Keeping track of paper can be maddening! Even in this day of “paperless” there is no escaping paper coming into your space. But there is a great tool that can help you keep the plethora of papers in your office organized.
And when I say office I don’t just mean that place outside of the house where you work. I also mean the place inside the home where you work to manage your life, pay your bills, be creative, coordinate the kids, or run your own business empire.
In doing this work for over 17 years, I have found that this tool is one every, single successful office should have:
A graduated file sorter.
It’s one of my favorite supplies. To me, it is my right-hand helper in keeping multiple things, thoughts, projects – organized. Here is what mine looks like:
When something comes in that I need to refer to, work on, or that has multiple parts, I contain it in a manila folder, label it specifically and put it in my graduated file sorter. This way what is active or being worked on consistently is in front of me. I keep my graduated sorter in my view because it reminds me of the work I need to do.
And let’s face it, life is busy; and with so much going on {often at once} anything that can help you remember what needs to be done is a must have.
I say it is a tool for success because without it paper piles up and looks all …miscellaneous. With piles of “miscellaneous” paper, it becomes harder and harder to put your hands on what you need, when you need it, causing unnecessary frustration — not to mention leaving your work area looking and feeling chaotic and unappealing.
With a graduated sorter your “like-papers” and projects are contained. Because they are sorted and stored neatly, you can not only find what you need, you work more efficiently because you are more organized.
Use manila folders and your graduated sorter to contain anything:
kids papers
notes for a specific home or office project
recipes
lists of books you want to read
The uses for the graduated sorter are endless.
And the benefits are too.
