The beginning of the school year is an exciting and nerve-racking time for students. As new adventure rolls in for them, so do the mounds of paperwork for your school’s administrators.

Between enrollment forms, immunization records, and emergency contact sheets, the amount of paperwork that passes through your school’s doors each year can be exorbitant. A task of this size requires multiple hands on deck and at least a few weeks to tackle, which are luxuries most schools simply don’t have.

Now, instead of having to go through this hectic, time-consuming period each year, there’s a better route to take. By creating an organized system that’s easier to use, you’ll avoid the chaotic mess that comes with every new school year.

What’s the secret?

You have to create this system and have it in place before the new year approaches. We’ll show you exactly how to do that in today’s article.

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First, Clear the Clutter

Most school administrators wish there were more hours in the day to accomplish all of their tasks. One area in particular that always seems to be a black hole, as far as time is concerned, is the school’s main filing system.

This is unfortunate, since having a disorganized system actually costs you more time in the long run. But since most school administrators are so short on time, it seems to make more sense to add to an existing system instead of cleaning it up first.

What usually ends up happening is years and years of outdated files and clutter pile up, making it virtually impossible to find what you need, when you need it. Once this situation snowballs, it ends up costing hundreds of hours in wasted time each month.

Action step: Your first step is to clear out the clutter before you finish the current school year. You can think of this as the “out with the old” time of year before you start bringing in the new.

Have your team rummage through the files each day to remove anything that’s outdated or needs to be tossed out. Since this might be a monumental task, you’ll need to tackle it in a systematic way.

Choose a small section of the files and have your team spend a set amount of time on that section only. The goal is to get as far as possible in the allotted time. Once the time is up, your team can move on to another task and either re-visit this later on or pick it up again the following day.

By setting a concrete time limit (instead of an arbitrary amount of time like “an afternoon”), your team will have enough mental energy to power through without feeling bogged down by the mundaneness of the task. This means your team will knock out the chore in less time and without as many errors.

Next, Evaluate Your Current System

Now that the clutter is gone, it’s time to reevaluate your current system. You need to ask yourself and your team (since they’re in the trenches) a few very important questions:

• Does this system make the most sense?
• Is this system really organized and efficient?
• Should we reorganize a few things to make our job easier?

Remember, the more time you save on filing paperwork, the more time you’ll have to accomplish other pressing and important tasks.

Another point to consider is that if you don’t update or improve your existing system, you’ll need to do this process all over again at the end of each and every school year. Do you really want to go through this year after year?

If the answer is no, then it’s time to create a new system that’s much more efficient.

Action step: Before you move forward, evaluate your school’s current filing system to see if it really makes sense to continue down this path another school year.

As a gauge, if the current system is slowing your team down, or is a disorganized mess no matter how many times you try to clean it up, it’s time to move on.

Lastly, Create New Systems & Make the Switch to Digital

At one time, paper filing systems were the only option schools had. But, this is no longer the case.

Thanks to digital filing systems, schools can handle the influx of paperwork much more efficiently and for a fraction of the cost (financially and in time). This simple switch can reduce the average workload for schools by as much as 80%.

By using digital files your team has access to each student’s folder within a matter of seconds. So by performing searches within these files, they’ll be able to pull up important information—such as who has asthma—instantly and without having to do much leg work.

Essentially, all they need to do is type in the keyword—let’s use ‘asthma’ in this case—and the digital filing system will return the results immediately. This completely erases the time-consuming task of manually having to pull each child’s folder individually.

Plus, digital files make organizing as quick and easy as a few clicks of the mouse, instead of several days (or weeks) at the end of the school year.

And if that wasn’t enough, this new filing system is also beneficial for parents, too.

From this centralized platform, you can send parents documents like permission slip forms, and they can digitally sign them right from there. Once they do that, it’s automatically delivered back to your team. You can even create a special folder for these to live in, so they can be retrieved at any time.

This means your team won’t have to spend time creating, printing, sending, retrieving, or filing/organizing any paperwork for everyday occurrences like field trips, yet you’ll have everything you need at a moment’s notice.

Now, you may be wondering how hard it is to make the switch from paper to digital forms. The truth is it’s actually not too bad. You only have to make the conversion once, and from there the rest is a walk in the park.

Think about the conversion this way:

You and your team will spend less time going digital than all the hours it will take you to organize and clean up at the end of each year, plus the amount of hours it takes to organize and wrangle permission slips or health forms every single time there’s an event (which is constantly for a large school). You can already see that your team would be spending more time not going digital.

Action step: If the thought of switching from paper forms to digital ones seems overwhelming, we can help. The team at Hubbli has the experience and expertise to make this task a piece of cake. By the end, you’ll wonder why you didn’t switch sooner.

For most school admins, the beginning of the school year can be a hectic and time-consuming few months thanks to the mounds of paperwork that roll in with each student.

To make this time less overwhelming, you’ll want to start the organization process long before the current school year ends. First, remove the clutter and then create a new and improved system that’s much more efficient for you and your team.

Now, to really do this properly, you should also make the switch to digital forms instead of paper ones. By going digital, you’ll save time and money in both the short and long term. Plus, your school will be much more efficient and could reduce its workload by as much as 80%!

If you’re ready to learn more, contact the Hubbli team to get started.

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