Blog | Reduce the Chaos

The Paper Shuffle Dance

Posted on March 8, 2014 by Susan

Are you doing the Paper Shuffle Dance and Feeling Frustrated?

This dance has a variety of different shuffling steps, depending on the dancer’s style. The steps may look different, but the end result is the same. All these shuffling steps end in paper clutter with many wasted hours and lots of frustration.

Are your familiar with any of these paper shuffling techniques?

Paper Shuffle Dance Steps:

Sorting a large stack of paper by making several smaller stacks of paper
Sorting through a large stack of paper every time you need a document
Moving a stack of papers from one physical place to another
Rearranging the order of the large stack of papers
Hiding or boxing up the paper stacks so it is “out of sight”

If you know any of these paper shuffle dance steps and would like to stop the dance, we have some solutions for you. We are going to show you some new dance steps that you can take that will have you feeling lighter and save you hours of time every year.

Like anything else, how you deal with your papers has become a habit and habits can be changed. Are you ready to stop the paper shuffle dance?

Steps to End the Paper Shuffle Dance:

The first step to stop the dance is to decide that you are going to make changes starting NOW! Not tomorrow, not next week or next month. Start reducing your paper chaos today!

The second step is to set up a paper handling system that is easy to use and easy to maintain. To start your paper hadling system, start with your current papers and follow the simple instructions in our article: Piles of Paper – What to do with them!

Posted in Office Organizing, Uncategorized | Tagged files, filing, Organizing, paper, paper organizing, paperwork | Leave a comment

Business Social Sites: Ghost Towns or Thriving Marketplaces

Posted on February 8, 2014 by Susan

Have you ever visited a business social site to find out it had not been updated in a couple of years? Ghost town business sites are those dry, dusty and deserted social pages that businesses start and then abandon. An active business site is like a thriving marketplace, one where people are interacting and business is happening.

A businesses social site is their online, electronic billboard and should be treated as the valuable business tool and asset that it can be. Like any other business tool, it is only good if you make use of it. Which category do your business social sites currently fall into: thriving city marketplace or ghost town, or somewhere in between?

5 Reasons for Active Social Sites:

Potential clients and customers can find your business contact information
Clients and customers can easily share your business with their friends and others
Clients and customers can give reviews and tell others about a positive experience
Communication of upcoming sales/events/specials offers and much more
Worldwide Visibility and keeping your business in front of customers and potential customers

5 Reasons Leaving Social Sites Unmonitored can be Detrimental to your Business:

People visiting them will wonder if you are still in business
Outdated contact and business information on the site can mean lost business
People can post negative, untrue or inappropriate things on the social sites
Quick responses to questions is expected
Your social sites can be hijacked and used to damage your business reputation

The younger generations, even the majority of those in their 50’s, are using social sites to find businesses and to check out what others are saying about that business before making any contact to purchase or use their services.

Is your business suffering from inactive or sporadic social site interaction and are your social sites more like ghost towns than thriving active city marketplaces? Keeping regular content on your social sites is one of the challenges of doing business today. One of the main reasons businesses stop using their sites is the time involved to keep a steady stream of information across multiple sites.

That is why many businesses use social media managers and virtual assistants to keep up with the fast pace of the ever changing landscape of social media and technology. They spend time weekly keeping up with the changes. Consult with a virtual assistant and social media manger to see how they can take that ghost town and turn it into a business asset today.

Posted in Online Office, Social Media | Tagged ContentManagement, Facebook, SocialMedia, VirtualAssisting | Leave a comment

Pardon Me, Your Age is Showing on Facebook!

Posted on June 22, 2013 by Susan

Is your age showing on Facebook?

If you don’t know, you will want to check right away. Having your full birthday accessible to everyone leaves you vulnerable to identity theft.

Is your age/birth year showing on your birthday notification or to the general public on your Facebook? Have you noticed that some people have their age in brackets and some don’t when you see the Facebook notice that it’s their birthday? If you are wondering how to change this – here is a quick step by step guide.

