Time Management - Marc Mancini
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154<br />
<strong>Time</strong> <strong>Management</strong><br />
Filing Tips<br />
Here are some ideas, options, and principles you may want<br />
to follow as you organize or reorganize your files. As you<br />
read, check the ones that work, or would work, best for you.<br />
❏ Caption files with brief, simple phrasing.<br />
❏ Begin each label phrase with a noun, followed by its description. It<br />
is similar to the library classification system: “correspondence—<br />
interoffice” is easier to find than “interoffice correspondence.”<br />
❏ If you are particularly aware of color, color coding or using little<br />
color dots on file tabs is a fine way to signal major filing categories.<br />
❏ Transparent plastic folders or envelopes (which also come in colors)<br />
are useful as subdivisions within a folder since their contents<br />
are immediately identifiable.<br />
❏ Never over-subdivide a single file slot.When there are several<br />
items or thicker documents (e.g., a book, printout, or report), use<br />
an accordion, flat-bottomed folder. If too many items begin to<br />
appear in a single file, it may be time to subdivide them into their<br />
own file categories or establish a new filing system.<br />
❏ If a number of documents go in one folder (e.g., letters received at<br />
different times), slip the most recent one in front of the others.<br />
They will then be in reverse chronological order.<br />
❏ If you take a critical document out for an extended period of time,<br />
leave a slip of paper or Post-it® to remind you that it is gone and<br />
where it went.<br />
❏ Paper-clipped documents get confused in a file.The clips fall off or<br />
attach to something else. Staple such items together. If stapling<br />
would mutilate them, use a clear plastic folder or spring clamp to<br />
keep them together.<br />
❏ Hanging folders are superior tools.The alternative causes overlycompact<br />
bunching, slipping into the bottom of the file cabinet, and<br />
so on. Most people do not actually use the hanging folder for<br />
direct storage but as a pocket for regular folders.<br />
❏ Legal-size files are superior to letter-sized ones for this reason:<br />
something longer than 11 inches will not fit in a letter-sized file;<br />
almost any size will fit in an 8½ by 14-inch legal folder. So consider<br />
whether you will need these larger files.