It's February here in Chicago, which means it's approximately nine months until springtime, but that never means it's too early to do a little organizing. You can have the cutest, cleanest office in the universe but you're lost if your files are a mess. Here are some tips and tools I've found that some writers can't live without:

If you're on a Mac, check out the iCal calendar program. You can set it to send you reminders for your various deadlines: when to start brainstorming, when to start researching, when the thing is due. If you're not on iCal or old Outlook, there are also more calendar programs than you can shake a stick at if you Google. Calendar Magic offers audio reminders in addition to fun little time wasting doodads like telling you how many days you have been alive, which I'm sure is information any editor would love to hear.

Many writers use Excel or Lotus spreadsheets to keep track of their invoices, but you can combine that information along with their assign dates and deadlines. This could be handy if you're short on time and offered an assignment and can quickly reference that the pub you're communicating with has a record of a fast turnaround time, instead of dragging pieces out for weeks and weeks that you don't have. Oh, if you're like me and are shamefacedly ignorant when it comes to spreadsheets, there's a tutorial here.

I personally utilize files on my desktop, because I don't have the patience to save things on floppy disk (although I should invest in a Zip drive). I keep these demarked by what I'm currently working on, what's in limbo and what's put away for now, then maybe broken down by publication or type of publication. And if anything is old and completely inactive yet incomplete, I print them out and put them in my sad Mulch pile (actually more of a file, more on that in a second), which perhaps one day will come alive with brilliant ideas for me to rework. This all is only helpful though if you are able to quickly track down what you're looking for. There are tons of free programs that can help you find files on your computer, from the basic 'search' function to Google Desktop and Writer's Database, which searches as well as organizes (via Writers Weekly.)

For filing away my clips, I use plastic portable filing cabinets that you can buy at office supply stores. They're organized by genre (humor, essay, etc) and then by publication. I like these because they're cheap and I can store them in my closet and drag them out on the rainy days when I file everything away. I keep separate filing boxes for clips and for business-related items (contracts, tax forms, notes, etc.) One day I might graduate to big-kid metal filing cabinets which are obviously a bit more expensive but it's pretty easy to track down used office equipment stores where you can get this stuff cheaper. I suppose if you're swimming in documents you can always get an archival service but if you're that prolific I don't even want to talk to you.

Then, there is always paper, when it comes to tracking your assignments and deadlines. You can download an entire organizing system here, but some might say that spending a long long time getting organized is just a way not to get work done. It's your call, whether your style is a plain notebook or getting a an organizer custom-designed at Franklin Covey. For all my deadline and personal planning needs, I never have any problems with the good old Chandler's. Old school is still the best school.

(Oh and if you actually do work in a pigsty, two quick recommendations I received for organizing from top to bottom include the FlyLady and Getting Things Done, although I haven't tried them because I'm perfect, other than the cereal I accidentally poured on the carpet this morning.)