Home Office Organization–21st Century Style

Archive for August, 2007

Home office organization can be pretty hard because we either have a small room, or just a corner or nook to use. Having to store lots of paper is out of the question. I know I don’t have room for rows of filing cabinets. I also don’t have room for multiple office machines like a scanner, fax machine, copier, and printer. Most of us have an all-in-one. It saves a lot of desktop and other “top of things” real estate in our home offices.

I’ve found an easy solution using my laptop computer and my all-in-one printer-scanner-copier-fax machine. Why store paper when there’s a wonderful nested-folder filing system on my computer that’s totally searchable? There is no good reason why every home office can’t be mostly paperless.

What Do You Need to Go Paperless?

You need a scanner that’s attached to your computer, and software that allows you to save documents as pdf files (so they can’t be altered) or text files you can edit, and photos as pictures. Scanners and all-in-ones come with the software needed for all the machine’s functions.

A flatbed scanner works fine if you don’t have much to scan. But if you have a fair amount of paper each week to scan, a scanner or all-in-one with a feed tray is essential. I have an HP OfficeJet 6110 with a feed tray. I use it often for faxing documents, but it can just as easily be used for scanning documents. I recently scanned one client’s file into my computer using the feed tray and it was great! I folded a load of laundry while the all-in-one and computer did the work.

Organizing Your Office Around a Paperless System

The only vertical trays I plan to have on my desk are “current work”, “to be paid” for bills, “to be scanned”, “to be shredded” and “to be mailed”. I’ve decided if it’s not going to be in use, paid, scanned, shredded or mailed, I don’t need it.

Well, there’s one exception. I have to keep the original, signed client service agreements which are paper documents - for now. When I can convince my state regulators to accept electronic signatures, those will be paperless, too. Those are filed in the top drawer of my filing cabinet as soon as I copy the signed agreement for the client and scan it into the client file. It’s the only folder in the drawer, so it’s easy to file quickly.

I use blank initial contact forms on a clipboard to jot down prospective client information during phone calls. As soon as the call ends, I enter the information into my CRM (Client Relationship Management) program and the appointment time into my Palm Tungsten E (my current PDA). My CRM program allows me to keep all notes about a client in that client’s file, so I have no handwritten notes lying around after I’m finished with a project. I scan the initial contact form into a new folder with the prospect’s name on it under the “prospective clients” folder in My Documents, and put the form in the “to be shredded” tray. That prospect’s file is moved to the “clients” folder when they actually sign the service agreement and make a down payment. I’ll shred when the “to be shredded” tray gets full, or have my son do it for me.

“Current work” will be all the paper documents clients bring to me and any handwritten notes I’ve taken during meetings. After I finish a project, the documents and notes will be scanned into the client’s file. Paper documents are either returned or shredded. I would love to take notes directly on the computer, but many clients are put off by that. Now I only do it if I’m working with someone who comes to a meeting with their own laptop and types their notes, too. Then we exchange notes, if needed, by email.

Any snail mail I get that I need to save will go in the “to be scanned” tray. I’ll scan it and then toss it or shred it.

Bills to be paid go into the “to be paid” tray and the contents of that tray are sorted twice a month. I do keep a paper monthly file folder for bills and receipts for my CPA. The IRS still wants originals going at least 3 years back, so there’s another place I keep paper.

I still have a spiral notebook I used to use to take notes, but now I use Notepad or MS Word to take general notes. I’m starting to use Google Notebook a lot. I sometimes write down messages from my answering machine in the notebook before I enter the information into my PDA. I can write faster than I can use Graffiti, and people talk so darn fast when they leave their name and number. Any calls I need to return go into my PDA to-do list along with the number in the to-do item. The prospect’s information goes into my PDA address book if I will need it in the future. My PDA is synced at least daily to my laptop to back it up.

Computer Back-ups are Critical

With everything residing on my hard-drive, keeping my computer backed up is absolutely critical. I’ll no longer have the paper files to go back to and reconstruct what was on my computer if it crashes.

I use SD memory cards to back-up my laptop. I have an SD card slot and all my data fits in 1-2 Gb. SD cards fit into a small lock box and a bank safe deposit box. You can also use USB thumb drives. They work just as well. CD-Rs and DVD-Rs don’t fit in a standard bank safe deposit box. I’ve tried. I keep my daily back-ups in the lock box in my garage (separate from my house), and my bi-weekly back-ups in my safe deposit box. I switch between 4 cards, two for daily back-ups and two for bi-weekly back-ups. If one fails, I replace it right away. You don’t have to use a safe deposit box for off-site data storage. A friend’s home safe or a second lock box in your neighbor’s garage is just as good. You just need an off-site location in case of a major disaster.

