Organizing Your Digital Files

Going Digital

Congratulations! You’ve gone digital and you’re using less paper with your home or office files! Well now that you have all these files what’s next? Digital organization can be just as overwhelming as a paper filing system. You need to be able to find your files when you need them and where to save them when you’ve used them. They need a system that works for YOU just like a filing cabinet. So let’s break down the steps.

Steps to Digital File Organization

Define your main categories of information (personal, financial, household, clients, etc)
Create folders for each of those categories
Give the categories names that you will remember and instantly know what type of information is inside it
Within each folder create subfolders to break down the category further.
These subfolders should help you sort files into them.
There is no magic number – when you determine the type of information in that folder you will have the number of subfolders you need.
Again label the folders something that helps you easily recognize what is in the folder
If you also keep paper files it can help to mirror the same category system and folder names
As long as the paper system is working it can work digitally so that you don’t have a whole new system to learn

File Naming

This might be the most important part about your digital file organization. Creating a file naming convention that is logical and intuitive to you, your family and team. If you’re working alone or sharing files with your family the answer is the same. Pick a naming convention and stick with it. Go with the most direct and descriptive name for the document and list the version and date. Make sure everyone you work with knows and agrees on the convention to avoid confusing the latest version of a file.

Final Thoughts

No system will be perfect and some files may fit multiple categories. Do your best to arrange them in the folder/category that you think best describes the file. If you’ve done your naming convention right you don’t have to worry too much about the folder system because you can use the search function on any computer and search for the file by name.