Best Ways to Organise Your Paper Files – Advanced Skills for PA’s and Executive Assistants in Auckland

An executive assistant with multiple responsibilities cannot afford to loose time due to mismanagement.

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Save time and effort by organising your files

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Organising of things and management of time are the two factors that impact productivity. Habits such as putting things away carelessly, procrastinating, not having a workable filing system, and noting down things anywhere add up to chaos and confusion. We all have habits that make us loose time and even loose or misplace things. Breaking these bad habits and pushing ourselves to follow a system of organising is vital to enjoy a wonderfully organised and efficient workspace.

Methods of Organising Files

The first step to organising is to create a system that suits you. If you want to have a good filing system for your papers, you need to determine the type of filing system that will work for you. You can try these organising systems for your physical files:

1. Create Categories

If you will not have many varied documents within each category, then you need not have subcategories. You can keep all the papers within one category. It works best if the category is not too broad. Otherwise, it may be difficult to find the files that you want within a category. If a category becomes unmanageable, then you can create subcategories within it to make it organised.

Alphabetically arranging files is a good way to quickly get to the file that you want to retrieve.

2. Create Subcategories

If you will have many kinds of documents and they can be sorted into various broad categories, then you may create major categories and have subcategories within them. If a subcategory begins to have too many different documents and you feel difficult in getting the files that you want, then you may convert the subcategory into a broad category and create subcategories within it.

3. Colour Code

You can colour code some of the main files that you use frequently. Colour-coding works best if you can immediately recall which colour represents what. That is why it is most effective when used for files that you frequently use.

4. Label

You can use labelling to find the files that you want to without opening them. Labelling helps you to quickly glance through files and pick the one you want. When labelling, make sure that you consider how you will place the files. For example, if they will be stacked vertically, you need to label them in such a way that you can see the label without moving them.

Creating an organised system for your papers may seem to be a tedious task, but once you do it, you will enjoy how easily and quickly you can retrieve any paper. You will like it even more when you can get the documents you require instantly when you need them immediately. A well-organised file system also impacts your professional image, as your colleagues and boss see you as a disciplined, organised and efficient person.

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