This article originally appeared in The Simplifier #28.

Organization — The Mystical Destination (Not!)

By Shawn Tuttle

“I wish I were organized…” I’ve heard this sighed with the same wistful feeling I might have on a cold winter day when I’d say, “I wish I were in Hawaii…” You’d think they were talking about some mystical place shrouded in fog reachable by secret pathways.

Is organization really that mysterious? Perhaps a more relevant question is: “What does it mean to be organized?”

Does it simply mean being tidy?

Nope. True story: a couple of years ago I received a phone call from a woman who felt debilitated by her lack of organization. “My office is a mess and I’m totally overwhelmed by the mere thought of dealing with it.”

She went on to explain that a death in the family had thrown her once-orderly routine into chaos and she couldn’t dig through the mess to regain her peace of mind. We set an appointment for the following week. I arrived at her home office expecting the worst. I wore my work clothes, ready to roll up my sleeves and jump in. I walked into an office that was more tidy than mine! What?!

Stuff was not her issue at all. When she said, “my office is a mess,” she meant that didn’t know where to find information she was looking for or how to effectively process incoming information. She needed systems to manage and access her information.

So does it mean having efficient systems?

Not exactly, though they help! What good is the most brilliant system in the world if it isn’t used? Answer: no good at all. Who hasn’t implemented a new, “fool-proof”, state-of-the-art system to organize this, that, or the other, only to stumble across it months later? (“Oh yeah. I forgot about that!”)

Organization is a process.

Just like housecleaning! Buying the cleaning supplies doesn’t make for a clean house. Nor does cleaning every surface once make for a permanently clean house.

It’s not just a process, it’s part of the journey. It’s a means to an end. What end? Your goals and dreams, of course! This is important because the more compelling your goal, the more likely you are to keep a satisfactory level of organization in your life. I use the word satisfactory here because it is entirely up to you. There is no right or wrong answer. If you (and whoever you share your space with) are happy with the amount of tidiness and the level of functionality, then it is perfect.

While “there is no right or wrong answer” to how organized you should be, it behooves you to see yourself through others’ eyes now and again. Your appearance and surroundings are extensions of you. Clients, potential clients, and even friends may be attracted, or repelled, by what they see around you and how they see you functioning. Alienating yourself by living in a pig sty won’t make you happy, will it?

Back to your end goal. Organization weeds out distractions so you can do what you want to do. Conversely, your goals are more important than every single thing being in place.

Now, I’m not suggesting you get accustomed to your current level of mess and be done with it. Acceptable levels of organization still take time, agreement with others (with whom you share the space), and effort to maintain.

Organization, like meditation, is a practice. It’s not something you complete and check off your list for good. It’s a part of life that we must come to terms with if we are to achieve peace of mind in our day-to-day doings. There will always be clothes to hang up, papers to file, new phone numbers to enter in the address book, emails to respond to, and so on. The issue is adjusting these to integrate with the rest of your life and your priorities.

One way to integrate necessary actions into your life is to create systems. Systems encourage organization to happen on auto-pilot, thereby decreasing the number of brain cells required to deal with it. The less you have to think about it, the easier it is.

Let’s look at three areas ripe for organization:

stuff covers physical items - where items belong, how they get to where they belong, and systems for maintaining them.

mind involves information - the data passes through your life, how to get data out of your head systematically so you know where to find it when you want it, and systems for processing and storing data so that you and/or others can easily find it and use it.

time involves your schedule - how much you pack in everyday, getting to appointments when you say you will, making (and keeping) quality-time appointments with yourself, and systems for recurring activities.

We know that organization isn’t monumentally crucial to our survival—yet it is crucial for our peace of mind. Everyone would rather do what they want to do rather than what they feel they must do. Removing organization from the position of frustrating-goal-that-is-never-complete, and relegating it to a position of assisting you in achieving your goals is a positive step towards making peace with organization.

—

Shawn Tuttle is founder of Project Simplify

This article originally appeared in The Simplifier #27.

Frogger vs. On Golden Pond

By Shawn Tuttle

On Tuesday in Toastmasters, our club President asked this question of the day: “How do you know when you are stressed?”

