Productivity Archives

No Filing Cabinet? Enter—> The stylish, functional file cabinet

July 5, 2016 by Heather Filed Under: Organize, Paper management, Productivity, Systems & Techniques, Tips & Resources 3 Comments

There is a trend lately to have no filing cabinet and sometimes even no desk space!

Time after time I go to a client assessment or am talking with someone about paperwork and they say they don’t have a system for storing papers. I get that lifestyles have changed. Most people work on their laptops on the sofa or at a table. Lots of us are trying to go paperless, but realistically we will probably always have certain papers to keep.

Yes, there is such thing as a stylish and funcitonal filing cabinet!

One very common complaint I hear is that “file cabinets are ugly.” “If I could just find one that looks like a piece of furniture”…well folks I’m here to help! Here is a beautiful round up of a variety of stylish and functional file cabinet. Not baskets, boxes, binders or bins…we’ll get to those another day because if there is more than one of you with papers in your household, most likely you need a filing cabinet!

Luckily some great companies are bringing stylish filing systems in as furniture so you don’t have to forgo the style for the function! Some, like the cabinet below by Iannone Design is truly a work of art!

Horchow collection has some beauties. I love these two mirror file boxes. They’re not filing cabinets but would work for a specific category or one person with minimal papers.

Wayfair has a lot of options from this more rustic wood, one drawer cabinet filing cabinet to more utilitarian ones.

The Container Store has clean contemporary cabinets in fun colors!

Ikea has basic affordable two drawer cabinets.

There are tons of great DIY options for painting and making over your cabinet with fun colors, chalk board paint (image below from hometalk.com), decorative papers and more! Loads of popular furniture and home brands have great options as well like the white credenza-style cabinet by Crate and Barrel below.

With all these stylish and functional options there’s no reason to be keeping your paper in piles or bags anymore! I’ve shared lots of great tips for filing systems on the blog, (search filing, or paper organizing). I hope this stylish filing cabinet roundup inspires you to get your paperwork in order. For more inspiration check out my Pinterest Office Board or my Houzz Stylish Filing Cabinets Idea book.

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The Art of List making

May 31, 2016 by Heather Filed Under: Productivity, Systems & Techniques, Tips & Resources Leave a Comment

Here’s a Quick Tip on the “art” of List Making

I find that a lot of people’s idea of list making is to just keep one big ongoing “To Do”. Do you think about every single thing on your list as a “problem”? This seems to be the normal mindset around items that need to be done. Lists are a way to keep track of all the Problems we need to solve, right?

That may be the case but trying to hold onto all that info in your head is just not a reasonable expectation to have. Your brain is not a storage device, or a warehouse to keep things in! Really! One way I help clients with their productivity is to break lists up by category, just like you would do when filing papers.

Sample “List” categories:

Business
Personal
Creative/Hobbies
Wellness/Exercise
Community/Volunteer
Shopping (*see Our Grocery app)
Wellness/Health
Kids/Family
Pets
Financial
Projects (anything your planning that might be bigger-like travel plans, events etc)

Within these categories you could list out the items you want or need to do. List making can be done on paper (post it notes are great because you can move them from place to place), in a notepad, a calendar-using color coding if you like (see photo above) or with a technology list tool like Evernote. However you make your lists, keep track of what you are doing by category and ask yourself if it’s important enough to put onto your calendar? If it’s not worth putting on your calendar is it worth doing?

Wednesday Wellness::How do you spell NO?

April 17, 2013 by Heather Filed Under: Productivity, Systems & Techniques, Wellness & Mindset

Confession time~I’m very guilty of not being good at saying no, just ask ANYONE who knows me (and some that don’t even know me well)…Guilty as charged! How do you spell NO? Especially when Yes can seems so much more fun!

Some people have a hard time saying no because they feel obligated or guilty. It’s helpful to pause when someone asks you to help with something and pay attention to what your gut/intuition is telling you. When I feel my shoulders start to slump or my gut start to rumble I know it’s time to back off. Are others being pushy, do people come to you because they have had past success suckering you into saying yes? If so then you may need to be on guard from the beginning! How do you spell NO?

Honestly though, my problem is that I just want to be involved in sooo many things…especially being new to my city.

Saying NO is a critical part of setting boundaries and creating priorities. Even when you feel like you are pretty good at doing this, you can always get better or take the time to check in with yourself before you say yes. Some people wait a few hours, sleep on it etc. Saying yes may be a set up for an all out attack against your most valued asset, your time!

Ultimately it comes down to making choices that are in alignment with your goals and dreams!

Learn to say NO so you can spend more time on the things you want to say YES to!

