With people working from home and diving into self-employment, home offices are quite common. It has been said that at least one in four households have a home office. When is the last time you organized your entire home office (besides when you initially moved in)? If you can’t answer this question, it’s time. With clutter on the kitchen counter, dining room table and other areas of the house, this article in particular is designated to getting the home office organized.

Sometimes this isn’t a task that can be tackled in one day, but with Paper Tiger Filing System Software for document management, these tips can help you make huge strides.

Organizing Your Home Office

1. Gather your Tools: Before you actually try to start organizing your home office, make sure you have plenty of trash bags, boxes, sticky notes and markers to label your piles. You may also want to have a vacuum cleaner or broom around, as things might get messy. Cleaning supplies and a shredder, if necessary, are also some tools you can have nearby.
2. Sort Items: You can’t start to organize until you know what you have. Do you even know what is in that stack of papers on the corner of your desk? Have you opened that third drawer lately? Go through everything and decide what you need to keep and what needs to be trashed. The documents and things you decide to keep need to be sorted into piles and labeled so that you know what they are later. You might even think about your stacks such as: Action (things you need to take action on), Reference (things that you need to keep, but needs to be filed). This will be a great start in how to separate your stacks. And don’t forget a trash stack….
3. Trash Items: If you don’t need it, trash it as you go! The more useless things you hold on to, the more clutter you will have. You have trash bags and the shredder nearby so you can get rid of unwanted things. If you think you can’t bear the thought of parting with your things that you could retrieve again by a simple search on the Internet, think about it again. What is your goal? Are you trying to get rid of some old clutter? If so, toss as much as you can!
4. Use Paper Tiger: Here is where Paper Tiger fits in the equation. Once you have sorted everything, you are ready to file your documents. Simply itemize each file subject in your Paper Tiger database and drop these files into the corresponding hanging file folder number that matches the Item number in Paper Tiger. You can name them as you choose and add keywords to help you or someone else find the file easily. You can store the physical documents in the garage, or in your desk drawers, or any other place that is convenient for you. The main point here is that when you use Paper Tiger, you will be sure to find the file you need later without time-consuming searches.

Since you are cleaning out your office, you might as well make sure that you are not storing documents that you no longer need or use. Your organizing system needs to be organized as well, and once you have your Paper Tiger database set up with your paper files indexed, you can print the File Clean-Out report to help you clean out papers from existing files. Also use the Transfer Report to help you physically move documents from one location to another so the documents in your hanging file folders match what you have in Paper Tiger.

These are steps to help you get started. Of course, depending on how cluttered your home office is, it might be quite difficult to clean out your entire home office in one day. Completing one of these steps a day, (in order of course), can ensure a clean and tidy office in less time than you think. Remember to relax and take your time when cleaning your office. Don’t get overwhelmed in organizing your home office. You’ll feel so accomplished and proud, you will want to go from room to room, and maybe even tackle organizing the garage. Happy Organizing!

In the article below, Anne McGurty, a Paper Tiger Expert of Strategize and Organize, relays the benefits of getting organized. Think of it as a small investment in the long-term events of your future. Do you think it’s a waste of time to get organized? Read on to see the benefits of being organized. She also recommends implementing Paper Tiger Filing System Software to help you save time and money!

Are you ready to get organized, but stalling because of a lack of time, money, or motivation? Don’t despair! A professional organizer is just what you need! Make an investment in yourself that will provide amazing advantages for years to come.

Here are some of the benefits you can look forward to once you get organized:

Getting Organized Can Save Money

Once you get organized, you’ll know what you already own, eliminating the need to buy duplicate items. You’ll also be able to buy what you need when it’s on sale, rather than buying at the last minute. Your professional organizer can also help you find the perfect organizing products for your space and lifestyle, so you can stop wasting money on containers that just don’t work.

Getting Organized Will Help You Be More Productive and Efficient

A professional organizer can create order and structure out of chaos. You’ll receive systems that work for your dominant learning style, your lifestyle, your needs, your challenges, and your dreams. Whether at work or at home, you’ll increase productivity once you have an organized and efficient schedule to keep you on track. You’ll be amazed at how much you get done in shorter amounts of time. And by focusing on your priorities and goals, you’ll be able to finally move ahead toward reaching them.

You’ll Have a Positive Self-Image and Ditch the Shame

Once your home or office is neat and tidy, you won’t feel embarrassed to have guests visit. The guilt will fade away as you take pride in your surroundings. Your organized office will allow you to present a professional image to co-workers, clients, and superiors. Your organized home and new-found habits to keep it that way will set a great example for your children and/or spouse.

You Can Create a Healthier Environment

Physical and emotional clutter obscures your surroundings. A clutter-free environment is simply easier to manage. A professional organizer can help you clear out your space so you can see that your surroundings in a better light and easier to maintain.

Your Stress Level Will Decrease Dramatically

When you can find what you need, are on top of your to-dos, and arrive on time for meetings or events, you’ll feel calmer and have more peace of mind. No more feeling overwhelmed by life — you’ll be in more control and feel less stressed.

You’ll Discover More Time for Yourself

When you’re organized, your days go as planned, and you get a lot done. That leaves more time to indulge in a little “me time.”

Your Energy Will Shine

Clutter is a mask. A professional organizer can help you take off that mask and let people see your vibrancy! Once the clutter is removed, you can showcase your talents, skills, and personality and have the life you deserve.

About Anne McGurty

Anne McGurty is CEO of Strategize & Organize, a company devoted to training individual’s to be more effective with the tools and resources to be productive in their work environment.

If you like this issue, you’ll love Anne’s transforming productivity training and organizing products to help you organize your business — and yourself — ranging from productivity consulting for individuals and executives to small business coaching programs to keynote speaking and corporate training programs to improve efficiencies in the workplace and improve productivity.

While Anne is best known for her expertise in productivity and expert office organizing, her clients share that her biggest impact comes from her philosophy of “personalizing her programs to fit the needs of her clients so they can streamline more efficiently with existing processes” – ensuring to create a sustainable work environment. This, Anne says, is the most important key to bringing an individual to personal freedom with time and organization.

You can learn more about Anne at www.StrategizeAndOrganize.com.

You can contact Anne at amcgurty@strategizeandorganize.com or by phone at 303 881-0174.

Are you being as productive as you can? Want to reach your full potential? Anne McGurty of Strategize & Organize and one of our Certified Paper Tiger Experts, offers a few tips to help you reach your full potential of productivity. A few of these tips, when combined with Paper Tiger Filing System Software can help elevate productivity even more.

