Schrodinger's Paper filing system

October 28, 2008 2:33 PM

(Project Management Filter) I've looked around but I can't seem anything to answer this that seems right for me. Maybe experiences of others will help me navigate. How to coordinate paper and electronic files and emails etc when dealing with many vendor/many location things...

At my fairly new job, I have a problem figuring out to organize stuff. I (help) manage the telephone, internet, and cell stuff for an entire state of branch offices, about 30. it's not overwhelming in scope.

However, let's say that an office is moving. How do I file things? I can't put stuff in two places, so I have to put it under the vendor or under the location. There's often paper that is involved so everything can't just be digital. Even if it was digital, I'd still have the same problem.

I used to use an alphabetized system I think I got from 43 folders where you just did things like have a folder labeled "passport" instead of "important documents" and that's what goes there (haven't lost it since!). But my new problem is much more complex than that (it seems).

I'd like to know, say, what issues are still going on with that Office X move without having to go to every vendor's file to see what the progress is. I'd also like to go to Office Z's file and see what issues are going on there, if any.

The person who did this job before me didn't have anything organized in a particular way and left several months before they found a replacement they liked (me!).

Please feel free to ask questions. I check everyday and maybe a few questions would help me distill what I'm trying to do in my own mind.

I'm not looking for a remember the milk type thing. I could never get the hang of all those things. I don't think I'm looking for task mgmt so much as getting a general idea of where everything is and what's going on management.

posted by sio42 to work & money (5 comments total)

Someone on here recommended I try out Mindjet MindManager to help me map out my organization of stuff. I think this could work very well for you in this case, both as an overall filing system as well as a keeping-track-of-crap system.
posted by TomMelee at 3:05 PM on October 28, 2008

As far as the digital stuff goes, you can put the same file in two different folders on your computer's hard drive, by putting a "shortcut" or "alias" to the original in the 2^nd folder.

Maybe a similar thing for paper? Buy some neon-yellow paper so your "shortcuts" stand out and write notes saying "Document C related to this office is filed under Office Y."

Or, depending on the volume, would it be problematic to actually make a 2nd copy of these sorts of paper things? Either a photocopy or digital - scan the document or take a photo with a high-resolution digital camera, and just note where the original is.
posted by XMLicious at 3:06 PM on October 28, 2008

...sorry, that should be "Document C related to this vendor is filed under Office Y."
posted by XMLicious at 3:09 PM on October 28, 2008

At my previous job, I regularly handled 60-120 projects at one time in a creative office, brochures, videos, web banners, etc. It was weird, but I could remember close to the status on almost all of them. However, I always checked my sources (server, paper file, email). I didn't want to say the project was at the printer, if it was still being prepped for print. We also had a traffic manager, who put out a daily schedule (think Gantt chart) for every project in progress (her job sucked). There were a few things that helped, the first being that daily schedule, I had it open on my desk all day. In your case, I think it will be difficult, but not impossible to remember the status of everything.

Right now, I have a different system. Currently it's an excel sheet I have open all day, with the bolded project title (subprojects directly below not bold) in one column, contact name in the next, one of 5 status options (which automatically changes the color of a cell to green, red, yellow, purple), due date and a very brief note field. Keep your status options small, you need to remember all of them. I change the notes field more often than status. For example "In progress" can mean any number of things, as noted in my notes field. I am in this document constantly changing the status of projects, you need to be devoted to it. Some of the people I work with (who are not project managers), love it and try to use it for themselves, but they often give up and think it takes to much time (hence why they are not project managers). Find something that works for you, but all the project managers in my office have something similar to track status on certain areas of the project (based on the types of projects we do). My boss LOVES it, she can see everything I'm doing and the progress I've made. It's great at the end of the year, since I move my complete projects to a different sheet in the workbook, so when it's time for my review, BAM I have everything I've done for the year in one place!

Basically tracking projects is something that needs to be customized for the types of projects you work on, but once you develop a system (whether for tracking or organizing), they really are all very similar. All projects are similar, they have similar phases, dependencies, etc. Ok, a little PMI derail.

As for organizing...avoid putting duplicate items in two places anywhere. One day when you are really busy you will forget to file a revision of the invoice in both places. Later on the critical moment will come when you need to find that invoice NOW and it will be the wrong one which will wind up with a few headaches for all involved.

At my old job, we had a similar system for both paper files and digital files, because so many of our projects are the same. We have one folder that contains a series of subfolders that are common to every project (think hanging & manila for the paper). We named the highest folder after the project (in your case the office) and the sub folders as needed (it was a creative office, so it's Proofs, Originals, Graphics, Print Ready, Finance). The same folders existed digitally on the server (so if you had a digital invoice it would go on the server, a paper invoice in the folder).

In terms of handling emails, we would rarely file them in digitally on the server or in paper files unless it was something like an approval, agreement on refunding cost, basically anything to CYA or you could get sued on without back-up. All emails in our department consisted of the job number and the person responsible for the next action on the project and the action required. For example: ABC-1234 JOE Ready for client. All project emails would be filed in Outlook or Entourage by job#, then you only had one digital folder in email to search for what you were looking for. This sounds a little crazy since there is a very high level of email when everyone does it, but it's surprisingly efficient (you can get by ignoring the emails without your name within your department). This system of email doesn't work in all offices (it doesn't work where I am now). The filing portion does, file by project. Since I no longer work with project numbers, I just title the folder by the project and have related subfolders if the project is very large.

Yes, this all sounds crazy, but you need to find what works for you. These systems work(ed) for me.
posted by pokeedog at 7:15 PM on October 28, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]

Tom Melee - I've used Mindjet before - awesome program, but i get too lost in the details of it.

XML - I like your idea of neon "shortcuts".

pokeedog - The spreadsheet sounds like a great idea. I'm getting a second monitor soon and I could just keep up the status sheet all day on that. I think the filing should go by location since each location is like a project and vendors are, well, vendors. I think that is the context I was looking for - I needed to frame this with something familiar.

Thanks for the input, mefites!
posted by sio42 at 6:41 AM on October 29, 2008