Do you still have a paper filing system? If so, when was the last time you examined it to see if the content was still worth keeping? Often times when we accumulate paper, it becomes a file and forget system. Paper goes in and never comes out, making it ineffective storage.

Yet the value of effective paper filing can be easily overlooked. Files are a useful tool for knowledge workers as they contain valuable information or ideas for future projects. The folks at Getting Things Done (GTD) have some very useful ideas on how to build and maintain your paper filing system. That way the material can add value to your work. The first point they share is to keep the filing simple by using an A-Z system.

People have a tendency to want to use their files as a reminder system in addition to reference, and therefore attempt to organize their files by projects or areas of focus. This magnifies geometrically how many places something isn’t when you forget where you filed it. One (or at least as few places as you can get by with) simple alpha system files everything by topic, author, or company so it could only be three or four places (if you forget where it is.)

Another key piece of advice is to purge paper files once a year. To do this go through each file to see what still have reference value and identify items that can be tossed. I find the period before or after the New Year is a great time to do this as business is usually slower, providing quiet time to organize. As the folks at GTD say a file purge is useful because:

That keeps them from being stale and you from feeling like it’s a black hole you’re putting things into. It gives you the freedom to keep anything you think you might want or need later.

Learn other methods to keep your paper files in order by looking at this GTD sheet.

However, if your focus has shifted away from paper into the digital world, then take time in the coming months to learn the best methods to Build a Second Brain!