Resist temptations-Unsubscribe from emails or just delete them and if you are going through a particularly busy period let your friends and family know you can’t take anything else on right now.
Delegate, assign and let go of control in a kind but firm manner. Be appreciative that someone thinks enough of you to ask for your help but you might not be the right person.
Understand your boundaries-Don’t get caught on the spot and feel you have have an answer right away. It’s okay to say ‘Maybe I need to think about it’-defer decision making until you it feel right about it.
STOP and Focus on the big picture-is what you are about to agree to really in alignment with your big goals and will it make you happy?
Empathize and try to help find the right person or solution for the job when it’s not you (this goes back to delegating and deferring).
Practice, practice, practice saying no.

I believe in the power of SAYING YES, to the opportunities that are out there, to the universe, to new friends, to learning, trying new things, even things that make us uncomfortable and to helping others. This is why I say yes-because I’m a passionate, caring and helpful person-not out of obligation, guilt or shame. We will talk about the power and wellness behind saying yes another time.

GO Monday::You & Your Desk Assignment

January 14, 2013 by Heather Filed Under: Organize, Organizing Projects, Paper management, Productivity, Systems & Techniques, Tips & Resources

Since it’s GO Month, I’m doing my best to bring you GO-Monday organizing tips. Today, here’s your Desk assignment if you choose to tackle it!

Spend the last hour of your day at work keeping your desk organized for a more productive week, month & year!

But Really! If you will just spend 30-60 min’s today and clean up your desk, I PROMISE it will make you feel so much better, more productive, more effective and less stressed when you sit down to do anything.

Here’s a quick breakdown with a few tips to keep in mind as you are tackling this little (or maybe not so little?) task:

If you already have a good filing system in place–sort items & file or toss/shred the rest…IF NOT…
Decide if you are A). a filer or B). a piler (using this quiz). If you are a ‘filer’ proceed to the next step using a vertical file sorter, If you are a ‘piler’ then proceed but modify this system using a horizontal filing “baskets”
Create a “Tickler or Action file system” for the items that need to remain nearby. There are several types like 43 Folders or a more Action based system. Then sort items & file or toss/shred the rest
Clear the supplies off, put them in drawers or bins/boxes/baskets-Labeled as needed. Keep only what you actually use regularly on the desk (like 1 pen or pencil and one notepad and the electronic “paraphernalia”)
Utilize vertical space, hang a cork, whiteboard, calendar, action file sorter (this is not where things should live permanently!) or anything else that you can remove from your desk to better use vertical space.
Remove anything unrelated to work or home office (toys, mail that hasn’t been sorted, tools, knicknacks etc)
Optimize your workspace ergonomics; check the height of your chair, monitor, and desk. Add good lighting and consider using or adjusting arm rests, using a riser for your monitor, a wedge for your wrists etc.
Include something beautiful (not a bunch of things!), one or two beautiful objects like a plant, a crystal, a photo, candle etc that give you a place for you to rest your eyes (when you are taking those recommended 3-min breaks from your monitor).

IF this doesn’t seem like a task you can tackle in 30-60 min’s and you can’t do it all at once then tackle the tasks above that seem easy and check them off the list. When it comes to the BIG piles, can you do a quick sort and keep only the things you really need on/near your desk in a desktop sorter of some type? The rest can go into a box for you to label “SORT” and work on a little at at time (30 min’s a day) for the rest of the week or until it’s done.

Coming to work tomorrow will be that much more joyful with a neat an tidy desk!

Brought to you by National Clean off your desk day! Who thinks of these things? Hallmark? Is there a card for it?

Now, I’m off to take my own medicine! Happy Clean Desk Day!

Finding Electronic Files

November 9, 2012 by Heather Filed Under: Digital Organizing, Organize, Paper management, Productivity, Systems & Techniques, Tips & Resources 1 Comment

In my previous life as a Designer and Project manager, I witnessed a lot of different filing systems both electronic and paper. Some of these were quite effective but many were very cumbersome and way too complicated. Below, my take away is a system that I created based upon the best of everything I learned. I use this system across the board for all my files (on my computer, on paper and in the cloud- design-business-personal).

Having one simplified filing system that applies to all categories makes it simple to locate what you need wherever you need it.

Inside Level 1:: Broad Hierarchy based categories

You can see I have less than 12 folders that are logically divided by category. These live in my main documents folder (which is where everything goes).

Inside Level-2:: Sub Categories-Business folder (similar sub folders for other categories)

…again not many folders and I’m keeping categories broad but specific to help me quickly locate files.

Inside Level 3::Detailed Categories (Year- ‘Clients’ folder)

This is where all client folders are kept by year. I happen to keep my client folders alphabetically by last name but a numbering or other type of system would work equally well.

Inside Level 4:: Sub-folders or loose files

These are the specific files I need to keep for each category, they could be monthly accounting based or whatever I may need for working files.

I use a very similar Hierarchy system for my email files.

In this case I keep emails (when needed) in Outlook folders. Level 1-Broad, Level 2-Sub Categories, Level 3-Detailed categories

I hope this filing system overview gives you a few ideas of how you can simplify or re-arrange your computer filing systems.

What kind of computer filing systems do you? Are they simple or more complex than this? I’d love to hear about them.