CREATE A FILING SYSTEM
If your My Documents folder (called Documents in Vista) is a massive muddle of files, looking for files will not only slow you down but also frustrate and distract you from your business and the things that you like doing! It is time to take stock and get a good filing system set up and decide on naming conventions for your files.
Where do you begin?! Make yourself a promise that on the next rainy day you WILL sit down in front of your PC and assess the situation.
To create your filing system you will need to use Windows Explorer because that is the easiest way to find your way around your filing system.
Start Fresh
1. Delete old, duplicate or redundant files – BE RUTHLESS!
2. If you delete any files by mistake (and you will!) you can get them back from the Recycle Bin.
3. If you are not sure about some of the files, create a folder called Archive and put the files in there to look at later but don’t dump everything in there.
4. Now assemble the remaining documents and folders and put them in one folder called Documents and Folders to file.
5. Later on you will move all the files and folders out of this folder into your new filing system that you are about to create!
Design a filing system that will work for you
1. Ask yourself “How do I spend my time on my PC?” “What do I work with – images – word documents – excel spreadsheets…?”
2. Consider how you will look for files – by type? alphabetically, by project, by customer? etc”
3. Think of your filing system as a filing cabinet with multiple drawers. The My Documents folder is the cabinet, the drawers are the main categories and inside each drawer are many folders that may hold sub folder and documents.
Now down to business
1. Create the first set of folders for your main categories – these are the drawers in the filing cabinet.
a. To create a folder in My Documents using Windows Explorer, click on the folder in the left hand column, you can see the contents in the right hand side. Right click in some space in the right hand side and select New and then Folder. Give the folder a name and press Enter.
2. Give careful thought to what you are going to call each folder, although that is easy to change later if you don’t get it quite right first time.
3. Within each main category folder create sub folders (these are just folders within a folder) and if necessary create sub folders within sub folders like Russian Dolls.
4. When you are reasonably happy with your new filing system it is time to put all your existing files into it.
5. Good luck!
File Names Are Important
1. Consider renaming your files when you have moved them. (Right click over the file and select Rename – type in a new name)
2. Give careful consideration to what you are going to call your files when you save them, file names should be informative, consistent and easy to scan when in a list.
3. If the date sequence is important start the file name with the date in this format:
a. yyyy-mm-dd ie 2010-06-01
Using this format will ensure that the files will be in numerical sequence by year, month and day. The zeroes are important to keep the date consistent in appearance so they are easy to scan and find.
4. Don’t be afraid of long file names if you need to be more specific.
5. Use the same format for each file name for the same type of document, for example if you email your invoices, credit notes (we don’t want too many of those!) or statements as PDF files you could save them in the Clients folder using the following file name:
a. 2010-06-30 Allied Builders Invoice
b. 2010-06-30 Allied Builders Credit Note
c. 2010-06-30 Allied Builders Statement
6. For quotes you might have a Project folder with sub folders for Quotes, Letters, and Request to Quote. The file names may look like this where the last number is the Quote number:
a. 2010-06-30 Allied Builders 123456
7. It’s consistency that matters.
8. Finally, if you can’t see the whole filename change the view to List view in the Open or Save dialogue box or in Windows Explorer.
If you need any further help with creating a filing system get in touch 01202 632858
For further training why not apply for
up to £1,000 of funding
we can start the process for you.
