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stance is well represented by the day's work file. (See Figure 7.)

The Day's Work File

The form of the day's work file requires no special consideration, but its function is vital in desk efficiency. A place is provided for every paper, where it cannot distract the attention from other work nor fall under the gaze of curious eyes, yet where it is instantly accessible when wanted.

Each problem in hand, every piece of work requiring time should be assigned a place in the day's work file and be put there to await its turn. Practically an appointment is made with each task. In this way a simple yet effective system may be evolved from the day's work file by anyone who is willing to make the preliminary survey.

The basis of any system is analysis and classification. In planning for a day's work file, the executive must analyze his day's work. What sort of items day after day come to him for attention? In what classes can they be grouped conveniently? The answers to the latter question will serve as labels for the pockets of the file.

A General Manager Analyzes His Work

The following classification, worked out by a general manager, may prove suggestive and adaptable to individual needs.

Dictate Today. In this pocket he places every letter which is ready for dictation and which should be sent off promptly. Dictate When Convenient. In this pocket he slips all letters which can wait. When there is a canceled appointment or some delay, he reaches into this folder and dictates possibly a half-dozen letters meanwhile.

Mr. Sheldon. Mr. Sheldon is the sales manager, so into this pocket go items pertaining to the selling department, including advertising.

Mr. Reece. This pocket is set aside for the works manager, and it receives things pertaining to the production end of the business.

Mr. Amster. This pocket is reserved for the office manager. Mr. Sheldon, Mr. Reece, and Mr. Amster have appointments with the general manager every morning, and each of them keeps a similar file in preparing for his appointment. The general manager arranges special appointments with him from time to time, filing meanwhile in this pocket items which are to come up at the next conference.

Mr. Olin. Mr. Olin is the systematizer.

Directors. The directors meet once a month on the first Monday. This date is entered in the tickler two business days beforehand, which allows the general manager ample time to get the material here filed into shape for the meeting.

Kick Meeting. The junior officials of the firm are in the habit of meeting the general manager every other week on Wednesdays, at conferences to which the name "kick meeting" has been facetiously applied. As the meetings are really constructive, this pocket receives various items other than objections.

Pending. Matters temporarily held up are filed here. Sometimes it is a quotation which is awaited, sometimes the reply to a house communication or a letter.

Specials. The additional pockets are reserved for whatever miscellaneous matters may come up. Perhaps it is an after-dinner address, or the annual business show, or a mutual

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benefit association organized among his workmen; in any case his secretary types a new label and pastes it upon some unused flap. When the matter has been disposed of, the pocket becomes available for a new label.

The foregoing headings prove adequate for this general manager and his position is important enough to draw a salary running well into five figures. The point to be noted,

however, is the fact that the day's work when analyzed can be classified.

Some men may prefer a more complete classification, with such a corresponding increase in pockets that a single file cannot well contain them all. In this case, a second file can be planned as a continuation of the first and kept in a lower drawer of the desk. (See Figure 8.)

A Hold-Over File

If the list of items held up for attention becomes too bulky for the day's work file, some sort of hold-over must be devised. If you have the well-arranged vertical letter-file described in Chapter III, the problem takes care of itself; but if that is not available, there are substitutes.

The expansion envelope, large-sized and made of tough stock, is one substitute. Expansion envelopes in certain patterns have a complete index, pockets being provided for each letter of the alphabet, day of the month, month of the year, etc.

The Deep Drawer Remodeled into a File

A better solution consists in remodeling that big, deep drawer found in most desks. At present it is likely to be system's arch-enemy-filled with business relics of every sortbut by removing the two wooden partitions and fitting it out with folders, it can be made over into a handy vertical file.

This drawer file can be indexed, of course, in whatever way one sees fit. With the various subjects in which we are interested written on the tabs, it serves as an idea file. Indexed according to days and months, it becomes a follow-up. Fitted with twenty-six folders alphabetized, it makes a good letter-file. Labeled with the subjects upon which we work daily, it supplements the day's work file.

Results of Good Equipment and Layout

With these appliances, simple though they are, as his aids, a man is able to hold the whip-hand over his work. He no longer goes through batches of papers in the old haphazard manner, but attacks them methodically. The various tasks on hand are there in the day's work file, each in its own compartment, some of them accumulating gradually the supplementary information required for their solution. The thing to do is thus made definite, specific. As each task is taken up it receives undivided attention.

The Disposal of Finished Work

Finished and unfinished work should not be allowed to intermix. If the finished work is left lying about one is tempted to putter at it, thereby losing that stimulus to the will which comes from dispatching a thing with finality.

A system for outgoing material must be devised. Where the messenger service is good, one basket or tray may suffice; each piece of matter dropped into the basket has its destination indicated on a sheet attached and the office boy does the

In other cases, a series of compartments perhaps will be arranged, each labeled "For Mr. Morris," "For Mr. Jones," "Outgoing Mail," etc. Sometimes wire baskets, the three-decker sort, are used for this purpose.

The Matter of Small Wastes

Many executives, anxious to get directly at their tasks, pay slight attention to their desk tools. In many private offices high-salaried men are tearing open letters with their fingers, sharpening pencils with a jack knife, writing with old, scratchy, steel pens-their desks littered with miscellaneous supplies, and paraphernalia in the main unused because unusable.

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