Last week, guest author, Julie Bestry, shared a few of her favorite eco-friendly office products. On her first list – Recycled Post-It Notes and Bankers Boxes. Here are her final two picks.
ReBinders…and Their Buddies
Locating recycled file folders and hanging folders is relatively easy, but finding an affordable green solution for binder-style paper storage has long been a pipe dream. Three-ring binders are usually made of PVC plastic, and given that up to 500 metric tons of toxic PVC end up in landfills each year, it’s enough for a green-minded guy or gal to give up on binder storage altogether.
An innovative Seattle company is hard at work on creating alternative solutions. ReBinder is an online store offering products made from SFI- and Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-certified post-consumer recycled materials, assembled by an AbilityOne-certified disabled workforce. Their manufacturing processes reduce energy and water consumption, as well as greenhouse gasses, solid waste, and deforestation.
The original ReBinder three-ring binders come in three versions: the no-frills Original, made from heavy-duty corrugated cardboard, the Select, made from 100 pt. chipboard, and the Professional, which takes the chipboard base of the Select and adds an elegant black cloth spine.
(To get a sense of the vast chasm between vinyl and recycled paperboard, check out ReBinder’s detailed explanation of their materials, process and end result.)
To improve your eco-friendly efforts, you can purchase replacement ReBinder covers for a fraction of the cost of the original, from $1.76 for .5″ to $2.38 for 2″ replacement covers. Sturdy, high quality Re-Tab recycled tab dividers and Re-Pouch three-hole punched slash/pocket tab dividers (which hold papers, CDs and business cards, each in their own little slots) amplify both usability and your green credibility. In addition to ReBinder’s lines of recycled binders, dividers, and pockets, they make similarly planet-friendly CD sleeves and cases, folders, conference badges, adhesive labels and notebooks, available in a sample pack of their most popular products for $25 (with free ground shipping).
PlanetSafe Dry-Erase Wall Planners and Calendars
Each year, when you discard your wall calendar and put up a new one, do you heave a sigh, imagining millions of other glossy calendars with plastic-coated spiral bindings getting tossed into the landfill? Have you wished there were a better alternative? Thanks to PlanetSafe, makers of the world’s only non-plastic erasable wall planner, there is.
These planners all have the write/wipe attributes of typical plastic wall planners, but use no petroleum-based products. PlanetSafe’s line is made from 100% recycled paper, organic vegetable inks and a 100% biodegradable plant-based film laminate. Not only made from recycled product, it’s the first erasable line that is 100% recyclable, biodegradable and compostable.
PlanetSafe products are made from durable, heavyweight write/wipe material with a glossy finish. The line includes dated one- and two-year calendar planners, as well as multiple styles and sizes of 5-, 30-, 60-, 90- and 120-day undated planners with room for notes and project planning.
The planners are designed to work with either dry-erase or wet-erase markers, as well as sticky notes – like those in the Sustain line of recycled Post-Its®!
While the boards have ample space for writing one’s thoughts, “To Do” items and action plans and then wet- or dry-erasing them afterward, tracking concepts and tasks via sticky notes allows you to quickly re-prioritize by moving, rearranging, and even color-coding…it’s sort of a retro version of cut-and-paste in Word, without a single keystroke.
From tiny notes to massive calendars, from boxed archives to binder-bound papers, there truly are affordable ways to help keep our little blue marble a little bit green.
While the boards have ample space for writing one’s thoughts, “To Do” items and action plans and then wet- or dry-erasing them afterward, tracking concepts and tasks via sticky notes allows you to quickly re-prioritize by moving, rearranging, and even color-coding…it’s sort of a retro version of cut-and-paste in Word, without a single keystroke.
From tiny notes to massive calendars, from boxed archives to binder-bound papers, there truly are affordable ways to help keep our little blue marble a little bit green.
About the Author
Julie Bestry is a Certified Professional Organizer, speaker and author, who helps individuals and businesses save time and money, reduce stress and increase productivity through new organizational skills and systems. Although a generalist, Julie specializes in paper organizing, blogs as the Paper Doll, and publishes Best Results for Busy People: Organizing Your Modern World. For more information, visit Best Results Organizing at http://www.juliebestry.com.
Connect With Julie: Twitter | Facebook
It’s a sad truth. Many business owners have Networkingitis. It affects your your desk and desk drawers. Sometimes it impacts your bookcases, too. These areas become extremely inflamed and are marked by the tell tale sign of business cards oozing from just about every crevice and corner. Fortunately, this disorder is curable and in fact, there are several treatment options for every learning style and preference.
Ok, so this post is a bit tongue in cheek, but it’s not unusual to have your office overrun with business cards that you’ve received from people you’ve met at networking events or conferences. In fact, I will have to deal with this when I go to the NAPO Annual Conference next year.
So, what are you supposed to do with them once you have them? Here are a few tips to help you figure this out.
1. Jog Your Memory. One of the first things I do when I get a business card is to write on the back (or front) of the card where I met the person and one specific thing that will help me remember who they are. Why do I do this? I don’t know about you, but my memory isn’t what it used to be. After some time passes, I have no clue who the person is or why I wanted to keep in touch. By the way, you may want to send a follow up note to the people you received business cards from letting them know that you enjoyed talking with them. Do this a few days after meeting them and be sure to jog their memory with something specific you talked about.
