5 Tips for Organizing Your Digital Files
Photo by Dylan Gillis
April 20-25th is Organize Your Files Week, so that means we’re bringing you five tips to keep your digital files organized for productivity!
It’s often so easy to just let this part of your organization routine slip - it’s virtual so you can’t see the mess and easy to get away with when you can just hit “save”. However, if you’re a business owner, having everything easily accessible means less time searching through your downloads folder and more time getting important work done. And if you’re someone who works off a laptop, it can often feel impossible to find your scattered documents and even more frustrating when your computer slows down because it’s overloaded with documents (I personally have a bad habit of saving the same documents from Google Drive over and over, but I’m working on it!). Whether it’s tax season, an old client calling up, or just your curiosity, you’re going to want your files organized and easily accessible for any situation.
So, with that said, we’ve put together five important tips for organizing your digital files:
1) Create an Organization System
We’re not going to tell you specifically how to organize each and every one of your files, because everyone manages this part a bit differently. The important thing here is to find a system that works for you and your business. Here at V+V we are virtual assistants, so our system is organized by client and then by each service we provide them and admin tasks associated with each client. A more product-based business, however, might organize information by retailer/marketplace, or by product type.
This leads us to tip #2…
2) Create a Logical Hierarchy
I’d recommend taking a few minutes to outline 3-5 major “root” file types you normally save, and then as you go create subfolders. For example, we have several folder types here at V+V: Blogs, Social, Client, Admin, etc. Our blog folder is broken down into the author and then a folder for each blog with photographs and the document. We also have a separate table that we log each blog into by year and date linking back to these folders. Our social folder is organized year -> month -> stories or posts. This is pretty straightforward, but it’s important that you get used to creating subfolders so your root folders don’t become cluttered.
3) Create a File “Key”
Photo by Bhanu Rasto
Define how you are going to name each and every file when you place it into a subfolder, and stick to it. For example, all social photos could be organized as: keyword_medium_date (for example, “tip_story_4/22” or “organizefiles_post_4/22”). That way when you go to upload your social, you know exactly what you’re pulling without even looking at it.
Having subfolders will help make this system easier because your file names will have the flexibility to be short and specific. For example, rather than that file above being “aprilsocial_tipoftheday_story”, it is “tip_story_4/22” under V+V\Social\2020\April\Stories. This way your file name is specific enough that you immediately know what it is, ultimately saving you time in the upload process.
4) Create File Templates
We all have those file types that we use often and find ourselves creating over and over again. Well, lucky for us, macOS allows you to make files templates so you can quickly create any file necessary. If you often use a file, like documents for client on-boarding, we recommend you create a separate root folder with templates and organize based on their purpose. To learn how to make templates, head here!
If you use Google Drive for your files, consider making a template folder here as well. You can save any file as a copy and then format it with whatever will need to be filled it. The same goes for Canva or Adobe Illustrator. Just save the file as a template and then organize your Template folder according to your root folders.
5) Be consistent and stick to it
If there’s one rule you should take away from this blog, it’s sticking to your system. Files shouldn’t be organized only during Organize Your Files Week! Be sure to take that extra 10 seconds every. single. time. you download or create a new file to name it according to your file “key” and hierarchy. Trust us, spending 10 seconds now will save you 10 minutes looking for the file in the future.
So, in honor of Organize Your Files Week, take an hour to sit down, turn on your favorite podcast, and organize or purge your documents. It’ll give you a fresh start for the rest of the year and you’ll find that a system that makes sense to you makes everything easier!
Eating anti-inflammatory foods doesn’t mean limiting yourself- dark chocolate counts!
Photo by Irene Kredenet
5) Eat Consciously
The best way to avoid inflammation and irritation? Avoiding inflammatory foods. Instead of munching away on high sugar, oily foods, opt for anti-inflammatory foods like green tea, veggies, and even dark chocolate. This is an underestimated way to manage your aches and pains, but it quietly makes a big difference.
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It can often be hard to implement new behaviors into our normal routine, so don’t try all of these at once. Rather, pick the easiest one for you and start there, mixing a new habit in each week. Trust us, you’ll start feeling differences in your body in no time.
Photo by Alyssa Strohma