You can change your birthday on Facebook if you entered the wrong date or year or for any other reason, by following these quick steps:

1. Log into you Facebook account

2. On the dark blue bar at the top (known as the Facebook dashboard), click on your name to get to your profile page.

Facebook Birthday Screen Shot

3. Click on the word “About” (under your profile picture) and scroll down

4. In the “Basic Info” section, click “Edit”

5. Change your birthday, or the settings:

These are the 3 setting choices:
A: Show my full birthday on my timeline
B: Show only month & day on my timeline
C: Don’t show my birthday on my timeline

Setting Choices for Birthdate

Choice “A” shows anyone your full birthday, including the year. This is not a good idea because of identity theft! (Not to mention you can’t lie about your age or everyone will know on Facebook)
Choice “B” lets people know it’s your birthday so they can send you birthday greetings without the risk of identity theft – or everyone knowing your age… 😉
Choice “C” for those who don’t want birthday greetings and prefer to forget that they have a birthday.

Above choices are up to you!

You can also change or update any other information you want to in this section before you save changes.

NOTE: Be sure to scroll down the page and click Save.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Bonfire, Cold Storage or the Clouds? Client File Management

Posted on December 3, 2012 by Susan

Open File Cabinet Which choice is best for those old client files? No one wants bad memories hanging around! Old client files can be a reminder of a loss and take up valuable space. So what do you do with those old client files that are sitting around your office? No, you can’t just throw them out… as much as you might want to! You do need to keep the files for tax and legal reasons for a few years. For more tax information click on the link to the IRS website.

Here are some things you can do move those old client files from a prime location and to lessen the space they take up. Whether you make the decision to store a paper file or scan and keep the information in an electronic file (in the cloud), there are some steps that need to be taken:

Determine what types of things need to be kept:
1. Signed contracts and other legal documents
2. Emails/letters to and from the client
3. Notes from meetings and/or conversations
4. Invoices/Statements
5. Anything that might be needed if there are legal issues in the future
6. Remove what you don’t need from the client file, then toss it in the shredding or recycle bin. (Be sure to protect client confidential information and privacy by shredding)
Prepare the file for the method of storage you will be using:
1. Keeping paper files:
  1. Box up the files by the year and clearly mark the box. Include the date that the file box can be shredded.
  2. Put the box in a secure location that is dry and protected from dirt/rodents/pets.
  3. Keep a running list of what is in the boxes and their disposal dates.
2. Converting paper files to electronic:
  1. Scan each client file into a well labeled electronic file folder.
  2. Make backup files of the electronic files or have off-site electronic secure storage in case of theft or fire/flood.
  3. Have a system for deleting files once they are no longer needed.

Posted in Office Organizing, Organizing Office Work Spaces, Organizing Paperwork | Leave a comment

Cure for Contact Information Chaos

Posted on February 7, 2012 by Susan

My grandmother’s address book was one of her most valued possessions. I remember it as an old tattered book with scraps of envelopes and bits of paper hanging out of it. Over the years, as people moved or passed away, she would have to rewrite and organize, in alphabetical order, every one of her contacts into a new book. The loss of her address book would have been devastating and would have taken a great deal of effort to recreate. How valuable is your contact information to you?

In order to save time and reduce the chaos that comes from having ineffective systems for handling contact information, my recommendation is to use an email program, like Google’s gmail or Microsoft Outlook, to keep all your contacts. Keep the contacts somewhere in cyberspace so that you can log into it from almost anywhere to access your contacts. Keeping the contacts only in a spreadsheet is good until the hard drive crashes or a disaster strikes and you lose everything. Exception: you use a remote backup service. If you have a business with a need for a large and specialized capacity for customer management there are Software programs like ACT that can be used.

The benefits of using electronic programs for contact information:

Easily track a variety of contact information, including birthdays, anniversaries, or notes on their likes or dislikes
Contact information can easily be updated, added to or deleted
Contact information can be easily sent to and shared with others
Lists of contacts can be printed out and sorted by the specific information you want
Can easily download contacts to a spreadsheet that can be edited and uploaded to another computer program

If you are like me, I like paper, but it isn’t practical any more to keep my contact information on paper now that we have computers. Keeping track of your contacts and their information is one of the many things that computers are much better at. It is time to make some changes and get your contacts organized!

How To Organize Your Contact Information:

First: Assess how organized is your contact information?

Where do you keep your valuable contact information?
Is the information safe from fire, flood, or theft?
Can you easily add or delete more contacts?
Can you easily find contact information when it is needed?
How many places, paper and electronic, do you keep your contact information?

Second: Organize your contact information

Decide what electronic program you want to use to contain all your contact information
Gather all your paper contact information in one place
Enter all the contact information in the electronic program (Note: keep the paper contact info for a short time in case of input errors)
Merge all other electronic contact information into the program you chose
Periodically spend time updating your contacts

Most important is to reduce the chaos by keeping all of your contact information in a centralized place!

