Filing - love it or hate it, it must be done

Is there anyone who actually enjoys filing?  I'm the first to say I do not enjoy it, but I'm sure there are few people who tolerate it more than I.  There are those people (note I said "those," which doesn't include "me!") who are good about making sure everything is put in its place at all times.  I think that is a wonderful trait to have.  I am not saying that I enjoy clutter, but I can certainly find other ways to enjoy my day, whether at work or at home.

But honestly, filing is a very important job.  Think of a law office where the filing gets behind.  Would you want to work in an office where you spend hours looking for a file that is laying around somewhere on a desk?  Or worse, be a client of a firm who doesn't appear to have their act together?

I recently read that interviewer's may ask the question, "Do you like to file?" to determine how truthful their potential candidate is being.  If they say yes, then the interviewer would decide that they are untruthful and would dismiss them from consideration of the job position.  I must object to this.  When I was younger, I actually did enjoy filing.  I liked getting things organized and having everything in its place.  As I have grown older and found more complex tasks to fill up my day, filing has become a chore.  So I do not think it wise for a potential employer to dismiss a candidate if they think they are lying about enjoying filing, because they could be missing out on so many other great qualities of the candidate.

There are quite a few ways to minimize filing.  One way would be to only print out and save documents that must be printed.  If you have a soft copy of the document, you may not need to keep a hard copy at all.  There are plenty of online repositories to store your documents.  Just make sure your online files are labeled correctly and you have a good indexing system.  Also, make sure you know your company's document retention policy. 

One tip to remember when you receive a piece of paper on your desk is to touch it only once.  Do not place it in a pile to take care of later because it is inevitable that the pile will continue to grow.  Having to spend a Saturday afternoon working on your filing is not a fun activity, trust me.  If you can keep up with it on a daily basis, you're one step ahead of the game.