I recently came across quite an interesting article on Microsoft Office Online about creating a reference system and started thinking about how effective my own reference system is, especially with regards to reference materials stored on the computer. How easy is to find the information you are looking for on your computer? I think most of us probably have areas where we can improve here and make our lives more productive by finding things easier. Here are some ideas:
1. Think about Your Personal and Professional Objectives and Goals
In order to create an effective reference system you should start by thinking about what sort of information you will want to store. These will usually be related to your personal or professional objectives, or maybe some personal hobbies. Write down a list of these subjects as well as any sub-topics under these subjects. This will give you a good idea of how you want to organize your folder systems on your computer.
2. Work out What Is Necessary To Keep and What Is Not
Once you have thought about general categories for your folders, think about what is important for you to keep and what is not. The Microsoft article gave a few pointers to think about when deciding what to keep and what to throw away:
1. Does the information relate to one of your meaningful objectives? If not, delete it.
2. Can you find the information somewhere else, such as another department, a Sharepoint site, your company intranet, or the internet? If so, delete it.
3. Are you likely to refer to the information in the next six months? If not, delete it.
4. Do you have to keep the information because it is legal or human resources information? If not, delete it."
5. If it is personal information then think carefully about whether you will really refer to this information later, if not then get rid of it.
3. Base All Your Reference Systems on the Same Type of Categorization
You will probably have at least three, if not four, different places where you file information - your email, My Documents on your computer, and your paper filing cabinet. If you can base all these filing systems on the same type of categorization then you will find it a lot easier to find what you are looking for in future and to link information where necessary.
What does your filing and reference system look like? By working out which objectives are important to you and categorizing your different storage systems according to these and getting rid of any unnecessary information you will be able to create an effective reference system, making it easier to find what you are looking for and so save more time for more productive work.
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posted @ Tuesday, November 20, 2007 11:51 AM
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