If you would like assistance getting all your contact information into an electronic format, contact me to find out how I can help you with that.

Posted in Office Organizing, Organizing, Organizing Paperwork, Uncategorized | Tagged Organizing, Organizing Offices, organizing paperwork | Leave a comment

Piles of Paper – What To Do With Them?

Posted on June 25, 2011 by Susan

Do you have Piles of Paper?

We have all been in offices or homes where plies of paper are stacked high on every available surface, including the floor. Stacks of paper, drawers full of paper, boxes of paper, rooms full of paper are taking over our lives. Lets take back our lives and our time!

Wasn’t the invention of the computer supposed to decrease the amount of paper we use? It didn’t! The average office worker handles over 10,000 pieces of paper every month! Even people who are somewhat organized can have difficulty keeping up with the sheer volume of paper.
Continue reading →

Posted in Office Organizing, Organizing Paperwork | Tagged office, Organizing, organizing mail and paperwork, organizing paperwork, Organizing Your Office Space | Leave a comment

Organizing Mail and Paperwork

Posted on September 27, 2010 by Susan

That pesky mail just keeps coming and tends to pile up or get scattered around the house. Having a good system for handling your incoming mail and paperwork is key to keeping your life organized. There are some simple steps you can take to help keep the mail under control, make life simpler and reduce the chaos. These easy steps will only take a couple of minutes a day and save you hours every month.

Five Easy Steps to Manage Your Mail:

Set up a specific place to handle your mail and paperwork with all the items you need within easy reach.
Open and Sort the mail as soon as you receive it into these suggested categories:
1. Shredding bin – any documents/envelopes with personal information that can be discarded immediately
2. Recycling bin – for sales adds, magazines, and envelopes without personal information that can be discarded
3. To Read bin – magazines, sales ads, newspapers, etc. to be read later
4. To Do/Follow-Up bin – for action items that need further attention
5. To Pay bin – bills and invoices to sort into folders by due date
  1. For bills/invoices if you don’t pay them on line, set up 4 file folders: 1) 1st -10th, 2) 11th -20th, 3) 21st – 31st, 4) Next month/Future
  2. Place bills in these folders according to their due date.
  3. Check the folders 5 working days before the first date on the folders (take into consideration holidays and weekends) and process the bills. For example: the 11th-20th folder you would check on the 6th of the month and process the bills/invoices in the folder.
  4. Distribute Next Month/Future folder’s bills/invoices into appropriate folders when you process the bills/invoices for the 1st -10th.
Set specific days and times to deal with the mail on a regular basis, minimum of once a week.
Adjust this system as needed to meet your individual needs, or try a different system if this doesn’t work for you.
Being consistent with maintaining the system is key to making it work.

Dealing with the mail on a daily basis prevents more chaos and piles, which take even more time to deal with. When you keep up with the paperwork you will feel less stress, pay fewer late fees, and have more time to enjoy life.

“The contents of this post are intended to be purely educational in nature, and are not intended to be used as legal or financial advice. In all legal matters, consult an attorney, in all financial matters consult with an accountant. Use of these examples without due diligence is at your own risk.”

Posted in Organizing, Organizing Paperwork | Tagged mail handling system, Organizing, organizing mail and paperwork, organizing paperwork | Leave a comment

The High Cost of Being Disorganized

Posted on August 29, 2010 by Susan

Here is a good example of how a person’s disorganization can have financial, time and stress costs for themselves and those around them.

A person was going out of town for several days and had hired a house sitter to watch their home and animals. They forgot to leave the key for the house sitter! Fortunately someone had a spare key for the home in case of emergencies. The homeowner called both the key holder and the house sitter with contact information. This entailed the house sitter and the person with the emergency key having to meet up, taking time out of their schedules to hand off the key.

Much to the house sitters dismay, while at the home to hand off the key, the utility company arrived to turn off the power due to an unpaid bill. Fortunately the holder of the emergency key was able to pay the bill. Had the utility company turned off the power to the house the sitter would have been in the dark and all the food in the refrigerator would have been spoiled, not to mention the poor animals if the sitter had been unable to get into the home because of the forgotten key.

Had the homeowner not forgotten to pay the bill and then also forgotten to leave the key, the emergency key holder would not have been there to write a check for the utility company. Wonder if the disorganization was part of a divine plan, or if two organizing wrongs make a right?

How much is being disorganized costing you?

