Organize Your Computer Files in 5 Steps

For every minute spent in organizing, an hour is earned

Benjamin Franklin

If you’re constantly searching for your last story, article, or character research, you’ll never get your work finished and published. This post will help you organize your computer files in 5 steps. Just like organizing your home, your computer needs to be organized for your mental well-being and productivity.

Every writer has been there and I’m no exception. Before I created the filing method I’m sharing with you today, I saved things everywhere, Research might be on my desktop, Multiple drafts thrown in My Documents and Final Draft fifty might be in My Pictures. There was no discernable rhyme or reason to any of it. Trying to find the most recent version, or any version of my computer files for that matter, drove me insane and cost me business. Something had to give!

Knowing my disorganized nature, I knew my system had to be simple and easy to maintain. I also came to the sad conclusion getting there was going to take time. It did, but in the end, it has improved my efficiency and, my bottom line. In fact, I found it so beneficial to my sanity and my productivity, that I want to share it with you.

The computer filing system I came up with is five steps. That’s it! Five steps that helped me finally get my files organized so I can find them. Now, unless you’re just starting and don’t have a lot of documents yet, there is upfront work, but I promise that spending the time now to create your own filing system and keeping it up, will save you endless hours of frustration and lost productivity down the road. C’mon, what say we get started?

Where oh where can that computer file be?

The first part of the organization process, and the most time consuming, is going through all the files and documents on your computer. Just like organizing a closet or a cabinet, you need to know what you have before you can get it in order. For this first step of the process, I just saved everything in the default folder My Documents.

Knowing this type of project overwhelms me, and I still had work to get done and deadlines to meet, I knew this was not a one-day thing. There wasn’t time to dedicate a full day to this project. I’m sure you don’t either. So, I scheduled time to work on it each day. Looking at my calendar, I realistically had about an hour each day to work on this project.

Because I like a sense of accomplishment first thing in the morning, I worked on it then. It doesn’t matter how much or how little time you have, or what time of day you work on your system. The most important thing is to set that time aside each day to get yourself organized. It took me about a week, one hour at a time, to go through those files, find all the documents and figure out which I really needed to keep. If I didn’t need it, I deleted it immediately.

What’s it called again?

Once you have all your computer files and documents in one location, it’s time to create a naming scheme that will help you know what your documents are and where they belong. Having a document naming scheme will save time down the road. Renaming your documents may also take some time. Remember, we are spending time now getting everything standardized so that going forward, you can easily access any document or file you need in a few seconds, not minutes.

What made the most sense to me was to use a descriptive name, document type, and date. For projects, I used the deadline for example, Project X_Research_03.01.2022.pdf.

Just the facts

Now that you know what documents you have and you have a naming scheme, it’s time move on to step three, setting up a filing system. You want it to be something you know you can stick with and that makes sense to you. You can be as intricate as you want, or as simple.

For me simple works best. So, because I use my laptop for both business and personal, I decided to create two folders in the My Documents folder. The first one I called Personal. The second one Business. Not original or catchy, but it works for me.

Tell me more

You have all your documents, they have a standardized name, and they are divided between personal and business. Let’s move on to step 4, creating descriptive folders for your business and personal documents folders.

Once I got to this point, I considered stopping, but felt I still had too many documents to sift through. So, I decided to create descriptive folders. Sticking with my inspired naming scheme, I created folders with catchy names like Tax Docs, Medical Docs, Insurance Docs, and Bills. In my business folder I added folders for each of my projects. If you have a client-based business, you may want to create your folders by client.

We’ve cleaned up our documents. Created a standardized naming scheme for them. Divided them between personal and business. Then we filed your documents in more descriptive folders. It is time for the final set of folders, the Annual folders.

Not every descriptive folder will need an annual folder inside of it. Having annual folders for documents like tax forms makes them easy to find when you need them. For the descriptive folders that needed an annual folder, it’s been a time and sanity saver.

You Did It!

Congratulations! Your documents are organized. The only thing left is to keep it up. It’s best to create folders and save documents as you need them. But, if you don’t have time or forget, make sure that you take time at least once a week to move those files where they go. Personally, I take the last few minutes at the end of my work week to make sure everything I worked on has a home.

To help you get started, download our free worksheet Organize Your Computer Files in 5 Steps. Leave me a comment with any questions and how it’s working for you. I’d also love to hear if you created a method of your own. Wishing you much happiness and success.