Start fresh for 2020

It’s your mid-winter organizing check-in.  How are your intentions going for 2020?  We all start out the year with good intentions and goals to “do better” in the new year.  Eat better.  Exercise more.  Spend more time with friends and family.  Find a balance in our lives.  Be more organized and intentional.  If one of your new year’s intentions is to be more organized, start with your filing and eliminate the “file piles.”    Organizing isn’t boxes and bins and complicated filing systems; it’s finding my stuff when I need it.  That’s it.  So, can you find your files when you need them?  File piles, along with being visual clutter, are also an ineffective way to store and manage our documents.  In order to be effective, a filing system needs to be easy to work with, updates easily and saves me time.

Where the heck is that file?

Effective filing systems don’t need to be complex; actually, the simpler the better.  What works best is simplicity – keeping in the files anything you need to work with throughout the year.  Check out my blogs on Working Files and Forever Documents for an outline on what to keep handy and what to store away.  Ideally, start by choosing a quality storage option.  If you don’t have room for a traditional drawer storage option, choose a sturdy plastic option available at any office supply store or Amazon.  Secondly, invest in new, fresh Pendaflex and manila folders if your existing ones are bent and out of shape.  Take out all of your existing files – yes, all of them!   Review each file and decide if it can be purged or moved over to your new system.   Shred any files and documents that have sensitive information and recycle the rest.  Be sure to create a “2020 Taxes” file so you’re ready to capture and organize any tax-related info throughout the year.

An effective filing system with easy to access documents and a clear order in a sturdy “container” makes you productive and set up for success in 2020.