Tips to Maximize Your Productivity

1. Do the hardest thing first.  When you arrive at the office, you may be tempted to first check your messages, rifle through the day’s mail, or plow through some easy administrative tasks. Instead, try doing the hardest, most challenging (or least enjoyable) thing earlier in the day. You’ll be attacking it when your energy level is high and your mind is clear.
2. Plan for tomorrow at the end of today. Take 15 minutes at the end of every day to create tomorrow’s to-do list. This habit of planning will give you the gift of focus, allowing you to get a jump-start the next morning. In a sense, you’re creating a map for the following day.
3. Download all ideas, actions, and goals onto paper.  Clear the clutter out of your brain by taking pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) and allow to-dos and brilliant ideas to become more concrete.
4. Use your email effectively. Stop scanning emails and leaving them to deal with “later.” Instead, schedule time just twice each day to check and manage emails. Read each email message thoroughly, then act, file, delete, or pass along.
5. Take a lunch break every day. You may not think you have time for one, but make the time. Poor diet on the job is costing countries (and their businesses) up to 20% in lost productivity!
6. Become an expert time estimator. Most unpleasant tasks don’t take as long as you think they will. And most pleasant things tend to drag out a bit longer than you’d expect. Use a timer to get an accurate gauge of the real time it takes to accomplish a variety of routine responsibilities.
7. Create an effective work area. The average office worker spends 2000 hours per year at their desk. Make that space easy to use by gathering items that you use most frequently and storing them within easy reach of your usual seated position.
8. Manage paper effectively. Resolve to deal with your papers on a regular basis. Whether first thing in the morning, at the end of the day, or somewhere in between, set aside 30 minutes each day so you don’t end up with overwhelming piles. Then act, file, toss/shred. If you file it, don’t forget to enter keywords into your Paper Tiger Filing System Software’s database, so that you’ll be sure to find it when you need it again!
9. Be more productive by avoiding interruptions. Use your lower-energy hours as your open office hours so you don’t waste peak productivity periods with interruptions.
10. Know the benefits of being organized. Getting organized goes way beyond having a neat and tidy space. By becoming more organized, you’ll not only help your business run better, but you’ll reap multiple personal rewards as well.
11. Stop procrastinating.  Break tasks down into realistic-sized chunks and jot them. Each day’s successes will give you the drive to keep going.
12. Learn to say “no” and delegate. Take control of your time and tasks by making a list of all your responsibilities, both daily and special projects. Even if it takes a little more time on the front end to train someone else, it may pay off by giving you more time to focus on larger responsibilities.

About Anne McGurty:

Anne McGurty is CEO of Strategize & Organize, a company devoted to training individual’s to be more effective with the tools and resources so they can be productive in their work environment.

If you like this issue, you’ll love Anne’s transforming productivity training and organizing products to help you organize your business — and yourself — ranging from productivity consulting for individuals and executives to small business coaching programs to keynote speaking and corporate training programs to improve efficiencies in the workplace and improve productivity.

While Anne is best known for her expertise in productivity and expert office organizing, her clients share that her biggest impact comes from her philosophy of “personalizing her programs to fit the needs of her clients so they can streamline more efficiently with existing processes” – ensuring to create a sustainable work environment. This, Anne says, is the most important key to bringing an individual to personal freedom with time and organization.

You can learn more about Anne at www.StrategizeAndOrganize.com.

You can contact Anne at amcgurty@strategizeandorganize.com or by phone at 303 881-0174.

No matter what size business you have, you need to organize your business inventory to make things run efficiently. Even if your inventory merely consists of collectibles to be sold on EBay as a hobby, things should be in order to strive towards greater success. Attempting to locate an item to ship to a customer can be so much easier with indexed inventory.

Organizing also helps to track the amount of inventory you have for easy reordering decisions. Whether it’s the papers and receipts that make up the office end of the business or the inventory that is the reason you have the business, Paper Tiger Filing System Software is the first step towards getting organized for neat inventory.

Getting Organized To Tame Your Business Inventory

Paper Tiger is a tool for cataloging and organizing anything that can be numbered. You can use it to keep even better track of the files in your filing cabinet or for the inventory of your store or online business. Whether you are selling vintage clothing or fancy costume jewelry, Paper Tiger can keep track of what you have and where it is located.

Simply type in any and all keywords you can think of for the items. This way it doesn’t matter if you can’t remember exactly what you named it, a Google-like search in the database can still help you find it. Unlike the plain alphabetical filing system, Paper Tiger makes it so that neither you nor your employees have to guess how an object may have been labeled when entered in the system. Anyone who has access to the inventory indexing can search any of the keywords and find things with ease. For example, if you are organizing costume jewelry you may have a bin of brooches, necklaces, and hatpins. You can separate the three types of jewelry and set a location while adding each to the location. In addition, keywords will help you find the “diamond brooch” or those “chandelier-like earrings”.

Organization Curtails Frustration

Organization is a major issue that many businesses face, both large and small. Keeping track of inventory is often affected when organization isn’t in place. This can be frustrating for you, staff members and most importantly customers. Not being able to locate an item a customer ordered or not knowing when it is time to reorder a popular selling item can lead to lost sales. Aside from all of this, you or employees trying to locate an item or taking count of items to find out if it is time to reorder something can waste countless hours.

Good organization paired with Paper Tiger Filing System Software is more than for just your business. Carry this over into your office or personal home space too. For example, keep your office supplies documented in this manner and you will never have that frustrating and frantic search for extra pens or printer paper again. Set yourself up to be organized in every aspect of your professional and personal life, and you can practically guarantee you will be a success.

Here at Paper Tiger, we’ve figured out that organization also comes from within, and we believe that you can train yourself to be more organized. Before you begin to use Paper Tiger Filing System Software for Document Management or Digital Tiger, powered by Google Docs, you, try these ten tips that will help you form habits towards a more organized you.

