3 Joining the Electronic Age of Organizing
In this chapter
Learn about the “paperless” trend and what you can do to support the movement
Discover the benefits of creating parallel electronic and paper filing systems
Learn the benefits of becoming more organized electronically
Understand the basics of your computer system
When computers first came on the scene, many office workers figured that they would be the “magic bullet” for managing paper. Experts predicted that computers would create the paperless office we all had dreamed of. Today, most offices are anything but paperless, though computers have become essential in ways none of us could have predicted. In this chapter, you learn a number of methods for using electronic data management to make your workday more organized and easier to manage.
Today, most office workers maintain an enormous amount of electronic data in various forms within multiple software applications. Because there is so much information in today’s work world, it is vital that we begin to think of how we want to organize our electronic data in addition to organizing our paper documentation. In this chapter, you learn how to create one world of information and data and begin the process of organizing your electronic data.
Although organizing your electronic data is an important step in organizing your work day, computer maintenance is an equally important part of that process. When your computer isn’t working or your data has been destroyed, your productivity might stop completely. To avoid the chaos and lost time that can result from computer malfunctions, the average worker needs to maintain at least minimal knowledge of the workings of computers. By learning your computer’s basic specifications and capabilities, understanding its file management system, and managing its basic maintenance tasks, you can keep both your computer system and your day-to-day work day organization running smoothly and efficiently.
Everyone is talking about the “paperless” trend happening in America, when in fact, it is just the opposite. America’s consumption of paper has doubled in the last 10 years—a period that marks the rise of computers as essential office tools. According to the book Myth of the Paperless Office by Abigail Sellen, a company’s use of email has produced a 40% increase in paper consumption. Hewlett-Packard did a study in the year 2000 that cited U.S. workers print on average 32 pages from the Internet per day. U.S. paper producers consume approximately one billion trees every year. This amounts to roughly about 735 pounds of paper annually for every American office worker! According to the paper industry, it expects that paper consumption will double by 2050. Clearly, we are not in a paperless trend.
Recycled and Tree-Free Paper Resources
We need to reduce paper consumption and help purchase recycled and alternative paper. Unfortunately, recycled paper isn’t widely used even though it is available at large office supply stores. According to the Recycled Paper Coalition, less than 20% of office waste paper is recovered for recycling. The good news is that the American Forest and Paper Association in 2002 created a nationwide goal to recover over 55% of the paper consumed. However, they need everyone’s help in continuing to support recycling efforts in their offices and communities. For more information about paper recycling in your office, contact Inform, Inc. (www.informinc.org), a nonprofit organization based in New York that helps develop recycling systems in the workplace.
If you would like to reduce paper waste, consider purchasing recycled and tree-free paper. Here are a few companies that provide alternative paper products:
Green Earth Office Supply (www.greenearthofficesupply.com)—Offers a wide variety of office supplies that are earth friendly and sustainable
Green Field Paper (www.greenfieldpaper.com)—A paper company that offers a wide variety of alternative options, including paper made from hemp, cotton, and recycled paper
Office Depot (www.officedepot.com)—Offers recycled content paper and is a leader in green office supplies
Recycled Products Purchasing Cooperative (www.recycledproducts.org)—A nonprofit organization that sells recycled paper and alternative paper
In addition to the environmental impacts, paper is time-consuming to manage. Record keeping constitutes more than 90% of all office activity. According to a study done more than 10 years ago, U.S. companies file approximately 120 billion sheets of paper annually. Of that paper filed, over 80% is never referenced again!
After you print out a hardcopy, you then have to deal with it by sorting, organizing, filing, and eventually purging the document. As we are inundated with, print, and accumulate more paper, the time spent managing it mounts, as well. The task of managing paperwork becomes overwhelming, and too often, the paper piles up around us on our desks. If you reduce the number of documents you print, you can cut down on one major source of paper overload, help create a more organized office and work day, and save yourself considerable time.
Paper is expensive, too. How many square feet of space is devoted to filing cabinets in your office? Multiply that figure by the cost you pay for each square foot of your office space. If you fit the national average, then 80% of that figure is your cost for storing information you don’t use. With real estate prices only going up and the size of offices becoming smaller, it is important to maximize our office space. If you reduce the paper pileup, you can save money and maximize space in your office.
