The new year is an opportunity for a fresh start, both personally and professionally. The turning over of the calendar is as good an opportunity as any to try and ditch poor habits and implement positive ones. For many of us, that means trying to get organized. With as much as life throws at us, it’s easy to let things fall as they may as we try to stay sane over the course of a calendar year. But with some good habits maintained over time, it’s possible for both you and your business to get and stay organized.
Too often, our filing system becomes simply a pile or folder marked “Important” and a pile for the trash. Whether digital or physical, taking the time to sort every document into its corresponding file can be arduous and unpleasant, and take us away from what seems a more pressing chore. Usually we have the best of intentions, telling ourselves that we’ll go back soon to sort through all of the records to get them in order, but if we’re honest, that day usually never arrives. Implementing a process can be time-consuming and painful at the outset, but ultimately the effort pays off with the end result of a more organized and efficient office for you and your company.
While more and more documents exist solely online nowadays, there are still physical copies of records to contend with, and those should be given due attention as well. Digitizing those records is a good way to centralize storage and save space, but for those things that you have to retain a physical copy of, you want to make sure that you’re taking the necessary precautions. A secure file cabinet or safe provides a great way to separate and store your documents on the job or at home; finding a solution that can withstand attempted break-ins and potential disaster can provide peace of mind that your personal information won’t be stolen (physically, at least.)
Securing documents and files in the cloud is far easier but can be far more worrisome should you have sensitive information in there you don’t wish to give out. Given how connected we are to the news, with access to stories as they happen, we are ever aware of hacks where thousands, if not millions, of people have their personal information get out into the open (or at least the dark web.) In light of the frequency of these occurrences, it can sometimes feel almost pointless to bother with security; why try to keep my information safe when it’ll invariable be stolen from some corporation that already has it? But regardless of outside circumstances, it is incumbent upon anyone to take whatever measures they can to keep their files safe. Using secure file storage (like Traklight’s IP Vault) allows you to safely store your files and share them with colleagues without concerns about security.
For those not so inclined, organization can seem a pipe dream at best, and a four-letter word at worst. But creating order and process with your work can pay big dividends in 2018 and beyond.
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