Other solutions include a second hard drive that mirrors your C: drive, and online back-up services that store your data securely on servers around the world. The upside of online storage is you have a really good back-up. The down side is your data is on the web and could conceivably be hacked. A spare hard drive is great if you can grab it on the way out in case of fire or flood. If you can’t, your data is lost.

Copies of important papers, like birth certificates, marriage license, divorce decree, etc. should be photocopied and given to a relative or friend out-of-state to keep for you. In the case of a catastrophic disaster, such as Hurricane Katrina, you’ll have copies of these documents so you can get them replaced more easily.

There you have it, a way to get rid of too much paper in your home office. I hope you’ll use it.

Would love to have your feedback on this.

Sherri

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• Cleaned the printer?
• Watered the plants?
• Changed the oil in the company car?
• Changed or cleaned the AC/furnace filter?
• Paid the quarterly self-employment taxes?
• Swapped back-up media with the ones in the safe-deposit box?
• Backed up your hard drive?

I follow home office organization tips in the news and blogs, and sometimes I find the handiest gadgets for your home office in some unlikely places. I was reading a recent post on the cluttercontrolfreak.com blog about ending science experiments in your refrigerator with a handy new device called a Days Ago Digital Day Counter .

This device can be attached to things by magnets or by suction cups. You set it to zero, stick it to a container in your refrigerator and it counts the days since you placed that container in there. It counts up to 99 days, and if not reset, it starts counting over again.

These counters aren’t just for the refrigerator. It doesn’t matter what you attach them to, so I decided to make a list of things they could be used for in my home office that need doing at least once a quarter (about 91 days). There are a lot of things that I don’t remember the last time I cleaned, sorted, did maintenance on, purged or changed because I didn’t write them down. I thought of all sorts of things that would help keep my home office better organized and on a regular schedule. Some are listed above. Here are some more:

• time-based projects
• time to sort contents of vertical file trays
• measure printer inkjet or toner cartridge life
• computer/server maintenance
• computer back-ups
• weekly tasks
• monthly tasks
• quarterly tasks

If you don’t want to set a to-do item in your PDA until you know something needs tending to, this is a great little device to nudge you to plan to do something, but without it popping up as a to-do item on the busiest day of the month, or ringing an alarm you set three months ago in the middle of an important phone call or meeting. I do that to myself all the time in the interest of being organized and not letting anything fall through the cracks, but you can really annoy yourself if you don’t check your calender and to-do list items before each week begins.

I’m sure you can come up with some ideas of your own! Post a comment of what you would use this gadget for.

Here is a link to the entire blog post.

Now all I have to do is get things organized so I can put them on a schedule…

Please visit my previous posts. I finally found the digital camera charger and posted the pictures of my home office before I’ve done anything to de-clutter and organize it. My mess is real, folks. I’m not a neat person who will tell you what you should do, I’m a messy person who needs to find solutions to the problems most of us have dealing with all our stuff! I will post pictures as I make progress, or back-slide. I hope for the former, but I’m sure some back-sliding will happen when things get hectic.

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Home office organization is getting much more critical in this age of information overload. More people have a home-based business or a home office from which they electronically commute.

Here’s a scary statistic for you from Liz Davenport’s book: Order from Chaos: A Six-Step Plan for Organizing Yourself, Your Office, and Your Life. The average businessperson wastes 150 hours a year looking for things. “Add 10 more hours, and that’s an entire work month,” she says.

Ten more hours and the average businessperson would be wasting an entire work month. If this statistic applies to us home-based business types, and I’m sure it does, we’re effectively losing a month’s worth of sales, and therefore profits, each year!!!

I don’t know about you, but I can’t afford to lose a month’s sales and profits each year!!!

Time to get seriously busy to help you and me get our acts together and our home offices organized! The tools I’m going to write about will help you keep it organized more easily by doing away with as much clutter and paper as possible.