1. Don’t Procrastinate. Why put off what you can do today for tomorrow? Instead of waiting, do things right now. After a long day at work, opt to sort through the mail instead of tossing it on the kitchen counter. At the end of the week, you’ve now avoided that overwhelming mess of an endless pile of mail. If you start doing things as soon as you notice them, it will become a habit.
2. Make Time. Of course, you’ve got to prepare dinner, take the kids to soccer practice and do laundry on Tuesday afternoon, but you’ve also got to set time aside to make important phone calls, pay bills, etc. If you have things you must do, give yourself 20 or 30 minutes each day to complete these additional admin type tasks. Stick to these appointments as if they are business meetings.
3. Trash the Unnecessary. Sometimes you just have to sit down and go through all your clutter. One room at a time, piece by piece, trash all the things that you don’t need anymore. Ask yourself, “When was the last time I used this?” If it has been longer than a year, trash it. Or if it is something that you can give away, decide who or where you will give it. If you are having issues parting with certain things, create a tentative pile so that you can go through them later.
4. Break Large Tasks into Smaller Tasks. How overwhelming is it to clean the entire attic? Tasks like this are simply too large, but if you decide to clean the left side or the back corner of the attic, the goal is more attainable. In lieu of breaking a large task into several smaller tasks, you can also set a timer. If you spend 30 minutes each day tackling the attic without distractions, you will surely make progress.
5. Differentiate Between Important and Non-Important Documents. Do you know what papers should be kept and what shouldn’t? Chances are, you’re holding on to a lot of excess clutter that you may not necessarily need. See our article To Shred or Not to Shred for more information on what to keep and how long it should be kept.
6. Keep Essential Information Accessible. Before you even begin to index your paper files with Paper Tiger Filing System Software for Document Management, they must be separated and sorted. Sort and label your information and make sure that the most important documents are always handy. Having everything in one place will save you a lot of time in the long run.
7. Set Deadlines. As mentioned earlier, it can be a bit difficult to part with certain items. When you set aside these items and put them in a temporary location, simply put a date on the pile or box. Set the date for three or six months in the future. If you haven’t reach into the box for any of those items before the date, get rid of them.
8. Stick to it. When you make plans, be sure to stick to them. For example, if you have planned out the entire dinner menu for the week, don’t change it. These changes bring about redundant trips to the grocery store, duplicate ingredients and spoiled food. Aside from food preparation, its best to stick to other plans especially related to activities that require a bit of planning. It can be quite frustrating and challenging to try to get reorganized for the family trip next month.
9. Everything Needs a Home. There should be a place for everything. Whether you’re using boxes or crates, be sure to label everything and put in a location that you can access when needed. Plastic storage containers work well for storing things. Don’t forget that you can use Paper Tiger for indexing items in storage containers. Anything that you can put a number onto, you can index into Paper Tiger!
10. Don’t be Hard on Yourself. Learning to be organized isn’t something that can happen overnight. We’ve all heard the phrase, “It takes 21 days to form a habit” so be patient and stick with it. After you’ve been organizing for a while, both Paper Tiger Filing System Software for Document Management and Digital Tiger will be perfect tools for you. Happy Organizing!

Anne McGurty, a Paper Tiger Expert of Strategize and Organize, shares her top ten tips for using the Paper Tiger to get organized, work efficiently, and be more productive. Read on to see how a small investment in time implementing Paper Tiger Filing System Software can help you to simplify your life!

Did you know that the average executive spends six weeks per year retrieving or replacing lost documents? Naturally, it makes sense to create a system that is quick and easy so you can save that lost time. Here are some ideas to get it done now once you have Paper Tiger. If you don’t have Paper Tiger now, click this link to get started. Here are the top ten tips I recommend:

Get Organized, Work Efficiently and More Productive

1. Look at the “hot spot of files”. You know the pile that seems the most urgent and makes your stomach churn every time you look at it. Take the paperwork and make a decision on each piece and separate into four piles:

a. Reference: those items you need, just not right now

b. Action: current projects, ongoing projects

c. Toss: you know where those are going

d. Timed: you need these on a specific date

2. When deciding on whether to file something or throw it away, ask yourself how difficult would it be to find this information again? Does it have any legal or financial ramifications if you were to throw it away? If you can live with the answer of throwing it away after those thoughts, let it go.

3. Set up the Paper Tiger Filing System Software and Document Management, an indexing system that works like a search engine for paper files to help you get organized and stay organized. It’s essentially creating an inventory for all of your files.

4. Use names that you will be able to recall easily. The obvious file names that you’ve used in the past. Then the interesting thing with Paper Tiger is that you will also be able to add keywords into the database so that any name you think of when you need to find a file, the software will be able to tell you where it is in seconds. So in the case of “Auto” the item name would be “Ford Explorer”, and in the keywords section, you would input the name of the company, i.e., “Vehicle, Car”, possible the name of the dealer, the service person’s name, etc., and you might use “Personal” in the Category section.

5. Oftentimes, people receive notices of an event and they never know what to do with the postcard. Set up a monthly filing system (a Tickler File) to keep track of when to throw them away. Create 12 hanging file folders, one for each month. As you rsvp or pull the information for “dress code” or directions. When the day rolls around, you can retrieve it for a reminder. This will ensure that you never miss an event or an expiration date on an rsvp or offer.

6. When sorting through paper files, make a decision. If you’re not in a decision-making mood, have a place set up for “unprocessed paperwork.” Then when you’re ready, if you need to take action, do it now or place it in the appropriate action file. If someone else needs to attend to it, give it to them. If it is something to reference later on, index the appropriate keywords into Paper Tiger and add it to the corresponding reference hanging file. Putting it back in the pile to address later is no longer an option for you as an organized person.

7. When you have a lot of tasks to do for the day, quickly sort the tasks in order of importance. Do what is most profitable or important to you first, then move on from there. Therefore, if you only have a little bit of time, you will be addressing the most critical issues first. All other tasks need to be scheduled for when it makes sense. This final step is critical, otherwise you’ll be starting a new pile.

8. Print out reports of what you have inventoried in your filing system, place a folder in the front of each file drawer, as appropriate, labeled “File Index.” Having a quick and easy reference when you don’t want to open your computer makes it easier to find quickly.

9. Get into a maintenance habit of printing out a ‘File Cleanout’ report of all of your files, quarterly or no less often than annually, and identify what you no longer need and purge or create steps to archive via off site store or scanning.

10. Finally, create a time management habit. Take 10-15 minutes every morning looking at your priorities, including your Actions within your Paper Tiger system and pulling files from your Tickler File. Do the same thing each evening by placing all documents collected through the day back into your systems.

Celebrate your progress, if you haven’t done it yet. Set up your Paper Tiger Filing System and get started now. As you go throughout your day, keep in mind the task at hand and focus on completing that one task. Remember that “things don’t clutter, people clutter”. When we make simple decisions and take action, we can improve the quality of our life at work and at home.

Anne McGurty

About Anne:

Anne McGurty is CEO of Strategize & Organize, a company devoted to training individual’s to be more effective with the tools and resources so they can be productive in their work environment.

If you like this issue, you’ll love Anne’s transforming productivity training and organizing products to help you organize your business — and yourself — ranging from productivity consulting for individuals and executives to small business coaching programs to keynote speaking and corporate training programs to improve efficiencies in the workplace and improve productivity.

