Got so much paperwork you do
not know what to do with it all. Should
you file it or trash it? Or should
someone other than you need to see it.
3 Tips for Documents and Reports
Determine what is important
to you and what is not when it comes to various documents and report you may receive.
1. When you are reading a
document or report, highlight important data to remember. Write comments or actions to do in
margins. If it needs to go to someone
else, put it in a referral folder with that person’s name on it for future
discussion or routing to them.
2. If you are on a distribution
for a report or document that is not necessary to the work needs, get off the
distribution list. If the report should
go to someone else, have the name on the distribution list changed to them if
they are not already on the list.
3. If you want information from
a document or report that is long, ask for a summary or graph instead of the
entire report. Well-written documents should
summarize their purpose in the first few and last few paragraphs If the document is broken into sections,
review only the sections that relate to personal work or required approvals. If a summary is not available, create one of
you own as a cover to the report or
document before you file it for future reference. This will save you time looking back through
it later.
4 Tips for Fill-in-the-blank Forms, Letters, and Checklists
Whenever possible, use
preprinted forms, letters, and checklists to save time.
1. If the forms are on the
computer, even more time savings may occur if they can be quickly updated by
filing in the blanks on the computer.
Then print or email the completed forms to get them where they need to
go. Only distribute copies of your completed
forms to those that really have a need for the data or who are approval
requirements, in other words make the distribution list as small as
possible. Wherever possible, eliminate
multiple signature approvals. Reduced
distribution and routing saves cost of paper, time to implementation, and saves
personal time for those that do not need
to see the information.
2. Have standard form letters
for most your business needs and replies.
These can be created on the computer with markers where inserting of specific
text for letters. If using a computer
application for contact lists and address, find out if the word-processing
software will interface with the contact software to create mail merged letters
or labels for mass mailing to save cut-and-paste or re-typing time. You can also use the application to create
your own return labels. Or you may
choose to pre-print return address labels at an office supply store or order them
online to save even more time when sending out mail.
3. If you do not have
electronic forms or standard letter templates, create template forms and
letters for future use. Be sure to take
any unnecessary or repetitive data off forms and checklists to make them more
useful. Forms that require too much time
to fill out will not be useful. When
developing forms and letters, be sure the most important or required data is on
the top for quick checks. Less important
data should be on the bottom of the form and medium priority data in the middle. Whenever possible, try to reduce forms and
letters to one piece of paper. Others who
must use or review your form and more likely to do so if it is short and
achieves the need with little input or confusion.
4. You can also save time using
checklists for repetitive work or standardize projects to eliminate forgetting
steps. If you do not have checklist,
start creating them the next time you have to do the work so they are ready in
the future. Just as with letters and
forms
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