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Home office organization requires some personal organization. In the past, people used a plain notebook or Day Timer or FranklinCovey Day Planner to keep track of all their contact information, appointments, notes, to-do list and other information. While paper is still quite useful and plain paper notebooks are very cost-effective, a much better solution is available for the twenty-first century, a PDA.

The twenty-first century solution is the PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) or Smartphone (PDA plus cell phone all-in-one device), also called a handheld computer, or just a “handheld”. You back it up to your computer frequently using a docking station or cable.

Remember, one of the reasons so many of us can choose to have our own small businesses or commute electronically from our home offices is because of all the technology available to us to make it possible. Twenty-five years ago few people had access to a computer at work, let alone in their homes. Now, most everyone in a developed country has a computer at home or uses a computer regularly at a library or other free public location. One more thing, this is not a sales pitch for PDAs or any other product. I’m providing links to planning solutions as a convenience to make locating what I’m talking about easier for you.

A FranklinCovey
Day Planner

I was a FranklinCovey paper Day Planner system user for years before I got my first Palm Pilot. My Franklin Day Planner was a terrific system, and at the time, it beat everything else available hands down in both quality and value. I learned the strategy and mechanics of personal organization with that system. When I changed to a PDA I incorporated what I’d learned with the paper system into my use of the electronic system, and I’ve never gone back to paper. In fact, FranklinCovey now has Palm PDAs as part of their line of planning solutions.

Why a PDA is Much Better

A PDA is a powerful handheld computer and has the benefits of a computer. The biggest benefit is the ability to customize it to your needs with add-on applications. And it only weighs a few ounces and fits in your pocket.

Palm Tungsten E

A PDA does everything the paper system did and a lot more. An alarm never rang an hour (or however I set it) before an appointment when I used a paper Day Planner. A date book with color coding and audible alarms is so incredibly valuable when you’re busy. It keeps you from forgetting important appointments, and it allows you to set the amount of time an alarm rings before appointments. You can set alarms for weeks in advance of any date book item. It makes remembering to shop for birthdays just as easy as remembering birthdays.

A PDA allows you to effectively deal with all the information you have to keep track of in one place. It contains your prioritized to-do list, your contacts (you can have thousands of them), your calender and appointments (you can have years of them), and a myriad of other information and applications a paper planner could never offer. It has a great search function so you can search for anything you know is in there somewhere that you can’t find right away. All you do is tap on the magnifying glass icon at the bottom of the screen, enter your keyword(s) and tap search. It starts searching in the application you’re currently working in, and searches the rest of the unit after that. If your keyword is in there, it will find it in a few seconds. What a time-saver!

Another cool benefit of a PDA is that it comes with companion software for your computer. You can type all the information you want in your PDA on your computer, and then download it to the handheld unit. It’s fantastic for setting up your first PDA and adding large amounts of new information. It’s also crucial if your unit is damaged, lost or stolen.

When you back up regularly, at least once daily, if something happens to destroy or damage your unit beyond use, or it’s lost or stolen, all your data is on your computer. You can still access everything with the PDA software until you can get a new unit. All you need to do is buy a new PDA with the same operating system and download your data to it. There is a lock feature on all PDAs that you can set to secure your personal information if your PDA is lost or stolen. You can login to your PDA just as you login to your computer. I highly recommend using this feature.

Application Programs

There are many application programs for PDAs that range from office suites to games, calculators, ebooks, grocery lists, diet management, and encryption to keep sensitive information secure. Some are free and some must be purchased. There is a Microsoft Office compatible suite, Documents To Go, that can be synced with your computer documents, taken with you, and updated versions can be uploaded to your computer later. The PDA date book can also be set up to sync with Microsoft Outlook.

You can download photos to share with friends and family.

There is an Adobe Reader so pdf files can be downloaded and read. Many ebooks are available as pdf files. Palm handhelds also come with PalmReader for compatible ebooks. You can download entire ebooks in pdf or pr format and read whenever you have a few minutes or get stuck waiting somewhere like the doctor’s office. I read the entire novel The DaVinci Code on my Palm m125. Most ebooks cost a few dollars, but are well worth it if you love to read and often forget to bring a book with you.

Newer units have Bluetooth and Wi Fi capabilities. These PDAs can connect directly to the internet for web-surfing, and sending and receiving email and instant messages. SmartPhones have made this extremely easy because many wireless phone providers have internet service in their plan packages. There is a news and information service, AvantGo, that allows you to set up your PDA to retrieve news, sports, weather, and other information every time you sync your PDA and have an open internet connection on your computer. This enables you to have recent information available when you don’t have a handheld with internet capabilities or you’re out of range of a Wi Fi connection.

