Essential Tips for Organizing Your Computer Files

File management is essential for anyone who regularly uses a computer either at home or at work, as it allows you to categorize and easily find data that has been stored. Failure to maintain a good file management system can cause problems if important documents become lost. By thinking of a computer system like a filing cabinet it becomes much easier to conceptualize how it should be organized.

One Space for Everything

Every document that is saved should be placed in the ‘My Documents’ folder. This may include anything from a word document to your photos. This allows you to easily create a backup of all your important files. In addition to this, storing all files in the ‘My Documents’ folder makes it easier to search for lost documents.

Create Different Folders

Within your ‘My Documents’ folder it is possible to create additional folders for the various types of files that have been stored on your computer. For example, you may create three folders within ‘My Documents’ called ‘Pictures’, ‘Music’ and ‘School Work’. Each of these new folders would be used to store the corresponding type of file.

Within each of these folders it can be useful to divide them even further. For example, within the ‘Pictures’ folder you may decide to create three more folders called ‘Beach’, ‘Wedding’ and  ‘Friends’. These new folders can then be used to organize photo file by type.

Develop and Stick to a Naming System

Many people save a document and give it the first name that comes to mind. This can make documents difficult to identify at a later time. To avoid this, try to use a single naming system for all files. For example, digital books may start with the author name followed by the title of the book. This makes finding files within folders much easier.

Organize for Convenience

For folders that are used most often it may be a good idea to have them appear on the first few entries of the file list. This can be done by renaming files with a ‘*’, as this symbol will appear on a list before any letters. For your most commonly used folders, mark them with an ‘*’ to designate them as most important.

Save, Save, Save

One of the best habits to have when working on computers is to regularly save your files to the right location. By immediately saving your document to the proper file upon its creation, you no longer have to worry about losing it. To avoid losing data to a computer malfunction regularly click the save button while working on a document (every 10 minutes at least).

Remove Old Files

To avoid having your hard-drive becoming cluttered, be sure to regularly delete old files that are no longer needed. If you are worried about deleting something that you may need later on, create an folder named ‘Old’ where these documents can be stored.

Backup Files

It is not unheard of for computer hard drives to malfunction in a way that makes retrieving data impossible. This can be a disaster for anyone who loses important files (e.g. pictures, work documents, etc.). To avoid having this happen make a habit of backing your files up onto an external storage device. This way you will still have important files if you lose the data on your primary storage hard drive.

P.S. Don’t forget to breath through it all.  Computers and everything they stand for can be very frustrating for even the savviest.  A few deep breaths will go a long way here.