While Anne is best known for her expertise in productivity and expert office organizing, her clients share that her biggest impact comes from her philosophy of “personalizing her programs to fit the needs of her clients so they can streamline more efficiently with existing processes” – ensuring to create a sustainable work environment. This, Anne says, is the most important key to bringing an individual to personal freedom with time and organization.

You can learn more about Anne at www.StrategizeAndOrganize.com.

Tidy Tiger Solutions, Michelle Panzlaff, a Professional Organizer and one of our Certified Paper Tiger Experts, has found a way to combine the functionality of the powerful indexing systems in Paper Tiger Filing System Software for Document Management with the concepts provided by Productivity Guru, David Allen, in his world famous GTD (Getting Things Done) Systems.

Michelle says, “I figured out how you could use Paper Tiger as a Task List and Project Manager ‘GTD Style’. I created a database called GTD System, Created Locations based on the context of where I would perform tasks, and used the Categories to define the Priority Level. The thing I liked best is the ‘Report’ Printing of all the To-Do’s. I suppose that offices using Paper Tiger can use the system to also assign duties and tasks to team members if they wanted to. Gee I wonder what else I can use Paper Tiger for?”

Using Paper Tiger and GTD (Getting Things Done) Systems Together

If you’re a fan of these two powerful organizing tools and systems, you’ll be fascinated by this option. This kind of organizing of tasks can also be formatted to help your staff and team to manage tasks, especially if you are already using Paper Tiger to organize your information and paperwork.

Whatever task or list management system you may be using, this video may help you find new and effective ways to organize your lists. Watch now as Michelle demonstrates how.

Overwhelmed by clutter?

Have you lost the ability to be creative, tired of losing important records, and is a growing list of demands getting the better of you, or those around you? Are you ready for a change and want to break the cycle?

If you are seeking some calm in your life and work, have piles of paper that need to be organized effectively, or even if you have some big projects you want help getting launched, you came to the right place.

Professional Organizers are here to help. You are not alone in your challenge to keep clutter and overwhelm from getting in the way of your higher purpose. You can have an effective work space and home you love.

We know that the world today is changing fast, and things are flying in at high speed. It’s no wonder that many of our clients are getting a little behind. There is no one to blame, as life is dynamic.

We all know that clutter can get in the way of success and happiness, and for those that want help to organize, we can help. We bring the know-how, the tools, the resources and the passion for the work at hand.

You, your staff, even your family can work less, earn more and be more productive. Enjoy a streamlined home and office so you can get back to taking care of what really matters.

Professional Organizer in Canada, Michelle Panzlaff created this video to provide you with more information and to help you achieve your goals.

Learn more about the services provided by Michelle Panzlaff and Tidy Tiger Solutions by visiting www.tidytiger.biz today.

Plus, drop into the home page of Tidy Tiger Solutions for free printable gifts and more for your home, work or personal organizing needs.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tidy Tiger Solutions
Michelle Panzlaff

To Michelle, serving as a Professional Organizer is all about creating more functional and enjoyable spaces, productive workflow and effective filing systems, while helping clients feel inspired and more productive.

As a skilled professional, Michelle now possesses over 23 years of office, service and administrative experience. Michelle relies on her exceptional skill set to solve complex challenges for her residential and business clients alike.

Phone: (778) 866-6942
Email: info@tidytiger.biz

Sherry Borsheim, a Paper Tiger Expert of Simply Productive, has offered some great tips on staying organized while traveling for business so that when you’re back to your office, you won’t have a lot of ‘briefcase drama’ nor will you have a stack of papers to fumble through. You’ll be able to index them into your Paper Tiger database, and file as you’ve already noted.

Conquer Your Paper Chaos When You Travel

Has this ever happened to you? You’ve just returned from a business trip and your briefcase is bulging with receipts, meeting notes, business cards, travel documents and other essential paperwork. You’ll probably spend your first day back in the office just sorting through the chaotic mass of paper before you can even think about getting down to business!

Or, perhaps you travel all over the city attending one meeting after another. By the end of the day, your briefcase is a pile of to-dos with no particular order.  Phone messages are scattered on various pieces of papers and you just know that an important message is hidden somewhere in the mess. Then there are the business cards you collected, some require follow-up, but you’re not sure where you put those important numbers. If only you had kept it in a safe place so you could remember where you put it.

At this point, all those good intentions to take action and follow-up on hot new business leads fizzle into frustration.  But there’s no time to think about how you misplaced those essential items. The minute you’re back in the office you find there is a pile of emails waiting for your response, in addition to a large pile of papers on your desk begging for your attention.  You dive right in to the emails and before you know it the morning is gone and it’s lunchtime.  You work through lunch in order to attack the pile of paper on your desk.  Then you realize you reviewed your messages, so you abandon the paper pile and listen to all your messages.  It’s a never-ending circle of paper, email and voicemail, and you haven’t even cracked open your briefcase.  You just spend the day reacting to emergencies and interruptions with no planned scheduled time to deal with the important issues that you had hoped to get to.

This continues day after day and you’re still dragging all those papers from your business trip in your briefcase and you’ve been adding to it during the week as you attended more meetings.  Now you have no idea what’s what and it all melts together into one big mountain of paper begging for your attention.  How long do you let this go on before you decide to take action?  For some its days and other’s, its weeks or months.  Those hot new leads you made on your business trip aren’t so hot now and the longer you leave it, the more you procrastinate on taking action.  Eventually you take mountain of paper out of your briefcase and drop it on the floor by your desk and say you’ll deal with it later, because you have more important things to take care of in the office.  Guilt sets in and it constantly nags at you to do something but you don’t.  You know you should get your business receipts handled but you’re not sure where they all are and it ends up costing you money when you could have been reimbursed.

Here are some tips on how to put an end to the briefcase drama scenario after business travel:

1. Streamline and organize your briefcase so you know what the next action is on any piece of paper and business card while you’re out of town and when you arrive back at your office. Use plastic folders to batch similar tasks together.  Remember, ease of access and functionality are very important when using any organizing product.

2. Label the file folders inside your briefcase with the next action you want to take – “Call, Data Entry, Discuss, Receipts, Meeting Notes/Agenda, Photocopy, Read, or Write”.  Customize your files based on your specific action steps.

3. How to use your travel briefcase when outside your office.  File meeting agendas under the file tab labeled “Meeting Notes/Agenda so when you get to the meeting it’s all together.  If you collect business cards during your trip there are two things you can do with the business card: (1) enter it immediately into your Contact List, or (2) file it into your mini travel briefcase under “Data Entry”.  When you return to your hotel or your office, any cards that you wanted to get into your Contact List are all grouped together.  You can enter them yourself, scan them using an App or delegate the task to someone else.

