Cleaning Out / Staying Motivated as an Admin

[twhfan]

Hi Everyone,



I am facing the daunting task of cleaning out my office (purging files, old manuals, going through boxes, etc.) and then doing the same for my boss.  The culture here at my office is to save hard copies of absolutely everything "just in case", therefore I have mountains of paperwork to go through.



I need to get moving on this, but what I feel like doing is getting another cup of coffee and putting this off for another day.  Not a very good option.  



So my question for all of you is, how do you approach such a monumental task??  I know what I legally have to keep (personnel records, copies of legal documents, etc.), but otherwise what rules of thumb do you use when deciding what to keep and what to throw?



And how do you all get yourselves motivated to tackle projects like this??  I don't have a looming deadline  but I know I'll feel relieved and more organized when this task is completed.  Normally I am pretty "in control" when it comes to my worklife, but I just can't stop procrastinating about this project!



Help!!  I'm drowning in a sea of paperwork!!  

[winkiebear]

I have to get the 'mindset' when I have a big task like that.  Drives me nuts.  So go get your coffee, and just sit down and do it...  set a small goal, like get through X piles today and do Y tomorrow ...

[execsec]

How about the old "set the timer" thing.  Set aside 15 minutes per day and just purge, purge, purge.  Then when the 15 minutes is over, go to another task.  Just chipping away at it a little at a time will make a big difference sooner than you think.

[workerbee]

We're going to have a meeting, one of these days.



And now, a couple of suggestions that work for me:



As a world-class procrastinator, I suggest you set yourself a deadline date.  If I didn't do this for myself, I would *never* get anything done.  Having no deadline is just too open-ended.



Break the job down into small segments so that you will have a sense of accomplishment right away.  Give yourself a reward every now and then ("after I do one file cabinet, I'll have a treat").



Admire your cleaned out space; heck, take a picture of it if you want to.  Have your friends come over and show them how much stuff you got rid of.  You did all that work; someone should know about it.



Sometimes these work, sometimes they don't.



Elaine (motto: "never put off til tomorrow what you can put off indefinitely".)

[msmarieh]

I have several steps that I do...



One... I set small workable steps. Right now I am working on decluttering my house (yes, flylady!!!). I have finished three rooms so far. I sat down and wrote up a list of EVERY SINGLE step that I wanted to take. It looks monumental, but each of them are small. Every day I pick at least one task to complete (like go through one drawer of the file cabinet).



Two... Absolutely set time limits - both how long you will work on it each day and how long you will permit the entire project to take. Some suggest limiting yourself so you don't burn out - but for me, if the mood does come upon me, I run with it!!! I find the timer really helps me for getting started, but often I want to work longer when it dings, so I keep going (against flylady's suggestion!)



Three... Rewards come in many forms - I used to hide a couple instant lottery tickets in the pile of papers I had to file(close my eyes, lift it up somewhere, shove it in, put the papers back down). Was a neat reward to find - naturally you can't find it by searching - you have to get to it by filing. Also I will usually do the small rewards - a cup of hot cocoa with marshmallows for one file drawer, an manicure for the file cabinet, etc.



Often I find that once I get started it doesn't take nearly as long as I think it will.  Also, getting started becomes it's own reward. As you start being able to see desk, floor, etc. it is so much more peaceful and stress-reducing that you get energized to want to do more. Sometimes it helps having company. I might ask a small child to help with an easier task, or my husband to shred the papers or trade filing help with another secretary.



Marie

 

[twhfan]

Thanks for the tips.  I love your motto about procrastination, Worker Bee!  I could easily adopt it as my own!



I've gotten through a few piles, only 4,765 piles to go.  (kidding!)  Having been in this culture of "save everything" for so long, it feels strange to throw things out.  It's definitely making me a little nervous.  Does it sound safe to toss something (other than legal documents, etc.) that I haven't used for a couple of years?  One year?  Six months?



I've never been allowed to purge things before now (I've been here for ages, but this was my first real admin job), so please excuse me if I sound dumb.  All my bosses have been real pack rats so I'm finding some very interesting things.  One of my bosses constantly lost things so I made 6 or 7 extra copies to compensate - when he would come to me I would smile that admin smile and hand him another copy.  Problem is I never knew for how long he would keep asking me for the same packet, so I didn't throw my extras away!  



Maybe when I finish, I'll have so few papers left that they'll think I really don't need my own office after all! :-)

 

[laundryhater]

I had the same problem when I started here four years ago. The secretary I took over for was a pack rat. She had saved some stuff from the 1960s!



I came up with a solution for forms and documents/form letters I knew I would use occasionally (not daily or weekly necessarily but occasionally). I created a computer version of the form using Word and saved them as templates. I didn't have to save a stack of paper copies any more. Whenever I needed that form or form letter, I could fill it out on computer and print a copy.



Also, you could scan or retype that packet your boss loses onto computer instead of keeping a hard copy in your files. When he loses it again, you can just print out a copy from the computer file you created and give that to him.



Think of your computer as a file cabinet. Even if you think you have too much stuff that it will take up a lot of room on your hard drive, you could still save files to disks for easy retrieval too. If you use disks keep similar files on the same disk and label the disk with that category name. If you put them on computer, create different file folders for those categories.



It may take longer but it makes purging files/documents quicker and easier later (point, click, delete). Especially if you make a note in the file properties details of the date you should purge this file.

[countrigal]

For anything that I need to keep hardcopies on, I put it in detailed folders with dates.  Then anything with the year (say 5+ years old) get's purged.  Simple process, find each folder with that year on it and throw it out.  I also keep current year and last year items in file cabinet/drawer, then another cabinet/drawer for the 3 years prior to that.  Then when it's time to start the next years folders, you rotate the files so that the oldest is thrown out and one year moves from the current file/drawer to the old one.  I normally have things like "Memo's Outgoing" "Memo's Incoming" "Travel Documentation" all for a month and FY.  Knowing which folders I'll use lets me get the next FY's folders ready on any slow days so they're ready to go Oct 1 and by going by FY, I can easily get rid of any old information.  Anything that has legal requirements on how long to keep go in a separate drawer/cabinet and includes a cover sheet (for the drawer) of how long each item must be kept.



Hope that helps some.

[whitesatin]

Hi TWHfan,



I have some help for you.  Tried to post earlier, but the website went down.  The company I work for has what they call a Record Retention Program.  It is very structured and specific about what to keep and how long to keep.  I can fax it to you if you send me your fax number via my e-mail.  You will have to adapt the program to your type of business, but I really think you will be on the right path to getting rid of that paper clutter in a professional way, if I can send this information to you.



If anyone else would like me to fax them this information, just send me an e-mail with your fax number to:



WhiteSatin@administrative-assistants.com



WhiteSatin  

[deedeeb]

I'm not sure this is an option for everyone, but this is a big company and my solution to things that are absolutely essential and MUST be kept for 100 years (aka "My Precious, Precious Junk") is to box them up and send them to an archive firm.  My monthly fee for storing about 100 boxes is roughly $16 and it's worth it to have the stuff out from under my feet (or stuffed in banks of file cabinets).  Also, you can specify when something is to be destroyed or ask to have it kept indefinitely.  I find that many records which were considered essential by one boss are often considered trash by the next boss.  If you should require the papers, the archive company can retrieve the box and have it back to you, usually no longer than overnight.  Strange though, in all the years I have been working (and I hate to admit how long it has been), I have NEVER needed to retrieve anything!