To begin to create that paperless office, we all need to reduce our paper consumption and get organized electronically. Moving to electronic organization methods is about changing your thought patterns and realizing that you don’t need a hard copy of every piece of information you use. Managing electronic data is much easier and less time-consuming than managing paper. To move toward a paperless organization system, you need to have basic knowledge and control over your electronic data, using techniques you learn about in this and the next few chapters.
To be certain of where your data is located, it is important to create one world of data. This means matching all your information systems to follow one master outline or structure. Currently, you might have one system for your paper files, a different system for email files, another system for electronic files, yet another system for tracking websites, and perhaps a database or two for collecting other types of information. When you receive paper and electronic information, that information might be filed in three to five different locations and categorized and subcategorized by different topic names within those systems.
When you use the “one world of data” approach to information management, you think of all your data as one entity, and no matter what form that data is in, it is stored in the same category or structure within all your information systems. Using this approach, all your information systems will be parallel to one another. That, in turn, simplifies filing and retrieving information, no matter where within the system it is stored.
note
There can be (and often will) be slight deviations within your master filing system.
Information that you receive mainly in only one form, such as email, may require additional subcategories in your email structure but not in your paper structure. We discuss this more in later chapters when we discuss how to create your paper filing system, electronic filing system, and email filing system in more detail.
Things You’ll Need
Current organizational information
Pencil and paper/word-processing software
Back in high school English class, you probably were taught to create outlines of book reports and other papers. One of the challenges of that process was to determine the basic components of what you would write before you wrote it. Creating a master outline for information is much the same process. You need to determine what you have to organize before you organize it! Most office workers use the opposite approach for storing information—as information comes, they find a place for it somewhere in their system. Filing new information becomes frustrating when there’s no designated file location within a structured system. When you create a master outline structure, you have already determined where you will file all the data you receive, in whichever form you receive it. The structure makes filing and finding the data easier.
Take a moment and think about your job and all the data you receive, including paper and electronic documents, mail, email, contacts, meeting notes, research, books, articles, and information from the Internet. Review how you are currently sorting and organizing all that data, and write down all the systems within which you have organized each of these types of data. Record your current method of organizing the data and list the names of files, categories, subfiles, and subcategories you have created within each system, as shown in Figure 3.1. You will use this list to help you create your master outline structure. Notice that in some areas your information is consistent within systems and in other areas there are differences.
Ideally, with your master outline structure you want to create at least three or four outline levels. The first level will be the primary categories of information. Your primary categories could relate to the company organization chart, your department organization chart, your primary areas of responsibility, associations, or major projects. Sometimes the primary categories are a combination of all those. Take a look at the list you created earlier, and highlight the primary categories that seem to be common throughout all your systems. Ideally, you should have 10–15 primary categories, but this number can vary from job to job.
After you have created your primary categories, you need to think about how you want to subcategorize each of them. Here are the standard ways in which to subcategorize information:
• By subject—Documents are arranged by subject name or category, similar to topics in phone directories and in libraries.
• By name/Alphabetical—Documents are alphabetically arranged by names. For example, this could be names of clients, suppliers, or employees.
• Geographically—Documents are arranged by geographic location, such as by continent, regional area, country, state, county, or city.
• Numerically—Documents are arranged by numerical order. This could be by an assigned job number, an invoice number, a project number, a client number, or an employee or Social Security number.
• Chronologically—Documents are arranged by date order. This can be done by annual or fiscal year, by month, by quarter, or by date.
When determining how you want to subcategorize, consider first how you want to access your information. Which topic, name, or word do you first think of when you are looking for that piece of data? For example, assume you have a primary category called Clients that contains all your client information. When you need to access client information, you might first identify clients by the state where they’re located, then the name of the company, and then maybe the type of project you did for them. So, your primary category would be Clients, the second tier would be by geographic region or state, the third tier would be by name or company name, and the fourth tier would be by subject or project name. The subcategorization you choose will be different for each primary category.
When planning your subcategory structure, look at the paper and electronic filing structures in your own office and company. Ask your colleagues how they organize certain categories. You might discover a way to subcategorize that you had not thought of before. You also might want to be consistent with your office structure and create subcategories based on the officewide system.
