Defining Time & Space News

Along with the long list of stuff to take and have in an emergency are the important records.  This fall into two categories:  the important paper records and our electronic records.

For paper records, certificates of birth, marriage, death, baptism, etc. and house deeds, stock certificates, etc., we should consider a safety deposit box at the bank or a steel fire proof safe at home.  Business vital records should also be handles in a similar manner.

For electronic records it is important that we back this information up in case of accidental lost of system records, theft of computer equipment or software corruption.  Many business records are only kept electronic and would be devastating to any company (large or small) if these records were to be unrecoverable.  Also consider photographs in these important records.  Since most people use digital camera’s now, these pictures/files need to be stored and backed up.

There are many electronic back-up systems available.  The decision falls in the volume and importance of the information.  There is anywhere from a simple flash/thumb drive (very portable but also easy to lose), an external hard drive (such as those made by Maxtor) or using an external server (either that you own on or offsite or that another company provides as a back-up service off site such as Carbonite).   The benefits to an offsite system are that records are protected from fire or theft.  Just be sure to understand how the back-up company backs up their records! 

Take care of those records,

Rosanne

770.995.8556

www.dtsorganizing.com

Tags: Filing, Home, Office, Planning by organizing atlanta
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Have you ever spent a lot more time than you wanted trying to find a file or email message on your computer?  One solution is to use Google Desktop.  Google Desktop allows anyone to create a search engine, like the search engines we use on line, for our very own desk top of data.

After downloading the “free” software from Google, we can search our computer files for an email, filed document, web history and other areas by just typing in the key word we are looking for and pressing the “search button”.  All the places the key word is stored will appear and we can then search a much smaller data base of information.  Questions, contact me.

Happy Searching

Rosanne

770.995.8556

www.dtsorganizing.com

Tags: Filing, Office, Time management by organizing atlanta
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Bills and receipts are with us and here to stay.  They come at us in both electronic and paper form and can pile up quickly.  The trick is to have a system and make a habit of using it. 

First thing is if we use an on-line bill pay system and purchase things on line, try to keep as much as you can in an electronic form.

Create electronic files that mirror the paper files so that they can be easily found and make sure they are backed-up.  

Have a system for purging.  The amount of time is not as important as having a plan and using it.  Decide on keeping the last month, last 6 months, last year or whatever you are required for tax or legal reasons.

Besides those receipts that are necessary for tax records, we sometimes keep receipts for warranty or other record of purchase.  For these create a “Receipts to Keep” file.

Happy filing,

Rosanne

770.995.8556

www.dtsorganizing.com

Tags: E-mail, Filing, Home, Office by organizing atlanta
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Personal Medical Records can be difficult to keep up with, especially if we are keeping up with multiple people in a family.  It can also be challenging when it is time to sign up for the “expected” amount we need to commit to for in our company flexible spending accounts.

One way to help with this is to use a summary sheet for each member who has medical care.  There is a form that can be printed on my website at http://www.dtsorganizing.com/resources.php called Medical Inventory.  Print and fill out a form (name and date) at the beginning of the year, for each person, and place it in a medical folder labeled with the year.  Then as medical care is received throughout the year, attach the receipt, tests, or other documentation to the appropriate summary sheet.  The summary sheet allows us to easily track the date of the medical visit, treatment, or prescription, the amount spent, the reason for the visit/event and what person/company is being paid.  At the end of the year, we have a list by person that can be tallied to predict medical expenses for the next Flexible Spending Account year and/or for our own medical expense budgeting.

Rosanne

770.995.8556

www.dtsorganizing.com

Tags: Filing, Medical by organizing atlanta
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We often attain newspaper or magazine articles of interest or collect materials for business topics to use for a future article to write, topic to research further, room to decorate, or other project to do. 

Collecting these materials is only one step of the process because we also need to be able to find them when it is time to actually use them for what they were kept for.   One way to allow us to easily find information on these topics is to file them by their subject name in alphabetical order.  As we collect them or as we find them if we already have a collection somewhere, we need to identify the best topic name for the file and start labeling. 

As always, try to start with as broad a category as possible and then subdivide as needed.  When I am collecting materials on organizing, I keep them by topics such as office, recycling/green, filing, feng shui, record retention, etc.  As I read information or find articles, I add them to the topic file I have or create a new one if one doesn’t exist or if I need to subdivide a file because there is too much within a category area.

This filing process can be duplicated and paralleled in an electronic filing system. Often times we have articles and materials that we receive or retrieve electronically.  These can be filed the same way but in electronic folders so that they do not have to be printed just to file them.  If necessary notes for either electronic files or paper files can be added to the other to reference what is in the other areas.

Happy Filing

Rosanne

770.995.8556

www.dtsorganizing.com

Tags: Filing by organizing atlanta
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Another set of documents that find their way into our homes and offices are manuals and sometimes associated warranty information.  These can be from a simple sheet of paper to a large manual with spare parts.  Here are a few tips that can help with these type documents.

