Contractors must maintain a well-maintained home office. It helps us find things quickly, keep our commitments, and reach our goals. If you’ve ever been frustrated by not being able to find information quickly, these home office essentials will help keep the chaos at bay.

Stay in Control – Prevents things from falling through the cracks. Even the most organized people occasionally miss a deadline. Don’t beat yourself up for it. Take back control. There is a system here to ensure things don’t get lost. I call it the “Schedule It – File It – Do It” system.

• Schedule it – put it on your calendar.
• File It: For more ideas on filing systems, see the archived article, “Files, Not Piles.”
• Do It: When the task appears in your scheduler to complete, retrieve the file or folder with the information you need and complete that task.

Schedule it – Never put more than a few hours of scheduled tasks on your calendar. There will always be ’emergencies’ and other unplanned things that come up.

When allocating time for tasks and activities, always add a time frame. When scheduling meetings, don’t forget to set aside time to drive to and from the event.

Schedule time with yourself to plan and organize. This often spells doom for entrepreneurs: We schedule meetings with others, but sometimes forget to schedule time with themselves. Then some of the less critical but important tasks are undone. One of those important tasks that always seems to have a low priority is organizing and filing. However, it is one of those tasks that can be a huge time saver later on.

file it- Even if there is only one sheet of paper related to a topic, create a folder for it. If you are storing the files electronically, create a folder for that topic. That will save a lot of time when you try to find it later. Also, keeping files in a file sorter instead of a flat stack on your desk makes a world of difference. Browsing through a file system is much more efficient than a stack on a desktop.

Should – When the task you’ve scheduled and filed appears on your calendar, all you have to do is do it. Do it well. Do it completely. Then reward yourself for a job well done.