For the most part, when you purge data, you do so because it is outdated. Thus, when possible and applicable, try to subcategorize data by years. This helps you in the future to purge outdated data very quickly without sorting through individual files and documents. It also makes archiving electronic data much easier.
Below is a sample master outline. Yours will vary depending on your business and job. In some cases, the primary categories in the sample structure might be subcategories under a different primary category you have created. If you feel you don’t have enough information to create a second level, try to determine how, if the data increased in size, you would want to subcategorize it. This helps you in the future as you accumulate more data within that particular category. Some categories don’t require a third or fourth level. Determine levels based on the data you receive and the way you use that data.
In later chapters we discuss how you can customize your master outline structure to each of your information systems such as paper, email, electronic, and your contact database. For right now, though, you are just thinking of all your data as one world of data and developing the structure as if it were all in one big pile in the same form.
Here’s a sample you can refer to when drafting your own master outline. In this example, each item is preceded by a number that represents its level within the outline structure:
1: Administration (second tier by subject)
2: Forms
2: Staff Meetings (third tier by year)
3: 2003 Staff Meetings
3: 2004 Staff Meetings
2: Policies and Procedures
1: Clients/Customers (second tier by client name)
2: Company A (third tier by project number)
3: Project 1
3: Project 2
2: Company B
2: Company C
1: Financial (second tier by subject)
2: Budgets (third tier by fiscal year)
3: 2003 Budgets
3: 2004 Budgets
2: Sales Projections (third tier by annual year)
3: 2004 Sales Projections (fourth tier by month)
4: January 2004
4: February 2004
1: Marketing (second tier by subject)
2: Logo
2: Marketing Material
2: Website
1: Personnel/HR (second tier by person’s name)
2: Haines-Gregory
2: Smith-John
2: Terry-Jane
1: Personal Information (second tier by subject)
2: Awards and Recognition
2: Health and Medical
2: Performance Reviews
2: Résumé and Recommendation Letters
2: Training
1: Press and Media (second tier by fiscal year)
2: 2004
2: 2005
2: 2006
1: Projects (second tier by project number)
2: #111 (third tier by subject of project components)
3: Budget
3: Statement of Work
2: #222
2: #333
1: Reference (second tier by subject)
2: Budgets and Financial Reference
2: Leadership and Management Reference
2: Travel Reference
2: Trends in Industry Reference
Organizing principle number one—consolidation—is a key factor in moving into one world of data. Ideally, you need to consolidate all your existing data into one location. This will help you in the organizing process.
You might have electronic files on your personal C drive, floppy disks, CD-ROMs, and the shared server system. To make your electronic data easier to manage, consolidate all your data onto one drive before you begin to organize it.
The same consolidation is recommended with your email. You might have multiple accounts with different Internet service providers that you check in two different email programs. Consolidate by managing multiple email accounts from within the same email program. Microsoft Outlook, in particular, can be set up to receive multiple email accounts to be downloaded into one central inbox. This consolidation can save time and avoid the hassle of needing to check two different accounts in different email programs.
tip
Simplify your passwords and have a logical, systematic method for selecting each. Most passwords now require numbers and letters, so try to create combinations of the same ideas. For example, if your pet’s name is Earl and your mother’s birthday is in June, you can do multiple combinations of those ingredients, such as 06Earl or Earl061945. Try to catalog your passwords with the company contact information, or consolidate them all in one confidential file area.
Paper files have a tendency to become fragmented because you have one paper system that is outdated and has not been purged in a few years, one paper system that was left by your predecessor, and one paper system that is current information. Ideally, it is best if you consolidate all three systems in one area and file system.
Benefiting from Electronic Organization
Because as much as 90% of your documentation might be received in electronic form, it is much easier and cheaper to organize, file, and access your information electronically. Here are the key benefits to keeping your data electronically;
• It creates easier access—The find and search features in all software are more extensive than they used to be and are only getting better. You also don’t need to stand up and walk anywhere to get to your data; you can manage and access all of it right there from your desk chair.
• Data is managed more efficiently—Managing paper is time-consuming. On the other hand, if you receive an electronic document via email, you merely have to perform several clicks, which take less than 30 seconds, and the document can be filed immediately.
