Office Organizing

Morning, all! Are you glad it's Wednesday? I know I am.

So on Monday, I told you I was going to do my taxes. In my life, doing a big project like that on top of a piled-up desk is just frustrating and unproductive. I had to get all my filing and piling out of the way so I could have a clear desk upon which to tackle the taxes. I had three inboxes, all full of crap, and some of it was stuff I needed for said taxes, so I pulled the recycle bin up next to my desk chair and got to work.

The first thing I did was sift through everything and throw stuff away - credit card applications (of course, those got torn up first), empty envelopes, advertisements, and invitations. I say 'invitations' because as I came across one, I put the event information on my phone's calendar, thus enabling me to dispose of the piece of paper and have one less thing on my desk. If you can put things in digital format, do so. Obviously, some things need a backup - like my taxes - but a lot of it can be put into a note on the phone or computer or email calendar and then you can throw away the paper and save yourself some clutter.

I was happy to notice that throwing away all the stuff I didn't have a reason to keep, knocked out about two thirds of the paper stack. Much easier to manage now. So I opened the expando-file where I keep all my personal stuff, and filed the non-business things. This would be personal credit card statements, pay stubs, doctor bills or EOBs from the insurance company...stuff like that. I only keep records of transactions that I may need to prove later. When I pay a bill online, I jot down the confirmation number, amount, and date of payment on the bill itself, then file it. That way, if my electric company calls me up to say, 'Zomg you didn't pay us!!!' I can pull out the bill for the month in question and prove to them that I did. It's a pain in the ass for me to have to keep papers around, but it would be even more of a pain in the ass if someone accused me of not paying a bill and I couldn't prove them wrong. Always cover your arse when it comes to bills.

Once the personal stuff was filed, I could file the business stuff. These are actually kept in a filing drawer of my desk, all fancy-like because they're special. Right now, all I've got are files for the bank, and taxes and receipts for each calendar year, so that filing was easy. And once it was all done, I knew where my tax forms were, and all my business receipts were in one file that I could pull out and go through at my leisure.

With my inboxes empty and my desk clear and clean, I was able to spend the entire day tackling the taxes - scanning copies of receipts, filling out forms for the accountant, doing math - none of it was fun, but all of it was necessary. Now all I have to do is sit back and let the people with letters after their names sort out the rest, which is a huge load off my mind. If you ever start a business, my advice to you is what my Entrepreneurship prof in college told me: Get an accountant, and a lawyer. Everything else you can figure out as you go, but you need those two people on your side.

Have a good rest of your week, everyone! I'll see you on Monday, hopefully with some packing tips.

Hugs,
FNCB