Rating: 
Summary: Teachers and Others will love this
Review: For many years teachers in Wisconsin have flocked to hear Pat present her ideas for organizing. Knowing that one doesn't have to attend her workshop or remember everything from the workshop in order to have organized files is of benefit to all.
This is great stuff. It organizes home files, teacher files, office files....anything that needs filing.
And you don't have to do all your stuff at once!!!
Rating:
Summary: It Really Does Work!
Review: Hi, my name is Jeanne, and I'm a Piler. I've lived with this disease for 40 years. It has disrupted my personal life, my professional aspirations, and my living space. Or it *did*, until the day I borrowed this book from my local library (then renewed it ten times before succumbing to purchasing my own copy). Oh, I was skeptical... I'd already collected many books on the subject of Organization and Feng Shui, and either lost interest halfway through, became too confused to move ahead, or tried and failed at the plan.
Then I found "File... Don't Pile" and my life was forever changed. Once I'd tried the process outlined in the book, I found myself becoming more organized. My Piles were diminishing. Old billing statements, coupons, and special offers dated as far back as 1997 were relieved of their life in Pile Purgatory and relegated to the Round File. The stack of "I want to keep this but have no idea where to put it so I can find it when I need it" items have finally found a home. And because of the Index, I no longer need to wrack my brain to remember where it went.
The first Pile I tried with this method was my Pile of design jobs (I freelance from home). I spent a long evening applying the method to the items, and voila--they were neatly filed. Easy to locate when I needed to refer to a job from last year for an elusive logo. Bonus not mentioned in the book: I discovered a better way to name my jobs for archiving. I'd been using a clunky version of a job archiving system learned at a previous job, but since I lacked their production manager software that automatically assigns each job a number, it wasn't very effective. Keeping a written sheet with the numbers with no sense of order was also ineffective. The old numbering system was something like "20021101-03" (year, month, day, third job). Having to sort through CDs to find a job was tedious and time-wasting.
Renaming current jobs to match their corresponding physical folder was a breakthrough!!! If I need Company A's logo changes from last year, I just grab their Index, scan down for "COA139 New Logo", and find the CD whose label bears that job number.
This system is one of those things where it might not make sense UNTIL you try it. Once you get into it, the lightbulb flips on. Now if I could just figure out how to catalog all that yarn...
Rating: 
Summary: Yes and No
Review: I bought this book on the recommendation of a friend, who'd described to me its analysis of personality type as it affects the question of organization. I found Dorff's analysis of the kinds of problems different personalities experience with organization pretty persuasive, and amusing, too. The only problem was that while I felt identified, I didn't find her solutions very amenable to my ways of thinking and working. To be honest, this book offers a system that would work in my house, or mind, for about five minutes. I was exhausted just reading what I was supposed to do. If you're the type of person who has lots of things on the boil, organizes your own workspace, and your organizational skills aren't matched by the need you have *for* organization, I'd recommend Julie Morgenstern's Organizing From the Inside Out instead. If you have some support for the organizational structure you wish to introduce (for example, if you work in a company where someone else does the filing!) this book offers a pretty flexible and practical model.
Rating:
Summary: Yes and No
Review: I bought this book on the recommendation of a friend, who'd described to me its analysis of personality type as it affects the question of organization. I found Dorff's analysis of the kinds of problems different personalities experience with organization pretty persuasive, and amusing, too. The only problem was that while I felt identified, I didn't find her solutions very amenable to my ways of thinking and working. To be honest, this book offers a system that would work in my house, or mind, for about five minutes. I was exhausted just reading what I was supposed to do. If you're the type of person who has lots of things on the boil, organizes your own workspace, and your organizational skills aren't matched by the need you have *for* organization, I'd recommend Julie Morgenstern's Organizing From the Inside Out instead. If you have some support for the organizational structure you wish to introduce (for example, if you work in a company where someone else does the filing!) this book offers a pretty flexible and practical model.
Rating:
Summary: I've used this system more than 10 years & love it!
Review: I bought this book when I was buried in papers and had a chaotic filing system. I was attracted to the subtitle, "A Proven Filing System for Personal and Professional Use," and not wanting to reinvent the wheel, decided I would faithfully follow this system step-by-step for a month. If I didn't like it, I didn't have to stick with it. That was more than 10 years ago. I followed her easy 5-step plan and it works beautifully. It only looks complicated when you skip around the book. Recently, I had some furniture delivered to a consignment shop and the store owner called and asked if I could possibly find my original receipts. I told her to hold a moment, and within seconds, pulled the receipts from my files and told her how much I paid. She said, "You must be a very organized person to have found those so quickly!" I said, "No, I just have a very good filing system!" I liked that once I planned the major file categories, I had quick visible results by sorting the papers into the appropriate boxes. So my mess was cleaned up right away as I was implementing the system. The system's easy to maintain as well. I also like the fact Pat Dorff's a librarian who understands the filing needs of folks like me who save paper in our many areas of interest. One reviewer recommends Julia Morgenstern's "Organizing from the Inside Out" instead of this book for filing. I've read Julia's book twice and am in the process of implementing Julia's system for overall household organization. However, when it comes to paperwork, I much prefer Pat Dorff's system. I find Pat's system strategizes the paper problems better, is easier to implement and maintain, and is more flexible when new categories come up. Also, Pat has an extensive discussion of all sorts of filing problems, such as presorting, you can't decide how to label an item, an item is too big to fit in a file folder, etc. Finally, Pat's numerical system nicely deals with the lining up the tabs problem, while Julie's straight-line system (all tabs lined up in the same position) looks nice, but is harder to on the eye to use, and wastes the folders with center tabs. Summary of my experience with this system: Great for filing, retrieving papers, & keeping the place neat for over a decade!
