During a discovery call last week with a potential client, I noticed he seemed a little distracted. He apologized and stated he was searching for a file he created, which contained all the questions he wanted to ask me. He continued to search as I explained a little about my business.
After a few minutes, I asked, “How do you organize your digital files?” He said he keeps them in the “My Documents” folder of his computer.
And it turns out that’s exactly what he meant. He had kept all of his documents, business and personal, in that folder, completely unorganized. He had been in business for almost a year, so you can imagine the number of files created and stored there. It’s the digital equivalent of “filing” your documents by opening the closet door and throwing them in. No wonder he was frustrated!
So, here are my 3 Tips to save time and frustration:
1. Think in terms of categories. When setting up a new file structure, think about the different buckets you’ll need to store your information. Then make a separate folder for each. In my case, for example, my main categories are:
Clients – all client related files are found here
Business – this is where I store the information used to run my business
Personal – everything else – photos, family documents, etc.
Categorizing is more efficient than organizing filing by date (as you might with paper files). This way, you’ll never have to remember “when,” just the more obvious “what.”
2. Make use of sub-folders. Within each primary folder I create sub-folders – again grouped by category. So, for example, within my “Clients” folder, I have additional sub-folders by client name. Inside each of those, I have more sub-folders (e.g., newsletter drafts, logos, projects).
3. Choose meaningful file names. To make finding documents as easy as possible, make sure to give a meaningful name to each one. Not only does this allow you to find what you need quickly (without having to keep opening documents and looking to see what’s in there), it makes searching your folders quicker, too!
According to a PR Newswire report in May 2017, the average American spends 2.5 days a year looking for things they can’t find. I can’t help you with those lost sunglasses, but if you follow these simple digital filing concepts, you can definitely bring that number down!