ORGANIZING: A SPEAKERS OFFICE 101

by Kim Wolinski, "Dr. DeClutter"

• Is your office organized?

• Is it streamlined?

• Does it "flow" naturally for you?

Organizing is directly related to efficiency, effectiveness, self-image, self-esteem, and productivity.

There are several aspects to an organized office:

• Design and Set up

• Systems

• Paper flow

• Filing

• Storage

If you're on top of these five areas, levels and layers of being organized, you will create much more success, calm, peace and overall happiness in your business no matter what else is going on.

1. Design and Set up

This includes your furniture and how you'd set up your office. Some might call it Feng Shui, but I come from a small farming community in the Midwest, I call it "Functional-Way!" Having a functional office means incorporating the furniture and accessories that absolutely work for you, not against you, and match your style and personality while being placed in ways that afford the best "energy" for you.

Does the furniture and its placement keep you moving in and out and around easily? If not, you'll keep stumbling, bottle-necking and stalling out on projects and decisions negatively affecting your mental flow and success.

2. Systems

Systems include bookcases, folders, files, file cabinets, drawers, pencil holders, techno- gadget holders and more. All those products into which you put your "stuff" to be stored, utilized easily, found quickly and put back simply.

Test Question: If you have horizontal piles, you either don't have the systems to put your paper and stuff into vertically or in an organized and labeled fashion to find when you need it, or you are not taking care of your paper and piles daily so that they don't stack up.

Your computer is also a system. It's the place where you file and create in e-form all your documents, articles, marketing tools, sales letters, etc. Use your computer to the highest capacity you can to use it best. If you're stumbling around with your computer, take a class on or offline to learn more of what you need to know.

If you don't have the systems, identify what you don't have, what you need and get it.

3. Paper flow

If paper, mail, contracts, client files and more are not streamlining into files, folders, the computer data base, or systems daily, you either do not have the systems in place to route paper, or you are no taking the time to do it – on a daily basis.

Paper is the worst! I have worked with hundreds of clients in homes and offices and hands down, paper out-clutters everything else in most homes. Or, it out-overwhelms most people more than anything else. Why? Because with paper you have to look at each piece and take to read and re-read and decide what to do. It causes "trancing" quickly, leading to putting the paper back on the pile and walking away!

KEY: Take care of mail daily and immediately, routing and acting on each piece without a "later" delay. This will take care of most of your paper problems. Then, schedule time and dig into the historic piles, one at a time.

4. Filing

1. You need a file cabinet (system); hanging files, and file folders.

2. Label every file and hanging file.

3. Hanging files are for "categories", Files are for subcategories.

4. Alphabetize, color code, or whatever works best for you, but do it consistently and,

5. LABEL everything. No guessing in the future.

5. Storage

The Organizer's Mantra: "Everything needs a HOME. Everything needs to LIVE somewhere."

FACT: 80% of the paper you have you will never see again! This goes for efiles as well. It doesn't mean you don't need to keep most of it for archive, legal and tax reasons, but some percent that you don't absolutely need, purge as soon as you can to open up space.

Pens, markers, paperclips, the stapler, etc. all need homes in which to live and where they can be found anytime. Your electronic tools need homes as well so they are not lost or pushed off counters.

KEY: All paper that is within reach and in-your-face in your office should be active, not archive information. All information to be archived needs to be in the back of a storage closet, garage, etc. Label well to find when needed.