Putting the Office in Officemonkey

Sometimes an office-related post slips through…

I use a variation of the Noguchi Filing System. I’ve been using it at work for the last two years.

I keep all of my active files in a single file drawer. This is the system:

Filing

Easy filing is the key to a good system. If you don’t file, you don’t have a system. Fortunately, it doesn’t get much faster than this:

When I make a new file, I ask “What is it?”. It works like this:

• What is it? “Car Insurance Policy”
• Put it in a folder named “Car Insurance Policy”

See? Easy. I don’t file it under “Insurance – Car” because I don’t think that way.

Then I take a plain manilla folder, label it with a black sharpie and stick the file in the front of my file drawer.

Done. New files are labeled with the most obvious thing and put in the front of the filing cabinet. Nothing ever goes into the back.

Retrieval

Since everything goes in the front, the drawer is in roughly chronological order. Let’s say I’m looking for some notes I took at a conference in Boston last month. I open my drawer start scanning the file titles. Since the conference was a month ago, I know I can skim the files I worked on last couple of weeks. Pretty soon, I’ll find the folder “Boston Conference”. I pull out the file and get the information I need.

Refiling

Refiling is exactly like filing. Put the file in the front of the filing cabinet. Nothing ever goes into the back. The “Boston Conference” folder is now in the front.

I don’t know about you, but I have one “Travel” folder for all my work-related trips. All my travel authorizations are in there, and all my vouchers are there. If I wanted to revise the voucher for the Boston trip, I’d flip back until I found the “Travel” folder, pull it out, update the file, and refile it in the front. Nothing ever goes into the back.

Purging

File systems need to be purged regularly. Especially active files. Projects close, stuff goes out of date, assignments change. I suggest going through the system once a month.

Start at the back. Ask yourself “Pitch, Archive, or Keep”.

Pitch: Get rid of it if you don’t need it. Get rid of it if you can find it on-line. Get rid of it if somebody else’s problem now. In that case, you might want to “gift” your file onto some other sucker… er, coworker.

Archive: Can you put it into inactive storage? I keep all income tax filings, but I don’t need to keep IRS forms from 2005 in my active files. You might have important projects you don’t want to throw out, but you don’t mind going down to the basement to find them. Get them out of your system. The Noguchi system calls these types of files “Holy files” in some sort of Shinto-inspired office-kami mysticalism; I just call them archives.

Keep: It’s okay to keep it. Even if you use it rarely. I have a file of “Management Directives” that gets updated and reviewed occasionally. When I need to refer to it, I figure it’s in the back half (unless I recall touching it recently).

You might also find duplicate folders. That’s not a big deal when you’re going through your files monthly. You might have two “Phone Bill” folders. Use this time to marry them and put the combined folder in the front. Nothing ever goes into the back.

Keep the drawer no more than 3/4-ths full. If you can’t file new things, the system breaks down.

Always keep a supply of fresh (or recycled) folders nearby. If you can’t file new things, the system breaks down.

Implications

Eventually, the front is full of stuff you use all the time and the back is full of stuff you never use. Everything in the middle is in roughly chronological order.

Retrieval is faster because the file you often use is easy to find. The file you rarely use takes longer to find, but that’s okay, because you rarely use it.

The key folders I use all the time are usually within the first few inches of the cabinet.

This is one system where special folders are useful. My “Upcoming Travel” stays in a black nylon zippered folio. It’s immediately visible when I open the drawer and I just grab it and go when I travel. I use a clear blue sheet protector to hold all the “Phone Lists” I have. It seldom gets out of the first inch of the file drawer.

I do the same thing with my closet. Laundered clothes go in the left hand side. The stuff on the the right I never wear. That stuff gets thrown out when the closet gets full.