Top 5 Helpful Admin Tools

Being a creative, right-brained, ADD type of person, I am always looking for ways to help myself stay organized and make less work of the daily tasks in my personal and professional life. These are the Top 5 tools (at the moment) that I find helpful in doing so:

1. BackPack – I have been using the heck out of this service! “Backpack is a web-based service that makes organizing your information incredibly easy. Backpack lets you make pages which can contain any combination of notes, to-dos, images, files, etc. You can keep these pages to yourself or share them with colleagues, co-workers, friends, or family.” I have a free account and have used the Pages/Lists functions as well as the Writeboards to finally get down the myriad list of To-do’s that I perpetually have rambling on in my overtaxed brain. What a relief!!! I also use it to write and organize my blog postings and articles.
2. iPhone – I know some folks (my boyfriend included) think of the iPhone as a toy or luxury item, and in many ways it is. But, it is also a VERY powerful management and organizational tool. Just to name a few, between the list-making app (Things), the grocery list maker (Grocery IQ) , the blog posting app (iBlogger) and the Maps function, I have saved countless hours and made my life that much easier. And yes, of course, I enjoy the games and I love the iPod, but really, this thing is worth its weight in gold as a business management tool.
3. Job Jackets – One of the hardest admin tasks for me to manage as a freelance work-from-home type has been finding a way to keep my current projects/client files organized but easy to access. At any one time, I might be working on 3 – 10 different client projects. That’s a lot of paperwork to keep track of…for me anyway. I’m also the type to make piles and can quickly be awash in oceans of paperwork and clutter. One of the simplest (and cheapest) ways I have found to manage this is to use job jackets. I don’t even know what they are actually called, I just go to the office supply store and circle until I spot them. They’re just clear plastic sleeves with an opening at the top. I first saw them used when I was at Petco headquarters on a contract job. I helped them with website production and design on/off for a few years during their busy times. The way they parse out jobs to their designers is with a job jacket, each one having an overview of the project and any related paperwork. This would include proofs of jobs, revision requests, the original client brief, etc. I can’t even begin to tell you how much time this has saved me. Now, when I start a new project, I pull out a job jacket and put in an overview, notes, etc. and keep filling it up through the life of the project. When I’m leaving for a meeting or to go for a remote work session (read: Starbucks session), I simply grab the current job jackets and head out. SUPER HANDY-DANDY!!!
4. Sticky Note Books – I love the beauty, simplicity and practicality of these things. It pains me when I have to use more paper than necessary. Partly, because I try to be as waste-conscious as possible…and partly because I can be a tad bit OCD. Since I found these lovelies, I don’t use any other kind of post-it note. It thrills me to find a post-it for exactly the right size note that I need to make. Sometimes, I really just need to remind myself of something or make a note for later and the best way to do it is to write it on a post-it and stick it somewhere that I’ll be most likely to run across it when I need this info.
5. Sliding File Tray – I have a three tier file tray on my desk that I got from Ikea. I have been surprised by the one specific feature that makes this thing an amazingly functional part of my organization plan: the trays slide out. Yes, that’s the entirety of the brilliance. I know it doesn’t sound earth stopping in its excellence, but it makes a HUGE difference for me. As the aforementioned creative, ADD-type, I have somewhat of a “out of sight, out of mind” mentality. When I have used filing trays in the past, they end up being used more like permanent storage. I would fill them up and then rather than sort through all the stuff in them, I would leave them forever or transfer the piles en masse to a longer-term storage area (read: cardboard boxes). But with the sliding trays, I can pull out the tray, see what’s in there, do a quick sort for current/outdated and presto-bingo: my desk files are up to date and easily accessible. Yay!

What are some of the ways you keep your home office organized? Manage your ADD-ness?? If you’ve got good ones, please share! Wishing you a better organized (and thereby easier and more pleasant) day.