Steps to arrange documents in Germany neatly and scientifically
Not arranging documents and belongings neatly will certainly cause you to encounter situations: light loss of personal belongings, dropping books, losing pens, forgetting notebooks, more terrible if losing residence card, bank card in Germany, losing confirmation papers, academic degrees or losing original records? This is really terrible in Germany, especially when you are a foreigner, all paperwork procedures, whether new or reissued, are not simple at all.
Not only should you store your belongings safely, you should also store and arrange them scientifically so that they can be easily found when needed, monitored, updated, and supplemented, such as personal records, labor contracts, tax records, house records, etc.
So, let’s learn how to organize documents and preserve them scientifically and easily with My Career. With just these 4 simple steps, your document storage will be neater and easier to find than ever.
Step 1: Choose where to store the document
Effective document organization methods
First , choose for yourself the “powerful assistants” which are “multi-compartment document folders” with different sizes (Odner) . You can choose the large 7.6 cm type and put all the documents you have, or choose smaller folders to divide your documents. One folder at home to store old notes, and a small folder to bring to school (if needed) is both light and full of study documents.
Remember, you get what you pay for, so you should buy good quality folders/files because you will be storing many of your documents for years.
Step 2: Make a list, inventory book, documents
Effective document organization methods
Make sure to have a list of documents and a pen on the first page, open it and see. People often say: “A dull pencil is better than a good memory”. Take notes and save everything, do not rely completely on your memory.
This “inventory book” will be extremely useful for you. When you need to find a document and can’t remember where we put it, please look it up in this notebook.
?Inventory Number? can also be referred to as ?Document Traceability Map?.
Step 3: Divide to organize documents
Effective document organization methods
Next, buy document dividers (Trennblätter) which are usually colored and have a protruding end for you to note the type of document, so that you can intelligently organize and classify your document bag, by color, topic, order of subjects/documents in groups to “see right away” what you need to find. You can use dividers for each subject/document group you classify, color-code each group.
For example: Math/physics/chemistry…
Step 4: Document notes by year
Store your study/work/life documents from A-Z for your entire year in groups and note it down on the spine of your Odner binder. Store documents/files by year so that later if you need to look up old files by time, it’s extremely convenient.
For example: School year 1999-2000, Tax file 2021…
Effective document organization methods
Arranging documents neatly is an important skill to help you organize your life in general, study, and work more effectively. Tidiness is also a good habit that everyone should practice from a young age.
To buy the necessary stationery items mentioned above as well as useful stationery items, you can easily order online on Amazon or buy directly at stationery stores such as Thalia.de, large furniture stores such as Ikea, or in supermarkets, large bookstores will also have areas selling these items.
Hopefully this useful article will help you classify, organize, and keep track of your study documents and life well and never lose a single piece of paper.
Stay tuned for My Career’s next articles sharing experiences of studying and working in Germany.