Going around the room, the answers painted a predictable picture: I get irritated, I can’t fall asleep, I wake up at 4 am and start working, I lose my sense of humor, I get sick, my head screams away at me and I can’t stop it, and so on. It was obvious that life with stress was like the kitchen sink–no matter how thoroughly you clean it, you just accept that specks of food and greasy stuff are soon to follow.

About halfway through the room, a 70-year old, active, still self-employed financial planner answered, “I don’t get stressed.”

A rapid succession of questions fired away in my head: “Doesn’t get stressed? Who doesn’t get stressed? How can he not get stressed? Everyone gets stressed!” Once my 6:30 a.m. mind caught up with the direction of these questions, I reeled that freight train back in. “Wow…novel idea! Right on, Steve! Just say, ‘No!’ to stress.”

Steve’s answer illustrates the fact that not everyone is bruised and battered by stress. So then why do so many of us just accept lack of sleep, irritation, and short tempers? Why don’t we stop and look at what malady these symptoms point to?

A little stress now and again isn’t a big deal. Life happens. Chronic irritation, disease, or physical discomfort brought on by stress, however, are symptoms of a much deeper cause. And the symptoms don’t have to be that extreme to take a deeper look at your life perspective in this regard.

When it comes right down to it, we are talking about a choice. Let’s be extreme and make the options black & white.

Let’s call the first option “Frogger” (the old video game of the little frog trying to cross the highway). A colleague gave a perfect example of this. He said, “You can’t see the world when you are standing in the middle of the highway.” How can you help others, or yourself, when all of your focus goes towards dodging large moving objects? Secretly, the adrenaline and buzz of high energy and feeling important is intoxicating, maybe even addicting. New responsibilities are taken on haphazardly, because, “Hey, I’ll rest when I’m dead!”

Our little froggie is living in a constant state of reaction. He doesn’t have time to evaluate his life priorities or plan for future seasons. I hear the protest now: “Deadlines are a reality of our world!” True–but do we always have to leave things until the last minute? Sometimes circumstances demand this. But not all the time.

What is sacrificed for this constant rush? A little thing called peace of mind. How can our little frog reach the pond on the other side of the road when he can’t take his eyes off the cars rushing down the highway at him?

Let’s call the other option the “On Golden Pond” option. (If you haven’t seen that Oscar-winning movie, you can picture what I mean easily enough just from the title.) Yup, that’s you living in the house on the lovely pond. Your living room looks out on calm, serene water. Doesn’t mean you sit and stare at the water all day–that’d get boring. It does mean your decisions and responsibilities are compatible with your calm life there.

Relationships are richer because you have the time to engage in them. You know how to work hard under pressure of impending storms, and then adjust quickly when the storm has passed. You share without putting yourself in jeopardy. You know how many guests you can take in–only so many can be accommodated without depleting your wood and food supply.

You take time to sit on the porch, tasty drink at your side, and plan for upcoming seasons or events. Maybe the local co-op building needs repair or expansion. Maybe you want to explore methods of building from other cultures. Maybe you want to coordinate a community effort to provide tutoring for local schools. Whatever it is, you do it in such a way that doesn’t sacrifice your peaceful life at the house on the pond. Because that’s the whole point of being there, right? That peaceful life.

Unless you work at a stock exchange or a racetrack, you’re probably thinking you’d rather be in On Golden Pond mode than Frogger mode most of the time. It probably seems like just a fantasy. And it is like a fantasy; it’s a vision. If “vision” is too much for you, how about “mindset”? Whatever it’s called, we’re just talking about a way to look at your life. You do have a choice!

We’re talking about life, so obviously, there is no right or wrong answer. How much Frogger, how much On Golden Pond works for you? Perhaps an entirely different vision speaks to you. The important point here is awareness of the impact your internal vision has on your life–from which activities and responsibilities you commit to, how you move through your day to day activities, and how you balance your life. Rather than be tossed around by the turbulent sea of stress, let your vision guide your life.

If your vision of how things should be is different than your current state of affairs, you’ll want to recall your “golden pond” mindset frequently until it becomes second nature. Honor your vision, insist on it, be vigilant in protecting it.

And remember to enjoy it!

—

Shawn Tuttle is founder of Project Simplify

NOTE: Frogger is a trademark of KONAMI CO., LTD., and the movie “On Golden Pond” is copyright ITC Films, Inc. No affiliation is intended or implied.

