Posts Tagged ‘maintenance’
Maintaining Your Alphabetical Filing System
Posted by admin | Filed under Alphabetical Filing Tips
Once you have your alphabetical filing system set up, they key is to maintain it. Here are some tips to keep your system in tip top shape and the good thing is that you never have to worry about your base (ABC) system changing.
Maintaining Your Alphabetical Paper Filing System
- As soon as you realize you have a new project, client or research subject, put the paper in a manila folder and label it. If you don’t get around to making the label for the hanging file folder, you’ll still have an organized system.
- Don’t use your physical folders as reminders of what projects you are working on or have pending. Make a list and keep it on your desk. A list causes a lot less anxiety than a pile of folders…believe me.
- At the end of each day, put all of your folders back in their home (the hanging file folder).
- Once a week, take a moment to create any hanging file folders that you need and place your manila folders in their new home.
Maintaining Your Electronic Alphabetical Filing System
- Avoid the urge to save files on your desktop and get into the habit of saving the files in the correct folder. This may take a few months because you’ve probably been in the habit of saving everything to the desktop so you can find it quickly. Unfortunately, I guarantee that this strategy backfired.
- If you do slip and save a few files on your desktop, make a folder on your desktop named “File” and move everything in there. That way you can open your “My Documents” folder and the “File” folder and move things quickly to their proper home.
- Create new folders as you need to. You can do this as you save a file so you don’t have to take an extra time.
Following these tips should help quite a bit in maintaining your alphabetical filing system for your paper and your electronic files.
