File cabinet

This page is part of a series on journaling.

Introduction

David Allan suggère d’adopter un simple système alphabétique, mais moi je trouve ça insuffisant.

J’ai toujours trouvé que les techniques de filières rotatives de FreedomFiler™ étaient géniales. J’ai créé mes étiquettes il y a plus de 10 ans et ça fonctionne toujours.

Introduction

For filing paper documents, I have three main filing systems.

There is an alphabetical folder box, a legal two drawer filing cabinet, and holding sleeves for project material.

Alphabetical folder box

This is the filing system recommended by David Allen. It’s very simple and it’s the system I use for any reference I wish to keep, and which doesn’t belong to a known category with a known retention period.

Ajouter une photo de ma boîte de chemises, et une de mon classeur en bambou.

Filing cabinet

My filing cabinet is where I store documents that I need to hold on to for several months or years. Ten years ago, I watched the FreedomFiler Filing 101 Demos and read the Setting up a Filing System 101 filing system explanation. I found the methods and classification systems very smart, I adopted some of them and crafted my own color-coded labels.

Material

I have a US legal format two drawer metal filing cabinet.

Green section — 24 months archive

It’s a 24 months rotating archive. There is a sequence of 12 months identified for odd years, and 12 months for even years. A cursor identifies the current month.

Content

• Invoices
• Statements
• Receipts
• Written notes
• Correspondence

Blue section — Even/odd years

The two blue folders at the front of the green section is the even/odd year tax documents catch-all. All year long, and in particular in february, march and april, I collect income declaration and fiscal documents in the even or odd year folder according to the tax year they belong to. When the tax season comes, I don’t have to chase my documents, they are all in one place. A cursor indicates whether the current tax year is odd or even.

Blue section — 10 years archive

It’s a 10 years rotating archive. Labels are numbered 0 to 9 for the unit digit of the year. A cursor identifies the current year.

Content

• Tax forms and documents
• Bank and credit card statements

Orange section — Latest

This section is for documents that have to be kept for the lifetime of a possession or relationship (including commercial contractual agreements, subscriptions, etc.).

• Account creation contracts.
• Insurance contracts.
• Lease.

When there is a new version of a document, the old version is moved to the green (23 months) or blue (10 years) section, and the new document is filed in the folder in the orange section.