Business Office Tips

Index of Tips:
Mail, Bills, Clutter-Free & Organized Question, Catalogs, Presort, Meetings, File Cabinet, Procrastination Preventers, Radio Interview, IRS, Telemarketers, File Folders, Records Retention Program, Alphabetizing
 

Are You Drowning In Mail?

1. Have a designated place to sort mail.
2. Have a specific place for bills, children’s mail, etc.
3. Stand over recycle or waste paper basket for first sorting.
4. Ask yourself the “Clutter-free & Organized” question - Did I ask for it?
5. Call 800 numbers of catalogues you don’t order from, ask to be
taken off mailing list.

Click here to download the Project Action Plan.

WOW yourself for your organizing successes! Click here to download and print this page, then place it where you'll be reminded of what you've accomplished.

Office Organizing Tips

1. Stand while doing presort, you are more decisive
2. Hold meetings while standing, they will be shorter
3. As you pick up each piece of paper mark what the next action is
4. Have a big wastebasket by the desk
5. Have a wastebasket by the file cabinet, it encourages purging as
you work.

Three Procrastination Preventers:
1. If it takes less than 3 – 5 minutes, Do It Now.
2. Will I have any more information in an hour, day, or week?
If not, Do It Now.
3. If I don’t want to do it now, will I want to do it later? If not, Do It Now.

If item can’t be completed, add value to it each time you touch it.
Print a copy of the Do It Now sheet and hang it where you tend to procrastinate.

Organize for more time, space, and freedom! Call Mary today!
423-581-9460 or 865-607-9460 or 888-835-6335.

Mary's Interview on the Hallerin Hilton Hill Morning Show

Audio clips from Mary's radio interview:
• Life Is To Live
• How to Get Started
• Organizing the Car
• How a Professional Organizer Can Help—Even If You're Organized
• Organizing the Garage
• Start with a Corner
• Organizing Hal's Studio
• Keeping Your Desk Clean

Link to IRS site

Cell Phone TeleMarketers
A directory of cell phone numbers will soon be published for all consumers to have access to. This will open the doors for solicitors to call you on your cell phone, using up precious minutes that we pay lots of money for. The Federal Trade Commission has set up a do-not-call list. It is called a cell phone registry. To be included, you must call from the phone you wish to be registered. The number is 1-888-382-1222. Or you can go to their website at www.donotcall.gov and add your number to the do-not-call list. Give this to friends who have cell phones.

Filing Guidelines

Colored file folders:
• Color by category: all personnel files are green; all research files are blue
• Color by subject: personnel changes go in the orange folder;
management retreat documents go in the purple folder
• Color by priority: all To Dos go in the red folder; all correspondence to
be answered goes in the pink folder.

How to Establish a Records Retention Program
• Inventory the records currently in use, and note the present retention
period for each record. You may discover needlessly long retention
periods. Responsible persons in each department should be asked
to recommend a minimum retention.
• A committee of the records manager, office manager, and company
counsel should analyze this information in view of statutory requirements.
• Develop a company-wide record retention program, and put it into
manual form. The manual should be distributed to all those having
responsibility for records. Put someone permanently in charge of the
manual.

Nothing Comes Before Something
A last name, when used alone, stands ahead of a last name with a first initial. This in turn precedes a last name with a full first name.

Adair
Adair, J.
Adair, James
Adair, James R.
Adair, James R., Jr.
Adamson, John
Adamson, John, Jr.

Prefixes Are Part of Names
Consider all prefixes as part of the name to which they are attached. Arrange them exactly as spelled.
Deems, A.
DeLuca, F.
Des Jardins, Charles
Fitzherbert, Mary
FitzPatrick, James
MacIntosh, L.B.J.
McDonald, Lewis
Sainforin, Roger
Saint John, Oliver
Saintjohn, Richard

Arrange Hyphenated Names As Written
Goldthwaite-Smythe, Lisa
Goldthwaite-Smythe Mortuary
Goldthwaite-Smythe, Norma

One Word is Better Than Two
Any two words ordinarily written as one word should be treated as one word.

“ Interstate” not “Inter State”
“ Northeast” not “North East”

Two-Word Geographical Names Are Filed as Though They Were One Word

Des Moines
New Haven
New Jersey
Rio de Janeiro
Winston-Salem
--are all filed as though they were one word.

Rules for Alphabetizing

1. File in strict alphabetical order. Smith, James comes before
Smith, Joan.
2. All words are considered part of the alphabetical filing unit, except
for “the.” Thompson Associates comes before The Village Voice.
3. Spell out symbols and file alphabetically. # becomes number,
$ becomes dollar, & becomes and.
4. Ignore punctuation. Hyphenated words are considered one word.
5. Arabic and Roman numerals are filed sequentially before
alphabetical headings.
1-Stop Shopping
5-Minute Martinizers
15-Minute Messenger Service
VII Samurai Teriyaki
6. If the surname is not evident, file by the last word, and cross-reference
the folder by the first word as well. Ying Yuen Li—file as Li, Ying Yuen
and as Ying, Yuen Li.

Nine out of ten times buying more filing cabinets is not necessary!
Call Mary to update your file system!
423-581-9460 or 865-607-9460 or
Toll-free 888-835-6335