This article originally appeared in The Simplifier #26.

Following Your Heart to Success—A Case Study

By Shawn Tuttle

Translating your dreams into the day-to-day realities of life can be challenging. Some think they must follow the status quo to success in their careers and only then will they turn to serving others and living their ideal life.

Following is the story of a woman, Kalia Rork, who overcame a serious illness in 2001 to become the top real estate agent of her company in the highly competitive Santa Barbara area—through following her heart.

The goal-setting part of this article is based on a conversation I had with Kalia in November 2006, and the rest of the article draws from numerous conversations and observation over the last 11 years. Not only is Kalia a heartfelt human being, she is a long-time friend and co-coaching buddy.

Kalia’s Question: “Why am I doing this?”

Kalia worked hard in the publishing industry. Really hard. Ironically, she didn’t have much to show for it. Her dream of owning a house in Santa Barbara still eluded her and she wasn’t able to get her credit cards paid all the way down.

She worked so hard, her body finally protested by falling into a serious illness in June 2001. Being laid up and flat on her back for five and half months forced her to stop her workaholic tendencies. She dropped her clients and did the only thing her body would allow her to do, which was rest and take care of herself.

A year and a half before this happened, intuitively following her dream to buy a house through creative means (since she didn’t have a down payment) she enrolled in a real estate course. Thinking the course was simply geared towards people interested in buying real estate, she was surprised to learn it was a licensing class that culminated in taking the actual Department of Real Estate exam, an intense 3-hour test in Los Angeles. She passed the exam, top in her class. The instructor sagely did his best to convince her it would be a good career to pursue. Never having imagined herself as a real estate agent, Kalia let it go.

A year after passing the exam, a letter arrived stating, “Unless you sign up with a broker, you’ll have to retake the test.” All that grueling studying for nothing? No way! Although it still didn’t sound like a dream job, she was still interested in real estate investments for herself, so she signed up with RE/MAX and got a huge surprise. All the pieces fell into place. Working through her very first deal in 2002, she learned that the activities of an agent played right to all of her professional and personal skills—and she loved it! Maybe this profession wouldn’t be so bad after all…

Now, passing the exam isn’t any indication of how well you’ll do as an agent. That’s where your personal and professional skills come in. Buyers and sellers have countless agents to choose from. Without a name or reputation, it’s even more difficult to get clients. You have to work hard. But Kalia had to watch it. If she tried to do too much, her body would protest and come out of remission, effectively laying her up for days at a time.

What else is there besides hard work?

Kalia shares the three cornerstones of her success: goals, visualization, and positive intention.

Goals

Kalia had read numerous books on self-growth. She also read books about successful people. It’s not a coincidence that most of the successful people written about were strongly rooted in personal growth. They explained the importance of goals and that reaching them actually relies more on mental imagery than doing! After taking the time to identify core values and a personal mission statement, the goals that had real power were those in line with her mind, body, and spirit.

And of course she chose SMART goals—Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely. Adhering to the SMART criteria increases the rate of success immensely.

Visualization

• Visualize your goals—see them, feel them, touch them, taste them.
• In your visualization, experience your goal complete.
• Keep index cards by your bed, with your goals written on them. Read them every morning and night. Adjust your cards as needed.
• Stay positive.

Positive intention Her goals were fortified with the practice of positive intention. Positive intention is more than “always looking on the bright side” of a situation. Two applications of positive intention include:

• being grateful for what you have (not focusing on what you don’t have), and
• stating your goals in terms of what you want (not what you don’t want)

Kalia said, “I’m constantly vigilant about watching my words. They really can affect my life!” She reminded me about a period in the fall of 2004 when several escrows fell through and she was feeling low about her new career prospects. Whenever someone asked her how things were going, she’d tell them! “This fell through, that didn’t happen, yadda, yadda, yadda.” With the support of her co-coaching buddy (me) she would stop herself whenever she heard herself repeating that negative story. Instead she’d say, “I’m doing great!” This shift in energy quickly took root. Within 3 months she had a full slate and within 6 months she was the busiest she’d ever been, with a maximum of 9 concurrent escrows. For the month of April 2005 she made the list of top 100 RE/MAX agents nationwide!

