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