How to Simplify Your Filing System; or, Why Stacking Just Doesn’t Work

Every Monday is Productivity & Organization Day at Zen Habits.

Does your filing system include stacks of paper, or is your “To Be Filed” folder overflowing?

If you have trouble with filing your documents, you may need to find a way to simplify your filing system to keep yourself organized.

Filing is something many people have a problem with — you’re not alone. But organization can not only make you more productive, it can simplify your life and make it less stressful.

Being organized doesn’t take a complicated system for filing. It simply requires that you have a place for everything, and get into the habit of things where they belong write away.

Whether you’ve got a complicated filing system you’d like to simplify, or whether you have no filing system at all, let’s take a look at how to simplify the system and keep things perfectly organized.

1. Reduce before organizing. The first rule to organizing is that you should eliminate the unnecessary before organizing at all. If you’ve got a filing drawer that’s overflowing, or stacks of paper that need filing, it’ll take forever to organize — and even then, it’ll be hard to find stuff.

Here’s how to simplify your papers and files before you organize:

Put everything in one big pile. If it can’t all go in one pile, make more than one, but look at them as continuations of the first pile. If you have folders that are a mess, take them out and add them to the stack. I recently did this with my home filing system and reduced the files by two thirds. It took about an hour.
Go through them, one at a time. Pick up each document or folder and decide what needs to be done with them. If you can’t see yourself needing it in a couple of months, toss it. Default to toss (or shred, or recycle). Get rid of as much as you can. I’ve never regretted tossing a document.
Route. If you can’t toss something, try to route it to someone else. Get it off your desk.
File. If a document is absolutely critical, and you’re sure you’ll need it again, then it needs to be filed. Let’s take a look at how to set up a simple system for doing that.

2. Simple filing. I agree with David Allen’s Getting Things Done, which recommends that you use a simple, alphabetical filing system. Just use plain manila folders with labels (you can buy a label maker if you like), creating a file for each client, vendor and/or project.

I believe that most people only need one drawer for filing. Now, I’ll admit that there are some jobs that require much more than this, but for the average employee (or self-employed person), one drawer is all you need. And if you limit yourself to one drawer, you force yourself to toss out unnecessary files when the drawer gets full.

Don’t overthink this. Just create a file, and file it alphabetically. Keep it simple.

3. File immediately. The key to keeping your filing system up to date is to file things right away. When you’re processing your inbox, and you run across something that doesn’t require action but that you might need to file later, don’t put it in a pile to be filed later. Don’t put it in a folder labeled “To File” or “Miscellaneous”.

Just open your filing drawer (it should be close on hand), pull out the appropriate folder, put the document in it, and file it. That takes about 5 seconds, and then you’re done. If you don’t do it now, it will start to pile up, and stacking just doesn’t work.

Why stacking doesn’t work: Because it just piles up and then the pile gets a little intimidating and then before you know it you’ve got a huge pile that you never want to go through. Then you can’t find anything when you need it, and now you no longer have a filing system. I know some people think that their piles are organized into a kind of system, but piles are inefficient (if you’re not working on them at this moment) because you constantly have to re-factor what pile is for what and which documents are in each pile, and when you need a document, it takes too long to find it. Plus, it clutters up your desk, distracting you from your work.

4. Have materials on hand. Always have a big supply of manila folders and labels on hand. If you have a document that needs to be filed for future reference, but no file exists for it yet, you will put the filing off until later if you don’t have the materials on hand. You don’t feel like getting up to get a manila folder or label every time you need to file something, so you’ll put it off. And that will create piles.

So instead, just have the materials in a drawer, for easy access. When you need to make a new file, just put a label on, stick the document in, and file it alphabetically.