4. Define the next action.  No more putting it aside to deal with it later. This is what I call “deferred decisions”.  Instead, ask yourself this very important question: “What is the next action I want to take on this piece of paper?

5. Schedule a specific time in your calendar to handle that next action.  This is the key to getting things done.  A pile or file labeled “To Do” is only an intention to do something, where as a scheduled appointment is a commitment to take action on something.

6. Use clear project folders to keep like papers together.  Use these project folders to keep your agenda and meetings notes together in your mini-travel briefcase or keep them on your iPad using Evernote in a folder called “Agendas”.  You may be attending several meetings and these project folders are sure to keep your papers grouped together.  Do not use paper clips, they tend to attach to other pieces of paper and get caught on other paper clips.

7. 80/20 Rule – 80 percent of what we file we never refer to again. Therefore, ask yourself, “What is the worst possible case scenario if you tossed this piece of paper away?” If you can live with the results of your answer to this question, then toss the piece of paper.

8. What to file for future reference.  If you decided to keep the information on a piece of paper, ask yourself: “If I want to retrieve this information again, what trigger word would you think of?” Write the trigger word on the upper right hand corner of that piece of paper and file it in your briefcase under “File”.

9. Transferring papers when you return.  When you return to your office after the business trip or day of meetings, everything that you’ve gathered during your time away from the office is grouped together by the next action.  Instead of a mountain of paper spilling out of your briefcase, you’ll be ahead of the paper chase game, because you’ve already defined the next action.  All there is for you to do is to schedule time in your calendar to handle the actions in your mini-travel briefcase.  Some of the actions like Data Entry, File, and Expense Reimburse you can delegate to your assistant if you have one.  That feeling of guilt and shame won’t be there because you’ve handled what you said you would do when you returned to your office. For those papers that you need to file, you can enter the ‘trigger’ word that you’ve already written on the file into your Paper Tiger database, add additional keywords if necessary, and drop the document(s) into the corresponding item number hanging file folder.

Business Travel tips:

• Schedule time at the end of each day when you are traveling to file papers into your mini-travel briefcase
• Schedule time in your calendar when you return from your business trip to handle your action items in your mini-travel briefcase
• Use your briefcase as a visual checklist for items you need to bring with you.  For example insert items to read under the “Read” tab. Double check that you have enough business cards and brochures, thank you notes, letterhead, postage and return address labels, if you need them.
• Scan or photocopy your passport and credit cards.  Store document in a safe place.
• Trade shows, Conventions, Meetings – write on the back of the business cards the date, location and next action.  If you have an assistant, delegate the data entry of the business cards and have the next actions scheduled into your calendar or typed into your Task List.

Implementing the business travel briefcase will dramatically decrease your stress level and increase your productivity when you return to your office.  You’ll turn piles of paper into valuable resources instead of deferred decisions and guilt.  Instead of reacting to emergencies, you’ll be proactive on your commitments and follow-up.

Download Your Business Travel Checklist HERE

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Sherry Borsheim is the president of Simply Productive. You can visit Sherry, access her free article archive and grab lots of free stuff at http://www.simplyproductive.com. Sherry lives in Vancouver, BC Canada with her husband (her high-school sweetheart).

Contact Sherry for a JUMP-START on ORGANIZING your office, home and life. She will give you her trade secrets and steps to setting up your organizing systems, including recommending Paper Tiger filing system software for document management, to be organized and manage the paper files that you need to keep in hard copy format and other physical stuff in your life.

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The start of a new year just passed and many people vowed to get organized. Why is organization such a big hurdle for people? Below are what we believe to be the top nine reasons people ask for help. In addition, we’ve given clues as to how Paper Tiger can solve each of these problems.

1. Overwhelmed: Have you ever felt so bogged down by clutter that you felt a spout of claustrophobia coming along? Clutter can most certainly become overwhelming, leading to depression and other gloominess. Paper Tiger is the perfect tool to defeat clutter. Instead of watching the papers and documents pile up, Paper Tiger allows you to file away each document and keep track of the exact location while relieving all stress. You won’t have to worry about finding a file again, because you’ll be able to search by any of the keywords you’ve input to find where you’ve filed the document. And Paper Tiger is not just for paper! You can index anything that you can put a number onto, and be able to get organized and clear the clutter.

2. Unawareness: There are always people that wish to get organized, but get hung up because they don’t know how to do it. While some people are natural organizers, others wouldn’t know where to begin. Paper Tiger’s indexing system is so simple to use, anyone can become organized! Filing paper in its original form, you don’t have to worry about the 1 or 2 words that you’d put on the hanging file folder tab because you can add as many keywords as you can think of into Paper Tiger’s database for the documents in your hanging file folders. You can search for whatever keyword that you’re thinking for the file you need to retrieve, and Paper Tiger will let you know where it is in seconds.

3. Lack of Resources: Some people don’t know that there are professional organizers and tools such as Paper Tiger Filing System Software for Document Management to help them get organized. Some jobs require help from others, and these professionals can advise you in just the right tools you need for the way you work and what you have to get organized. Getting organized is surely no easy deed, but knowing what to do, how to do it (a process), and the right tools to use can be what you’ve needed all along. With Paper Tiger, it’s as easy as setting a location, filing documents in that physical location, indexing or naming the items with keywords, and finally searching for the document in the search box. With the stroke of a few keys, Paper Tiger tells you the exact location of your document.

4. Tackling Organization: Many of us may want to start organizing, but can’t figure out what the next step should be. Maybe trying to start with your entire office isn’t the best move, perhaps try to clean the desk first or the bookshelf. Tasks that are too big take us back to being overwhelmed. Paper Tiger can make breaking larger tasks down much easier. Once you have accomplished smaller missions, tackling larger tasks will be a walk in the park.

5. Lack of Time: Time is always the enemy because it stops for no one. We all have busy lives with working each day, cooking dinner, and taking the kids to soccer practice, but we have to make a little time to prevent the accumulation of clutter. Paper Tiger is the best tool for time management. It takes no more that ten seconds to enter the database, file the document in a location and name it! Later on, when you go to search for that document, it takes even less time to type the keywords and let Paper Tiger reveal the precise location.

6. Motivation: Do you need a coach or guidance to help you get organized? Again, there are professional organizers who have been trained in how to do things more efficiently to help others be more productive; and can help you do this by setting milestones and regular check-ups with you. Paper Tiger can also serve as the motivator. Once you use it once and find that the document you filed six months ago is exactly where you left it, Paper Tiger will become your new best friend.

