisation” cabinet. The sensitive files and mission critical files that are conveniently located close by and under lock and key.
All three sections use standard hanging files in metal filing cabinets.
MAG = Side open plastic magazine holders on book shelves. Great for bulky catalogues.
TAB = Leaver arch folders with 20 way dividers. TAB is short for “Tabs”. These are good to collect together product data sheets from different manufacturers, while retaining a traditional “book” format. 20 also means the folders number up easily; 20,40,60 etc.
STA = Think “Stack”. Also Leaver Arch folders, but each holding around 100 individual papers, as I like many others, like to cut out and save news articles and magazine pages for reference. These are placed in thin pre-punched plastic files with the corner clearly numbered.
ARC = Archives. Traditional box files stored in the loft for those historic records.
Finally, again thanks to Barbara’s idea,
INF = Information. Not a physical storage location, but a place that exists only inside the Paper Tiger database. A great place to “retrieve” those little notes, ideas and other miscellaneous items.
A word on filing cabinets. At the outset, I chose to invest in full size office grade cabinets, albeit second hand, and foolscap hanging files rather than the slightly smaller “A4” size that are available for home use. It was a case that these work well for the rigours of a business and are readily available and are unlikely to be a passing fad.
One key tip I have is that I found 50 hanging files per filing cabinet drawer is a great number for both drawer labeling and practical daily use. It is easy to count in “50′s per drawer.”
Finally, when explaining the system to others, I have my own slant on Barbara’s example of the car insurance certificate.
I ask people to imagine the image of a “common four wheel motorised transport device, sat on the driveway outside.” I then ask what they would file the “legal” paperwork under? Usually they reply with something basic like “car insurance” or “insurance certificate”. However I then say, “No… its not a car its a go-cart” and then explain, isn’t the Paper Tiger keyword approach better because we can add search words like:
The vehicle type:
“go-cart, quad-bike, car, van (important to our trade).
The vehicle make model
Ford, Courier
The document Type
insurance, certificate, policy, schedule
Or the common terms people use.
“Dad’s Taxi”
This last one comes more into its own when people are using the special “lingo” and abbreviations of their own industry, e.g. Medical, Education, Engineering etc.
With a cluster of strongly related words, it doesn’t matter how people search, they soon find it even when their thought processes of filing can be quite different. Which is significant in this household.
I now “file” with confidence because I can “retrieve” with confidence.
Paper Tiger – I’d be lost without it.
By Nigel Lovell
Lovell Electrical Services Ltd.
England
How’s your church’s filing system? Frustrating? Do you have a hard time finding the materials you need for preparing sermons, planning Sunday school lessons, and managing daily activities of the congregation? You may even have three or four files that contain the same information, but are labeled differently — what a mess! Fortunately, it’s not that hard to get your church document management system in order!
Creating File Categories
What causes the downfall of a filing system? Chances are, it wasn’t much of a “system” to begin with. More likely, it was just a random assortment of individual files that really had no connection to each other (aside from the fact that they lived in the same drawer.) To create a truly effective filing system, you need to start with a plan. Simply slapping a label on a folder won’t cut it!
Look at your current filing system (or that pile of paper that you’ve been meaning to file for months) and start sorting your documents into broad categories. “Sermon Outlines” might be one, “Vacation Bible School” could be another, “Church Fundraising” may be a third. At this point, we’re not focusing on detail — quite frankly, I don’t care if it’s a topical sermon or a Bible sermon right now. We’ll worry about those distinctions later on.
Once you’ve completed that step, pick one of your “major category” piles (any pile) and let’s sort through it again. This time, I want you to think about breaking your paper into smaller subcategories. For example, your “Church Fundraising” stack could be divided into “Building And Construction,” “Youth Programs,” “Missions,” “Community Service,” etc. This time, you want to be as specific as possible. When you set up a section called “Accounts,” don’t tell me that they are “bank statements” — tell me which account they belong to and break each out into a separate pile. We don’t want any files “bunking” with other files — everyone gets his or her own separate folder.
The trick to developing a workable reference file is choosing categories that make it easy to a) know where to put a piece of paper and b) know where to find it again. The problem is that most people focus entirely on the “where to put it” side of things — they don’t envision the day when they will need to retrieve that file. Then, when they go hunting for a specific document, their mind is thinking differently than on the day they filed it — so they can’t remember what they labeled the folder. As you are deciding on a category for a piece of paper, ask yourself where you would look for that piece of paper when you need it again, and be sure to include those categories and subcategories in your file indexing system for easy retrieval — this will help you create a logical file label that makes sense to you both now and down the road.
So now implement those ‘categories’ into Paper Tiger Filing System Software and Document Management. Indexing your files into the database so that you can find your file later no matter how you file it originally. Depending on how large each individual category is, it could be a Location of its own or an Item Name with keywords included for each category or file folder. The most important thing to remember here is to enter keywords associated with each piece of paper that you input into a file folder. That way when you want to find it six months or two years later, you would be able to conduct a google-like search in your database and find what you need in seconds.
Labeling
After you’ve completed the sorting, each major category of paperwork should be assigned a different color (your choice) — and then we’re going to put each of its subcategories into an individual hanging file folder. So in the filing system example above, “Church Fund-raising” might be green, and each of your fund-raising accounts gets a separate green hanging file folder. Then perhaps “Sermons” are in red, and each different topic (“Weathering Hard Times,” “Family And Marriage,” “Scripture,” “Finances And Money,” “Faith,” etc.) is assigned a separate red hanging file. It might seem like a small thing, but color-coding your system will save you a huge amount of time in filing and retrieving papers. Being able to look in your file drawers and see distinct bodies of information broken out by color just makes sense to your brain. And when you know that your financial statements are in green and your sermon topics are in red and your youth program materials are in blue, you don’t even have to think — your hand just naturally goes to the appropriate section your file drawer.