5. Reduce your needs over time. Over the last year or so, I’ve consciously been reducing my filing needs so that I now barely use my filing drawer. Sure, at least once a week I’ll pull open the drawer to look at a file, but I file many fewer documents than I used to. I recommend that you do the same, slowly and consciously reducing your filing needs. Here are a few tips for doing that:

Store reference information online. Now when I need to look something up, I press a hotkey combination (I use AutoHotkey to open websites and documents) and the appropriate document opens up with all the info I need. Contacts, budget information, ideas, logs, and much more are all online, so I no longer need hard copies of them and don’t need to file them.
Reduce incoming paper. Ask people to email you instead of faxing or sending a document by post. In this age, everything is created on computer, and sending hard copies is outdated. Insist on digital. Also take steps to stop paper versions of newsletters, magazines and other such regular documents.
Stop printing stuff. Lots of people still print out email or documents they receive, or even documents they create themselves. But then you have two copies of it, you’re killing trees, and you now have to file the paper version as well as the digital. And it’s much easier to search for digital information when you need it.
Analyze other incoming docs. Every time you file something, ask yourself if you really need a hard copy version of it. Is it available online? Does it really need to be sent to you? Is it better to scan it and store it digitally? Is there any way to eliminate the need for this document? And slowly, one by one, reduce your need for all the incoming stuff.

Have your own methods of filing? Have other ideas? Let us know in the comments or discuss it in the Zen Habits forums.

See also:

How to Simplify Your Filing System; or, Why Stacking Just Doesn’t Work

Every Monday is Productivity & Organization Day at Zen Habits.

Does your filing system include stacks of paper, or is your “To Be Filed” folder overflowing?

If you have trouble with filing your documents, you may need to find a way to simplify your filing system to keep yourself organized.

Filing is something many people have a problem with — you’re not alone. But organization can not only make you more productive, it can simplify your life and make it less stressful.

Being organized doesn’t take a complicated system for filing. It simply requires that you have a place for everything, and get into the habit of things where they belong write away.

Here’s how to simplify your papers and files before you organize:

Put everything in one big pile. If it can’t all go in one pile, make more than one, but look at them as continuations of the first pile. If you have folders that are a mess, take them out and add them to the stack. I recently did this with my home filing system and reduced the files by two thirds. It took about an hour.
Go through them, one at a time. Pick up each document or folder and decide what needs to be done with them. If you can’t see yourself needing it in a couple of months, toss it. Default to toss (or shred, or recycle). Get rid of as much as you can. I’ve never regretted tossing a document.
Route. If you can’t toss something, try to route it to someone else. Get it off your desk.
File. If a document is absolutely critical, and you’re sure you’ll need it again, then it needs to be filed. Let’s take a look at how to set up a simple system for doing that.

Don’t overthink this. Just create a file, and file it alphabetically. Keep it simple.

So instead, just have the materials in a drawer, for easy access. When you need to make a new file, just put a label on, stick the document in, and file it alphabetically.

Store reference information online. Now when I need to look something up, I press a hotkey combination (I use AutoHotkey to open websites and documents) and the appropriate document opens up with all the info I need. Contacts, budget information, ideas, logs, and much more are all online, so I no longer need hard copies of them and don’t need to file them.
Reduce incoming paper. Ask people to email you instead of faxing or sending a document by post. In this age, everything is created on computer, and sending hard copies is outdated. Insist on digital. Also take steps to stop paper versions of newsletters, magazines and other such regular documents.
Stop printing stuff. Lots of people still print out email or documents they receive, or even documents they create themselves. But then you have two copies of it, you’re killing trees, and you now have to file the paper version as well as the digital. And it’s much easier to search for digital information when you need it.
Analyze other incoming docs. Every time you file something, ask yourself if you really need a hard copy version of it. Is it available online? Does it really need to be sent to you? Is it better to scan it and store it digitally? Is there any way to eliminate the need for this document? And slowly, one by one, reduce your need for all the incoming stuff.

Have your own methods of filing? Have other ideas? Let us know in the comments or discuss it in the Zen Habits forums.

See also:

Posted on 30 July 2007 in Productivity & Organization |
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Comments (17)

Georgio Says:

July 30th, 2007, 5:40 am

Awesome writing Leo - as usual. You provide such GREAT advice and you have boosted my productivity immensely over the past few months I’ve been reading. These tips will help tweak my current filing system which is based on GTD. Thanks Leo.

Matt Says:

July 30th, 2007, 8:02 am

Great suggestions - It should help me go through the drawer I hide my big stack of papers to be files.

