Organizing Products - Portable File Tote

This week I wanted to feature some organizing products for the office. The items I am showing can be found online – links will be included. But it’s more the ideas that I want to share with you. You can probably find similar products elsewhere or even use the idea to come up with a version of your own.

So let’s get to it.

First on the list is a Portable File Tote.

I’ve seen a number of variations on this one, but what a great idea if you have files that you need to take with you. This keeps them nicely organized and makes you look quite professional. It also makes it very easy to just grab the hanging files from your file cabinet and away you go!

This one is on my wish list!

Top 10 Signs of Being Cluttered

Ever wondered if you have a problem with clutter? Here’s some signs you might want to check out - from “The Get Organized Answer Book” by Jamie Novak.

Top 10 signs of a Cluttered Life

1. unexpected guests send you into scoop & dump mode
2. misplace things daily
3. living out of a laundry basket
4. important papers are scattered throughout your home
5. stuff is stashed in one or several spaces in your home for later
6. late fees
7. spaces can’t be used for their intended purpose
8. areas are too cluttered to even clean properly
9. disorganization causes conflicts in relationships
10. you keep running out of space

While these are talking about clutter in the home, we can probably come up with something similar for our offices and workspaces.

Throwing Out Stuff

Another book I read recently was called “Throw Out Fifty Things – Clear the Clutter, Find Your Life” by Gail Blanke.

Part of getting organized is getting rid of stuff. This is sometimes harder than actually organizing what you have. I liked what Gail called the …

Rules of Disengagement

1. If it - the thing, belief, conviction, memory, job, person – weighs you down, clogs you up, or just plain makes you feel bad about yourself, throw it out, give it away, sell it, let it go, move on.
2. If it (see above!) just sits there, taking up room and contributing nothing positive to your life, throw it out, give it away, sell it, let it go, move on. If you’re not moving for ward, you’re moving backward. Throwing out what’s negative helps you rediscover what’s positive.
3. Don’t make the decision – whether to toss it or keep it – a hard one. If you have to weigh the pros and cons for too long or agonize about the right thing to do, throw it out.
4. Don’t be afraid. This is your life we’re talking about. The only one you’ve got for sure. You don’t have the time, energy or room for physical or psychic waste.

Also thought-provoking was her list of things to let go of:

• feeling inadequate, irrelevant, and just plain not good enough
• the type of person you think you are – or aren’t
• the regrets and mistakes of the past
• being right about how wrong everybody and everyone is
• the need to have Everyone like you
• thinking the worst
• waiting for the right moment
• needing to feel secure
• thinking that you have to do everything yourself

Organizing for Achievement Goals

I’ve been reading a lot of organizing books lately to see what ideas others have come up with. It’s interesting to find some neat tidbit of organizing that I can put to use (and that I suspect some of you may find useful as well).

One book I read recently is called "Confessions of an Organized Homemaker" by Deniece Schofield. While this book deals primarily with home and household stuff, she had some good ideas for any kind of organizing.

She noted that it is important to not just do daily maintenance items – whether that is at home or at work – but to also include what she called achievement goals as well.

Looking at this from a work perspective, these are the important, but often not urgent goals that we should work on because they will give us results in the longer term. They’re also the goals we most frequently set aside because of all the urgent daily stuff that we deal with.

So as you are planning your Daily List, consider these questions from her book:

1. What (achievement) goal can I work on today?
2. What dates, deadlines or appointments to I have to meet or advance today?
3. Is there anything on my running to-do list (master list) that I can or should do today?
4. What needs to be done around the house (office)?

(Note: Parentheses are mine)

Organizing Your Computer and Computer Files

First of all, my apologies for not getting out a newsletter the past two weeks. Due to a power outage, my computer crashed. I’m finally getting things back in order, minus a few programs and such!

So that brings me to today’s post on organizing your computer.

What would you do if your computer crashed?

Here are some tips from my experience.

A previous computer tech had installed a second hard drive in my computer. I had fairly regularly backed up my files to that second drive. It’s a good thing I did, as those files were all okay.

But this did make me aware of how easy it can be to lose your files and information, so now I am also looking at some other options.

