Storing & Sorting Charts
After spending the weekend auditing nearly five years' worth of charts, I came to appreciate how important it is to have a good organizing system. Even with the general policy of returning charts to the client, leftover charts can pile up fast.
I have several rolling wire chart racks (also known as wire roll files) similar to this one. Each rack is dedicated to a category of chart:
- Unused, new, ready-to-grab paper rolls
- Paper remnants left over from other jobs for practice, video scribes, or small jobs
- Portfolio-worthy examples to use as demonstrations or for teaching
- Graphic templates, mostly the Grove's Strategic Visioning templates
- Finished charts, ready to be returned to the client
- Active charts: works in progress or charts that are part of a long-term engagement
The rest get recycled. When in doubt, throw it out (and I mean recycle.)
The long, cardboard boxes that new rolls come in are like gold. They're great for shipping or storing many charts at a time.