by Eileen Roth
To Write Correspondence, reports, Enter items and deadlines on Master
memos, letters List before filing (see Chapter 18).
12 Months Action items for upcoming Label folders for each month and
months put them all in a hanging file. At
month’s end, sort items for the
next month and file into preceding
categories.
File Index List of your current files Use as a checklist to see if you
already have a file made.
Your Take Action files should get the most traffic of any in your system, so keep them in the front of your closest file drawer. If you’re very visual, try a desktop holder such as the Decoflex (Figure 16-3) to keep your to-do items in view.
Those keeping score may have noticed that there’s no To Sign or To File in the Take Action File system. Why? Items requiring your signature should be processed right away. If for some reason you run out of time, put them in your To Do File. And I’d like to eliminate the phrase “to file” from everyone’s vocabulary. Just do it now! If you have an assistant who does your filing for you, use a special tray, located on your credenza or nearby surface, for this purpose only.
Figure 16-3: The Decoflex keeps the Take Action File in easy reach.
In the Information Age, those who efficiently manage the abundance of communications and news are likely to emerge as the most productive and powerful. By putting information in its place, you can keep cutting-edge knowledge at your fingertips and clutter out of your life. Let it flow!
The great project file debate
You probably know what happens when To Do items turn into actual doing: some of them grow beyond a few pieces of paper and need their own project file. In theory, filing current project files in your permanent system under the appropriate category is most efficient, especially if you share them with others. However, some people work so frequently with current project files that keeping them in the drawer closest at hand makes sense. If that’s the case for you, designate a project drawer within fingertip reach. Place your Take Action Files in front and your Project Files in a separate section behind. As projects are completed, purge the files for unnecessary papers, then transfer them to your permanent system.
Chapter 17
Cyberorganization: The Next Frontier
In This Chapter
Choosing the right technology for the task
Organizing the phone, fax, and features
Keeping your computer cleaned up
Managing electronic files and e-mail
Making the most of your Internet connection
How being wired can save you time and money
F irst there was the telephone. Next came the computer. Then the two got together, and the information race was on. The world is wired, and systematic people are generally the winners in the technology steeplechase. Whatever your level of electronic expertise, when you organize your virtual life, you can find yourself wired for success.
This chapter is designed to help you handle everything that comes in and goes out over the wires. You can discover strategies to leverage technology at home, at the office, on the road — anywhere information flows in bits and bytes.
Choosing Your Communication Mode
With so many wired ways now available to converse, send and receive messages, transfer documents and data — to communicate — half the organ- izational battle is in choosing the most effective and efficient one for the circumstance. An e-mail may be cheaper than a long-distance telephone call but not if you spend too much valuable time writing out a delicate point that may be handled better live, or going back and forth to reach a decision. A fax is great for getting a document on somebody’s desk fast, but not nearly as efficient as e-mailing the file if the recipient needs to edit it. Table 17-1 summa- rizes which wires are best for various types of tasks to help you choose your communicative mode fast.
Table 17-1Which Wire? Method Best Use
Phone Reaching a decision or
making a plan
Getting an immediate answer
Delivering a quick message to
voice mail when you know the
recipient won’t answer
Reaching an individual
Video conference Sharing information and dis-
or broadcast cussing issues among a group
of people across distance
Teaching/distance learning
Fax Conveying technical informa
tion that is easier to read than
hear
Important communications
requiring documentation
Broadcasting a document to a
group of recipients who don’t
all have e-mail
E-mail Quick, paperless, one-way
communications
Broadcasting information to a
group of recipients
Sending a file that the user
will edit or use electronically
Maximizing Wired Efficiency
Once you decide on the device, what can you connect it with? The type of your wired connections is becoming an increasingly important component of time management on the job and at home. Bandwidth is what tech-savvy people call the capacity of a line to transmit and receive data. Generally, the bigger the bandwidth of a line, the faster and more reliably information flows through it. There are specialists whose sole job is matching bandwidth to people’s and systems’ needs because bandwidth costs money. Fortunately, if you deal with less than a massive computer system, you can settle for deciding how many lines you need, and how big they can be.
Divide communication lines by the way that you use them. If you work for a corporation, someone else has taken care of this at the office. At home or in a small business setting, the wires you need may include
Separate phone lines for business and personal use. No client or associate wants to talk to your 3-year-old.
One to two more lines for fax and Internet use. You may double up Internet access with your phone or fax line if traffic on either is light. With Web-based services available to receive phone calls and faxes while you’re online, you can multitask with a single wire and catch every contact as it comes. But beware: This may drive you crazy fast if you spend much of your time online and get many calls.