Balfour Says:

July 30th, 2007, 9:48 am

Unlike David Allen, I really like to use hanging file folders and have been using them for years. I find it so much easier to move around in a file drawer with these, because these slide easily and stay upright, unlike just paper folders.

Over time, I have VASTLY reduced my paper files. A lot has been through simple weeding out of stuff I clearly don’t need. A tremendous amount has been through everything being electronic now. And, I have reduced the amount of stuff I save for reference (examples: travel info, health info, shopping info). Anything I want to keep for future reference, I just add it to my del.icio.us bookmarks.

Some entities still won’t do anything electronically. I’m thinking particularly of my health insurance company, which will only send claims in the mail. I’m sure they do it so that it slows down their expenditure of money. I keep copies of these claims as they come, in paper form, so I can match them up with medical bills and then match up the balance for electronic payment from my flexible benefits account. It’s easier than taking the extra step of scanning all this stuff and I’ll eventually toss it all.

earlofpeatrig Says:

July 30th, 2007, 11:44 am

For my home filing system, I used to scan all of my incoming bills and other documents and sort them by sender on my computer. After taking 3 hours every month doing this, I asked myself if there was a real benefit having all of this stuff on my computer and if it was really worth the effort. I had a real hard time justifying my efforts. If we’re talking business, that’s a different story and I think there’s a lot of benefit scanning and archiving stuff electronically - but that’s a different story.
So, I set up a 3 year revolving hanging folder system. So, I have 36 hanging folders, labeled January through December 3 times. I don’t put the year on the labels but they represent months in a year; December 2006, January 2007, February 2007, etc.
All my bills and other stuff I want to keep now go in the current month. When the new month rolls around, I take the stuff that was in the folder from 3 years ago and shred it and put the current stuff in the current folder.
I figured that if I haven’t needed it in 3 years, I don’t need it.
Now for stuff I really need to keep, I will setup a separate named hanging folder in my file cabinet and keep that stuff as long as appropriate, birth certificates, other official documents. Bank PINs and so forth.
This only takes me a few minutes a month.

Eddie Says:

July 30th, 2007, 13:05 pm

Re: “Some entities still won’t do anything electronically. I’m thinking particularly of my health insurance company, which will only send claims in the mail.”

Often these companies (like banks) must send paper documentation for certain types of requests or transactions. i.e. your physical signature is required, postal system is more reliable than e-mail (no spam filters the user cant figure out how to manage, no server crashes to loss packets of mail altogether, etc), Federal Disclosure regs, etc.

As e-mail is an unsecure medium, unless you utilize a “secure e-mail messaging” link, confidential information or “a fair amount” of life-impacting material is better served by using the ol’ USPS.

And I can’t believe I’m sticking up for the USPS, but that’s another story…

Modern Worker Says:

July 30th, 2007, 14:17 pm

I admit, stacks are something I have been working on cutting down, but need to work even harder at. Progress has and is being made though :-)

Michel Says:

July 30th, 2007, 17:48 pm

“Stop printing stuff”.

I don’t even have a printer. It’s in my shopping list for two years now. Everytime I decide to buy one I remember that Office Space scene.
I usually use the cybercafe to print stuff. Now they are everywhere, and I don’t need to print more than 5 pages a month. So I guess I won’t buy another printer soon.

Leo Says:

July 30th, 2007, 19:13 pm

@Balfour: You’re right, of course, that some entities won’t do stuff electronically. I think that will change over time, as people realize that there are secure ways to do things over the Internet, but anyway … for now, we’ll just have to accept that. I was referring to changing the things you can change, one at a time, so that things are reduced (as you’ve done). Complete elimination is probably impossible for most people at this point.

Carla Says:

July 30th, 2007, 21:16 pm

I agree with everything you said about filing… I have just three suggestions. 1) Whenever I take notes at a meeting or have to write something down, I always do it on 8 1/2 x 11, standard sized paper. These papers are easier to find in a file. Taking notes in a small notebook might feel handy in the moment, but those pages get lost in a file or might fall out. 2) If there are important phone numbers or other information associated with a file, I will write those on the inside of the left file cover, so I can access them quickly when I go through the file. 3) I don’t use paperclips in files - only staples or nothing. Paperclips tend to get caught up on other pieces of paper in the file or other files, and make things messy!

