Staying organized

When you’re your own boss, things can get pretty hectic. It’s easy for important documents to get lost, emails and online files to disappear and all those little Post-it notes lying around to end up in the trash.

As your own boss and maker of your own destiny, staying organized is key. If you start losing things, you’ll end up being less productive and frustrated, making mistakes that you wouldn’t usually make.

With that in mind, here are a few suggestions to help you stay more organized.

1. Make a back-up of everything. Every important document that passes through your hands or gets printed out of your computer should be copied and put into a filing system. All important emails, word documents, power points and other items on your computer should be copied and saved in multiple locations. Save your documents on your desktop and a flash drive, send them to your email so you can access them from any computer and consider using cloud storage.

2. Buy a filing cabinet. Filing cabinets aren’t pretty and can sometimes take up a lot of room, but the order and organization one can add might save you hours of precious time. Make file folders and take the extra few seconds to put things in their place.

3. Make your workspace off-limits. The quickest way to lose something is to let your kids, or somebody else who doesn’t know their way around your office, touch things on your desk. Whether you have to lock your door or make a “Do Not Enter” sign, do what you can to make sure your work space is never tampered with.

Organization is one of the keys to success. Do everything you can to become successful!