7. Surrounded by Clutter: It’s an awful thing when you tidy something and someone else comes right behind you and creates a mess, isn’t it? Some people get discouraged from organizing because others around them are jumbled.  The real beauty of Paper Tiger lies in the keywords. You call it “Nissan car note”, he calls it “car bill” but if all these keywords are saved in Paper Tiger, both parties can find documents with ease. Getting others around you organized will be easy because everyone can still find the documents.

8. Health Concerns: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and other disorders can definitely bring organization to a screeching halt. Getting lost in thought and starting tasks but never finishing them can be very frustrating, due to no fault of their own. Attempting to declutter one stack at a time is a great milestone towards getting organized. Paper Tiger allows those unfinished tasks to be filed away for safe keeping until they are ready to be worked on again.

9. Change: We all go through changes. Marriage, new baby, our children will pack up and leave for college or we’ll move. Whatever the case may be, these transitional periods often call for reorganization. Paper Tiger is the perfect tool to help overcome these changes and stay out of the realms of clutter. Use Paper Tiger with storage bins to keep up with items that aren’t needed for immediate use. See just a few things that Paper Tiger can help you organize on our Not Just for Paper webpage at http://thepapertiger.com/tour#4

The struggle to get organized is one that can be conquered with the help of Paper Tiger and/or professional organizers. Virtually any obstacle one encounters when trying to get organized can be solved with Paper Tiger Filing System Software for Document Management. Next time you hit a snag when trying to get organized, think about how Paper Tiger and other organizing resources can help make organization easier.

This article from the blog of Denise Landers, founder and CEO of Key Organization Systems Inc. and a Paper Tiger Expert, is helpful as it relays the benefits of getting organized. It’s not a minute too soon, as many people wish to get organized for the new year. Denise also recommends Paper Tiger Filing System Software and Document Management for more proficient organizing to control stress.

Getting Organized: “What’s in It for Me?”

“Will Work for Food!” You have probably seen signs like this as you drive to and from your office. Reality is that everyone is working for food unless they are independently wealthy. In the hierarchy of needs, food and shelter are among the first elements you require. A benefit of working is that you are able to secure these comforts. You can then reach higher and attain other benefits.

The start of the new year is a good time to consider the benefits of getting organized:

• What things do you wish had been different last year?
• Where would more organization have helped you?

Take this time to reflect on how becoming more organized will benefit you. Being organized means being ready. Being ready means:

• In control on a daily basis
• Set to embrace new opportunities
• Better prepared to cope with disasters

If you’re running as hard as you can right now, how will you add in the extra work that a new situation or opportunity would create: promotion, relocation, new baby, remarriage and merging of households, downsizing? Even though these things may be positive changes in your life, they still rank high on the stress index.

Stress can lower your immune system and be responsible for many of the physical ailments you deal with, from common colds to heart conditions. With daily schedules overflowing, when one of the above situations occurs, you often struggle to cope. Not only do you feel stress, but those around you are also affected by the pressure on you.

If you start from an organized position, that stress is controlled. When you are starting from a disorganized place, you multiply the amount of related stress.

You are also better able to cope with disasters. No one likes to ponder all the negative occurrences that may arise. However you cannot read the papers without being beset by news of natural disasters affecting millions of people every year: earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, and tornadoes. At some point, no one is immune. Advance preparation can help to mitigate resultant trauma and frustration.

There is no negative to getting organized.

Many people claim they are creative and therefore organizing would restrict their creativity. Yet look at a painter’s tools and see how well organized those are, or study a fisherman’s tackle box. There is no job that does not benefit from being organized.

Reflect on the areas in your workday and in your life where becoming more organized would benefit you. Ask yourself, “What’s in it for me?”

Apply this question to each of your daily tasks. Some of your chores may not be specifically for you. You might be running errands for your spouse or participating in an activity with your children. However if the end result ties in with your long-term goals for family life or community involvement, then that is a benefit for you.

If you instead find that you have overextended yourself through volunteering or “being volunteered” and there is no direct benefit for you, it is a good time to reconsider your commitments. With so many worthy causes, you must be selective. Cull your To-Do list. Be sure your “yes’s” and “no’s” are aligned with your long-term goals.

Denise Landers
Key Organization Systems Inc.
Author of Destination Organization

productivity@keyorganization.com

Have you ever tried to “get organized” only to be frustrated after a day, or a week, or a month?  Destination: Organization recognizes that reaching your organizing goals is a journey, not a one-time event, as you develop processes to cope with daily demands that constantly change. For help, call Denise at (281) 397-0015

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Each year we hear the same new year’s resolutions over and over again, “I’m going to exercise more this year” or “I’ll be nicer to my family this year” but sadly most of us drop these resolutions within the first ninety days of the year. One of the most popular resolutions that people make is to get organized. The National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO) caught wind of this and named January “Get Organized Month” or “GO Month”. They started this initiative in 2003 to help people with organization and productivity. According to NAPO, the bulk of their clients request help with organizing their home offices. It’s safe to assume that clients are referring to paper clutter in the office. Paper Tiger Filing System Software is the perfect tool to get 2013 started off on the right foot if you were planning to be more organized this year.

Here are three reasons Paper Tiger can help you keep your new year’s resolution to get organized this year:

-       Efficient: Paper Tiger can help one file and organize all paper and digital files. Once you really catch on to the concept of indexing paper files and setting up locations in your database, you won’t know how you were able to organize without Paper Tiger. And since Paper Tiger isn’t just for paper, imagine all the other rooms of the house that you can organize. Paper Tiger’s basic concepts will help you master the software in a matter of minutes; bringing your organization troubles to an end, making it easy to keep your resolution for the entire year.

-       Versatile: Paper Tiger not only helps you to organize and actually find paper files, but with Digital Tiger, powered by Google Docs, you can also find digital files! Using Google Docs as your digital file storage location, you can access scanned documents such as PDFs and also other types of documents. Google Docs gives users five gigabytes of storage free to store your digital files that you want in the cloud. Using Google Docs allows users to easily share digital files and even access them from mobile devices. Digital Tiger is a free add-on with a paid Paper Tiger Online Basic or Pro account for now, and is the function that connects your Paper Tiger Online account to your Google Docs/Google Drive account, then you will be able to search from Paper Tiger to find your paper/physical items that you’ve indexed into Paper Tiger’s database and your digital files that you’ve created, scanned or uploaded to Google Docs format through a Gmail or Google account.