Now that everyone has their own colored folder, we need to label each file. When creating your labels, move from general to specific. Don’t tell me you are filing paperwork for your “Guatemala Mission Trip” — call it “Mission Trip: Guatemala.” If you are filing alphabetically, all of the “Mission” files (no matter how many you have) will be together alphabetically, rather than scattered hither and yon. Our goal is to keep related files in close proximity to each other. Do this again and again for every grouping of files until you have labeled every file in each major category.
Setting It All Up
All you have to do now is put the files within each major category in alphabetical order, and then put the major categories themselves into the drawer in alphabetical order. Whenever you need to find a document or put something in a folder, just look first for the correct major category (identified by both the labels and the color) — then it’s easy to put your hands on the correct file without a lot of searching.
Remember that we’re setting up “reference” folders — these files contain documents that don’t require immediate action, but that you do need to access regularly. They could be financial records, administrative papers, information on past projects, trip ideas, you name it. But the one thing each piece of paper has in common is that you have to be able to find it quickly on demand. In order to make that happen, here are a couple of things to keep in mind as you set up your system:
• pick a category that is broad enough to encompass more than just a couple of pieces of paper — it’s quicker and easier to search through a few thicker folders whose contents are all related, than a dozen different “onesie and twosie” files which have nothing in common with each other.
• choose one type of filing system and stick with it — it doesn’t matter if you file chronologically, alphabetically, or another way — just be consistent and do it the same way, all the time, throughout your entire system.
• when your files get overstuffed, it’s time to divide that category out into a couple of smaller subcategories — if your “Youth Programs: Vacation Bible School” folder has gotten way too big, you can break it out chronologically (“Youth Programs: Vacation Bible School 2009″, ” Youth Programs: Vacation Bible School 2010″) or topically (“Youth Programs: Vacation Bible School / Crafts”, “Youth Programs: Vacation Bible School / Speakers”, “Youth Programs: Vacation Bible School / Games”, etc.) so that the documents are still all together, but you have fewer pages per folder.
Follow these simple, yet effective steps for creating reference files, and you’ll discover that your system takes most of the work out of filing (and retrieving) your important documents, and for the most part can be structured alphabetically – the way most of our minds work!
Then there are always those files that come through that you just don’t know where to file because they don’t fall into a specific category. Indexing with Paper Tiger makes filing simple. Utilizing Paper Tiger Filing System Software and Document Management along with this ‘category’ structure is great for new people that come into the office or when the office assistant is out for vacation.
Ramona Creel is Professional Organizer, NAPO Golden Circle Member, and the original founder of OnlineOrganizing. A former Social Worker, she has always enjoyed helping people find the resources and solutions they need to improve their lives. Ramona now travels the country as a full-time RVer, sharing her story of simplicity with everyone she meets. She leads by example — having worked for more than 10 years as a Professional Organizer, and having radically downsized and simplified her own life as a full-time RVer. Ramona now considers herself a “Renaissance Woman” — bringing all of her passions together into one satisfying career. As a “Virtual Organizer”, she can create a customized organizing plan for your home or office. As a “Simplicity and Accountability Coach “, Ramona provides a proven program for making every area of your life a little bit easier — perfect for those who want to make the time and space to focus on their true priorities. As a Professional Photographer, Ramona captures powerful images of places and people as she travels. And as a freelance writer and blogger, she shares organizing techniques, travel tips, and social commentary with others. You can see all these sides of Ramona — read her articles, browse through her photographs, and even hire her to help get your life in order — at www.RamonaCreel.com. You can also follow her on Twitter, check out her Facebook profile, and subscribe to her blog feeds.
This article by Denise Landers, founder and CEO of Key Organization Systems Inc. and Paper Tiger Expert, will help encourage and empower you to do something about the piles on your desk and get organized! Denise also recommends Paper Tiger Filing System Software and Document Management to help with your filing system and actually be able to find what you need, when you need it.
“Don’t touch my piles! I know where everything is.”
Do you have someone in your business who is accountable to you and who says that? If you do, you should be concerned. Chances are good this person is not nearly as productive as he or she could be because the piles have to keep shifting to locate information. However, there is another factor impacting business accountability. When the only person in a company who can find something needed is that person whose office it is buried in, there is no accountability within a department.
No one ever likes to foresee emergencies and extended absences. Even short, unplanned absences can be problems. While you probably know the general projects a colleague is working on, would you be able to easily fill in during two weeks of unplanned absences, knowing who they needed to call each day, and where they had left off on the current project? Would you be able to find important contracts and reports within seconds, not minutes?
If you are working with someone who looks disorganized to others, but who guards his or her piles of papers with the explanation that he or she knows where everything is, that person may simply have no knowledge of how to create an effective system for handling daily work flow. On another level, it can represent an effort to retain control and maintain job security because no one could take over amid the disorder.
Almost everyone today is working at full capacity in struggling to manage time effectively and get more done. Having to fill in for an employee who is absent without advance planning adds to the strain on colleagues as they strive to cover for that team member.
The next time you hear someone say that he is not disorganized, but that he can find anything amid the stacks in his office, consider the bottom line for your business’ accountability. That disorganization not only slows down an individual’s personal daily productivity, but can directly impact the company’s production efforts.
To achieve accountability, give your staff the training that will develop company-wide processes for handling work flow. While everyone has different duties, creating effective systems and then tailoring them for the individual job functions will allow you to cover for each other as well as increase personal effectiveness.
If you could use ideas on how to create effective systems for your office, our training CDs, The Productivity Series can guide you in setting up easy-to-implement systems for managing time, paper, and email.
Denise Landers @timetrainer
Key Organization Systems, Inc.
