Did you know that 7.5% of most organizations’ digital files get lost entirely? Another 90% get shuffled through the digital organization the company uses. There must be a better way!
File organization is one of the biggest challenges of both entrepreneurs and large companies. When computer file organization isn’t planned well, documents get lost and business suffers.
Sound familiar? Then keep reading for three file organization ideas that will change the way you do business.
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1. Client Based File Organization
Client-based computer file organization is simple to understand and easy to use. Each client has a folder. Within the mail client folder, you can have other folders to organize the type of work you do for them.
Try to keep folders within folders to a minimum. The more sub-folders in your digital organization, the harder it will be to remember where you put files.
You could do the same thing with projects. Each project has a main folder. Create sub-folders for different parts of the project.
2. Date Based Organization
This simple file organization structure is based on time. Each year has a folder with months, projects, or clients as sub-folders. If you are good at remembering dates, this can work great for you.
If you have ongoing projects you can move them as needed. For example, if you started a project in 2020 and you are still working on it in 2021, you can move it to the 2021 folder.
Date-based file organization works best when you have a lot of similar files over time. It makes sense to file them by date. If there’s a huge amount of project-based files, you may be better off with a project or client-based organization.
3. Organization by File Type
This type of file organization can be based on the type of computer file (Word, PDF, etc.), or by the kinds of files in the folder. You may want to organize it into financial or marketing files.
Sometimes, having a PDF of each file can be an advantage. It can’t be edited. You can create a PDF library for net use to keep files confidential.
File-based organization may work better as a sub-structure. Use client or project-based organization as the main structure; create sub-folders within the main folder. This works when you do the same type of work regularly.
How to Organize Files on Mac Computers
Mac computers have the same option to use folders and files for organization. There are a few additional file organizing ideas that can help you, though. They all use tags.
On a Mac, you can tag an open file by clicking on the arrow to the right of the document and clicking on the Tags field. You can then choose a tag you have already used or create a new one.
You can also tag files when you save them. When you save a document, you will see a Tags field. You can even tag files from the File Menu or the Finder.
File Organization Saves Time
If you put the initial work in creating a file organization system that works, you will save a lot of time. Saving time means saving money.
You will also be able to do your job more efficiently.
You can take your file organization up a level by backing files up to the cloud. Google Docs or Dropbox are popular online file organization systems. This allows you and others to access your files as needed.
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