Tag Archives: go paperless

8 Ways To Keep Your Office Organized in 2018

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Keeping an organized office is one of the simplest things you can do to increase your productivity, happiness, and efficiency at work. Although keeping your office clean can seem difficult, you can use these 8 tips to make the job easier.

  1. Go paperless. Whenever possible, you should try and reduce the amount of clutter flowing into and out of your space by transitioning to online information storage. Create folders, labels, and paths for your information to be kept online. The key with this is making sure you save your files in a place that can be easily accessed and found.
  2. Invest in a labeler. The documents that you cannot afford to store online should be put away in a distinct drawer, file, or closet that is neatly labeled.
  3. Purge your office. Go through your entire space and get rid of things that you haven’t used in a while. It can be difficult to part with some things, but your office will never be organized unless you reduce the amount of items that are inside it.
  4. Don’t wait on sorting your mail. One of the most common culprits for a disorganized office is the build up of mail. The solution to this problem is to start a habit of sorting your mail as soon as you get it so it does not build up. Throw it out, delegate it, or read and file it.
  5. Organize your desk drawers. Use dividers and separators for different items that you keep in your desk so you always know where to find what you need.
  6. Reduce the view of your cables. We know that cables are a necessary part of the electronics in your office, but there are several easy and cheap ways to hide them and get them out of site. You can attach a rain gutter to the bottom of your desk to keep the majority out of view, or buy equipment designed for managing cables. Personally, I believe this one makes SUCH a big difference.
  7. Use your wall space. Moving select items from your desk to the wall can really free up your workspace. Mounting your computer screen, calendars, or pictures is a great way to add room to your desk. This is especially effective if you have a small desk.
  8. Have a mini cleaning session at the end of the day. Never leave your office in a mess. It’s a lot easier to clean up for five minutes at the end of the day than it is to let your mess build up and have to conduct a major clean up session.

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Written by Kaitlyn Gahagen

My favorite FREE apps for Business People

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By: Kaitlyn Neese

There are thousands of apps out there, all claiming to simplify your life in some way or another. Many of these apps are impractical, but some really are must-haves for the time-constrained business person. Here are three of my favorite apps that you should try!

Evernote

 

Seriously. This app rocks.

Evernote is the best app for note-taking and research in my opinion. Also, the collaboration aspects of this app make it great for businesses or groups working on a project.

When you create a notebook in Evernote, you have the option to make it private or share it with a team, and that notebook will also sync across all of your devices so that you can access anything at any time (PC, Mac, iPad, smart phone, etc).

This app has been referred to as a “virtual filing cabinet” because you can add tags to your files in order to find something you have saved in just a few clicks. One of the best parts of this app is that it is extremely easy to snip content from the web and add it to your notebooks- making research documentation simple and accessible.

There is a free version and a pro version for $4.99/month. The free version is really awesome, but you may want to try out the pro version at some point as well.

 

 Wunderlist

Are you one of those people who cannot stop making lists? I am. Sometimes, if I accomplish something that wasn’t on one of my lists, I will put it on a list just so I can cross it off. Crazy, right?

Well, if you are anything like me, you have probably tried multiple list apps, hoping to someday find the perfect app to satisfy all your list-making needs. I finally found that app with Wunderlist.

The free version is great. You can create as many lists as your heart desires for different categories. I use Wunderlist for homework lists, grocery lists, wish lists, and work task lists. Wait – was that a list…? Sorry.

Anyway, I use this app for remembering all the stuff I have to do TODAY, but it can also be used for a more long term to-do list if that works better for you.

Another cool thing is that it syncs across my devices, so I can add and check off tasks from my laptop or my iphone. It is quite handy.

 

Expensify

Okay, so I have to admit that my company does not actually use this app. But I wish we did. It is really fantastic.

Many of my previous employers have complained about how frustrating it is when people lose receipts from business lunches or do not record expenses accurately. Especially when they are the ones that reconcile the receipts. This app totally eliminates that problem by easily allowing you to digitally store all expense information when traveling.

With this app, you can quickly add cash expenses, card expenses, record mileage from travel, and store photos of receipts so that you will never lose one again. Additionally, this app is really helpful to managers because they can approve expenses, reimburse employees right from their phone, and set max expense limits for different categories. Managers can view your entries right from their device or set the app to automatically integrate with Excel, QuickBooks, Xero, Netsuite, Dynamics, Salesforce, FinancialForce and more!

Another cool aspect of Expensify is the ability to log and bill hours to clients using the time entry feature.

Oh yeah, and it’s FREE.

What apps does your company use that you find helpful?