If you don’t take care of your PC’s files, you will quickly discover that it’s easy to lose track of where everything is. You have countless file types, folders, and applications sitting around without any real sense of organization or continuity. Today, we’re going to focus on how to help you better organize your files in a way that it easy to find and understand. You should be able to do so in either your operating system file explorer or in your cloud-based file storage.

There are three ways you can organize your files. You can distribute them based on clients (or projects), dates, or file types. We’ll focus on how it can be beneficial to organize your files based on the file type.

A file-based setup helps you group all files in folders designed to hold a specific file type. If you have a lot of ebooks, for example, they would be placed in a folder that is labeled “ebooks,” meaning they are all located in the same place, not all over your desktop or Downloads folder. This file organization method focuses on making sure all files are in places where they belong. This could take some work, but it’s well worth the effort.

If you work for a business, chances are they use a shared network of some sort with its own custom file storage nomenclature, so be sure to do your research before making any major changes in file storage.

Tip #1: Stick to Your Filing System

Once you’ve made your choice on a filing system, it’s important to stick to it. File things away as soon as you can; this keeps folders like Downloads from getting too out of control. Plus, you mitigate the risk of misplacing files by putting them in the right location as soon as possible.

Tip #2: Avoid the Desktop & Download Folders

That being said, it might be tempting to just choose your desktop or the downloads folder for storing files, but you should avoid doing so at all costs. The issue stems from the fact that your desktop only has so much real estate, meaning that it will fill up before long and leave you with a giant mess to clean up. If you put the files where they are supposed to go as soon as possible, you can avoid clutter and wasted time by knowing exactly where files are located soon after the download.

Tip #3: Sort Once a Week

If you aren’t able to file away files where they belong immediately, you need to make it a point to do it periodically. We suggest once every week or once every 10 days or so. If you go any longer than this, chances are it will get pretty messy.

Tip #4: Naming Practices

A great way to sort out of your files, even in folders, is to use a naming convention that distinguishes them from each other. That being said, having a ton of files with the same names will be confusing. Therefore, you should shoot for specifics when putting together file names.

Managing your files doesn’t have to be challenging. Argentum IT can help you out with that. To learn more, reach out to us at (502) 473-6407.