When the going gets tough

Experiencing stress illuminated the difference between being heart driven vs. head driven. Kalia learned that following her heart isn’t just about setting the right goals, it’s just as much about daily action in the world and interactions with others. Switching from (head) “what’s in it for me?” to (heart) “how can I serve my client?” improves the mood in a situation and causes it to go more smoothly.

As human beings, we are motivated in the long run by that which moves the heart, not head. They say that a person on her death bed won’t look back on her life and say, “If only I’d made that one more deal!” Nope. She’s more likely to say, “I wish I had treated all my clients like best friends.”

In a short amount of time, Kalia has shown us that a positive, values-based life begins now, not later. Henry David Thoreau wrote:

I have learned, that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.

I hope this glimpse of one woman’s life inspires you as it does me.

• Service is about being as knowledgeable and competent as I can for my clients.
• Reviewing all the paperwork for them first.
• Attending all meetings.
• “It’s not about me.” Ever.
• I give away information all the time. I help people with no expectations (but know that when I do a good job they will refer me to their friends).
• Being patient and attentive.
• Doing the best I can.
• Being authentic.
• Telling the truth.
• Goal to be a trusted real estate advisor, not just an agent for a particular transaction.

You can visit Kalia’s real estate site here.

—

Shawn Tuttle is founder of Project Simplify

This article originally appeared in The Simplifier #25.

Sustainability—Good for Business, Good for the Environment

By Shawn Tuttle

The beginning of this article may be a bit tough to swallow. Really, I haven’t fallen into the doomsday pit! This article is about smart solutions for business. Know that your decisions do make a difference. If positive change can happen in the carpet industry (as you’ll see below), positive change can happen in whatever industry you are in. So on to…

The bad news
Air pollution-induced asthma.
Diminishing oil reserves.
Territorial disputes over diminishing oil reserves.
Global warming.
Eco-system devastation.
Over-flowing, and leaking landfills…These paint an ugly picture, but they cannot be ignored. They are an integral part of life in the 21st Century.

How did we get here?
The simple answer is that we need things to support our lifestyle. We need electricity, food, clothing, furniture, cars, Windex, coffee cups, shampoo, computers, and on and on.

Companies large and small have come to the rescue: “We’ll satisfy your wants, needs, and desires!” They take raw materials and transform them into useful products. Unfortunately, the practices used to extract raw materials from the earth and process them into sellable products has not been friendly to the environment.

We have a market economy. We keep buying, the companies keep producing.

Is that it? End of story? As long as we continue to eat, clothe ourselves, work, and play we have to accept and allow companies to degrade our environment?

Corporations have long existed with rights of personhood without the responsibility. Can we have Corporations with rights of personhood with responsibility?

YES! It’s called sustainable development, or sustainability, and it’s not a new concept.

What does sustainability mean?
The World Commission on Environment and Development has defined sustainability as that which “meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”.

A little more poetically, I’ll summarize the concept as making decisions that effect the world today in such a way as our great-great-great grandchildren will say, “Thank you!” (and mean it!)

Is this do-good concept viable in today’s competitive global market? The people behind the Dow Jones index thinks so. Did you know that Dow Jones Sustainability indexes were launched in 1999?

The good news.
Wouldn’t it be great if global corporations had the mission of “taking nothing from the earth that is not rapidly and naturally renewable, and doing no harm to the biosphere”?

Would you believe that this mission statement comes from Ray Anderson, chairman and founder of a company called Interface, a global leader in the carpet and textile manufacturing industry? Well, believe it!

The Story of Interface
For some 33 years, Interface has made carpet tiles, mostly for commercial applications. The carpet industry has been notoriously bad for the environment and a cause of health problems for installers, and people with chemical sensitivities. (In case you didn’t know, most carpets are made from the same stuff as oil, i.e. petro-chemicals.)

Interface’s client base was represented, in large part, by architects and interior designers, a group typically ahead of the curve in environmental awareness. They wanted to know what Interface was doing for the environment. (In other words, they were applying market pressure.) Anderson, whose policy had been to simply comply with the law and who hadn’t had much concern for the environment, was nonetheless a good businessman, and decided to look into his clients’ request.

The year was 1994 and the company was making about $800 million in revenue. He asked his engineers to determine what had been extracted from the earth to produce that. The answer shocked Anderson: 1.2 billion pounds of raw materials, mostly oil and natural gas. And to top it off, much of that had been incinerated.

