How To Organize A Digital File System Perfectly

How to organize digital file system? Computers, TVs, tablets, and phones take up a significant percentage of an average person’s life.

‘According To Study Finds Research,’ an average adult spends about 17 hours looking at a screen per day. These digital devices connect you to your work, world, entertainment, and everything in between. While carrying out your busy life, it’s easy to forget the endless amounts of digital documents stored across multiple devices.

You might try using the ‘Find’ or ‘Search’ function on your tablet or computer to search for a file you need, but it brings a massive list of possible matches rather than the file you opted for. Searching relies on useful keywords and descriptive file names within a file. If are interested in how to organize digital file system or If you need to find files faster, you need an efficient system to organize files and documents as you create them.

Reorganizing your digital files could take a week or an afternoon, depending on how many files and folders you have. Concentrate on one category of files at a time. For large volumes of paper documents, use document scanning software to convert bulk documents into images.

How To Organize Digital File System: Goals Of A Digital Filing System

Before learning how to organize a digital file system, be aware of the three goals of your file organization system:

Easy To File

Your filing system should make it easy and fast to save files so that your system doesn’t cause friction.

Easy To Find

Your files should make it easy to find files and folders you might need—either through searching or poking through your folders.

Reusable

If possible, opt to use reusable templates and naming conventions.

To effectively organize your computer files, you must first decide on the structure to use. There are three main methods to structure your file system:

• Project or Client-based
• File type-based
• Date-based

Each method has its pros and cons, and you can use a combination. For instance, you can group all files by project but group projects by the year or group by file type but group each file by the client.

Project Or Client-Based File Organization

The simplest method to follow is a client-based or project structure. Every client or project gets its folder— how you split things up depends on the type of work. Keep all the necessary documents and files within each client or project folder.

The client or project method works so well because it’s brainless. If file X deals with client Y, it goes to folder Y. If file A deals with client B, then it goes to folder B. If you have many projects with the same client, you either have individual project folders or give each project its own folder.

The project or client-based method should be your default setup as it’s easy to stick to and keeps your computer organized than before.

Project or client-based may not be ideal when there are many different files as it could mess up each folder. The solution is to incorporate one of the other two methods within your project or client folders.

Date-Based File Organization System

For a date-based structure, you usually have a folder for each year with a subfolder for every month. You can add subfolders for each week based on the number of files you’re working with. The interesting thing about the date-based structure is it makes it easy to locate files from a given period. For instance, looking at last year’s financials for April.

A date-based method is effective when you work with similar files frequently. It could be ideal for getting weekly marketing or financial reports that are the same document but with different numbers. You can’t simply group such files by the project, as you’ll quickly have hundreds of reports in each folder.

A date-based structure doesn’t work well if you’re dealing with the same file for an extended period of time. For instance, do you leave a marketing presentation in the folder for the month it was created, the month you last used it, or the month you finished it?

File Type-Based File Organization System

This method groups everything into folders based on the kind of file. It doesn’t have to be a computer file type; you can use folder names like marketing, presentations, and financials. Within each folder, put their corresponding files.

File type-based structure works great when you have few files to handle or working for only one company; otherwise, it becomes a mess. A file type-based structure works best for many individuals within a date-based project or client structure. If your client or project folders get messy, introducing type-based subfolders helps sort things out.

In general, if you’re dealing with a few things repeatedly, then a file-type structure of organizing folders is the best for you. Otherwise, use it for subfolders.

Rules For How to Organize Digital File System

Don’t Put Files On The Desktop

Your desktop should be clean and should only display your gorgeous wallpaper. On occasion, it can be okay to put one or two files for temporary storage or if you’re referring to the file occasionally and don’t need to file it just yet.

Limit Folder Creation

Create minimal folders because many files can fit somewhere in your hierarchy folders. Only create new folders if the file is not related to any folder on your computer.

Name Your Folders And Files Strategically

One of the goals for organizing our files is to make them “easy to find.” A crucial way to achieve this is by correctly naming your files and folders. A good name allows you to find files in a folder right away. It also gives you things you can use to search.

File Things Immediately

They’ll pile up and get out of hand if you wait to file things later. It’s advisable to put a file in its proper place after receiving it. Also, don’t let files stay in your downloads folder; either file them in their respective place or delete them.

The Bottom Line

A well-organized computer is easier to use because you know where every file is stored. You can easily access a file from two years ago without stress. So, refer to the above setups or invest in file organizing software to get an effective file organization system. These were the answers to the question how to organize digital file system.