(Note: Client confidentiality is always honored and this story does not represent any Reduce the Chaos clients, it is a composite of several similar incidents encountered over the years.)

Posted in Organizing, Time Management | Tagged disorganized, money, oranizing | Leave a comment

Organizing Office Work Spaces:

Posted on August 23, 2010 by Susan

Work spaces that are well organized and arranged for maximum efficiency can save you hours every month. Using the wrong office furniture and layout will waste your time and can cause physical strain or injury. Sometimes disorganization has a lot to do with physical obstacles. Office organizing begins with the convenience of the layout and location of key items.

12 Questions to Ask About Your Office Work Space:

How do you feel about your office work space?
Is your current office set-up working for you or against you?
Is your chair comfortable, adjusted to the right height with good back support?
Do you have adequate lighting?
Do you have glare on your computer screen?
Are the things you use frequently within easy reach?
Do you have the keyboard and mouse positioned at waist level?
Is there a lot of visual clutter?
Is the space too isolated?
Is there adequate storage for files and supplies?
Is there too much noise and commotion?
Do you have to go to another room for frequently used supplies or files?

Office Workspace Do’s and Don’ts:

The best layout for an office work space is U-shaped, at the very least L-shaped. While sitting in your chair you should be able to swivel and easily reach everything you need to do your work.

Traffic flow can directly affect productivity. Traffic should flow easily in and out of the office, be aware of the traffic patterns and anything that blocks the traffic flow. Traffic flow in the office can impact how organized your office is and can cause papers to pile up between the door and the desk.

If at all possible use a furniture arrangement where you sit facing the door, not with your back to it. Most people prefer being able to see people as they enter or exit a room.

Place your inbox on the corner of your work area closest to the door. If your inbox is at the back of your desk people will leave things randomly on your desk, chair or on flat surfaces between the door and your desk.

Place the garbage can where you can easily drop items into it or the trash will end up on the desk top and floor.

Make sure there are no gaps between the furniture for paper items to disappear into.

Note: For people who are left handed the set up should be customized to accommodate your needs.

Tip:

Color has a big impact on your mood, energy, and productivity. The colors you use in your office have an impact on your business. Use a color that improves productivity and enhances your creativity. Colors will vary by personality type and individual tastes. If you are not sure about colors use a professional color consultant. People who tend to get stressed can use calming colors that also enhance their productivity. If you can’t change the wall color, use art or some other means to bring in the colors that do work well for you, and at the same time keep the space professional.
Copyright© 2010 Reduce the Chaos Sacramento, California. All Rights Reserved.

Posted in Office Organizing, Organizing Office Work Spaces | Tagged Office Space Organizing, Organizing Office Work Spaces, Organizing Offices, Organizing Your Office Space | Leave a comment

Time Management:

Posted on August 22, 2010 by Susan

Where are you spending your time? As much as I thought I knew about time management, it was a real eye opener when I did a pie chart of a typical 24 hour day in a work week. After getting 6-8 hours of sleep, working at least 8 hours plus our commute and lunch, there isn’t much time left over for meals, family, errands, hobbies, group activities, spiritual or educational pursuits, housework, and the other 101 things people need to get done every week.

Time management is more about how we manage tasks in the time we do have. Usually there are several things that could be done in any given hour. It is the choices we make about what we do in that given hour that has the biggest impact on our lives.

The bad news:There are no “Do Over” buttons on our days and years; once they are gone we can’t get them back.

The good news: Today we can start using the time we do have more wisely and make better choices by using great time management tools.

If you wonder where your time really goes try this exercise:

Do a personal time study. Write down all the things you spend your time on daily and how much time each task takes. Examples: commuting to work, washing the dishes, grocery shopping, watching TV, and sleeping. If you don’t know how much time a task takes, then time yourself over the course of a few days or a week to find out.

Now multiply the time for each thing you do by the day, week, month and year. You will probably be very surprised at how much time something you only do for 30 minutes a day adds up to over the course of a month and a year.

With this information you can now look at your goals and values, compare them to where you are spending your time. Now you can make adjustments based on the information from your time study.

What did you discover about how you are using your time?

Hints for being more organized:
Look at a monthly calendar with all of your scheduled commitments, then prioritize those commitments in order of importance to your goals and values. Ask yourself: which commitments are not supporting your goals and values? Next begin to gracefully turn over those commitments to someone else as soon as you reasonably can. Periodically evaluate where you are spending your time as goals and commitments change over time.

Posted in Time Management | Tagged Time Management | Leave a comment

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