I don’t recommend sharing the phone line with the fax unless you have a DSL connection, because there’s no way to take a call while you send or receive a fax. If you only fax occasionally and don’t care, get an answering machine or voice mail that can automatically route incoming faxes.
A separate kids’ line if you have some good talkers in the family.
Paper or Electronic: A File Is a File
Whether the file comes to you by snail mail or e-mail, pops out of your printer or sits on your hard drive, a file is a file, and should be evaluated and organized accordingly. Your electronic files — e-mail, word processing, graphics, sound clips, spreadsheets, checkbooks, all the files on your computer — should mirror the paper file system explained in Chapter 16. If you haven’t read that chapter yet, I recommend you do so now. Following is a rundown of information flow principles as they pertain to electronic files.
Wasting not thy disk space
Computer files you don’t need are just as detrimental to your performance and peace as piles of useless papers. Excess computer files crowd the screen, making it harder to find the file you want. They fool you into opening them thinking that they’re something else. Worst of all, they waste disk space.
Nobody knows the value of bytes better than the administrators of corporate computer networks, whose job requires allocating scarce storage space among many network functions to achieve maximum companywide efficiency. You know the jokes you’re storing? The ancient reports and memos? Multiply all the unnecessary files on your computer by the 100, 1,000, or 10,000 employees of your
company, and the result represents a big chunk of costly resources going to waste.
Computer files can be archived much more space-efficiently than paper files — so when in doubt about whether to save something, simply move the file off your hard drive and onto a backup. Send anything you haven’t used in a year to the trash.
Filtering file flow: Deciding what to save
Your decision whether to save or delete a file can help keep useful info at your fingertips or drag you and your computer down with stuff you don’t need. To avoid the latter scenario later, you need to filter information by asking yourself some essential questions about the file in question. Apply the five W-A-S-T-E questions to every computer file you save, and stay as clear electronically as you aim to be in the hard-copy world. (See Chapter 16 for more on using W-A-S-T-E to decide what to keep and what to throw away.)
Is it worthwhile? Keep an e-mail engaging your services and naming the terms. Toss an Internet joke. If you’re going to forward it, do so right away and delete it before closing.
Will I use the file again? Keep a handout for a presentation you may give again. Toss e-mail you answered. Note any follow-ups in your Take Action File; move the mail to the appropriate folder if you need it for official records.
Can I easily find it somewhere else? Keep all essential computer documentation. Have you ever tried to get a major software maker on the phone? Save any information that can keep you out of the hold queue as well as paper and electronic copies of things you refer to on paper and update frequently — training programs, interoffice telephone lists, address lists, form letters, recipes, and so on. Toss Web site printouts. Bookmark the site so you can easily find it again. Do you have inactive files with printed copies? Decide whether you want to keep the file in paper or electronic form and toss the other one.
Will anything happen if I toss the file? Keep e-mails with relevant information for a current project, and documents required by your retention schedule or that can be used again — form letters, templates, overhead presentations, and so on. Toss e-mails that have been handled, pertain to closed projects, or have no value, as well as previous drafts of a document after it’s been submitted, approved, or published.
Do I need the entire item? Keep e-mails with important information or documentation. (Move them to file folders in your system.) Toss unnecessary information from e-mails: headers, footers, signature lines, threads, a copy of your original e-mail, and unimportant portions of text.
Q: What’s the best time to purge your e-mail? A: When you read it. Computer files provide a great clue at cleanup time — the date that shows when you last worked on them. If the file you face is more than a year old and your retention schedule allows, send the file to the trash.
We have a winner
Great! You filtered the files by using W-A-S-T-E and you have a few that passed the criteria that you really do need to save. Electronic files may be less physically tangible than paper, but they can still follow the ABC’s of filing outlined in the previous chapter. To make sense of cyber files
Active: Distinguish between active and inactive files. Use the criteria discussed in Chapter 16 to determine which of your electronic files are active. Inactive files can be moved to a backup medium or purged.
Basic: Know your basic tools. The computer provides wonderful organizing tools in the form of filing systems you can manage with a click of the mouse: Explorer in Windows, the desktop for Mac users, and filing cabinets in many e-mail programs. In each of these, you can create folders and subfolders and use them just as you do hanging and file folders in your paper system.
Classify. Follow the system in Chapter 16 to classify your electronic files, creating level one folders for main categories and subfolders inside to hold subcategories. Need to go to level three for a sub-subcategory? No problem. A computer loves a classification structure that works like an index.