-       Practical: Paper Tiger may be one of the best investments ever as far as time is concerned. How much time do you think you waste on average looking for something? Each year people waste hours and entire days looking for something. Experts estimate that people waste 150 hours per year searching for lost items. Calculate your cost of disorganized here. A small investment in Paper Tiger will save not only time but also money. How many times have you paid a bill late because you lost it? Every time a document is filed and indexed  into Paper Tiger, you can feel sure that you will be able to find it again quickly and easily.  The days of trying to figure out where a document was left are over! With Paper Tiger’s search engine like feature, a few keywords will help you find exactly the document needed.

If organization was at the top of your New Year’s Resolution list, look no further; Paper Tiger is here to help. Its resourceful system will be so easy to use, it will be hard to stop organizing! The ability to organize both digital and paper files will not only clear up clutter on the desk but also inside the computer.

During this “Get Organized Month,” take advantage of the expertise of one of the productivity consultants that are Paper Tiger experts who can help you work more efficiently in every area of your life. They will work with you either virtually or in-person, whichever you need, and will help you to get organized and create a customized system for the way you work.

Finally, all the time and money wasted from disorganization will be returned on your simple investment in Paper Tiger, and you’ll be able to keep at least one new year’s resolution.

Whether you’re just starting a new business or you’ve been in business for years, you will always office organization. Often times, new gadgets come on the market that business owners get talked into purchasing, and these gadgets aren’t really useful in the long run, so money has been wasted. Then, there are other ideas that are helping business owners save heaps of money. One of these ideas is Paper Tiger Filing System Software for office organization, which is being used in companies of all sizes, ages and types. Employees won’t be wasting time searching for paper files when they could be doing things that are much more productive, thus saving companies money while increasing productivity.

Office Organization for Your Paper Files

Paper Tiger allows companies to maintain their paper files that they need to keep in hard copy format. Keep your paper in its original form (you do not have to scan it), but simply index your paper files into Paper Tiger’s database and use the power of the computer to quickly and easily find the information when you need it. Paper Tiger can index anything; it’s not just document management! Some things just can’t be scanned, i.e., passports, contracts, binders, books, CDs, DVDs, etc. That cannot be done with systems that require scanning into an electronic file. The beauty of Paper Tiger is that keywords allow everyone to find the document that might have been named many ways by many employees.

Time Management Is Important

No matter how large or small a company, time management is a must. After all, when people are wasting time, they aren’t being productive, and the company is not making any money. Searching for files is a huge waste of time, especially when there is Paper Tiger to make the job faster and easier. The less time one has to spend searching for files, the more time can be spent doing things that are actually fruitful. The better you and your employees are at managing time, the more efficient your company. When documents are saved, various keywords are used, granting anyone who has permission easy access just by using certain keywords.

If you want to keep up with the times and make sure that your company is using the most modern paper management techniques, then you need Paper Tiger Filing System Software for office organization. Of all of the office supplies you pay for, this software is one of the most important. In addition, Paper Tiger will virtually return the investment when the time wasted is put towards working! Allow Paper Tiger to help with your office organization to cut back on time and keep your profits up where they should be.

This article by Michelle Panzlaff, and one of our Certified Paper Tiger Experts, challenges you to review your current system of organizing and offers some simple tips to evolve that system. Of course, Michelle also recommends using Paper Tiger Filing System Software for Document Management as a part of your organizing system to make your life easier.

Making Your Organizing System Work

What makes an organizing system work?

To keep a system working well for you there is one key ingredient: ‘You’!

Keeping up your system just requires a few practical and simple ongoing behaviors.  You must be consistent in your application and use, your information and projects need to be current and up to date, and you need to keep tasks in view by the appropriate context of when and where they need to be done.

Review these tips and your current ‘task and time management system’ to see if there is anything falling through the cracks that may call for an adjustment or two.

Be Consistent

Keep your task reminders in one consistent place.

It might be on pieces of paper, sticky notes stuck to your screen, or in your PDA. It doesn’t matter where, it’s more important that it’s easy to use and you have access to it whenever you need it.

You may keep certain types of reminders on paper and certain others on your computer for example, and that’s ok, yet be as consistent as possible in defining those parameters and stay in the lines of what you have decided.

It’s far too confusing to have reminders about the same kinds of to-do’s in many different places. It makes processing of task items difficult as it hinders making fast choices and quickly putting things where they need to be before you are scheduled to act on them.

Stay Current

Consistency is not enough to keep a system running well. It also needs to be up to date.

Otherwise you won’t be able to trust that you have the most important stuff in front of you, and you may get caught up having to resort and re-evaluate everything you are managing.

This will put stress on your psyche as you look at your list and some part of you knows it’s not all there. You’ll end up not trusting your system, trying to keep stuff in your head again, and eventually lose the motivation to maintain your system all together.

Keep the ‘Where & When’ in Context

Organize your action list by where the reminder needs to be seen in order to work on it, rather than by project.

Your projects should be kept together by topic, yet the reminders of the very next actions you need to perform need to be seen when and where those actions need to take place.

Keep your task reminders in such a way that you are likely to see them when you need to.

Original article posted at ‘Making Your Organizing System Work’

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Tidy Tiger Solutions
Michelle Panzlaff

To Michelle, serving as a Professional Organizer is all about creating more functional and enjoyable spaces, productive workflow and effective filing systems, while helping clients feel inspired and more productive.

As a skilled professional, Michelle now possesses over 23 years of office, service and administrative experience. Michelle relies on her exceptional skill set to solve complex challenges for her residential and business clients alike.

Phone: (778) 866-6942
Email: info@tidytiger.biz

This article from the blog of Denise Landers, founder and CEO of Key Organization Systems Inc. and a Paper Tiger Expert, is helpful as it relays a few tips to us on storing electronic files. With an effective filing system in place, finding electronic files are an easy task. Denise also suggests Paper Tiger Filing System Software and Document Management for your paper files and proficient organizing.

Managing Electronic Files

Just because paper is becoming less of an issue for filing does not mean that a good filing system is unnecessary.  You may now store electronic files instead of paper files, and these also need to be organized for quick searches.  A few simple tips can be really useful in managing your electronic or digital files efficiently. We’ve also provided additional helpful hints within Denise’s article as it relates to how Paper Tiger and/or Google Drive might assist you in managing your electronic digital files.

• Save all the digital documents in one place

Save and place your digital documents in one place, preferably in the My Documents/Documents folder. All of your text files, spreadsheets and presentations should go in one main folder. Note: if you use Gmail, you can now download Google Drive as a folder to your harddrive that will synchronize everything between this folder on your harddrive and your Google Drive location in the cloud from your Gmail account.

