Office organizing and productivity tools

Pile of papers

Originally uploaded by jepoirrier

There are times when paper in my office feels a little out of control. Notes on post-its or other scraps of paper, mail, client materials, newsletters sometimes seem to multiply overnight. After being on vacation for a week, my office has looked a little like a paper bomb has gone off in it. Here are some tools that work in my office for corraling and organizing our stuff:

Tame the piles. Sometimes you are not ready to file yet. For times like these, we use Pendaflex PileSmart system tools such as their Binder Label Clips. These clips let you quickly group together like documents on your desk and find them again quickly. The clips provide a quick and easy way to label them by writing on the plastic label’s white surface with a ball point pen, and they come in a variety of colors. Uses in my office — grouping together of forms for completion (such as school-related things for my son, agreements I need to review and sign or items I need to image and purge). I also clip together paper copies of documents I need to read for work so that I can grab them for reading when I have down time, such as waiting for an appointment.

The Pendaflex site has a couple of neat guides based on whether you are a piler or a filer which you may find helpful:

Download the Pendaflex® PileSmart™ Guide to Desktop Organization

Download the Pendaflex® How to File Guide

Taming the piles remix. Instead of saving the paper, image, shred and recycle it. It’s a great green solution for your office, too.

Yep is described as being “Like iPhoto for your pdfs.” I use Yep, from Ironic Software, as a small office imaging tool. For $34, I have a quick and simple app that works beautifully in tandem with my Brother MFC-7820N 5-in-1 Network Monochrome Laser Multifunction Center. I have a custom Yep button defined in my Brother control center, so all I need to do is lay in a stack of papers to be imaged, press the Yep custom button on my control center and wait for the scan to finish. You can name, tag and file the finished scans, and then purge the paper from your office.

Looking for a PC version of imaging software for your small office? Try ScanSoft Paperport 11, which is the app I used before I made the switch to the Mac platform. It’s not as speedy as Yep, but it does a good job.

Save electronic stuff for later using Foxmarks. On July 9, I wrote about 11 Free Ways to Electronically Save Links and Info. Foxmarks really helps me save my links on the fly and keep them in sync between my iMac and PowerBook. Other top picks for me in this category are LaterLoop, Evernote and Sidenote. Of course, any time you can take notes or maintain info electronically, the reduction in paper is also a great contribution to helping your office conserve paper and our environment.

Keeping things quiet and focused is sometimes a challenge with my 12-pawed wrecking crew and a busy teenager. Today’s ZenHabits entry, “The List to Beat All Lists: Top 20 Productivity Lists to Rock Your Tasks,” has a round up of good productivity lists compiled into one master list. I liked the link to Merlin Mann’s (of 43 Folders) “Merlin’s top 5 super-obvious, “no-duh” ways to immediately improve your life.”

In Merlin’s entry, he talks about reducing noise. We like Lifehacker’s suggestion of the web-based app, SimplyNoise, for generating pink noise.

“Organizing is what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it is not all mixed up.”

- A. A. Milne

Try some of these tools to help you in organizing your office:

About the author:  At Your Service Cincinnati principal Nora Rubinoff’s core virtual assistant services include social media management, WordPress support, online reputation management, project management, customer relationship management, customized e-mail marketing campaigns and productivity enhancement. Nora is a Mac and PC specialist. Nora is enthusiastic about architecting solutions that enable clients to make more out of their business day. Nora is a recipient of the Karen S. House Award for Regional Collaboration as well as the Women of Excellence Award, several state and local government proclamations and holds the IVAA EthicsCheck™ certification. Nora is a past board member for IVAA and serves on several community advisory boards. Read more from this author

Tagged as: green, Organization, organizing, Productivity, recycle, tips