Businesses have policies for how long records and paperwork are to be held—and you should, too. Cut down on the clutter in your office by establishing rules for handling paperwork. Over at the organizational blog Ian’s Messy Desk, Ian has several great tips on reducing office clutter. Chief among them is creating a record retention policy. Despite technological advances, there are certain files, such as personnel records and corporate documents, that you’ll need to keep for extended periods of time. To manage this process, you’ll need a record retention plan. How this policy reads will vary depending on local laws.
It isn’t effective or practical to keep paperwork beyond the point where it is required by law or directly benefits you—so goodbye five-year-old cable bills. Ian’s process starts by assigning a rule and duration for each type of document in one’s “active” pile, then consolidating and organisng your archive boxes with destroy-by dates. That way, your clean-out sessions allow you to quickly and confidently shred, burn, or shoot the documents into a lower earth orbit. Photo by Marcin Wichary. Eight Ways to Keep Your Office Clutter Free [Ian's Messy Desk]
Whether your workspace is miles from your home or right there amongst your books and Battlestar Galactica figurines, it probably has something in common with at least a few other Lifehackers’ (and mine)—the ability to attract clutter, make important documents and objects hard to find, and, over time, become time an actual impediment to getting things done. Some of us are able to work in a way that doesn’t leave things a mess and clean as you go, but for those of us who can’t trust our instincts, a system that corrects itself is needed. Today I’ve rounded up a few of our best tips for getting your workspace in order and keeping it that way without a cerebral transplant. Take one last look at your paper piles and empty coffee cups and read on for inspiration. Photo by frischmilch.
Personal finance blogger J.D. Roth is on the road towards making his money system completely paperless. Direct deposit, automatic savings transfers, Quicken, and auto bill pay gets most paper out of the way. Then Roth scans any paperwork that does come in to PDF with our favourite scanner—the Fujitsu ScanSnap—and then he shreds it. Nice to see how several parts of his paperless system has also evolved into an automated finance system, too. How do you make your money go without too much paper (or intervention)? Let us know in the comments. My Paperless Personal Finance System: A Work in Progress [Get Rich Slowly]
The Simple Dollar financial blog offers up a guide to creating a “Master Information Document”—a single piece of paper that’s locked away securely, explained only to family and very close friends, and which has all the information someone would need to put your finances and will in order if something happened to you. Blogger Trent recommends writing down information on all your open accounts, a list of all your debts and assets, and any estate-related documents, like a will or trust, in a filing cabinet or other secure place. We’ve offered a bigger-picture guide to organising your family’s information in case of emergencies, but Trent’s advice is sound, especially for anyone who hasn’t even glanced at the idea of emergency planning. Making and Maintaining a Master Information Document [The Simple Dollar]
Lifehacker reader and blogger Clara posts a tip she picked up from a Taiwanese life hack television show on keeping papers together without using staples or binder clips. The technique requires scissors, a steady hand, and the patience to really learn the method on one’s first few tries, but Clara notes that she’s kept up to 15 sheets firmly together with the trick. Not applicable to documents you can’t afford to have clipped, obviously, but it makes for an eye-grabbing way to deliver documents, and perhaps a shot at a MacGyver moment if you find yourself without office supplies—the two notches could be hand-ripped, after all, if you were crafty about it. How to bind papers without staples or clips [Bloomize]
Finance blogger Nickel tracks receipts and other scraps of tax-related paperwork throughout the year in two places: a basket at home, and an envelope in the car. Any time a business or medical expense comes up, in the basket or envelope the receipt goes. Same goes for charitable contributions. Every once in a while, Nickel transfers the contents of the envelope on-the-go to the basket. (Once that’s done, you can easily digitise that paperwork with the right scanner.) How do you capture receipts and other tax documents as you go? Let us know in the comments. Keeping Track of Your Tax Paperwork [I Will Teach You To Be Rich]
Most of us have enough to do filing tax forms and getting our day to day paperwork under control, let along thinking about future events like writing a will. But preparing a legally sound will now will save your loved ones from having to deal with the tidying up your affairs after you’re gone. The Wise Bread blog gives a sad example of the toll this burden took on a widow who spent years trying to finalise the will and estate of her late husband:
“After three years of toiling to resolve his estate (which appeared uncomplicated at the onset) and paying off the ensuing bills which ended up being over $100,000, my friend wanted a divorce from her late husband.“
If you’re interested in finding out more about how and why to prepare a will, the Law Society of NSW has some information here. There are also some cheapie, do it yourself will kits which you can buy for around $30 – I’ve even seen them at the Post Office.
Estate Planning – Why Me? [Wise Bread]
If you’ve got a shelf full of bulky binders, blogger Tim Fehlman says you can consolidate them using Chicago screws, which fit into regular paper punch holes:
They are flat and allow you to get rid of the extra space that is taken up by partially empty binders, covers, etc. We figure that we have reduced the amount of space that our documents use by about 60%.
With Chicago screw binding your pages turn more like a book that doesn’t quite lay flat, so this sounds best for documents you don’t need to remove or rearrange easily. They’re also cheaper than full-on binders for document archiving, too.
Archive Documents with Chicago Screws [Daily Cup of Tech]Students: Get through the end of the semester with College and Finance’s guide to the art of “BSing.” If your semester of slacking finally caught up to you, or if you just don’t have enough time to write a quality paper, College and Finance’s guide should help you churn out a decent essay. When all else fails, write an awesome conclusion – So, if you’re having trouble with the essay, and you can’t seem to remember some important facts, don’t get too discouraged. In my experience, some people have fewer facts, but write a better essay than others, and therefore receive the higher grade. This isn’t a guarantee, but if you at least have a well-structured paper with a solid conclusion, the professor should award you some style points.
Don’t forget that there’s no alternative to good old fashioned hard work. College and Finance’s guide certainly won’t save you if you haven’t prepared at all. However, it should help when you just haven’t prepared enough.
The Art of BS: How to Succeed on Papers and Essays [College and Finance]