Just as you file papers according to category rather than how they were produced, arrange your electronic files by subject regardless of what program they come from. For instance, in my . . .For Dummies folder I have word-processing, spreadsheet, and e-mail files for this book. Centralizing by subject makes it easier to find and open everything you need to work on a project, as well as to back up new information at the end of the day.
Unfortunately, computers don’t currently provide a way to use color in your filing system. However, color is a great tool in word-processing and other documents, where you can use colored type or highlighting to call attention to key areas, edits, or questions. The track changes function employs color to show text that’s been changed since the last version. Explore this option if you edit documents with others or like to track your own work.
Wired: Phone, Fax, and the Internet
With your electronic files all cleaned up, you’re ready to get back to business. But before you pick up the phone, send a fax, or sign on to the Internet, stop to consider the many ways you can optimize your wired connections. Being organized in the wired world means choosing the right features for your phone. Programming your fax machine for efficient function and tidying up your transaction report tactics. Using the worldwide power of the Internet to save time and facilitate information flow. Following are some ways to a higher-wired IQ.
Old and new ways: The phone
One of the first shots fired in the communications revolution, the phone remains as popular as ever. (Do you doubt me? Take a look around at all the people chatting on their cell phones.) But is a telephone always your best connection? The phone’s greatest strength can also be a time-wasting weakness: Calls take place in the present moment whether they work with your schedule and priority list or not. The goal is to take control. There are many means to get there.
Assistants/secretaries: Nice if you can get one, an assistant can screen and prioritize calls, handle those that don’t require your personal attention, and take messages. However, if you don’t have many calls or extra administrative work for an assistant to do, managing and paying one may cost more time and money than it’s worth.
Answering machines: Available in many models with all sorts of features, answering machines enable you to screen incoming messages and don’t cost anything after the initial purchase. Because calls can’t roll over if you’re on the line or someone else is leaving a message, a machine is generally not suitable for anything but the smallest of businesses, but an answering machine can certainly do the job at home. Phone-heavy families may want a machine with multiple mailboxes so you can route messages by recipient.
Computer voice mail programs: Essentially an answering machine on your computer, this solution has several snags. The program only works when your computer is on, meaning you have to leave it powered up all night and when you travel to serve as your main message system. If you take messages instead of calls while working on an important project, each incoming call freezes your computer and interrupts your workflow. Some programs have low sampling rates and hence poor sound quality. If you also have an answering machine on the line and leave both on by mistake, they can cancel each other out.
The main advantage of these programs is that they usually include fax capabilities, which are discussed later in the chapter.
Voice mail: Internal to the phone system, in your office or with your local carrier, voice mail can receive messages when you’re on the line, away from the phone, or receiving another message, and it’s the way to go if you don’t want to miss a contact. The disadvantage is that you can’t selectively pick up important or long-distance calls when you’re busy or on another line. What if your boss or a key client from Singapore calls while you discuss tonight’s dinner menu with your spouse?
Caller identification: An electronic device that displays the phone number of incoming calls can help you decide what calls to take. If you’re on the line, calls will flash on the display as they roll over to voice mail. Caller ID can be helpful if you have no other way to screen calls, but it’
s still an interruption and won’t help you identify people calling from blocked numbers or phones other than their own.
Call waiting: If you’re on a call and another call comes in, an electronic beep notifies you of the second call. A tap to the receiver enables you to put the first call on hold and pick up call number two.
I consider call waiting an interruption that can decrease the productivity of a call, and it’s rude. Instead of call waiting, let calls roll to voice mail when you’re on the line, and then return them at your convenience. Get caller ID if you need to watch for important ones, so you’re only rude when it counts. If you juggle business and personal calls, do not pass go: Get a second line.
Pagers: A pager provides ultimate control over incoming calls, though using one means you have to call everyone back on your own dime. A pager/voice mail is the most powerful version, as the page notifies you of the caller’s number the second the call comes in, and you can then check the message to see what the call’s about. Many highly mobile people, such as sales reps and consultants, use a pager with voice mail and a cellular phone as their primary contact system.
Cordless phones: Going cordless is great for phone-hounds who like to get things done while they gab. Though I don’t recommend multitasking while doing business on the phone, why not repot a plant or pick up toys while talking with Mom? The hardcore may want a headset to free up your hands and get the crick out of your neck.
Cellular phones: Answer honestly: Is your cell phone a tool or a toy? Mobile phones are appropriate for those who have frequent out-of-the-office engagements; for safety when driving at night or in bad weather; and for parents who want to be reachable for children’s emergencies.