Do you love to organize digital files or not? Do you have too many files spreading all over your computer in an unorganized manner? Check out the following ten principles for making a file structure. These tips will help you organize and retrieve your files easily by either clicking or searching via the file explorer.
Create Folders and Name Them Accordingly
Creating folders can provide an additional level of organization by arranging your files into various categories. You can name your file folders topic-wise or year-wise is at your discretion.
Choose the File Structure When Arranging Digital Files
There are three basic options: you can create your digital files as file-type based, date-based, or clients/projects based. There are advantages and disadvantages to each of them. The structure you choose should be easy to maintain. Make sure to use a structure that you can easily use.
Use Your Digital Organizing System
Once you choose an ideal system, make sure to stick with it. When people create a new system, people tend to rebel. So, stick to your new system for at least six months before you make a complete overhaul. But you can still make small changes, but unless you find a significant issue, keep your system for some time.
Use a Separate Drive for Your Documents Folder
Having a separate drive will let you separate your documents from the system files for easy retrieval, as well as to choose which files to store.
Assign Each File a Keyword: Fore Easy Retrieval
Each file has its properties such as size, last modified date, author, and what have you. You can view it under file properties. You can also include additional value to the properties of each file so that it is easy to retrieve.
Even though your file has many properties, tags are the most important ones. Tags contain phrases or words that can make your search for file easier. You can also use the same tag on multiple files.
Organize Your Files in Hierarchical Style
You can classify your further files by breaking them down to find your files easily. Make a nested folder and store your files there. With multiple levels, you can track down the file that you want to retrieve
Mark Your Files as Favorite
There are files that you always access than others. It may be marketing files, attendance sheets, or daily sales reports. The best way to find them is to market them as favorite folders. This will help you locate them faster.
Use Sub Folders on Your PC or Laptop
Subfolders let you locate files quickly. When you organize your files into Organise categories, you can zero in on the file you are looking for. For instance, you may have a file known as “Clients” and a subfolder called “Financials”, and within that folder, you create files for each “Month”.
However, do not create too many files, as it can be tedious to double click for some time. However, if the report is typical, you can add more specifics so that when you are retrieving files, you can quickly identify the report you are looking for. This way, it would be easy and time-saving to find the appropriate files.
Avoid Using Abbreviations for Your PC Files
Do not use abbreviations at all because they may confuse. It does not matter if you are the only person accessing the files on your computer. While you may assume you can remember the meaning of all the abbreviations, you may be surprised.
Abbreviations may only work if they are describing something that you hand daily, otherwise, you can easily forget the meaning of the abbreviations and find it difficult to find your files.
Remove Unnecessary Files
Arrange your digital files by date of their last modification. Check your records to see if there are files you do not need. If there are unused files, delete from your computer to create space for others, and to ease congestion when retrieving files.