2. Put Them Away. This is usually the hard part. You get home with a bag of cards and you’re tired and you put them in your office and then you walk away. Sound familiar? Try to put your cards away as soon as possible. Put them in a business card book, your Rolodex, or scan them directly to your computer using CardScan or Neat Receipts. You can also go low-tech and put them in business card sheets and store them in a binder. Group cards by event/date, industry, or in alphabetical order.
3. Shoebox Them. You could also let someone else scan them for you. Send your business cards (or receipts) to Shoeboxed.com and they will categorize and store them in an online account for you. They also have other features so check ‘em out.
4. Recycle Them. When was the last time you called or e-mailed anyone who’s given you a business card? 6 months ago? A year ago? Think about it, if you called, you would have likely saved the number in your phone or other contact management system – which means you no longer need the card. If you haven’t called, it’s time for you to say goodbye to those cards and put them in your recycling bin. This will free up some room for a number that you really do need.
So you know how I asked for your vote of confidence that I will actually write one blog post every day in the month of November (in honor of NaBloPoMo)? Well, one reader did just that. Here’s what she said:
“Deb Lee, I need to know how to organize the work flow in my office. It has been such a challenge. I have decided to move my desk to the opposite wall to see if that will help. Daily Blog you can DO IT!!!Kathleen.”
Yay! She has faith in me and I, in return, have information for her and everyone else out there who’s in “spot of bother” (feeling a little British right now) with not being as productive as they would like to be in their office. Here’s my take on this issue…10 steps to a more efficient you…
1. Figure It Out. Think about all the various things you need to accomplish on a given day so that you can create a plan of attack. Examples:
- Client Calls
- E-mail & Voicemail
- Regular Mail
- Reports (expense, mileage, ROI, client data, etc.)
- Meetings
- Urgent Projects
- Long-term Projects
2. Have It All. Once you have an idea of all the tasks you need to accomplish on a daily basis, decide what items you need to help you get them done. Be sure to have everything you need (e.g., garbage can, shredder, file cabinet, industry specific tools, etc.). This is true whether your office is in a building in the city or in your home.
3. Get Closer. Keep the things that you use frequently very accessible. If you 
reach for documents in your file cabinet often, it should be as close to your desk as possible. If you’re a paper clip fanatic, be sure there’s a (neat) stash on your desk. When the items you use often are far away, you’ll have to keep getting up to, well, get them. You might increase the number of steps you take along with your heart rate, but you won’t make much of a dent in increasing your efficiency.
4. Get Comfy. Is your office chair comfortable? It should be since you’ll be spending some quality time with it on a daily basis. By the way, be sure your desk fits you, too. Check out the various shapes (L-shape, U-shape, etc.) to see which one suits you the best. The right chair and desk gets you ready for the day ahead.
5. Clear It Up. Keep your desk or work space clear and clutter free. Sounds obvious but when you start multitasking, things can go haywire and so can your brain cells, er, your productivity. If you have sufficient room to work, you’ll have a greater chance of successfully completing your projects (and remaining sane for another day).
6. Move to The Top. Prioritize and rank your duties in order of urgency. Urgency
is usually dictated by time and/or money. If that big report is due in two days, that task should jump to the top of your list. If your boss expects that report in 1 hour, I’d say that’s pretty urgent and should take the #1 spot on your list. If you are the boss, well, maybe you have a little wiggle room.
6a. Don’t Get Sucked In. One more thing, choose specific times to read/respond to e-mail/voicemail. This one’s tough, but you can do it. Work on your priority projects when you’re feeling the most alert and handle the e-mails during brief, designated times.
7. Get FAT. No, it’s not lunch time, but if you use FAT, you’ll lose a lot of paper clutter.
- File … your “must haves” for future use
- Act … chop, chop, do something about it
- Toss … say goodbye, adios, seeyalata, babye
I learned about FAT from professional organizer Barbara Hemphill’s Taming the Paper Tiger at Home. Aren’t organizers wonderful?
8. Be Exclusive. Try to finish one thing before starting another and give your attention to one thing at a time. I have trouble with this one sometimes. Do you notice that you lose focus when you try to attend to more than one thing, or say 20 things, at one time? Yeah, it happens to the best of us. When in doubt, see step 6.
9. Time It. Decide how much time it should take to complete each task and stick to it. Set a timer or the alarm on your phone or have a friend call you so that you know when your time’s up. Your friend may get a bit tired of calling you, so 
that should probably be a last resort.
10. Know Thyself. Some of us keep things visible so we can remember them. Sometimes, we need to read and hear directions before we can master a task. Maybe you prefer talking on the phone instead of using e-mail. Personally, I love the color red. What’s this have to do with your office? If you can figure out your learning style (e.g., visual, auditory, kinesthetic) and what appeals to you aesthetically, you can achieve greater success with maintaining order, increasing productivity, and have a great time while you’re at it.
P.S. Thanks, Kathleen, for giving me a topic to blog about. Do you have a burning organization question? Leave a comment!
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