Regain Hours and Control
You may be spring cleaning at home, but when was the last time you organized your digital files? It’s far too easy to let old files, backups, downloads, and programs pile up on your machine or clog up your cloud (I'm looking at you, everyone who pays for extra iCloud storage). You're forcing yourself to wade through this digital wasteland every day at work while things could be so much easier. Now is the time.
Carve out an hour or two, max. Start with one location (pick one: desktop, hard drive, external HD, or cloud service), and keep carving out time to work on it until you've organized your digital workspace. Here are some strategies you can use to get — and stay — organized:
Control Your Inbox
Email is one of the most important communication tools we use today, but some days it can feel like the bane of your existence. It’s easy to start dreading the feeling of opening your inbox first thing in the morning and being inundated with questions from colleagues and clients, along with an assortment of ads, newsletters, and junk. Control the overwhelming onslaught of emails by implementing an organization method.
First things first: unsubscribe from the junk as it lands in your inbox. Next, set up filters to send emails to their appropriate folders. Then, maintain key folders that allow you to prioritize messages by how time-sensitive they are (i.e., folders labeled Today, This Week, This Month, and This Quarter), or by project, or sender. As you open emails, use the FAST method to determine if you should File it, Assign it to someone, Store for future reference, or Trash it.
Determine a File-Naming Convention
Seriously, if you do nothing else from this blog, please stop saving files with meaningless names! Decluttering a digital wasteland is much easier when you don’t have to dig through a million ‘document1.docx’s and ‘IMG-5827.jpg’s tucked away in a generic ‘New Folder (6)’. Decide on a file-naming convention that works for you and that you can stick to consistently.
For example, you might include the date at the front of the file/folder name, so it’s easier to access timely documents, and then include the name of the project or client. Whatever makes the most sense for your workflow, determine a naming convention and apply it to all your files.
Create a Folder and Subfolder System
The efficient use of folders starts with creating a few main folders such as “photos,” “documents,” or “templates.” Then, add subfolders to each of the main folders. For example, the main photos folder could hold subfolders that are categorized by year. Just like mom knows where everything is in the house, you will know where everything is on your device or in the cloud.
Clear the Clutter
There are probably a few overflowing folders floating around on your device taking up valuable space. Reduce the tech messiness and get rid of the things you don’t need by deleting duplicate files, excessive downloads, and unused apps. If you are struggling to remember the last time you used an app, delete it. If you know you won’t use a file again, delete it. If you are on the fence about a specific file, tuck it away in a place for rarely used files. The point of organizing your digital space is to streamline your workflow. Imagine how much time is lost searching for one particular file in a sea of junk every year.
Stay Consistent
Our world today combines work, home, and social lives on our digital devices. To manage this blend, organization is key, and while keeping an organized digital life will take a little time, you have to remember to stay consistent. These digital organization habits will save you a ton of time and frustration in the long run.
Every time you add a new file take the extra few seconds to use your file-naming convention, determine where the file belongs, and store it properly. Taking a few extra seconds to organize as you go will result in less stress as you keep your digital workspace clean.
Sometimes the workweek will get inevitably hectic and your desk or devices will get cluttered, so finally, we recommend scheduling a recurring cleaning session each quarter to clean up your desktop, hard drive, external hard drive, and cloud service. Start in one place and move to the next until you achieve an organized an easy-to-navigate digital storage space.