Being a small business owner is challenging in many ways, and the digital load that gets created can be overwhelming.
We get stuck wondering things like “How do I start sorting out my emails?” or “What did I call that file?” or “I’ve got five minutes until my next meeting – what documents do I need and where the heck are they?”
When your digital filing system is overflowing or disorganised, and when you just don’t have time in the day or the energy to tackle it, it can be stressful.
The good news is, you can start to bring order to the chaos with some small habits, without investing a huge amount of time. And if you would rather just hand it all over, just as you might arrange for someone to help you declutter your home, so you can outsource the organising of your digital worklife to a virtual assistant (VA). And believe me, some of us LOVE that stuff and can turn things around for you in a jiffy.
In this post, I’ll define what a digital filing system is and provide three key ways you can take some pressure off your own shoulders. I hope that this will give you a roadmap so you can get started with your digital filing system and ready to start each day feeling more organised, refreshed and prepared.
What is the three-pillar digital filing system?
Your digital filing system consists of your email inbox, your diary and your storage drive, and the reality is, much of your work life will revolve around these three elements. Whether it’s for responding to customer enquiries, having meetings or appointments, or storing contracts, receipts and other important documents, your digital filing system matters.
By streamlining your processes and maximising your time, you will streamline your effectiveness. Imagine knowing that your emails have all been dealt with or are flagged for attention. Consider the peace of knowing that every document is filed, named correctly and easy to find. Imagine knowing that your diary has been revamped – no more overlapping meetings or double bookings, no more phoning round for someone to collect your child from school for their dentist appointment, because you’ve forgotten to add it, no more dragging yourself into town on two different days when your appointments could have been back-to-back.
Ok, STOP IMAGINING. We’ve got work to do. And here is where we start.
Pillar #1 – Organising Your Inbox
Organising your inbox is a crucial component because, for many of you, email will be your primary method of communicating with your customers, suppliers or potential clients. And you don’t want to miss these comms.
Many small business owners start out with the best intentions, but then get stuck because they receive random newsletters, repeated offers for software after signing up for a free trial, and notifications for every post on social media. And then, all of a sudden, they have 10,000 unread emails, amongst which are important enquiries, notifications or reminders.
The key to slowing the flow of inbound emails is to start small, and start simple.
To get started here, make use of the UNSUBSCRIBE button on those marketing emails. Believe me, you will notice a difference immediately. It seems such an obvious thing to do, but so many people don’t.
There are many other ways to make your inbox work for you, and I can help with this.
Pillar #2 – Managing Your Diary
Managing your diary could be considered the single most important part of running your business. If you use your time wisely, you will benefit from improved focus, greater productivity and less stress.
If you’ve spent hours of your day speaking with customers – great! This suggests you’re busy, and that’s the way it should be. The downside to your time being spent in this way, is that other areas of your life get pushed out the way. Without making adjustments to your diary, you can have many calls and appointments, and get more business, but still not feel that you’re doing anything but treading water.
I’m not suggesting you don’t speak to customers, of course, but there are things you can do to add to your productivity.
A really useful technique for effective diary management is time chunking. This means blocking off time in your diary for specific tasks, so you always know what you have to do, with the assurance that you have given yourself sufficient time to do it.
There are a few ways to approach this, but here are my recommendations:
Start with determining your working hours if you can. Set yourself boundaries (not taking client calls before 9am or after 5pm, for example) – whatever works for you.
Then consider the non-negotiables. These are the things that absolutely must happen at specific times, no matter what. If your child has an hour-long swimming lesson every Wednesday at 4pm, and it takes 15 minutes to get there, block every Wednesday in your diary from 3.30-5.30pm. This ensures no clients can sneak in a last-minute meeting. You could even extend the block to start from 3.15pm – this will give you a buffer in case a client call runs over (patterns like this is something I will look at during your diary audit). Block these in a single colour that means DO NOT MOVE.
Next are must-do tasks with some degree of flexibility. For example, you know that you want to plan your social media content on a Friday for the following week, and it takes you a couple of hours to create your posts. Think about when you are most creative – first thing in the morning? Directly after lunch? (Probably not, zzzzzzzzzz) Whenever you are at your best, block the time then. Managing your diary is just as much about managing yourself as managing your task list. Block these tasks in a different colour.
Next are the very flexible tasks. If you are writing a book and would like to spend three hours per week writing, block time for this. It might be 30 minutes at the end of each day, or an hour on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoon (maybe when your child is at their swimming class?).
Some people set rules for themselves: no meetings on a Friday, email notifications off during proposal writing and so on, but this approach doesn’t work for everyone, and you must find a system that works for you (or work with me to do the same). Whatever your flexible tasks, use a third colour for these.
TIP: Some people use a traffic light system for their tasks, but if you’re anything like me then red adjacent to green will give you the ick. Don’t do it!
Pillar #3 – Cataloguing The Digital Filing Cabinet
Cataloguing the digital filing cabinet, or sorting out “paperwork” in old money is the third pillar in the filing system solution trinity. And it’s possibly the most boring and demoralising (not for me, though! Just saying…) You may run a business which involves both digital and paper documents – double whammy. For you, then, you also need to scan as well as save. Euurrrgggh.
Hopefully, having read about pillar #2, you will have blocked time in your diary to complete this task regularly (it’s really important that all your documents are securely stored, and I really recommend having digital copies of everything you receive in paper format). If not, please do it. Don’t wait until you have 12 metal cabinets stuffed full before you tackle it. (Note: if you are already at this point, make a pledge to do things differently from now on, and come back to your existing paperwork bit by bit).
One of the keys to organising your documents is folders. Folders are your friends. Some people like folders within folders within folders within… you get the idea, and others just like larger “buckets”. Either is fine – there are definitely no rights and wrongs here – and whichever you choose, the second key is important. It’s so obvious, but I have to say it… Please give each document a unique name. And I don’t mean “Dave” or “Cheryl”, I mean a name that explains exactly what this document is. And make sure the most important information is at the beginning, so that when you can only see a snippet of the title, you know instantly what it is. Use shorthand or codes if you like, but keep it consistent.
Trust me, naming your documents is a game changer.
I can help to further organise your documents – I love the jobs you hate (hope I don’t get into trouble from the makers of “Mr Muscle” for that…)
Putting it All Together
There you have it! The three-pillar digital filing system solution.
Here’s where you’ll really start to notice things becoming easier to manage. Of course, this will take some time and effort. It may sound like a lot, but like many things change starts small. Just focus on my suggestions for now. They will help you take control of your digital life and spend your time doing the right things at the right time.
Alternatively, you could look at one area at a time and enlist my support for anything that feels too much or is eating into your valuable time. YOUR success is MY business, and I am here to help.