Continued from page 1
First, scan
table of contents for relevant articles and ask these questions: Is this out of date? (If older than 3 months it has to be a classic to be timely) Is this significant in my current work/life? Do I have time to read it? Or, Do I have more important stuff to read that I can't get to?
Once you triage your incoming newsletters, and magazines to decide which are keepers; cut out and staple only those articles, and discard rest. This will shrink your reading pile from three feet to three inches!
Keep trimmed articles in a file you can take with you to read in bits of in-between time. If you decide to keep for further reference, sort them into your magazine files.
TO FILE: Your first choice is to separate out your personal from your business filing. Then, it's 1 - 2 - 3—SORT in filing as well. 1) File in this year's current filing system 2) File into archive file boxes (financial/legal audit trail) 3) Scan into electronic document storage (put it all on CD!)
Current business filing domains: People: clients, staff, teams, vendors Things: projects, programs, products, property Administration: business of doing business.
Current personal filing domains: Personal/Family Household Finances/Insurance
Place only current years records into your office filing system. Archive filing can be boxed and kept out of your office in a secure dry storage place—you just need to maintain it.
Now, you can manage your information more successfully at work and at home. Just do it, 1 - 2 - 3—SORT!
More time-saving tips are available at http://www.organize.com
For over 15 years, Eve Abbott has been writing, speaking and consulting with executives, managers and business owners on boosting their day-to-day effectiveness with organizing tools and techniques to melt the paper blizzard and tackle e-mail overload. Her wisdom has reached the pages of the New York Times, Working Woman and Home Office Computing magazine.
