Even the most organized people often hide a dark secret. While their desks are neat and clear at the end of the day and all paper is neatly stored in ring-binders away from the desk, turn on their computer and it is a different story: rows and rows of files, multiple versions of the same document named in such a way that would test the skills of the most experienced code-breakers.
Badly organized computer filing systems is one of the biggest time wasters as you have to search for files you can't find. I was like this but then developed the following 7 steps to make sure I could find any file quickly and easily:
- Set your topline folders. You should have no more than 7. These should be your business objectives or deliverables or key area of accountability. You should immediately be able to see what kind of files should be there. I use my performance target as the folder name. Don't have more than 7.
- Set your next line folders. This is the step most people don't do. You need to separate at this line your documents based on where you are in the drafting process. I have three folders here: active (where I keep documents that I am currently working on); earlier versions (for draft documents that have been sent to others for input) and final (for final versions). I keep other people's documents that are relevant to my business objective in the final folder. I have added a fourth folder here recently: important emails. Where someone has given an approval or authorisation by email I store this here.
- Set sub folders. Under the active, earlier versions and final folders you need to break down again into sub folders. I apply the rule of 7 which works for me: at no point will there be more than 7 folders or 7 files. If the number of files goes beyond this, I create a folder.
- Name everything consistently. I remember once having a similar file named "performance management", "PM", "P Man" and "appraisals". I sat down and wrote a list of all the names I was going to use for each of my business objectives. This requires willpower but searching for badly-named files can waste a lot of time.
- Date everything. I write the date I worked on the document in the file name. This makes life so much easier when looking for earlier versions. If amendments have been made by someone else add their initials too.
- Delete. For some time I kept a file called archive but then realised that really this was just a dumping ground for files I was unsure if I needed. Once a week I delete files that have been replaced by a more update version.
- Police yourself. You will slip into bad habits and save documents wherever or with the wrong name or no date. Once a week go through and police yourself. Check that you have named things correctly and that they have been moved to the right folder. Your active folder should always be your smallest. Get earlier versions out and final ones where they should be. The more you do this, the quicker it is.
This is how I keep my computer files organized. How do you do it?