A colleague I was chatting to last week spoke highly of a tip I had recently shared with her regarding what I call the “stuff folder”.

The stuff folder is for all those things you think you need to keep but you don’t know where to put them. In fact, I have a “stuff” box.

I don’t know if this means that I have graduated or that I have just gotten a little more sentimental about keeping things!

Now, before you think “Great – this is a perfect solution for all those things I don’t know what to do with”, I am going to put some boundaries around the “stuff” zone!

1. Before anything is placed in the stuff zone it must be dated.

2. If you retrieve an item from the stuff zone, put a line through the original date and write the new “touch” date.

3. Every eight months, make a date with yourself to go through the stuffed things and toss anything you find that has a date greater than eight months – that’s right, toss it! If you haven’t touched it in eight months, the information is probably out of date.

Another favourite tip of mine is to use colour in my filing. For example, anything to do with money (superannuation, share portfolio, etc) is in green, anything to do with Smart Advice is in dark blue, PC Smart is in light blue and personal information is in purple.

This way, if I want to lay my hands on something specific such as the financials of Smart Advice, I can easily find this information in the dark blue folder in the financial draw.

By colour coding the various parts of my business, it is easy for me to locate information. Try it – I am sure you will find it much quicker when searching for things.