Like most new cell phones, some PDAs also come with built-in digital cameras for capturing pictures on the go.

One of my most often-used PDA application is STRIP (Secure Tool for Remembering Important Passwords), a shareware program from Source Forge. There are other similar programs available, but most aren’t free. STRIP is 256-bit encrypted, stores sensitive information like passwords, account numbers, credit card numbers and PINs, and it also has a very easy-to-use password generator where you set the length of the password or PIN, and whether you want numbers only, alpha-numeric only, or alpha-numeric+special characters. This tool is priceless if you need to generate strong passwords and keep track of secure data. Unfortunately, at this writing, you can’t access this program from your computer desktop to make adding information easier, but your information is backed up on your computer in encrytped form. You have to put all your secure information into your unit using the pop-up keypad, Graffiti pad, or an add-on portable keyboard specifically for use with your PDA. Some of the paid software programs have desktop access for putting secure data into the program.

Are There Any Downsides?

There are a couple of drawbacks to using a PDA. It’s tough to write notes on it fast using the Graffiti pad. Even experienced users usually can’t write more than 30-40 characters a minute accurately. The screen pop-up keypad isn’t much faster. The solution to this problem is a portable keyboard. If you often need to write or take notes and don’t want the hassle of using paper, a keyboard is the perfect solution. An infrared universal keyboard can be purchased for under $75. Nearly all PDAs have an infrared function for beaming information to other people with handheld computers, and universal keyboards take advantage of this built-in function. Security isn’t an issue using infrared transmission because it has a very short range, within a couple of feet. Most of us transfer data by setting handhelds within a few inches of each other with infrared ports facing each other to speed the process. New PDAs have Bluetooth, and Bluetooth universal keyboards are now available for use with them.

An Infrared Universal Keyboard:

A Bluetooth Universal Keyboard:

The second drawback is you can’t draw on the older PDA screens. My current PDA, a Palm Tungsten E, has a program called Note Pad that allows you to draw or write directly on the main screen. Newer units have more of these capabilities, and the sky seems to be the limit for improvements in these applications.

Operating Systems

There are three operating systems for PDAs:

• Palm
  
• Windows
  
• Apple
  

Apple of course has the newly introduced iPhone. Palm has been around the longest and Apple is the newest, and with Apple’s extremely reliable, powerful and user-friendly Macintosh line of desktop and notebook computers, and very successful iPod media devices, the iPhone is sure to continue making a huge splash for quite some time. Windows-based PDAs are more expensive ($500 - $1000 range) than Palm OS PDAs ($100 - $500 range) and seem to be targeted to corporate users, although many individuals own and use a Windows PDA just like I use my Palm Tungsten E. SmartPhones are also relatively expensive, but are again more corporate-targeted. I know a few people who have a SmartPhone, but the unit and service are paid for by their employers. I don’t know anyone who has an iPhone, but I would love to see one up close and personal.

Keep In Mind…

There’s one thing I want you to keep in mind always when facing the challenge of keeping yourself organized. Whatever system you choose, plain paper notebook, paper day planner system, or PDA, be sure you will be a faithful user of it. Any system not used, no matter how simple or complex, won’t work. You must use it and commit to continuing to use it faithfully day in and day out for it to work. If you won’t keep yourself organized your home office won’t stay organized either. Personal organization is key to home office organization and the success of your business or career run from that office.

So if your choice is a PDA, from the elegantly simple and inexpensive Palm Z22 to the great power and ease of use of the Apple iPhone, and all the PDAs and SmartPhones in between, once you use one, I bet you’ll never go back to paper!

I’d love to know what you think.

Sherri

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PS: Here are links to the current Palm handhelds:

The Palm Z22 is available here: Palm Z22 Handheld

The Palm Tungsten E2 is available here: Palm Tungsten E2 Handheld

The Palm TX is available here: Palm TX Handheld

I recommend getting a SmartPhone at the wireless provider of your choice since your service will be through them. You will often get a better deal on the Smartphone when you buy the service package with it.

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I’ve had a home office since January 2004 and I’m always looking for home office organization tips to deal with all the stuff I keep accumulating in my 110 square feet of space. My desk is by far the worst culprit. It catches nearly everything that comes in here.