He recognized that his company’s practices, and those of all the other companies he knew for that matter, were plundering the earth. (He now calls himself a “recovering plunderer.”)

While he had recently stepped down as CEO, he still had enough clout to change the course of the company he had founded 21 years before. That course was a quest for sustainability.

The company’s first move was to concentrate on reducing waste. The result? $60 million savings in the first 3 years, $300 million to date. These savings have financed the R&D department.

Now, their carpets are made with corn-based polymer and the office panel and upholstery fabrics are made from 100% recycled and/or 100% compostable materials. They are studying the gecko to figure out how to make the carpet stick without glue. They’ve established a program of leasing carpet to their customers. They keep it clean, replace tiles as necessary, and the best part, at the end of the carpets’ life cycle, they reclaim and recycle everything.

Imagine! A company taking responsibility for the lifetime of their product.

This industry leader promotes their MISSION ZERO statement, which is “our promise to eliminate any negative impact our company may have on the environment by the year 2020.”

That’s a tall order from an established company formerly dependent on fossil fuels. To heck with tradition!

Ray Anderson says we are in the dawn of the New Industrial Revolution.

I say we are in the era of Win-Win solutions!!

“The Story of Interface” section above was inspired and fueled by Richard Todd’s article, “The Industrialist“, printed in the November 2006 issue of Inc. magazine.

—

Shawn Tuttle is founder of Project Simplify

This article originally appeared in The Simplifier #23.

An Element of Success: Coaching

By Shawn Tuttle

What’s with all the talk about coaches lately? We have life coaches, executive coaches, business coaches, time efficiency coaches, and so on. You may have asked yourself, “Why do I need coaching? It seems like an unnecessary expense. What can coaching give me that I can’t get from my friends, colleagues or a book?”

In times of unprecedented activity addiction, overwhelm, and busy-schedule-as-status-symbol, trying to make it on your own is a recipe for failure. In my experience as a coach, clients call for simplification when they feel they are in a quagmire of sorts. However, it turns out that another set of benefits kick in when you work with someone before falling into that pit. While the people who lead prosperous lives with time for friends and family come from wildly different backgrounds, they have one dominant characteristic in common: they all have a relationship with someone who advises and encourages them to reach their full potential.

Not only is having a coach a key component of success, but business consultant Dana G. Mayer’s study of six-figure income earners (”6 Figure Success Stories”) proved a connection between the number of times a week that someone talked with their coach and the amount of money that person made. I.e. the more coaching, the more money they made. Every single one of the 100+ independent professionals interviewed had a formal or informal coach, meaning they had someone they spoke with at least once a week about their business.

So, do you need a coach?

Of course, you don’t necessarily need coaching—you will probably not die without it—so perhaps the better question may be, “Will it help more than it will cost?”

Let’s take a look at the ways coaching can help:

• Do more with less. Working with a coach helps you identify time and energy wasters and underutilized resources. Since you are deep in the middle of your situation, it can take quite a while to recognize that some belief, misperception, or situation has been holding you back—and then even more time to deal with it.
  

• Focus on pursuing what you want. Ms. Mayer’s report also discovered that successful professionals are the ones who actually do it, i.e. they follow through. In order to follow through, you must have focus. Focus is what guides the arrangement of your time, time for the things you are passionate about. Has anyone ever asked you, “Are you cramming 20 hours of work into an 8 hour period?” as if that is the ideal and natural way to be? It takes focus to integrate the demands of the Stress Generation, and not get side-tracked into a million directions. Coaches help you focus.

• Get support and accountability to make sustainable changes in your habits. The primary reason people call Project Simplify for coaching is they want to be more organized and efficient. They’ve read books, they’ve tried different methods, and then they’ve realized they want someone to bounce ideas around with who can bring in an objective perspective. They want someone to help them customize the cookie cutter to their situation, and then support them in sticking with it.

Finding a coach

So how do you find a coach? Ask around, you probably know someone who is or has worked with one. Coaches are often members of networking groups. Do ask questions–not all coaches are created equal.

Here are some pointers to help you find the right coach:

• Sit in on a workshop or teleclass.

• Read an article they’ve written.

• Ask them for the top 5 benefits their clients get from working with them, and then ask for referrals and see if those clients agree with the coach’s assertions.