• It’s cheaper to store and archive data electronically—Using average rates, it costs about $600 per year to store 20 standard filing boxes. With 100 pages of documents roughly equal to 1MB, one file box of paper is approximately equal to about 23MB of memory. Hard drive memory for a standard 40GB drive costs about $200 in 2005, which equals about a 5¢ cost per 1MB. Thus, storing one file box electronically has a one-time cost of about $1.15. Clearly, an incredible cost savings. As technology advances, electronic storage will only get cheaper.
• Electronic data is easier to take with you—When you go on a business trip, it’s difficult to pack up your filing cabinet in boxes, carry them to the airport, ship them with you, take them to the hotel, and have them there just in case you need them. With the majority of your data in electronic form, you can easily take a large amount of data with you. Even if you don’t have a laptop, there are now multiple ways to carry electronic data, including USB storage devices, which can hold up to 512MB of memory on a small keychain-size device.
Understanding the basics of your computer system is important in order to organize your electronic data effectively. In today’s office culture, IT staff are constantly backlogged helping employees and sometimes aren’t always available. Knowing the basics of computer maintenance and troubleshooting can help you maximize your time and utilize your computer more efficiently.
Familiarize yourself with your computer’s type, size, and so on.
Determine drive and server allocations.
Learn about your system’s file management software.
Create a list of basic computer maintenance tasks, and plan to perform basic computer maintenance on a regular basis.
Learn basic troubleshooting tasks.
Things You’ll Need
Computer manuals and system summary information
Contact information for your IT department
System Tools utility for your operating system
Antivirus software
Whether you are attempting to fix a problem yourself or contacting the IT department for help, you need to know the configuration of your computer and system for the best results. Located on most PCs and Macs is a system Information window that provides information about your operating system, type of computer, and size of memory. Learn where your system summary is on your computer. On most Microsoft PC systems, select Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, System Summary.
Most office computers are networked to a central computer, usually called the server. Larger organizations sometimes have multiple servers to manage all their computers. Usually each individual employee, or department, has designated space to use on the server. Sometimes, the IT department creates the appearance of a separate drive, such as the H drive or I drive, to designate this space on the shared server system. The server computer systems are generally backed up daily by the IT department. Again, contact your IT department for this information, record the information, and keep it handy for future reference.
Each computer also has a separate hard drive, usually called the C drive. This C drive is where all software programs are installed and run. The C drive also can store My Documents, Internet favorites, and email attachments. The C drives of individual computers are usually not backed up by the IT department. If you are storing documents and information on your C drive, you need to find an alternative method of backing up your data. For more information, see the online chapter “Managing the Daily Data Deluge.” This can be found at www.quepublishing.com.
Located on most computer systems is a standard file manager software, where you can view and organize all your files. On Microsoft systems, it is called Windows Explorer and is usually identified as the file folder icon with a magnifying glass on top of it.
In this program you can also locate system information. Click to highlight a drive name (a drive usually has an alpha letter next to it); then right–click to produce a pop-up menu of options. Select Properties from the menu and the Properties dialog box appears, containing information about that drive, including its size, function, and available space. If you right-click a folder and select Properties, the folder’s property dialog box shows you the size of that particular folder. File manager programs typically are the easiest places to find, organize, and access data. You don’t have to remember with which software a document was associated—you merely have to click the document you want. It automatically opens the software program.
Sometimes a significant portion of your work day is spent trying to troubleshoot problems with your computer and other equipment. Knowing basic troubleshooting and maintenance techniques for your computer and other hardware devices can come in handy. Better yet, by performing basic computer maintenance tasks, you often can avoid problems altogether. Performing basic troubleshooting and maintenance saves you time, and thus serves as an important part of your work day organization plan.
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This section lists some basic computer maintenance processes for most computer systems. Check with your IT department and your computer consultant to see whether there are any others that you should perform regularly based on your particular computer system.
You should clean up your hard drive annually by removing nonessential files, such as temporary files, cookies, deleted files, and downloaded files. With Microsoft operating systems, you can clean up your hard drive by selecting Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools; then click Disk Cleanup. It automatically scans your C drive system for files that could be deleted. Review the Disk Cleanup options, recommendations, and files before clicking OK.
