Life is a Song68856

My children are 6 and 8 and badly behaved, and my husband is a mad keen fisherman. Not, you might say, the ideal companions for a relaxing two weeks on the beach. Our base was The Residence hotel on the east coast. This elegant, colonial-style hotel is set on a long stretch of white sandy beach and it more than lived up to our expectations. The children were thrilled to be introduced to Ram, their own personal butler, and set about finding him jobs to do with great enthusiasm.

As a family destination, the Residence proved an inspired choice. The beach slopes gently down to the sea and the shallows are ideal for children to snorkel and splash about in safety. The swimming pool is divided into several sections and therefore provided many different play areas. The water sports club was also fun, with water skiing and pedalos on offer. The childrens club was useful when they wanted a break from the sun, and it was a handy place for them to play while we had supper in one of the hotels two restaurants.

The service was just superb, even the nightmare of getting a doctor was handled quickly and efficiently. For the fishermen reading this, my husband did catch a bonito which kept him happy for a day or two!

All the hotels I visited differed slightly in atmosphere but the vast majority welcomed families. The childrens clubs varied in size and facilities, with some only operating during the peak holiday times. In general, although Mauritius proved to be an ideal family location, I never got the impression that I was surrounded by children. It was still a wonderfully relaxing experience.

http://www.aardvarksafaris.com/articles-family-mauritius.htm

True, Im not typical because I really dont hate filing. In fact when it makes my searches shorter and easier, I actually like it. So will you once you get organized and start your home or business office the right way. The right way helps most of us not get lost in the paperwork shuffle when it comes time to find that important document that we know we saved. Some simple tips on storing, setting-up, sharing, and maintaining your new filling system can make the job easy rather than dreaded.

Store

First, you should determine where you will store your files. Will they be in an easily accessible desk or credenza drawer? If you do not have drawers available, should you use a file box on a shelf or a movable file cart? If there are a lot of files, are they better suited to a file cabinet? If using a file cabinet, should the files be located in your office for quick access or stored somewhere else? Once you make this decision and have the storage location set-up, you will move to developing the file system.

Set-up

When setting up a filing system, keep it simple so you and others will not dread maintenance. Use hanging files or selected drawers for main categories. Then place folders in the hanging file or drawer for sub-categories. When developing a file system, determine how many major categories you will need for the files. For most file systems, this can be limited to major categories between six and ten. Then create sub-categories within the major categories, if necessary. File main or major categories in order used most to least using hanging files with marked tabs. Make subcategories within the major filing be alphabetical, date, or numerical to make searching for folders easier. For example, filing financial data makes more sense by date, since you file taxes by year and pay bills by month. Filing customer information would be alphabetical by client name. File research and periodical clippings by subject category instead of by source name for quick retrieval. Whichever filing system you use, always file the newest documents in the front of the folder since you typically search for the most recent version of information.

Share

If using a shared filing system, then include a typed information sheet or index card on outside of file location so others can understand the filing system. For those files used by multiple people or that contain multiple folders, create markers for the location of the file when it is removed. These markers may be empty folders labeled Out. Using a marker makes it easy to see that a folder is missing as well as where to put it back to reduce filing time. If you wish to further secure files and make sure they are returned you may want to also have an in/out log of who took which file and when it was brought back.

Maintain

Regular file maintenance includes both regular filing and keeping files compact and up-to-date by planning regular times to purge files of old or no longer relevant data. Try to file a document as soon as you are finished with it. If files are not conveniently located for instant filing, try to file everyday at the same time, whenever possible. If there is not a lot of filing to do, pick a particular day of the week to do all filing. For daily or weekly filing, have a holding place for file items until time for filing. Constant file maintenance includes each time a file folder is open and if it contains multiple sheets, quickly check through it to see if you can toss any outdated materials to thin file. If there is not a document control or configuration management requirement to keep old versions, be sure when you are filing revisions or reports to keep only the latest version.

Hopefully, these simple tips will make it easier for you to set-up and maintain a controllable filing system. Remember, to keep it simple so everyone that uses the system can quickly and easily find what they need or put away documents. Maybe now you too will find that filing is a simple necessity and not something to dread.

Copyright 2006 Shirley Lee. All Rights Reserved.