Det Says:

August 1st, 2007, 3:48 am

Scanning:
I have done it sometimes with magazine articles I wanted to keep. In my company there is a good all-in-one device which sends to you scanned papers as PDFs.

But for home that would be too much effort and make things *not* simpler therefore.

Filing:
One problem is, when filed articles, documents, notes regard more than one topic. What filing system is the right?
The TMTOPTS effect (there’s more than one place to store) reduces the chance of quick finding later.
One document can only be at one location, but which one had I used, when I filed?
Example: All the stuff regarding my car, all my bills.
What is with a bill regarding my car?

Will I search for bill? or car? or hadn’t I put that together with all that accident’s papers, as it was due to an accident, I brought it to the garage?

People who try to organize their hierarchical file system on hard disk now the problem too.

A good way (even if a bit more effort in the first time) is to use a course grained filing system (all bills there, all notes here, documents there) and divide that parts into smaller locations, perhaps by date (monthly separators) or by serial number (every ten documents a new number) or else, only to create unique locations.

Then keep a loose-leaf notebook as register. This can be organized around virtual labels, at least one page for each label. So under *every* adequate label (e.g. ‘car’ or ‘bill’) you register the file with description and storage location. Feel free to add new labels if it seems fitting.

This assembles in real life the Web 2.0 way of tagging content. The chance to keep overview of the documents, whereever they are stored, is much better.

If you replace the loose-leaf with a little database on your computer to make things much simpler, you will end in a Document Management System maintaining the tags and locations of either paper or digital documents.

Web Links instead of local copy:
Unfortunately one cannot always trust that the linked page/document will exist where and as long as I keep the link to it. (Never lost information this way?)

Jen Burmeister Says:

August 8th, 2007, 7:33 am

Excellent post … I am always looking for new ways to create effective files. Thanks for another great post!

Evan Young Says:

August 20th, 2007, 9:51 am

Great post … I’m able to keep my at work office down to a dull roar but my home office - that’s a different matter. My wife and I are involved in Scouts, Girl Guides, Church and a couple of other volunteer organizations - our home office is in constant use - or it would be if not for the paper. We have made progress on one point - we started using a banker box at the beginning of every year - every receipt, paid bill stub etc. that goes through the house that doesn’t need to be officially kept forever just gets tossed in the box, at the end of the year it’s closed up and a destroy date 7 years from now (same as for Canadian personal tax records) is put on it. It doesn’t take any organizing effort - the chances I’ll actually need any of it are small but the comfort of keeping it is there and it’s ‘gone’ off of the desk.

GreatManagement Says:

September 25th, 2007, 10:01 am

I use the following tip/technique, which helps me enormously.

Have a filing system with 31 sections - one for each day of
the month. Then file the paperwork in the appropriate section
for the day you need it. Each morning just make sure you check that day’s section - easy.

I also use this with my staff. I have a section per member of
staff. Anything, which I want to keep and raise with that
member of staff, is filed away in their section. It saves so
much time. When I next meet with them or interact with them,
I’ve got all the relevant paper work in one place.

Simple, efficient and it maximises your time.

Axiomatic Says:

October 22nd, 2007, 2:03 am

I’ve been torn for some time now between keeping data on my computer or keeping important information in files. On one hand, it’s nice to simplify and minimize by keeping data electronic (potentially leading to electronic clutter, however), but on the other hand, electronic data, even backed up, can be volatile and easily lost or corrupted.

Vicki Says:

October 24th, 2007, 23:24 pm

I am obsessed with organizing too. Your advice to put everything in one big pile had me chuckling because, in my blog last week, I wrote about my first organizing memory. My sister & I had to clean our room and I wanted to do it ‘right,’ so we dumped everything into one massive pile! I really enjoy your blogs and advice. Keep it coming!

Courtney Moore Says:

February 4th, 2008, 23:16 pm

Ahh, exactly what I needed! Thanks so much, I’m tackling my piles asap :)

Kevin David Says:

March 9th, 2008, 4:58 am

I appreciate your putting this information on the web. easier to access, read and digest. Your procedures on proper filing is very enriching. thank you so much.