Quick Guide to Creating an Efficient File System

Writers accumulate a lot of reference materials.  We collect articles, old stories, handouts, outlines, project plans, pictures and plenty of correspondence with potential clients and publishers. Keeping track of it all can be difficult, but it gets easier if you have a good filing system. The system I outline below is far from revolutionary. Most of it is common sense and some of it is information I learned from Getting Things Done, the system I have been using to get organized. I highly recommend picking up the book if you want to get your work and life in order.

The General Reference File System

The general reference file system is designed for the long-term storage of information that does not need to be acted on or reviewed by a specific date. This system is designed to avoid complexity in favor of a straightforward approach.

• Keep files in alphabetical order according to the file labels you create. Any system more complicated than pure alphabetical order dramatically increases the number of places you’ll have to look to find a file
• You can group similar topics together by giving them similar labels. For example, a file labelled Profitability: Formulas would reside next to or near a file labelled Profitability: Tables
• Unless a single topic takes up over half a file cabinet, do not create a separate cabinet or section for it. It is better to create folders with narrower topics
• Create a folder for a topic as soon as you have something to put in it. The sooner it is filed, the sooner it is off your mind
• Purge your files regularly. The end of the month or the end of the quarter is good time to go through your files and take out the things that are no longer important. If you need a reminder to do this, put one in your tickler file…

The Tickler File System

The tickler file system allows you to designate dates on which you will be reminded to review or act upon a piece of reference material. it is like sending your future self a letter. For example, if you are waiting for feedback due on a certain day, you can file a reminder to request a status update that day. An online calendar system can be used in a similar way, but it is more difficult to attach support materials and notes.

What to store

• Time sensitive items
  • Flyers or memos about upcoming events
  • Forms such as tax forms or insurance renewals
  • Bills
  • Travel itineraries
  • Coupons
• General reminders
  • Tasks that need to be done
  • Information on people you need to contact
  • Advertisements for items you might want to buy
  • Information that should be read closer to an event date (such as training materials)
• Pick Me Ups
  • Pictures of friends, family or pets
  • Thank you notes
  • Old letters
  • Notes to yourself

How to Create a Tickler File System

Label 43 folders

1. 31 folders for every day of the month (1,2,3…)
2. 12 folders for every month of the year (May, June, July…)

Create This File Order

1. The folder for the next day of the month (day after the current day)
2. The folders for the other days remaining in the month in order
3. The folder for the next month
4. The folders for the days of the month that have already passed
5. The folders for the remaining months in chronological order

Example File Order: July 10th (After the current day’s items have been moved to the in box)

1. Days: 11-12-13-14-15-16-17-18-19-20-21-22-23-24-25-26-27-28-29-30-31
2. Month: August
3. Days: 1 – 2- 3- 4- 5- 6- 7- 8- 9- 10
4. Months: September – October – November – December – January – February – March – April – May – June

How o Use a Tickler File System

• File time-related items in the appropriate day if they should be acted upon or reviewed in the current month
• File items for more distant dates in the month that you want to review them
• Review your file each day. This needs to be a daily habit.
  1. Take that day’s file contents and place them in your in box
  2. Move that day’s file folder to the spot behind the previous day
  3. When you reach the beginning of the next month, distribute the items to the appropriate dates for that month or put them in your in box, then move the current month’s folder behind the previous month’s folder

About File Folders

• Keep plenty of empty manila file folders in a location that can be accessed quickly and easily
• Only use legal sized file folders if you need to, letter-sized file folders are more manageable
• Color coding is not recommended. It increases the complexity of your system
• Use an auto labeller to create easy-to-read file labels that look professional and are appropriate even for client meetings
• Do not use hanging file folders unless you must. If you must use them, use them only as holders for single manila file folders. Hanging files are not convenient to create and they do not look professional at meetings
• It should take you less than two minutes to create and file a topic folder
• Don’t spend too much time thinking about individual file label names. The first thing that comes to mind is usually the first thing you will think of when you have to look for the file later

About File Cabinets

• Try to keep file cabinets less than three-quarters full. An overly-full cabinet will make you reluctant to add new files
• Avoid cheap file cabinets that squeal whenever they are more than half full
• Avoid file cabinets designed only for hanging files
• Use the adjustable plate in the back of the file drawer to keep your files straight and upright

Site Review: menwithpens.ca

It’s hard to believe that Men With Pens is only about a year and a half old. They have put out such an enormous volume of useful articles that it seems like you can spend a whole year just reading them. It helps that they have two “men”, no wait, three men, no wait, four men and one of them is a woman. I can’t keep track. If someone told me there was a fifth I would have to believe them.

In the interest of full disclosure, I should say that MWP used to be an advertiser here and I would gladly have them back. They are easy to recommend and they pay good money. I like that in an advertiser. At the moment though, no money is coming my way so I am relatively bias-free.