Rating:
Summary: I've used this system more than 10 years & love it!
Review: I bought this book when I was buried in papers and had a chaotic filing system. I was attracted to the subtitle, "A Proven Filing System for Personal and Professional Use," and not wanting to reinvent the wheel, decided I would faithfully follow this system step-by-step for a month. If I didn't like it, I didn't have to stick with it. That was more than 10 years ago. I followed her easy 5-step plan and it works beautifully. It only looks complicated when you skip around the book. Recently, I had some furniture delivered to a consignment shop and the store owner called and asked if I could possibly find my original receipts. I told her to hold a moment, and within seconds, pulled the receipts from my files and told her how much I paid. She said, "You must be a very organized person to have found those so quickly!" I said, "No, I just have a very good filing system!" I liked that once I planned the major file categories, I had quick visible results by sorting the papers into the appropriate boxes. So my mess was cleaned up right away as I was implementing the system. The system's easy to maintain as well. I also like the fact Pat Dorff's a librarian who understands the filing needs of folks like me who save paper in our many areas of interest. One reviewer recommends Julia Morgenstern's "Organizing from the Inside Out" instead of this book for filing. I've read Julia's book twice and am in the process of implementing Julia's system for overall household organization. However, when it comes to paperwork, I much prefer Pat Dorff's system. I find Pat's system strategizes the paper problems better, is easier to implement and maintain, and is more flexible when new categories come up. Also, Pat has an extensive discussion of all sorts of filing problems, such as presorting, you can't decide how to label an item, an item is too big to fit in a file folder, etc. Finally, Pat's numerical system nicely deals with the lining up the tabs problem, while Julie's straight-line system (all tabs lined up in the same position) looks nice, but is harder to on the eye to use, and wastes the folders with center tabs. Summary of my experience with this system: Great for filing, retrieving papers, & keeping the place neat for over a decade!
Rating:
Summary: Fits all of my needs!
Review: I implemented this system about 6 months ago - both at work and at home. I have found that it was easy to do and maintain. Once I started, it was addictive. I couldn't wait to tackle the next pile or old file and get it shipshape. It has made a huge difference, because now ALL of my papers are filed...doesn't matter if its paperwork on my van or an article about scrapbooking. I find my system at work to be a real timesaver. Although I save many files on the computer, I still need paper files. My next goal is to use this system for categorizing and saving files on the my computer. Directory A would have an index file and sub-directories A001, A002, etc (I just need to be sure to leave enough zeros so that my files will sort numerically).
Rating: 
Summary: Help for the cluttered individual executive!
Review: I'm a SVP of Marketing and Sales, and have never been happy with my filing system. It seemed to change constantly as conditions change. I find that the File Don't Pile system can help with specific instructions to keep you organized as conditions change. It is a little hard to implement, but once you are there, it is worth the effort!
Rating:
Summary: Help for the cluttered individual executive!
Review: I'm a SVP of Marketing and Sales, and have never been happy with my filing system. It seemed to change constantly as conditions change. I find that the File Don't Pile system can help with specific instructions to keep you organized as conditions change. It is a little hard to implement, but once you are there, it is worth the effort!
Rating:
Summary: Great, but follow ALL the steps in order.
Review: I'm FINALLY getting my paper organized, thanks to "File...Don't Pile!" However it wasn't easy. I thought that I was a special case and skipped some of the planning and consolidating steps that she lays out. As a result, 3 years later, I'm finally in the home stretch in the race against paperwork. Make it easy on yourself and FOLLOW THE EASY STEPS IN ORDER!!!! Pat lays out a simple five step plan to prepare to file your paperwork. She also outlines two simple, but adaptable filing systems, indexes, ways to prevent feeling overwelmed by the filing task and how to maintain and live like a person who has control of their paper. I haven't done it all...yet, but I'm much closer to having my paper organized. If you're feeling buried by paper, get this book now! I did a lot of looking around at other books on paperwork organization, but this one impressed me with its thoroughness. Pat Dorff is a professional librarian and she deftly adapts the tools of her profession to home use. This woman knows how to manage paper with information on it. If you read and follow the simple step by step instructions you will too. My only improvement on her system is putting a copy of the indexes that I've created on my 3Com PalmPilot and on my husband's as well. The thought of being able to search by keyword for a category, subject or cross-reference and have it come up with the exact file location is the ideal enhancement to this book and the only way that I can think of to improve upon it.
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