How to Organize your Desk

Video Transcript

"Alright, so if paperwork is over taking your desk and you don’t know how to file, I actually get asked this question a lot- how do I file? Well, one of the first things you want to do is separate all your mail, all your paper work into related categories. This means all your electric bills in one pile, all your water bills go in another pile- everything related to auto or car insurance will go in a third pile. And then what I would do is I would take folders and just label them at the top- it would say something like car papers. And within that I would have sub-categories or sub-folders, and it would be labeled, you know, warranty information, maintenance information, and insurance information. That way, anything that maybe relates to an accident that I had, I can make another folder here and label it “Accident 2005” and put any paper relating to that particular incident in that folder. So once you’ve done that with most of your major categories, it’s easy to organize. Like I have car papers here, phone service, I have my dog’s files here- you know, when they go to the vet and have all work done on them. I also have these random papers laying around, like a maybe a paper for jury duty or a receipt for a ticket I paid off or something like that. what I’ll do in that case is make a file called “Reference.” And I’d label this one “Reference 1.” Inside I have a paper here, and I have the items and descriptions. Over here I’d write something like jury duty, you know-this is relating to 2005, etc. Or I’ll have “ticket” and this will say “speeding ticket 2005 paid off, so and so, check number such and such.” That way all the information that doesn’t really belong in a particular category can easily be stored in a reference file and you can just look at the front and just tape this down over here, and you know exactly what’s in there. "