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.

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Shawn Tuttle is founder of Project Simplify