The Messy Guide To Staying Organized
Posted January 22, 2009 in How-To, Productivity
How organized is your office?
If you are anything like me, office organization is something that you struggle with. After all, we creative people (web developers, writers, graphic artists ) should be given a little leeway when it comes to keeping things organized — right?
Wrong!
Proper organization is critical to freelancing success. While my personal tendency may be to put off straightening things up, I’ve learned that disorganization is bad for business. As a freelancer, I’ve had to put into place some organizational methods to help myself become more efficient.
How Disorganization Costs You Money
It is important to develop a good organizational system that you can live with because disorganization can be costly and even lead to lost clients.
If you’ve ever had to really hunt for something in your office that you’ve misplaced, then you’ve spent time that you cannot really charge to clients.
Here are a few other ways that being disorganized can cost you money:
- In the United States many business expenses are tax deductible (consult your accountant if you have a question), but before you can deduct a business expense you will need to know how much it was. That means that you will need a receipt for the item or expense.
- Speaking of income taxes, in the United States you are required to report everything that you earn, regardless of whether a client sends you a Form 1099-Misc. Accidentally misstating your income could lead to costly penalties if you are ever audited. So, it is important to keep good records of your income.
- From time to time you may want to contact existing and former clients with specials or new products or services that you offer. What if you lost the contact information for a potential client? Would you know how to contact him or her? Every missed contact is a missed potential opportunity for income.
- Every freelancer knows that meeting deadlines is key to success. To meet your deadlines it is important to keep and maintain a schedule of your projects. If you don’t keep your project calendar organized you may miss a deadline or accidentally schedule yourself for more work that you can actually handle.
- Even though the costs for running a freelance business are low compared to other business ventures, you will still receive some bills. Imagine if you lost a bill and forgot to pay it! Most companies charge a penalty for missed or late payments.
As you can see, disorganization is much more disastrous for your freelance business than you might have initially realized.
How To Pull Your Act Together and Get Organized
Even if you’re not naturally neat, you can organize your freelance business and save yourself both time and money. The key is to find methods and techniques that make sense to you.
Read organizational suggestions (here and elsewhere online) with an open mind, but don’t feel pressure to accept an idea that doesn’t make sense to you.
Here are few organizational ideas:
- Eliminate paper wherever possible
Many vendors will allow you to set up automatic or online billing. Take advantage of this feature if you can. Likewise, many accounting packages will automatically bill your clients. - Organize project files by client name
Or use another system that makes sense to you… If you are a client of mine, then there is an electronic folder on my computer with your name on it. - Master your e-mail
Most e-mail systems allow you to create folders and rules. I keep an electronic e-mail folder for each client’s correspondence. Rules can send client correspondence to “their” folder automatically. - Keep an accurate calendar
I know that many freelancers organize this online also, but for me it really helps to have a paper calendar visible that I can eyeball regularly to see what I have to do. - Find a home for papers you must keep
For transactions that cannot be handled online, keep similar papers together. Designate a single location, a “home,” for such papers. Place each paper there as soon as you receive it.
- Bulletin boards are not just for teachers
Remember the classroom bulletin board from school? Well, those old-fashioned bulletin boards are helpful in the home office too. Post anything you want to remind yourself of.
How About You?
Do you struggle to keep your freelance business organized, or are you neat as a pin?
Either way, feel free to leave a comment with your own organizational tip.
Related posts:
About the author: Laura Spencer is a freelance writer from North Central Texas with over 20 years of professional business writing experience. If you liked this post, then you may also enjoy Laura’s blog about her freelance writing experiences, WritingThoughts. Laura is also on Google+.
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33 Comments
Amy
January 22nd, 2009 at 1:35 pmOooh great article. I like ‘organize your workspace’ articles, gives me that extra nudge. Reminds me, I was going to archive and backup last year’s invoices. :)
Spot on about the email. You occasionally have those times when your client forgot a smaller detail of a due project and you have to find and refer back to an old email which had all those details and point out, “No, it was minus flash based content for the website initially and adding that flash-based menu much later on.” Ah, good times. :)
Sue Ann Spencer
January 22nd, 2009 at 1:40 pmThese are good suggestions. Let me add a couple more.