Defragmenting reorganizes the space in your hard drive and increases the efficiency of the system. It is important to defragment your hard drive monthly to increase the efficiency and speed of your computer.
To perform a defragmentation on Microsoft PC systems, select Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools; then click Disk Defragmentation. Click your C drive and click OK. Mac systems don’t usually have built-in defragmentation tools, so you must purchase one from a third party, such as Norton Utilities. Follow the directions for using your defragmentation tool, and be sure all your documents are closed when you perform this process. It can take up to an hour to perform a defragmentation, depending on your system.
To help protect your computer from worms, Trojan horses, and other computer attacks, it is important to update your virus scan software weekly and run a full system virus scan monthly. Most virus scan software has an automatic schedule built in that performs a full system update and virus scan automatically. If you are not able to update your virus scan software, you might have to renew your monthly subscription to perform this function.
To date, most viruses do not affect Macintosh computers, though some do. Norton (www.norton.com) and McAfee (www.mcafee.com) are two well-known manufacturers of third-party antivirus software.
Although everyone can benefit from learning a few basic troubleshooting techniques, this knowledge is particularly important for those who work at home (and don’t have the benefit of an IT department). Depending on your computer issues, here are a few basic troubleshooting techniques to try before calling in a computer technician:
• Turn off your computer and reboot completely. If your computer is not responding at all, hold down the power button until it turns off.
• Check all power cords and make sure everything is plugged in correctly. Sometimes, cords get slightly pulled out and cause a malfunction.
• For PC systems, press Ctrl+Alt+Del (all at the same time) and click Task Manager. Highlight the program that seems to be malfunctioning and click End Task. This shuts down that particular program; then you can reopen it.
• Update your virus scan software and then perform a full system virus scan. If your computer identifies a virus, call your computer technician immediately.
tip
When you get your computer, copy machine, or printer serviced, take the time to be present and learn the troubleshooting steps your professional performs. Don’t hesitate to ask questions that will help you understand the basic processes for maintaining your equipment and troubleshooting other problems.
You can learn more by taking a computer class at your local community center or adult learning center. Also, take the time to find a reliable computer consultant who can assist you with computer issues and problems as they arise. Contact the Independent Computer Consultants Association (www.icca.org) or your local telephone directory to find someone in your area.
note
Whether you are working on a PC system or a Mac, the same organizing philosophy applies to both. Throughout this book, most of the suggestions are geared for PC systems but can be applied in the same methodology to Macs. Appendix A, “References and Resources,” contains a brief glossary of technical terms that might be useful to review and reference.
It is important when working on a computer every day to have proper placement to avoid injuries. Here are a few computer ergonomic tips:
• Purchase an antiglare filter for your computer screen.
• Purchase a footrest for underneath your desk. This can be beneficial if you experience back pain.
• Consider mounting a keyboard tray under your desk for more comfortable typing.
• Consider purchasing a wrist rest or ergonomic mouse to prevent hand and wrist disorders. Also take a break from typing every hour to relax your hands.
• Place your monitor about 28″ away from you.
• Consider using document holders that hold documents vertically. This can help with neck pain.
For more information about computer ergonomics, go to one of these websites:
• Healthy Computing (www.healthycomputing.com)
• International Ergonomic Association (www.iea.cc)
• U.S. Department of Labor (http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/ergonomics/index.html)
Creating matching filing systems for both paper and electronic data makes it easier for you to sort, access, and organize information. By reducing the amount of paper you print and saving your data electronically, you will reap enormous savings in time and expense. To feel comfortable with electronic data storage, however, you need to understand a few computer basics. If you have difficulties sorting out exactly how your computer works, you might benefit from taking a class or talking with your computer consultant or IT system manager.
In this chapter we learned how to
• Reduce paper consumption and avoid printing. Keep information in electronic form and rely on your computer for your data.
• Create a master outline structure of all your information and data. Use this outline as the basis for organizing all your paper and electronic systems.
• Perform regular computer maintenance to optimize your computer system.
• Take a computer class to understand the basics of your computer, troubleshooting, and maintenance.
In the next chapter, “Creating the Perfect File System,” we discuss in detail how to create an electronic and paper file system that is easy to use and maintain.