Managing Files Is Simple! Find Everything in Place! ;)
Terabytes of information is a quite common phenomenon in the modern world.
It’s easy to get lost in tons of files, so keeping them organised is not just useful but essential.
According to the 2019 Intelligent Information Management Benchmark Report:
- 46% of office employees say it’s always challenging to find the right information.
- 86% of them indicate they experience challenges when it comes to searching for information they need to do their job.
- 83% of workers have had to recreate a document which already existed because they were unable to find it on their corporate network.
Considering various platforms for storing files — both offline and online — solving this task seems just impossible. Still, there are no impossible tasks for the Collabio Spaces team. Let’s dive deeper into the details of files organising!
8 File Management Tips
1. A single place or even a disk for all documents
Having a ‘root’ folder or space for every document on your device is a great idea. At least, you won’t search for a necessary text document in folders with pictures. Think about when you were looking for something in the Downloads folder… It is a real horror movie for office employees, isn’t it?
Try to place all incoming documentation to the relevant folder and you won’t ever lose it!
For shared environment, use the same approach. You might create the main folder named, for instance, ‘Shared Docs’. Use it for everything which needs to be shared with colleagues.
2. Don’t mix working and personal files
This is not a problem when you have a separate laptop or working machine for business purposes. It IS when you have only one MacBook for everything.
If you belong to the second category, here are tips for you:
- Splitting a disk space into parts should be a way out. In macOS, you can create a disk partition, on Windows, you can split the disk into two and more parts.
- If you don’t want to feel like a system administrator and learn how to split disks, just create various folders for your personal and working files. By the way, this works best for mobile devices!
3. Set folders in a hierarchy
According to the report we linked to earlier, people often come across issues connected to poor document management. For example, 41% of respondents state that information is often saved in the incorrect folder/system.
Imagine that your files and folders are like a room. You won’t ever look for food in the wardrobe. So, make sure that all your files are in the right places. Start from the global folders. For example: Work (=your ‘root’ folder) > Project #1 > Release #1 > Texts for the app.
The main idea is to make your path to the file as clear and fast as possible. So, don’t overdo. Too deeply-layered structures are no good as well. And the folders’ names should be simple and brief.
Although the process of setting a hierarchy might seem complex at the start, you’ll be pleasantly surprised how effective it is. You won’t spend more than 30 seconds on finding the right file, as you will know what section it belongs to.
4. Give your files clear names
Almost 42% of employees complain they can’t quickly find files due to incorrect naming.
Be specific and make sure you’ll understand what the file is about even after 2–3 years pass. Try to mention everything you need to see what the file is about without opening it. For example, the name ‘Emails’ won’t tell you much while ‘Upsell email for Project’2020' is descriptive enough.
Also, don’t use special symbols to avoid issues on editing files on different operating systems, if necessary.
Keep the names brief, as the system won’t show too long lines in full. Use abbreviations, for example, ‘Sep’ instead of ‘September’, ‘R1’ instead of ‘Release 1', and so on.
5. Start organising files from the very creation
The most convenient way to organise your documents is to start from the very beginning. You create a new file, fill it with the relevant information, click on the ‘Save As’ button… What’s next? Will you save it to the default folder? No way! Imagine how many files will be there in a couple of months. Dozens if not hundreds!
So, once you create a file, save it to the right place with the right name.
6. Order files in a folder
Even if your files and folders are ordered correctly, some high-priority files might become lost in the list of others.
- Place ! first in the names of high-priority documents.
- Number them like ‘1 Upsell Emails’, ‘2 Marketing Emails’, and so on.
- Instead of numbers, you can use letters A, B, C, etc.
This will allow you to identify the most important ones at first glance.
7. Keep your folders clean
Old files often clutter up your disk space. So, you can archive them or even move to an external disk. We don’t recommend deleting old business-related documents. Who knows when you’ll need them once again. Just put them into a folder named ‘Old’ or ‘Archive’.
8. Regularly back up important files
It’s a great idea to create backups for your business-related files. Why? You never know what can happen to your devices. They might be damaged or stop working properly.
Accessing documents, in this case, will be too difficult and sometimes, even impossible.
Copy the most important ones to the cloud or an external drive.
Why Do You Need to Take Care About Document Management Solutions?
Managing e-documents is as essential as offline business document management systems. If a company has a strategy and time-tested approach, finding anything becomes easy.
All in all, you might search for what you need, but this will take you even more time than just finding a file in the relevant category and folder. What’s more, there might be tons of search results which will confuse you. Companies and employees often have hundreds of ‘invoices’, ‘emails’, ‘manuals’, and other words in file names. So, searching for a specific document can be a great challenge!
Finally, document control systems reveal the overall approach to dealing with business tasks. If you use strategic thinking not only when creating business plans but also while implementing them on practice, you’ll likely achieve success.
And also be sure that Collabio Spaces is your best friend in managing docs. ;)