1. Business expenses – keep all in a folder, preferably each in it’s own folder. If payment is made on the internet, print copy of receipt and place in that folder.
2. I use a 3 month dry erase calender writing appointments, deadlines and other pertinent information so I can schedule my days more accurately.
Henry
January 22nd, 2009 at 2:11 pmWhenever I start a new project, I get out a pocket folder, label it (with an electronic labeler, of course) and stick it a vertical letter organizer on my desk. All papers and drafts that deal with that project go in there. When I close the project, the pocket folder goes in a file drawer. After about six months or so, I’ll recycle that folder for a new project.
Allan
January 22nd, 2009 at 2:12 pmI find that having a whiteboard is SO usefull. Just before you go to bed each day, you write down what you need to do. You can prioritize things by using different colours and its also good for not having any mess, as you just wipe it off with some tissue when you’ve completed it.
Totonowe
January 22nd, 2009 at 2:31 pmI have a mess in my wardrobe and kitchen but place of work MUST BE IMMACULATE. Otherwise I cannot think. I highly recommend cleaning the desk of all clutter it really helps concentrate.
Laura Spencer
January 22nd, 2009 at 3:52 pmThese are great organizational ideas!
Henry, your suggestion just goes to show that it’s important to find the system that works for you and not necessarily take every single suggestion. I’d get frustrated with all that paper – plus six months is way too soon for me to discard a work file. But, that’s me – if your system works for you then I think it’s great.
Allan, I love your idea about using a whiteboard. It sounds like you use it in a similar fashion to the way that I use my bulletin boards.
Keep the ideas coming!
Jamie
January 22nd, 2009 at 6:20 pmUghf, this article is better than fine.. (although I don’t really understand the title? why is this guide ‘messy’?)
I personally follow 3 of your suggestions:
# Eliminate paper wherever possible
I keep everyone on my computer. Actually, not even on my computer, but online in a web application.
# Master your e-mail
GMail’s filters and labels are nothing short of brilliant. E.g. I have a label for all my receipts.
#Find a home for papers you must keep
It all goes into one big pile. However, everything is there. Latest at top, oldest at the bottom (because I’m lazy).
Laura Spencer
January 22nd, 2009 at 6:28 pmThanks Jamie!
That’s a high compliment. Thank-you.
The title is a weak attempt at humor – the guide isn’t messy. However, I am a bit messy by nature. So, it’s more like a guide for messy people (or from one messy person).
Jamie
January 22nd, 2009 at 6:54 pm@Laura
Ah, get it now.. and I’m the one thanking *you* for some great articles..
Jennifer
January 23rd, 2009 at 12:50 amSInce I’m a part time freelancer, I recently organized my calendar and folders on my computer thanks to the freelancer tools post from freelance folder! I’ve organized everything under google now (calendar, notes, photos, documents etc) and it’s working amazingly.
Craig Scott
January 23rd, 2009 at 6:57 amI am a reasonably tidy/organised person but my desk seems to keep overflowing with ‘to do’ things… I have a clean up every week or so but I really should get into the habit of dealing with things more frequently.
My computer is organised though, with each client having their own folder.
Laura Spencer
January 23rd, 2009 at 11:43 amGreat comments!
Jennifer – that’s a great reminder to all of us that there are many organizational tools online. Some of them are even free!
Keep the ideas coming.
Jennifer
January 23rd, 2009 at 11:53 amThese are great tips for staying organized. I too need to have a calendar with all of my due dates and stuff written on it. I have recently started to utilize Google calendar as well so that I can access my calendar when I am not home. I try to update both calendars every couple of days to make sure they both have everything on them.
Laura-Jane
January 23rd, 2009 at 12:27 pmGreat article.
I know that a messy workspace costs me money because my productivity goes way down when my workspace is a mess. I’m always picking up pieces of paper wondering, “What is this?” A big mess of paper stresses me right out. When my office is messy, I too cannot think (as Totonowe said)!
We are renovating my home office right now and I am relegated to working in the living room until the massive reno in my office is done. I can’t wait to get some sort of system in order again. I need a clean workspace!
