Over the years of working in homes and offices with clients I’ve realized we tend to over complicate our filing system. Sometimes making the system so complex that we can’t maintain it and we end up with a pile of papers to be filed and a filing cabinet too full of outdated papers to file anything else in the drawer.

Sound familiar?

Make filing easy with this three-part file system:

File type #1 Active
These are the files you are currently working with, such as client files. These are the ones you need to access daily, weekly or monthly. These files belong in a cabinet near your desk; preferably so close you don’t even have to get out of your chair.

Short on space? Try a rolling file rack that you can wheel up to your desk to access during the workday and roll away at the end of the day.

File Type #2 Research
These are the files where you store ideas, clippings, professional articles, journals and other types of reference materials.

These need to be handy but not necessarily right next to your desk.

File Type #3 Archive
These are the files that you need to keep for backup purposes like taxes or past clients. Since you won’t need to have access to these all that often these files can be boxed up, clearly labeled and stored away.

A filing cabinet is not the best place for these since they’ll become outdated within months and you’ll have to weed the cabinet.

Working just a few minutes a day to organize these key files means in no time at all you’ll be able to find what you need when you need it and those “to be filed” piles will disappear!

And all I can say is it’s about time we had a simple system for all those papers!

But, wait a second.  Don’t forget the rest of the story.  PR THERAPY has some critical messages that writers need to integrate into their writing consciousness this year:  Writers also write to make a living, promote a cause, or sell a product.  Your work entertains, informs, and is provocative. Whether you write novels or nonfiction, blogs or poetry, you express what others think, touch hearts, and help expand minds. 

That is your work.  So, why do writers find it so difficult to promote themselves?  How can writers reach a balance between artistic integrity and business acumen?  Who can writers turn to for encouragement, answers, and insight when the sheer act of writing is actually done alone in front of a computer? 

You can start here!   

 

Rebecca Forster

PR THERAPY welcomes Rebecca Forster and her new column Write Now.  She will help members of the writing community forge ahead in a wildly changing landscape during an exciting era of publishing transformation.  

Agents, editors, published and unpublished writers, bloggers, bookstore professionals and Rebecca Forster - a working author whose passion for both craft and promotion has not waned in over 20 years (and 22 published books) -  will offer insights about the changing life of today’s writer. 

So, keep an open mind. Figure out what strategies fit your personal style, what words lift your spirits, what thoughts inspire you. 

 Above all, relax….and enjoy the debut of Rebecca Forster’s column here on PRTherapy.com!

ARE YOU A WRITER?

“What do you do?”

“I’m a writer.”

“Are you published?”

There it is; the rock and the hard place.

All too often, people assume you are only a writer if you are published.  By a publisher they recognize, of course.  In book form, with pages and a cover.  Distributed in their local bookstores. Heck, even my own mother didn’t acknowledge I was a writer until she could physically buy a copy of my first book (never fear, I paid her back).

Even published writers can lose in this game of professional chutes and ladders. I’ve published over twenty books and, yet, when people find out my backlist is now only available for E-readers like Kindle, my previous success is somehow suspect. Instead of ‘show me the money’ the only way to prove you’re for real is  to ‘show them a book’.

So the question becomes, when do any of us become a legitimate writer? I believe it depends on the writer’s own vision of success and level of confidence. I have met people who have kept journals for years but have no desire to publish.  I have met some who have written for publication, never achieved their goals but continue to revise and refine their work. There are others who aspire to selling a screenplay or novel yet find success in magazine work, newsletter writing and advertising.

All of these are genuine writers. They share the critical professional virtues: dedication to  the craft, love of the written word and the determination to make their voices heard. Pretenders are those who do not work at writing. These are the people who sit with you at a dinner party and say:

“I have a wonderful story to tell.”

To which I respond:

“How exciting.  How far along is your work?”

And they assure me:

“Oh, I don’t want to write it. I thought I could tell you and you’d write it.”

And I laugh and refill my wine glass. I have my own stories. I work hard to write them, revise them, submit them. Sometimes they are published and sometimes they aren’t but I work every day. Like you, I am a real writer.

By Jamie Novak

 
We all know that following your passion is a messy business.  Talent and skill means creating clutter. But having clutter and showing it to the world are two very different things.  Having it happens…showing it shouldn’t.

It’s about time to celebrate the holidays with family and friends. Trouble is with just about two weeks left, it is really getting too late to do everything you wanted.

Sure, it would be nice to clean and organize before guests arrive— file the bills, clear the dining room table, clean the fridge; unbury the desktop, and, yeah, sort that mountain of magazines and newspapers that you were going to use as research for something.

The astounding truth is 82% of us have at least one room we close the door to before guests arrive.

When there is absolutely no time left to clear the clutter, put on your best PR smile and disguise the mess.

Here are the best hints to hide it in plain sight (no kidding)!

1.       Put a bow on it!
If you have a stack of clutter, such as say this pile of to-read item and some papers, mail and bills…

Take a box and push the flaps inward

Then wrap the box

Slip the box over the clutter

Just about anything looks better with a bow on it, even your clutter. Note to self: DO NOT add a to/from tag, no one wants to be gifted your water bill.

 2.  Dim the lights!

Swap out your bright white front walkway light with holiday colored bulbs like blue, red, or even green. No one will even notice that you forgot to clean the messy walkway or the glass on the storm door.

 3.  Cover it! 
Do you have miscellaneous clutter like this on your kitchen island?

If so grab a holiday themed bowl.

Place all the stuff in the bowl.

And promptly cover with festive ornaments. No one will be the wiser!

 4.  Wrap it!

Fridge shelves get messy, that’s life. Don’t let guests see the mess.

Simply line shelves with decorative paper to disguise the mess.

 5.  Stack it!

Scoop and dump the mess into a few boxes. Then promptly drape a floorlength tablecloth over the whole stack. Add a vase, photo frame or tray with holiday decorations ontop and no one will catch onto your clever trick!   

What NOT to do:  

1. Do not hide clutter in the oven. In a spare second shower? Sure. Just not the oven, or the dryer for that matter.
2. Do not stash the mess in the trunk of your car right before going to pick up out of town guests (and their lugggage.)
3. Do not push more stuff into the already over crowded front hall closet, chances are guests will arrive with coats that need to be hung up.

Try these five clever clutter-concealing tricks. Then sit back and relax, it’s about time you had time to enjoy the holiday with friends and family (after all you’re the only one that will know you have clutter wrapped under the tree.)

Jamie Novak writes the It’s About Time column for www.PRTherapy.com