• Look for certification in their area of specialty or a client list that is similar to your industry or lifestyle (i.e., specializing in coaching executives, solopreneurs, speaking, women, people with ADD, etc.).

• What is their background & working experience?

• You can also check at FindaCoach.com and the International Coach Federation (www.coachfederation.org).

Often, a coach has an intro session in which they explain how the work and what you can expect. It is also meant to get a sense as to whether you’d work well together. It is very important to work with someone you feel comfortable communicating with. If she doesn’t seem like the right fit, the coach should have some suggestions of others who may be. Keep in mind, they don’t have to be in your area. Many coaching relationships are over the phone.

And what about cost? Most coaches run from $200 - $500 per month which is typically broken up into weekly or bi-weekly sessions of 30-45 minutes with email support in between sessions.

Also consider the cost of not working with a coach. Without a coach, you are more likely to fall victim to stress, and we all know that stress is a major contributor to health-related problems. Plus lack of focus pushes your business goals further away. And every struggling business person has made mistakes that could have been avoided with the right advice beforehand.

Help can be hard to reach out for sometimes, but it sure is great to get! From our own testimonial page:

“My daily life has much more room for fun, since you helped me simplify so many areas of my life. You have a gift for personalizing the process and making it happen so swiftly. It’s empowering!” - H.A., Nevada City

And consistent with the findings in Ms. Mayer’s report, my growth has been greatly accelerated by working with a coach as well!

Perhaps coaching could be just the help you need to simplify your efforts at manifesting your dreams.

—
Shawn Tuttle is founder of Project Simplify

The thirty-sixth issue of the Project Simplify newsletter The Simplifier is now archived on our newsletter archives page.

This issue marks the end of our first year of publishing our newsletter. Yay for us! :-)

Let us know what you think of the first year, so we can make this coming year’s issues even better!

Here is a brief summary of issue #36’s contents:

1. A Note From Shawn
Time to celebrate
2. Our Featured Quote
by Wayne Dyer
3. Article: Let yourself have more fun working!
by PS Head Simplifier Shawn Tuttle
4. This Week’s Simplification Tip
How to add some whistle to your work
5. In the News
Tapping Your Inner Muse, Unwind From the Grind, and Perry’s eBay stuff purge
6. Featured at ProjectSimplify.com
Our home page
7. Keep Smiling
The Etiology and Treatment of Childhood

Read the full issue here.
Subscribe to The Simplifier here.

[posted by Lance]

This article originally appeared in The Simplifier #33.

Filing 101

By Shawn Tuttle

Imagine water flowing through a river canyon; the water need not stop and wonder if it should go over or around each rock it encounters. It simply goes around or over depending on the path of least resistance as dictated by various laws of physics.

Bringing this into the office, we want the movement of our activities to be easily flowing. The focus of energies expended should be on the content, the very reason for being in the office in the first place, not on continually monitoring and tweaking the infrastructure.

We get frustrated when we can’t find something we need. Conversely, knowing exactly where something is can be quite exhilarating! Once we are accustomed to easily locating what we need, it fades into the background—filing and finding become an automatic process.

If a brief meditation on the physics of water flowing is not enough practical guidance for your filing woes, maybe this run-down will help you find the path of least resistance through your files.

Filing cabinets
Have enough filing cabinets in your office to accommodate your active and reference files. Sure it’d be great to not have these bulky items taking up prime office real estate–but is this practical? No!

tip: Leave a quarter of each drawer free for easy maneuvering and room for growth.

Placement of filing cabinets
Let’s narrow the discussion down to three types of files: active, reference, and archive.

Active should be within arms reach when sitting at your desk.
Reference can be in the same room, though out of arms reach.
Archive files have no place in the office! Get those boxed, label the boxes well, and into storage. Box labels should be easily visible and unambiguous.

Hanging folders
These are a must! They make it easier to label sections and easier to maneuver within the drawer.

tip: Label tabs on the hanging folders provide an opportunity to reflect the overall structure of your filing plus help your eyes find things more quickly. Personally, I put all main subject labels (ex. Marketing) on the far right, and the few sub-subject labels (ex. website) also on the right, but a little closer to the center of the folder.

