Originally posted by shinta:
Dear Rhonda,
teach shinta how to be organised
yours gratefully,
shinta
Eh... shinta, I am not organised all the time leh! I have my moments when I'm really messy too!
Nowadays, sloth rules!
Anyways, it's easy, whenever you feel that the paperwork is about to bury you under the sheer volume, quickly grab lots of files of different colours, if possible. Label them and if you have no time to file, then at least chuck them in marked / different-coloured plastic folders. If you are forgetful, scribble stuff on post-it pads and quickly slap it on the respective documents to remind you of what you have to do.
I used to have this awesome folder that looked like a huge hardcover diary, larger than A4 size, with accordian pleats and index tabs with dates of the month, and I'll just slide documents into the respective date slots to remind myself of deadlines or chuck entire project folders there so at the start of everyday, I'll flip to the right date and voila!... at a glance, I know what I have to do for the day liao!
Then of course, some bosses and colleagues are quite chow-kuan and they will plop 'Urgent' stuff on your desk as the day progresses, then it's up to you to use your judgement to time-manage and do what's really and truly 'Urgent' first.
Everytime I had a new project, I would start a new folder / suspension folder in the drawer / box on my desk so everything relating to that particular project will be neatly categorised immediately, even if you have no time to do proper filing. The key thing is, you have to be able to get the documents you want speedily and not look like a riot as you rummage through your mountains of paper!
Anyways, find a system that works for you. I love colour-coding and keeping lists and to motivate myself, I used to get nice office stationery.
I loved the gadgets and what-not that look good and are very practical and functional.
But oh well, even if your dept / co. is on budget, you can still improvise and come up with a system that functions.
Have fun getting organised!