Here are some pictures of my disaster area of an office:

This is my desk. As you can see, it’s completely covered with piles of stuff.

This is a table I had to bring in because I can’t fit my computer on my desk. If you look at the back upper right side of the picture, that is the top of two filing cabinets I use as a printer stand and paper holder. It is clean and organized, just the printer and the vertically stacked trays of paper to use with it. I have hope because at least one small space in all this mess is organized!

These are the tops of two of my four filing cabinets. Cluttered. I have no idea exactly what those files or stacks contain anymore.

And this is my bookshelf. It’s not too bad, but there isn’t room for it to get any worse. I don’t remember the last time I used most of what’s on it, except the procedures manuals.

Nancy Salem wrote a great review article in the Albuquerque Tribune of office organization tips from the book Order from Chaos: A Six-Step Plan for Organizing Yourself, Your Office, and Your Life by Liz Davenport.

Salem writes of Davenport’s system:

First you need an empty trash can and a spare chair or table to use for sorting things already on your desk. Your desk is covered, so you’ll have to have some free space to work on. Davenport advises to throw out anything you haven’t used in the last six months or don’t know exactly how it will be used in the next six months.

Davenport suggests a “cockpit” setup so all the things you use every day are right at your finger tips. She says all the things you use weekly should be within arm’s reach. Under no circumstances are you allowed to put these items where you would have to get out of your chair because you won’t come back for 20 minutes and you probably won’t have what you went to get. Items you use once a month can be in the office space. “It’s now legal to get up,” Davenport says. “But if you use something less than once a month, consider putting it someplace else. You want to create for yourself your own uninterruptible space.”

Next Davenport suggests a control system which has at least five vertically-stacked trays or files. I like vertical trays because they take up less of a foot-print on my precious desktop space. Most of us probably need more than 5 files or trays, but eight is the limit.

“The average businessperson has eight systems of keeping track of what they’re doing,” Davenport says. I find that insane. One system is hard enough to keep track of for me.

Davenport is an advocate of the Day-Timer and the FranklinCovey Day Planner systems. I have a little better way of keeping track of everything, my PDA.

Here’s a link to Nancy Salem’s article.

I’d love to hear what you think. Please post a comment.

Sherri

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Home office organization…it doesn’t have to be difficult. It doesn’t have to be someone else’s idea of neat and orderly. It is having what you need where you need it when you need it, and being able to find it quickly if it’s filed or stored.

Home office organization for the twenty-first century will help you do this while using all the great technology available to make it so much easier than organizing anything has ever been. Good old books are still part of the game, but I’m also going to be writing about eBooks, incorporating computers, PDAs, and scanners, to name a few items, to make your home office run like a Swiss watch with little effort after it’s set up. I’m not going to kid you, setting this up will take some time and some work up front. But once it’s set up it will make your life so much easier.

Let’s face it, looking at a cluttered desk or cluttered office makes you feel not-so-good about yourself. I know that’s how I feel. My office is a disaster area and I’ll be posting the “before” pictures so you can see I’m in the same position of clutter as most people. As we progress through this journey together, I’ll take pictures of how it’s going and there will be the “after” pictures, too, in later posts.

You may feel embarrassed because you can’t seem to keep your desk clean, or you may feel frustrated because you have to get up every time you need to use the stapler. You may feel generally depressed because every time you start a project you get bogged down in it because you can’t find what you need when you need it. Nothing goes very smoothly because of all the stops to dig for something you need to move on to the next task. You may feel angry because you miss very important appointments from time-to-time, appoints that could have long-term consequences for you or your business.

Home office organization is about your peace of mind, lowering your stress and frustration levels, and even your blood pressure. It’s also about raising your profitability. Being organized in a way that works for you will accomplish these much more positive outcomes. Who doesn’t want less stress, greater peace of mind and better profitability?

I mention profitability. Your business profitability and effectiveness are negatively effected by a disorganized office. I will write a post about that soon because you will find the statistics outright alarming.

So, we’re off:

• read some information that looks interesting
• find some ideas you like
• grab a trash can
• and just do it

Just start sorting through the first pile on your desk! You’ll be shocked at how little time it takes once you get started. I believe we spend more time dreading cleaning up our desks and offices than we spend actually performing the tasks to get it done. I’m on a mission to stop dreading and get moving. I hope you’ll join me.

Sherri

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