File folders

Aligned tabs
Should tabs be aligned? I find that file folders with aligned tabs (i.e. all center tabs or all tabs on the right) can be tougher to read. When tabs are all aligned, thin folders tend to hide behind other folders.

Typed or handwritten labels
While typed file folder labels can be visually pleasing (not to mention of great satisfaction to your inner compulsive organizer) I find that in the long run, it is not practical. Say you have a file to create on the fly. Opening up your label template or pulling out the label maker is distracting to your current task at hand. Remember, you want to minimize infrastructure maintenance. If you save up all the file folders that need labels to do them, say, once a month, you are essentially leaving a process in mid-stream. Why add an unnecessary step to the filing process?

OK, ok. Sometimes you absolutely must have printed file labels due to illegible hand writing—and, if you are sharing files with others, the consistency of printed labels might make it worth the effort. In these situations, use a label-maker that is fast and easy, and assign it a station near your filing supplies.

Color coding
To color code or not to color code, ’tis the question of filers world-wide. Color definitely adds to the visual aesthetic of an office. However, the logistics of maintaining this infrastructure can quickly outweigh the benefits.

Observe: You buy a box of colored file folders, more than enough for your filing system overhaul, you think. You plan out how you are going to use each of the five colors that came in the box. You use 2/3 of one color, 1/3 of another color, and oops! ran out of another color. Whether now or in the future, when you run out of the color you are faced with a decision: Use a different color (and compromise the system)? Interrupt your flow to go to the store right now to get more of the color (and does the store sell just that color or do you have to buy another box of 5 colors (4 of which you already have plenty of)? Reality check–we should be simply filing here.

Now, I’m not going to say “No” to colored folders, I use them myself (blue for Project Simplify files). I am advising moderation. This is one area in which it is easy to get lost in the details (pretty color coding), forgetting the bigger picture (minimize time spent on your systems infrastructure.)

tip: When choosing a colored file folder, select one that has a light enough tab that you can easily read ball point writing on the label.

Do I have to file it?
One of the hottest new-tech, anti-filing tools of the new millennium is the combination of the Internet and Search engine. Think about it. Considering how fast the world is changing, what is the likelihood that this interesting piece of info in your hand won’t have been updated a million times by the time you want to reference it? Files from the past can get stale quicker than a fresh baguette! When you are ready for that info, you are more likely to do a comprehensive search online for the latest and greatest.

Another anti-paper filing tech tool is the computer. Wasn’t this the old promise of how we were going to have a paper-less office as personal computers became popularized? From online bills to storing faxes (I use the digital faxing service, eFax.com) to project work that is emailed back and forth between colleagues/clients—most of these can be stored on your hard drive, thus taking up almost no physical space at all!

Two words of caution:
1. Your digital desktop filing system must be logical and intuitive (just like your paper filing system).
2. Your brain is still required to discern whether a document must be saved or not. Countless memory-leeching files and cluttered folders distract from a smooth flow.

Is alphabetical the best way to file?
I recommend a combination of sorting by subject and alphabetically.

Subjects are major projects, responsibilities, and businesses, and… keep it simple. For me, Business, Bookkeeping/General Office (admin oriented), and Personal (my personal interests) suffice.
note: The subjects are to be customized to you. An efficient system is logical and intuitive system in which you know just where to go to deposit or retrieve a file.

Then, file alphabetically within each of those major subjects.

tip: to clump a subset of files, for example, client files or Toastmasters files, I label the file folder:
Client (in small print) - Jane Doe (in larger print so the scanning eye can read easily)
and file under “C” for Client in the Business section
or
TM - Speeches
(where TM = Toastmasters)
and file under “T” for Toastmasters in the Personal section.

and finally… filing a la Confederacy of Dunces (novel by John Kennedy Toole)
The protagonist, Ignatius J. Reilly, was the best filer the company had ever hired. He plowed through the backlog and then kept the “To file” baskets empty with frightening efficiency. And for Ignatius, if he had to work, this job was easy enough. But he had a secret to his technique: when no one was around, he just dumped the files in the trash. While this strategy does make filing go quickly, it will not benefit you too well when you actually need the info.

There will be filing cabinets in the office and there will be rocks in the river. They can be in the way, or they can be a part of the landscape, providing interest and assistance as you travel along. It’s up to you.

—

Shawn Tuttle is founder of Project Simplify