How’s your filing system? Are you having trouble finding your documents or remembering where they are supposed to go? After years of filing documents saway, it can be difficult to get ready to completely re-do your filing system, but it’s an important step to take so you can ensure everything is easily accessible.
To create a truly effective filing system, you need to start with a plan. This way you can organize everything effectively and neatly, investing in new steel drawers to store your files in will also ensure that you have the best storage solution for your document type.
Avoid saving unnecessary documents
It can be hard to throw documents away, especially when you aren’t sure when you might need them again. However, it is essential to only keep files relevant to your work activities. Take a few seconds to glance through the content, and keep a file only if it’s relevant. Having too many unnecessary documents adds to clutter and makes it harder to find things in the future.
Store all project documents together
Any documents relating to a particular project should be stored in the same folder. It may be tempting to store relevant document types together instead of putting all spreadsheets in the same folder, but it will be much faster for you to find documents for particular projects in this manner.
Follow a consistent method for naming your files and folders
The best course of action would be to have a main folder for one project that is divided into subfolders for customers, vendors, and co-workers. It can also be helpful to use color coding to make it easier to identify different categories of folders. A good filing method is key to ensuring that your new system stays in place for years to come, as it needs to be easy to follow and understand.
Keep ongoing and completed work separate
Another good way to guarantee organization is to have two separate storage systems for ongoing and completed work. Ongoing work needs to be accessed frequently, where completed work is generally kept only for posterity. So they need to be stored in different ways. At periodic intervals (for example, weekly or every two weeks), move files you’re no longer working on to the folders where your completed work is stored.
Organize documents by date
Make sure that the date of a document is clear and easy to see even when the document is still in the filing cabinet. That will help you to organize your documents chronologically, without having to open each one. And you’ll then be able to find them more easily in the future.
Reduce Clutter And Storage Costs
One of the main reasons to work on importing your file management is to make sure you are clearing out or archiving any older documents that no longer need to be accessed often. Without a proper file management system to dispose of records when they no longer need to be held, it can create a pile-up of unnecessary files. This can lead to the need for additional storage space and storage costs that can be avoided. You could also invest in steel lockers to store any documents that need to be moved into an archive. A set of matching lockers is a good way to ensure you are making the best use of your storage space.
Make digital copies of paper documents
In the modern era, a great way to reduce your paper documents is to work on moving them to a digital archive. This also means the documents will be safer and easier to access. This is useful if you don’t have much space to store paper documents or if you want to clear out documents without destroying them completely.
Invest in high quality filing cabinets
A key way to improve your storage system is to ensure that you are keeping everything in filing cabinets with enough space for your documents. It’s also essential for saving floorspace in your office, as you can be sure to purchase steel drawers and cabinets that fit perfectly into whatever space you have available for storage. Whether upright cabinets or smaller drawers are going to be more beneficial is entirely up to the space you have available, so check the options and choose the best storage solution for you.
Conclusion
For any system to be useful and effective, it must also be convenient for you. There is no one way to organize your documents, so make sure to take into account the nature of your business and the work that you do.
Overall, taking the time to re-organize your documents, you will save yourself and your team more time in the future as documents will be easier to find, and returning them to their correct place will also be easier than ever. So look into updating your storage solution today.