Organizing Creative Professionals: Sorted

Where to recycle everything else

As a culture, we've pretty much got paper recycling down. Well, as long as it's newspaper or plain white office paper. But most offices run on stuff besides paper: printer supplies, magazines, cardboard boxes, computer supplies, etc. If you want to reduce the environmental impact of all that stuff, what can you do?

Magazines: If these are trade journals, you could pass them along to colleagues or offer them to a local library. If they're general interest, doctors', dentists' or mechanics' waiting rooms could probably use them. And if you want to just plain recycle them, Earth911.com can show you where to find magazine recycling centers in your area.

Cardboard boxes: Most community recycling programs accept corrugated cardboard boxes. Be sure to remove or black out your mailing address if it's on the box, especially if you work in a home office. Of course, if you're feeling especially creative, you might want to try making something inventive out of your boxes. Not all boxes are corrugated, of course; paperboard containers are a little tricker for recycling, but again, Earth911 can direct you to a center that can handle it.

Printer supplies: Inkjet cartridges can be refilled up to seven times before they need to be recycled. Most office supply or ink refill stores have recycling bins on the premises for your cartridges. Laser printer cartridges are often packaged with instructions on how to ship them back to the manufacturer for refilling and recycling.

Computer supplies: If the piece of hardware is still working and useful, recycle it by donating it to a charity or thrift store (and take the tax deduction). If it's gone to the server farm in the sky, don't throw it into the regular trash. Computers and electronic equipment contain elements and metals that we really don't want getting into the soil or the water. Instead, check out the EPA's "eCycling" site for info on where to recycle your old electronics.

How about you? What unusual items have you recycled lately, and how did you find out you could recycle them? Let us know in the comments!

The miracle of scratch paper

Okay, maybe I use the "M" word a little freely (hell, I consider cheese fries to be a miracle, although maybe the miracle is that my consumption of them hasn't killed me yet). But I'm a big believer in scratch paper, and my office practically runs on it. Here, let me offer 5 uses for scratch paper. Well, I guess it's all the same use (writing on the back side), but humor me, okay?

1. Writing outlines or rough drafts. I get a little paralyzed by the sight of a blank screen in a word processing (or blogging!) interface. So I always write a brief outline, bullet-point list or rough draft of anything I write or present. Scratch paper is perfect for this. While a blank sheet of never-used paper might present the same kind of paralysis as a blank screen, scratch paper has already been used, so I feel like it's okay to make a mistake on it if need be.

2. Writing your to-do lists. I don't know about yours, but mine get a little involved sometimes. I've tried to contain my lists to a small pad or notebook. Never works. No, I need a full 8.5x11 sheet to map out my day, and this way I don't have to buy a separate pad or notebook.

3. Writing rough drafts of your to-do lists. I am not kidding here. If I've got a lot to do on a particular day (which usually happens on days ending in "Y"), I'll start by doing a brain dump of everything onto a piece of scratch paper. I won't prioritize, I won't batch and zone, I won't stop to think about what the best order would be, I just write it all down. Then I can look at what's realistic, what can be grouped together, etc. From there, I write the official, orderly to-do list on a new sheet of used paper. Yes, it's ridiculous, but it works for me.

4. Writing regular reminders for your tickler file. I refuse to use a new piece of paper to contain the words "Back up your data, fool." I could use an index card, true, but those tend to get lost in the folders of my tickler file due to their small size. So I use a piece of scratch paper, then move it to the next month once I've done the scheduled task. (Another example might be "Check through your 'To Read' folder" or "Enter the stuff in your 'Data Entry' folder" every week.)

5. Writing notes for data entry. Whenever you jot down someone's phone number on a Post-It, you have two options. You can put the Post-It somewhere you'll remember to see it and enter the data later (this only works for three Post-Its or fewer; any more and it becomes part of your office decor). Or you can put the Post-It into your "Data Entry" folder, where it will merge with other Post-Its and become a great sticky, crumply mess. You see where I'm going with this: scratch paper is easy to file and retrieve; it isn't sticky (if it is, it's not scratch paper, it's trash); and it's cheaper than Post-Its.

What about you? How has scratch paper made your life better? Let us know in the comments!

Greening your job search

I know, many of you reading this are self-employed and thus blissfully free of having to search for a job (or, having to embark on a mini-job search every day, depending on how you look at it). But I made a rather major error in a newsletter last month, and this seems like a perfect time to rectify it.

In the July 29 issue of "Sussed & Sorted," I recommended keeping a paper record of all the jobs you've applied for: printing out every customized resume and cover letter, 3-hole-punching them and putting them in a binder with contact info for each job. Upon further reflection, I believe that to be some of the worst advice I've given. Not because it doesn't work as an organizing system (it does) but because of the environmental impact of all that paper (not to mention the impact on your printer).

Instead of all that printing and 3-hole-punching, I'd recommend an electronic equivalent. Inside the "Job search" folder on your hard drive, create a folder for each job you've applied for. Put the custom resume, custom cover letter and contact info files in that folder, then copy the location of that folder (or make a shortcut or alias) into your calendar application so you'll remember to send a follow-up email 3-5 days after you apply for the job.

Having your resume/cover letter files in Google Docs makes this much simpler, as you can create tasks from within Google Docs and thus make your follow-up reminders automatic. You can also use the iPEP for saving files, creating tasks and emailing yourself reminders.

Yes, all this stuff uses electricity, but because word processing documents are so small, it doesn't use very much (certainly much less than cranking up your printer). And think of all the trees you'll save!

What about you? If you're searching for a job (or know someone who is—which I think we all do right now), do you have any tips for keeping it green? Let us know in the comments!

5 ways getting Sorted will help you get green

Yup, I'm going with another theme. This month, we're looking at environmentally conscious organizing, or "green organizing." (I considered making the Sorted logo green for the month, and gave it a shot in Photoshop. It wound up looking like a hazardous materials warning, and that's kind of the opposite of what we're going for.)

Frankly, if you're doing it right, organizing is inherently green. Remember, organizing isn't about buying products or systems. It's about figuring out what's truly important to you and your business, paring down everything that doesn't fit that criterion, and reducing the impact of what's left.

Here are five ways you can go green by getting Sorted:

1. By only keeping what you need, you're reducing the demands on space and resources to store it. I often speak of the energy required to keep stuff in terms of mental energy. And while that's definitely important, there's also the environmental impact of the electrical energy used to maintain an office that's bigger than it needs to be because of all the unneeded files sitting around.

2. Recycling (or shredding, then recycling) unneeded papers is environmentally conscious. Next Thursday, we'll talk about how to get the most out of every piece of paper.

3. You can recycle old but still useful office furniture by repainting or recovering it, and recycle unneeded office furniture by finding it a new home. Later this month, we'll talk about how to reduce, reuse and recycle your furniture.

4. Paper isn't the only thing that can be recycled: your office probably goes through the magazines, manila folders, cardboard boxes, etc. We'll talk about where to go to recycle all the paper-ish-but-not-quite-paper waste your office produces.

5. When it's time to buy office supplies or organizing stuff, you have a lot of sustainable options. We'll look at these toward the end of the month.

What about you? What green tactics have you learned for your office? Let me know in the comments!