Also, in the interest of being well-rounded in my review, I can say that I don’t really like their most recent site design. I’m really not a fan of sites with dark backgrounds. Furthermore, their blue highlight color doesn’t look good against the gray and black background. It kind of hurts my eyes. I should also mention that MWP is a business first and a blog second. They don’t force their services down your throat, but they do want your business, so keep that in mind.

I have come to praise MWP though, not to bury them. On the Internet, content is king and they have content coming out of their ears. MWP focuses on site design, content development and freelancing. There are also a substantial number of articles about writing fiction and inspirational articles about writing in general. They have an active comment community that adds value to almost every post. Overall, this is one of the best sites for writers on the web.

Their archives are great, but they keep coming out with great new stuff too. Just this week they published Do You Have a Magic Ring?, which had a great productivity idea. The idea is to wear a reminder on your body (a ring, a necklace, etc.) and every time you think of that object you have to do the task associated with it. For example, every time you touch or adjust your ring, you have to write for ten minutes. It is a great idea. Here are some other past articles I would recommend:

Are You Losing Faith in Your Writing Dream?

An inspiring prompt to get you going again.

The Single Freelancer Policy that Saves Your Soul

Great advice about setting up a revision policy if you are a freelancer

Build it from Scratch or Customize a Template?

Tips about when to consider (almost never) builing your Wordpress template from scratch.

Four Choices To Brand Your Online Business

Site branding is often misunderstood and poorly executed, this article offers good basic advice.

Why Your Website Content Loses 7 Percent of Customers

Every time someone is expected to make a click, you can expect to lose 7% of your readers.

Should You Tell People Their Blog Design is Ugly?

Yes you should, and they do…

Drive-by-Shooting Sundays: Simplistic Thoughts

One of the many site reviews (emphasizing design) that MWP has posted over the past year. These articles are priceless if you are starting a new site and you want to figure out what to avoid.

Site Review: GTDagenda.com

GTDagenda.com is a paid membership site that provides people the online tools to organize their tasks and track their progress. It is modeled after the advice given in the popular book, Getting Things Done by David Allen. I first started using it back in January, and I have been using it to track my tasks ever since.

My big goal for the year has been to get more organized. It isn’t an easy goal. Life is complicated and every time you think you have things under control, it throws something new at you. For me it was a lingering illness that struck me on the second day of the year and didn’t let up until March. I wasn’t quite so sick that I couldn’t do my job (most days) but it took almost all of the energy I had just to get through a work day. Consequently, my efforts at organizing my work life have been far more effective than my efforts at organizing my personal life, but I keep plugging away.

I begin most of my days at work by reviewing my task list and spending a few minutes brainstorming. I actually think about the best ways to accomplish my tasks before I start doing them. I try to figure out what the roadblocks are and how I can get through them or around them. I make a plan and on my best days I stick to that plan. Not every day is my best day, but there is no doubt that I have been more productive, even when my body wasn’t at its best.

As a tool for helping me accomplish my organizational goals, GTDagenda.com has been very useful. GTDagenda.com allows me to keep a list of my projects, tasks, and next actions. I start off with my goals. I identify the outcome that I want to accomplish. I then make a list of projects that will help me achieve that goal, and I divide the projects up into tasks and next actions. It is very good at doing this, although the interface could be more intuitive. It took me a while to learn the fastest way to do this, and even that method isn’t quite as automatic as I would like. I would love to have a page that allowed me to fill out all of these things without jumping around. As it is I tend to load about four pages for even the most basic project. As David Allen explains in his book, the longer it takes to track something, the more likely you are to not track it.

The other two things I would like to see added to GTDagenda.com are a search feature and a more robust note-taking system. There is no way for me to do a quick search for a particular task. Instead I have to scan the entire list or try to narrow it down by selecting a category. I have about 50 tasks on my list right now, and at one point it was closer to 75. Scanning through every task every time you want to change something can slow you up. Note taking is just a great idea all around. I often have information I want to attach to my tasks, and the only note feature is a single line field that isn’t suitable for more than about 50 characters. It will do in a pinch, but I often have more to say than that.

These are minor complaints though. GTDagenda.com is definitely a useful too for tracking projects and it does follow the Getting Things Done process well. It also has some very useful features, such as the daily task email. Every day I get my list of outstanding tasks in my in box. They also have a mobile phone version of the site that gives me the basic functionality I need to access a task. These two items make it easy to stay on top of my tasks even when I only have my Blackberry.

If you are looking to get organized, I recommend that you read Getting Things Done, and if you think it is the system for you, give GTDagenda.com a try.

Disclosure Note: I was given free access to this site in order to review it. Links are affiliate links.