How to organize your file system?

As time goes by, you get more documents to organize. It is mostly due to the more assets you acquire. It is the same when you acquire more liabilities. You get more statements whenever you deal with banks, buy a house, start a business etc.
There will be a time when you feel overwhelmed by all the papers, receipts, documents, catalogues, magazine etc. Those clutters make your life complicated.

Do you see these files piling up in your work space?

Here, I am going to show you how I deal with these. You may not agree with my methods because you may already had a filing system that’s working fine at this moment. Read on to find out how I reduce the amount of papers in my working space. These are the three principles I hold on to when it comes to organizing my files.

Go digital

The first step to make your filing system easy to manage is to reduce the amount of paper you need to keep. The most effective way to reduce paper is to go digital. Simply scan the important documents and store them in your computer.
When things are stored in digital form, you can send them out easily by email. Whenever you need a hardcopy, it is just as easy as hitting the print button.

Go online

After getting most things in digital form, it is now time to get online. Storing files locally in your computer bear a risk. Whenever your hard disk crash, all copies will be gone permanently. No matter how many backup you made on CD or thumb drive, there will be events that destroy all your stuff. For example, think of flood and fire.
By getting online, you can get a lot of documents on digital form at the first place. The most frequent documents sent by post are banking statement such as credit card and mortgage statements. Some banks even force their customer to receive e-statement nowadays, which is really great for the environment and also to simplify your life.
By getting online, I also mean that you should save your document online. The one that I use is Evenote.com. Of course there are many other alternative but I just got used to Evernote because of their iPhone and iPad app. I email files, photos and even short videos to my Evernote and Gmail account.
The most important feature is the powerful search function.