How to Organize Files?

You're sitting at your desk, putting the finishing touches on today’s big project, when ding! a message comes in from your boss: “Can you find that the files of the exhibition we attended last month? You and John from UX worked on it, I think? We are thinking about picking it back up again and summarize the experince from it.”

For me, requests like this always used to result in a moment of dread followed by a wasted day searching through old files. That is, until I learned how to avoid all that stress and wasted time. How? With organized file and folder structures.

Step 1: Sort Your Paper

In fact, organizing paper files is just like organizing anything else. Say you want to organize your clothes. You might sort each type of clothes into separate stacks, ranging from shirts to socks. Then you might pair the socks or group all the shirts by color.

Similarly, Sort paperwork into several different categories. For instance, Documents to keep permanently. Documents to keep temporarily and things to shred. You may want to also consider scanning or taking a digital picture of documents you may want to reference again, but don't want to keep permanently. Or else, organize the files according to date. Whichever you choose, archive the files in the way you can find easily.

Step 2: Step Up A System

Consider how much paperwork or how many documents you have. If you don't have a lot, you may just want to sort the documents you pan to keep into active and inactive files. Organize and store these files in an open-topped filing box on your desk or bookshelf. If you have a variety of them, folder structures can help, just like drawers and dividers can keep your clothes organized.

Folders and subfolders can keep your files organized in a logical way. Just follow the hints of each folder, then you can get what you want without making chaos of the files or the table. However, it’s easy to get into a trap of creating a subfolder for everything. If you have 15 subfolders under every folder, though, you might want to reconsider your strategy. At this point, subfolders stop being helpful and start causing workflow problems.

Step 3: Label Your Files

The key is to create main categories and clearly label the tabs on your hanging files. You may even want to color-code each category. Notice to summarize the key works as your folder and subfolder labels. For example, you can make use of numbers, colors or words to represent each folder and pick another way to represent each subfolder.

To make it easier to find the tab you are looking for, be sure to set up your hanging files so the tabs are in a straight line. Sub categories should also get tabs. The more specific you get with your categories, the easier it will be to find what you need.

Follow these three steps, never will you miss the important files you are looking for !