One of those is to get an external hard drive as an additional back up system. Easier than trying to burn a whole bunch of DVD’s – although that would be better than nothing.

Another is to use a service called Dropbox. This is an online file storage system that sets up on your computer, but syncs your files to an external storage system. You can sign up and get 2 GB of file space for free (or more if you want to pay a fee) and whatever you place on Dropbox you can also access from any other computer. That way if your computer goes down, you can still access all the files you have on that system. Check it out here at Dropbox.

Something else to consider. When you install programs on your computer, make sure you keep the original discs or files. If you’re downloading software and programs from the internet, when the window comes up that asks if you want to Run or Save this file, first Save it to a Programs folder of your own, then open that file and Run it. That way you have the backup file to reinstall it if needed. I’d been doing that with some of my recent programs, but I lost a fair number of earlier ones. Thankfully most of them aren’t that serious, but still, it is a loss that I could have done without. So from now on I will be making sure I have a copy of any installation files I need.

It is rather nice that most companies nowadays will allow you to get program files as downloads from their websites. Program downloads are available for printers, scanners and so on.

Do make sure that you are using a battery backup for all your computer stuff. My backup battery died and I hadn’t gotten around to getting another one – and when the power went out this time, it crashed my computer. Not sure why this time, because it had done it before and nothing had happened, but this time I got caught. Won’t do that again!

One thing this episode has also done is to give me a chance to do some cleaning out and reorganizing of my own files. I have to admit that with the extra backup space on that second hard drive, I’d been rather slack about filing them properly – I just dumped them there to make sure I had them. So I’ve now cleaned that out and organized it more usefully.

So here’s to being prepared and hoping you never have your computer crash!

Organizing Your Desk

For example, let's say you think your desk needs to get organized. What would you do?

First, create a collection zone to collect stuff - a table, a space on the floor, etc. Set up your 4 Boxes as mentioned in the previous post.

Now clear everything off of your desk (except your computer or any stuff that is wired up or hard to move). If you're going to organize the whole desk, clear out all the drawers too.

As you clear off the desk, place each item you remove from the desk into one of the 4 boxes you set up.

Keep the Trash and Recycle boxes handy as you may want to add to them as you go through the other boxes.

In fact, you may want to use two Recycle boxes - one for paper and stuff to go to recycling and one for things you want to donate or give away.

Now, take a look at your Store Box. What might you find in it?

• outdated files - do you really need them? If not, trash them. If yes, file them in a storage space that you don't need to regularly acess.
• office supplies - extra packages of paper or enevelopes, for example, could be stored in a closet or file cabinet.
• Odds & sorts - consider how necessary these are. Can any be added to your Trash or Recycle boxes? For the things you really do need or want to keep, assign them a Storage "home" and put them there now.

As you go through the Use Box, consider how frequently you use the item. Remember to put the things you use most often closest to you, so that they are easy to access. Things like:

• your computer & keyboard
• phone
• pens
• papers
• current files

We'll take a look at filing in a future post, as it has a number of things to consider on its own.

But this should already give your desk a much cleaner appearance - and should make working there much easier for you.

Starting an Organizing Project

Okay, you've decided which of your organizing projects to start with. Now what?

Step One
Find yourself four boxes or containers to work with. Then label the boxes as follows:

• Trash - to throw away
• Recycle - to give away
• Store - to put away
• Use - anything you currently need or use

Step Two
Next, remove everything from the area that you want to organize. As you do that, make a choice about each item you remove - is it garbage, something to recycle or give away, something that you want to store somewhere or is it something you need access to now and/or frequently? Then place it in the appropriate box.

Step Three
Now deal with each of the boxes.

• Send the Trash Box stuff to the trash.
• For the Recycle Box, decide where or how to recycle this. Do you want to donate it somewhere? Are there certain items that you want to give to someone specific? Label or mark the boxes or items accordingly and leave them by the door to take with you when you leave.
• With the items in the Store Box, first take any items that already have a storage place in your office or home and put them away there. For any reamining items, decide on a place for them. If needed, find appropriate boxes or containers for them and then place them in their storage "home".
• Finally, with the Use Box, place the items in the place you are most likely to use them. Remember that the items you use most frequently should be placed as close as possible to where they can be easily accessed.