Steve Atkinson
January 23rd, 2009 at 12:54 pmGreat Article, I’m glad that you added the two technology items that I also recommend to help with Technology Clutter, that being use folders for email and on the computer.
Another thing I recommend is to not be afraid to use shortcuts or alias for common files that may be associated with multiple clients.
By putting the common file in its location and put an alias back to that file in the client folder can save time.
Another reason to have a paper calendar is that you have a backup when you may be in a location where you don’t have access to your electronic calendar.
Elycia Lee
January 23rd, 2009 at 1:01 pmYes, totally disorganized. Organization is not one of my forte but I’m learning. I barely scrap through the first phase of my freelance career and boy, I’m really struggling.
Laura Spencer
January 23rd, 2009 at 4:43 pmThanks for your wise technology tips Steve Atkinson – they are very good additions to this discussion!
Elycia Lee – don’t give up hope! You sound a lot like me when I started out. You can get organized and things will get better.
Pamela
January 23rd, 2009 at 10:37 pmOuch! I know all of the tips; and I try to follow most of them. But there’s GOT to be a “bigger” word than “messy” for my office!
Question: how does a one-person business (actually TWO different businesses) find the time to do everything AND get work done?
Every time I want to take a day to organize, I get another project!
I know I am losing this war! If you don’t want a heart attack, don’t even look at my desk!
But…I am an EXCELLENT writer/editor!
Michael
January 25th, 2009 at 9:31 pmThe online tools are great, but don’t rely on them alone, what will you do when your connection is down, or they’re server is down, or a host of other things? I use the Google Tools as well, but I also use the Mozilla Tools, Thunderbird for email and Sunbird for my calendar.
Sunbird has an add-on that allows you to sync your calendar with your Google calendar, now if me connection goes down, I’m not without my calendar.
I’ll have to get another small organizer (calendar, to-do list, etc.) I’ve forgotten how handy they are, and I can throw it in my laptop bag for when I’m out of the office and don’t have a wi-fi connection
Nicole LaMarco
January 26th, 2009 at 7:03 pmWhen I saw this title, I thought, Oh, no…..Busted! However, after reading the information you have here I realized I am much more organized than I thought I was. I have three calendars: one in the kitchen, one in my office, and one I take with me. I have them all corresponding with one another. I have a daily planner for the tasks I must complete each day. I have an index card box full of my current and past client’s information so I never lose it. I also have a folder with separators for work with printed papers. I suppose I could shred the papers I have in my shred bin.
Devon Ellington
January 27th, 2009 at 3:01 pmI struggle with filing and finding homes for the files I need to keep handy. Also, if it’s put away, to me it means the project is done. All current projects must be in front of my face.
The Paper Tiger’s my big demon.
What I’ve gotten better at is creating systems for pitches, queries, and submissions, and staying on top of my clip file so that putting together a pitch or query only takes minutes rather than having to stop and hunt for things.
Taking the time to set up systems that work FOR YOU (doesn’t matter if they work for anyone else) up front saves so much time and money down the line.
Sean McCambridge
June 15th, 2009 at 1:36 pmI struggle with this daily. I find that when my work area is clean, I am a lot calmer. Thanks for the tips!
Nikki Selene Lamagna
February 8th, 2010 at 8:14 pmGreat ideas! One thing I find immeasurably helpful is to set up my calendar to email me a reminder of a project due date 5 days before it’s due. Most of my info comes to me in an email and this way it keeps the project on my radar, as well as giving me at least a working week to do some final tweaks or debug.
bharat khiani
November 3rd, 2010 at 11:53 amThanks for the great post laura…
i usually write things i’ve to remember for the week on notepaper and put it on my metal cupboard with magnets…
:)
thats all i have to share…
i liked the tip about finding a “home” for papers…that way important papers never get lost…
psst…psst… I usually keep all the bills at one designated space where i can find them later… ha ha ha…
great post :)
LogicalJack
July 24th, 2011 at 10:18 amGreat article and couldn’t agree more.
When I started out I wasn’t the tidiest person but after moving office I vowed not to let it get messy again. Since then I have found things a lot easier and its made me a lot more confident as well. When speaking to clients I have the necessary details at my fingertips so there is no need to look un-professional when put on the spot.
I think a bulletin board is the next on my shopping list now
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