Filing with GTD

L

lemonsprig

0
Hi all,

I am just getting into GTD having just read the book by DA. I am now in the process of looking at organising my filing cabinet in work, but am not sure how best to organise this so thought I would ask for some advice. I appreciate it needs to be A to Z but what then, for instance I have details of the support contracts for a number of providers, should they be filed under support contracts or should I file them under the name of the provider. i.e BT, NTL, or Should this be under Telephony..

I hope this makes sense, basically I suppose I am trying to determine if I should file under context (telephony/support contracts) or Suppliers names etc. What happens when i have an overlap, for instance I may have system instructions for BT and Bills, as well as support contracts, should this be split, or should I keep all the information together under BT

Thanks

Ian
 
I have certain categories, with colour coded tabs on the folders, e.g. home, computing, finance, education, health, etc.
Within the categories the folders are sorted in reverse alphabetical order. Reverse order means i can see the front of the tabs, rather than them covering each other.

In your case i would probably categorize by company, and then have folders for your different dealings with the company. You want to organize in such a way that the folders can get split if they get too big.
 
What makes the most sense for you? I have a single folder called invoices, which holds all of the invoices and IO's I have dealt with in the last year (Invoicing is a small part of my job, and I almost never need to review them, so it would take more time for me to file them in a more granular level then it does for me to shove them all in one file and flick through them when I need to)

Are there more than one contract for each supplier? If for instance you have one for each, I would file them all in one folder, wherever makes most sense to you (for me it would be a folder called contracts for instance). Alternatively if they are part of a bigger piece (and you have contracts and invoices and sales orders and work orders with the same company relating to the same piece of equipment) you might want a folder called BT/ntl etc.

The key is that wherever you file them has to be where it is intuitive for you to do so, if your first instinct is to file the BT contract under "BT" then chances are when you come to look for it your first instinct will be to look in BT. Try to keep it simple, your mind works the way your mind works, where I file something won't be where you file it, and vice versa.
 
On the other hand

On the other hand, if you scan these documents, you can file multiple copies in every location that makes intuitive sense. One copy under Contracts, one copy under BT, one copy under Telephony. You could attach a scanned copy of the contract to your Contact info for BT in Outlook, so that when you open the Contact you have resource material at your fingertips.
 
lemonsprig;66685 said:
I have details of the support contracts for a number of providers, should they be filed under support contracts or should I file them under the name of the provider. i.e BT, NTL, or Should this be under Telephony..
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How will you first start looking for it when you need it again?

That's how to file it now.
 
It can be dangerous!

Dan Owen;66688 said:
On the other hand, if you scan these documents, you can file multiple copies in every location that makes intuitive sense. One copy under Contracts, one copy under BT, one copy under Telephony.
Click to expand...

It can be dangerous! If you receive a new version of such document you have to remember to replace it in each location.
 
Dan Owen;66688 said:
On the other hand, if you scan these documents, you can file multiple copies in every location that makes intuitive sense. One copy under Contracts, one copy under BT, one copy under Telephony. You could attach a scanned copy of the contract to your Contact info for BT in Outlook, so that when you open the Contact you have resource material at your fingertips.
Click to expand...

You will still need to file the original contract, since only the originals hold up in many contract disputes, especially if there are signatures involved.
 
It can be dangerous! If you receive a new version of such document you have to remember to replace it in each location.
Click to expand...

Yup. That's what Desktop Search is for. Find 'em and replace 'em. I'd rather have this problem than not being able to find it in the first place.

That's the question to ask!
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You want to get this decision off your mind just like every other thing that might cause you do distrust your system: pure GTD. File it and forget it.
 
I agree with the above commenter: scan as much of your paperwork as is possible. It makes life much easier. The only documents I don't keep on my computer are those that must be originals, such as birth certificates and my marriage license.

I think you'd be crazy, however, to file them in multiple categories. Instead just put them in a basic A-Z file and use tools like spotlight and quicksilver (or google desktop if your on windows) to find what you need.
 
I do not understand!

Dan Owen;66721 said:
That's what Desktop Search is for. Find 'em and replace 'em. I'd rather have this problem than not being able to find it in the first place.
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I do not understand. If you can easily use Desktop Search to find all the instances of the file (to replace them) you can use Desktop Search to find the file when it is needed. So there's no need to copy the file to different folders.
 
If you can easily use Desktop Search to find all the instances of the file (to replace them) you can use Desktop Search to find the file when it is needed. So there's no need to copy the file to different folders.
Click to expand...

And that's why I only have one email folder, called 2009. If it needs action it's flagged and moved to 2009when I complete the flag it's already filed. If I had the option to use something like Google desktop on my work PC I would do the same with files, but unfortunately windows search facilities just aren't that sophisticated.
 
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