People often mention to me, with a wistful look, how marvellous it would be to have a paperless office. When it comes to being organised, paper really can be the enemy yet most of us find it hard to ditch the paper – start with small steps.

Ditch the post it notes, stop scribbling to do lists on bits of paper and put contact details straight into an online address book. For those of you who use Outlook all these features are built in. It’s simply a case of getting into the habit of using them. Once you do, you’ll be amazed at how much easier it makes working life. One of the keys to being organized is knowing where things are. Once you start keeping things online, there are far less places you have to look.

If you don’t have Outlook, use a free online resource, our favourite is Gmail.

Think before you print. Most of us print out copies of documents only for them to have a couple of remarks scribbled on them and then be left lying around. Even e-mails are often printed out to keep on file as a record of correspondence. But is it really necessary? If you print out all the key e-mails from your clients, your files will soon be bulging and the chances are that you still won’t be able to find that one vital e-mail you are looking for. Instead, organise your e-mail folders, with a folder for each client where you can keep all related messages. Not only will this keep the paper off your desk but when you want to find something you can simply do an online search rather than rifling through the paper on your desk.

Try to look at other aspects of your administration that generate a lot of paper. For example, do all your clients need to be sent paper invoices? Why not e-mail them digital versions? Inevitably there will be some people who like to deal with paper, but many of them will probably be quite happy to receive an online copy and cut down on the paper crossing their desk. Do you keep paper records that you don’t really need? I used to keep paper copies of all sales invoices, but after buying QuickBooks I realised I was never referring to my paper file, it was simply quicker and easier to look for overdue invoices or check off payments online. Now I keep all my invoices online, my book keeping is much quicker and I have some extra storage space on my shelf.

Like anything, a lot of the success of trying to get more organized depends on your motivation. Admin often isn’t the most exciting part of the working day, but that’s precisely why you should make the effort to change your habits. With less paper, you’ll have more time to spend on the aspects of your business that really interest you.