• Make subfolders

My Documents is like a closet where you need to have various drawers and sections to categorize or arrange things.  Creating subfolders will act like drawers of that closet.  Choose meaningful names for these.  As a simple example, if you have a main folder with a name “Reports”, make subfolders with “2010”, “2011”, and “2012” for quicker searching.  These subfolders can also contain more subfolders. Note: You can do the same thing with your Google Drive folder from your Gmail account.

• Be consistent with file names

If you start some with dates, then continue that practice.  If they all relate to a specific project, you might put the project names or initials at the beginning of the name.

• Assign detailed labels

Your file names must be specific and so relevant that you can tell what is in the file without opening it. For instance, if it is an invoice to a company named ABC sent on Oct 2, the file name could be “invoice1012abc”.  Giving generic names like “invoice” will make it extremely difficult for you to track and use it for the next time.   As above, relating to consistency, you might start all invoice files with that word before adding more description. Note: When creating or uploading a scanned or other digital file to Google Drive, you can choose to have it converted to Google Docs format which will OCR up to 10 pages, which will allow you to search for words throughout your digital files.

• Put it in the right place when creating it

It is wiser to make a habit of saving your file in the right place at the time of its creation instead of storing it on your desktop for quick access now.  The desktop ends up becoming cluttered and another task to clear off later.  When you have faith in your filing system, you won’t worry about keeping on the desktop to be sure of finding it.

• Arrange  according to frequency of use

If there are some files which you use often, force them to arrange on the top. You can add an asterisk or other symbol that will keep them above the other files.  When you know longer need this file on a regular basis, take off the symbol so that it drops down to alphabetical order.

• Delete unwanted files regularly

Plan for a time annually where you clean up your files.  Get rid of the ones that are no longer pertinent.

• Create Backups

Periodically it is smart to create backups of all your files. You might consider both local storage devices and an automatic online process.

Keeping your business documents organized is another step to a success. Windows has strong search features to find your files in the system, but if your file name is too generic, even the search feature will not be helpful.

The ideas for this guest post were contributed by Lewis Edward, one of the owners of The Office Providers.

Denise Landers
Key Organization Systems Inc.
Author of Destination Organization

productivity@keyorganization.com

Have you ever tried to “get organized” only to be frustrated after a day, or a week, or a month?  Destination: Organization recognizes that reaching your organizing goals is a journey, not a one-time event, as you develop processes to cope with daily demands that constantly change. For help, call Denise at (281) 397-0015

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During this webinar, Anne discussed the basic concept of Paper Tiger to organize both paper files and other physical items of which you need to keep track so that you can find them when you need them, and the concept of Digital Tiger, powered by Google Docs to organize and find your digital files. She demonstrated how to use Digital Tiger more effectively for digital filing, in addition to the following to show how to use Paper Tiger with Digital Tiger, so you can get organized and be more productive.

• Get started with Paper Tiger Online.
• Created a Database, created a Location, created Items, and print labels for items.
• Demonstrated a work-flow example by filing items from her inbox.
• Discussed the importance of the file Cleanout Report and how to use it.
• Demonstrated searching in Paper Tiger, and how easy it is when you need to find something, whether paper or digital files.
• Demonstrated indexing other physical items, such as jewelry and books.

Find Anything In Your Office In 5 Seconds or Less…Guaranteed! Watch the webinar to learn more.

As information, Anne is a professional speaker, productivity expert, professional organizer and author. If you want to learn more about Anne and her services, please visit her website at www.StrategizeAndOrganize.com.

She may be in Colorado (and sometimes in Arizona!), but she’s nationally recognized as an expert and works with people throughout the US in person and virtually.

You can contact Anne at amcgurty@strategizeandorganize.com or by phone at 303 881-0174.

See more information here on Paper Tiger Filing System Software for Document Management

Filing System Q&A from the Webinar

Q: How do you start when all of your files are in drawers and on your desk? It would be helpful to have ideas for where to start – baby steps.
A: We always recommend starting with the files on your desk to get your desk cleared. If you already have files set up, you might start with the drawers in your desk and index each file. We recommend starting with naming your Paper Tiger locations as Action Files, Reference Files, Archive Files. Then you can add other types of files later, such as Binders, Books, CDs, DVDs, etc. Locations could also be an actual physical location, such as File Room, Library, Garage, Basement, Storage, etc. Please take a look at this blog post that we created to help those needing a little guidance that you might find helpful: Customize Your Filing System with Paper Tiger’s Indexing Method

Q: Is there any way to search all of your databases or can you only search them individually?
A: You can only search within the individual database that you’re in at the time. You cannot search across all of your databases. Having different databases is only advantageous if you want to keep different filing systems separate and do not want to search for all files in all databases at one time. For example, if you have an Office database and a Home database, you do not want items to pop up from your Office database when conducting a search for an item in your Home database.

Q: I have several “side jobs” for non profits etc. Do you recommend setting up locations for each type of side job? For example, I have several clients that I work for from home. Should I set up a location for each client? Perhaps it depends on what the physical location is?
A: It does depend on how you want these filed, but think about if you need to have a location for each client. Do you have several manilla folders for each client or do you simply have 1 hanging file folder per client? If you only have 1 hanging file folder per client, create a location named Clients, then 1 item per client. However, if you have several manilla folders for each client, and you don’t want to itemize each manilla folder into 1 item, then you might consider naming a location per client. In this latter case, you might only have 5-10 items in each location, but it would give you more flexibility in differentiating between clients.

Q: If I use the cloud version, vs the desktop version, I could access from multiple PC’s, is that right? e.g. access from home and work
A: Yes, you would be able to sign in from wherever you are with an Internet connection. Paper Tiger Online works on any computer with an Internet access including Mac.

Q: Where do I find the area to change the setting to include digital search? I checked database preferences, but it doesn’t give me that option.
A: You will first need to connect Paper Tiger to your Google account. From the Dashboard, click on the Accounts tab, then find the option to Connect to Google Docs. Please see this blog post that has step by step instructions that you might find helpful: http://www.thepapertiger.com/blog/started-digital-tiger-paper-digital-filing-solution/

Q: Can I attach a picture to an item, specifically, I want to inventory fabric for a small sewing business, pictures or links to pictures in the notes would be helpful.
A: Paper Tiger is an indexing system, and doesn’t allow you to attach an electronic file, however you would be able to upload the picture to Google Drive and title that digital file with keywords. Then with your Paper Tiger Online account connected to your Google account, you would be able to search from Paper Tiger Online and search results will return for both your physical items that you’ve indexed into Paper Tiger and your digital items that you have in your Google Drive. You can also paste the link into the Notes section if you like, however it will not be hyperlink, but you can copy from there if you wish later.