1. Documentation for each product should be fastened together or contained in some type of envelope.  Based upon how bulky these documents are, they can be kept in either a hanging folder in a file drawer or in envelopes in drawers.  
2. Decide the best way to subdivide the types of information; for example, we can label hanging file folders or drawers and subdivide them between products used outside versus inside,  products that are large from small, or have categories like electronics or computer related.  How we divide it has much to do with how much material we have in each category.  The goal is to have it subdivided enough to find it easily.
3. It is important that we purge the information from our files when we sell, donate, or discard the product.
4. Fill out warranty cards if we plan to submit them and keep a copy of the receipt in the file with the product information.  Remember some warranty requests/cards are only requests for marketing information.  Also remember that many receipts today fade easily and will not be legible when we need them for a warranty claim or for insurance purposes.  Copying the receipt or creating an electronic copy can be helpful.
5. Many times spare parts and software CD/DVDs are part of the “stuff” we choose to store with the manuals.  Be sure they are clearly labeled as to what they support so that if they become separated we know where they belong.

Happy Filing

Rosanne

770.995.8556

www.dtsorganizing.com

Tags: Filing by organizing atlanta
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Periodicals are those items that come into our office or home repeatedly such as product supply catalogs and magazines on topics in the areas we work or enjoy reading in.  We have to have control of these or they can become an endless “flow in” without much of a “flow out”.  Like a sink, if water flows in and cannot flow our very well, we will end up with an overflow situation that is often not pleasant.  The way to control that is to have a system that works for the outgoing process.   Here are steps we can take to have the necessary controls in place:

1. Start by determining which of the incoming documents are necessary.  Can we find the information on line and record the link on our computer or keep just the front cover in a file? 
2. If we need to keep the document, is the latest version sufficient?  If so always purge the old immediately as the new one is filed. 
3. If we need more than the latest periodical received, we need to set the quantity necessary so that we still have an acceptable purging mechanism, i.e. the last 6 months, one year, ones that include a certain topic, etc.
4. Finally determine if we need the entire periodical.  Are we keeping it because of one or two articles of interest that can be removed and filed as appropriately?  This not only helps keep the filing under control but also allows us to find that information much easier when we need it. Remember in this case to record the title and date of the periodical with the information that is removed and filed.

Happy Filing

Rosanne

770.995.8556

www.dtsorganizing.com

Tags: Filing, Office by organizing atlanta
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To end the month of talking about files, I thought it might be helpful to discuss the topic of purging files.  It is estimated that 80% of what we file we never reference again.  That says a lot about the amount of info we probably really need.

Part of setting up a file system is thinking about how we will purge documents we no longer need.  There are several ways that this can be done and it is up to us to determine what best fits our working style and our type of business or materials we are filing.

1.  Filing Periodical type information (where keeping the latest copy is sufficient) – Set up a file for these newsletters, magazines, reports, bills etc. and each time a new one is received the old one is immediately removed and discarded.

2.  Information with a particular retention period – An example of this would be bank statements.  If our accounting advisor recommends that bank statements be kept for 7 years then in each new year we would discard the year that precedes 7 years.  The trick here is to have the files set up such that the years are clearly labeled and visible to readily identify which to discard.

3.  Purge on a calendar basis.  Choose monthly, quarterly or annually to set up a purging day or week to remove files that are not longer needed by reviewing the files for information no longer necessary.

4.  If all other systems fail, purge documents when the file is full.  Before adding additional file drawer space to a full file, review the documents to remove what is no longer necessary to make more room for new files. 

Happy purging,

Rosanne

770.995.8556

www.dtsorganizing.com

Tags: Filing, Office by organizing atlanta
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Most of us have as many and more likely more e-files than paper files.  Since e-files do not visibly take up much space, they can slowly grow to a huge amount of documents that are “lost in space”.

How should e-documents be filed?  Well, the simple answer is about the same way a paper document “should be” filed.  Files should be labeled so that anyone using the filing system can find the documents they are looking for.   The same rules apply for e-files.  Put as many documents under a file label as you can until you find that the documents are not being found easily.  At that point, create new file subjects or sub folders to make it easier.

There is also another school of thought on e-files, less conventional but also an option and that is to use few file labels and then use a search engine type system to find them.   It is up to the user to decide which system is better but my suggestion is to start with a traditional filing system unless there is already a large amount of data that is not in any particular order.  In that case it might be beneficial to use a search engine for those documents.  One system that is free and works well for e-files is Google desktop.   It can supplement either filing system, as a search engine can always be useful.  To check it out go to http://desktop.google.com/.

Happy filing,

Rosanne

770.995.8556

www.dtsorganizing.com

Tags: Filing by organizing atlanta
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In continuing this month with tips on files, I thought I would offer a few tips on how to best set up files.   If you have any specific questions, please feel free to contact me.

1.       Locate the files that are used most often closest to your desk or other prime work area.  Remember the working area around our desk is the most valuable real estate to us.

2.       Use hanging files for the main file subjects and use file folders for the sub folders within them. 

3.       Files should be as broad in subject as allows us to still find what we need.  If finding materials in a file becomes difficult; the action should be to subdivide the subject area either with file folders or into additional hanging folder subjects. 

4.       While tabs can be placed anywhere on the hanging folders; using one line of tabs on the left or right side can simplify the filing system.

5.       Files are usually best to be alphabetized by subject area but can also be numbered.  Either can be listed in an index in the front section of the file drawer to help locate files quicker.

Rosanne

770.995.8556

www.dtsorganizing.com

Tags: Filing by organizing atlanta
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