When you create your filing system, you are defining your information culture: your information culture is foundational to sustainable development. So, it is important to create a system that can flex and grow with you as a person and business. This includes choosing the right words for your files informs your working language and mindset.
As systematic as a filing system is, it requires creativity to develop. It is important to ask overarching questions to consider in observing your own habits in order to develop a system that feels natural. Such questions include:
Where are all my files presently? Dropbox, Google Drive, personal computers, phones, tablets, drawers, desks, etc.
What is the goal of my filing system? Is it for backup, is it for storage, is it for personal, is it for business, is it to be fully digital?
Who do I want accessing my files? Any in particular or file groupings?
Is there an ideal system you picture in your mind?
It requires observing your own habits. See, when I sit down with someone, there are particular habits I actively observe, while also listening to how you describe your current system in terms of:
Save locations
Duplication
Nomenclature
Filing locations
Screen click habits
Wording (Nomenclature)
I urge you to take a look at your current files and write down any filing names you would change when you observe your own systems and habits. Take note and explore why you would change it? Is it that it doesn’t represent the idea you really intended? Is it on a negative connotation rather than in a constructive or positive fashion? Have fun and draw out on paper how a hierarchy would look in an ideal world. Really, even if you do not write it out, the mental reflection is often enough to get the brain juices flowing.
There are however some rules that are strongly suggested to follow in the composition of your filing structure:
Never be more than 5–6 clicks deep
Never have more folders in a list than viewable on a screen (about 20–30, depending on font size on computer)
Never use fancy symbols or accents in folder names
Really, Have fun with file names but keep in the realm of possibility that someone other than yourself will understand what in the world that means. If you want to add a level of encryption that only your brain understands or that you have noted externally on paper for reference, have even more fun!
Take the time to open files you find along your way! Its often fun for the ego and allows you to organize. It is best to allot some time for this activity. It often accounts for at least 5 minutes every 15 minutes of file organizing.
Once you have taken a look at your existing structure, you can use the information gleamed from these reflections to inform your new structure. Take time to build a new filing system in a separate folder before moving all the files in a scheduled filing blitz. Before moving along, consider the following:
I strongly suggest waiting to delete the old system with one last review 24 hours after the blitz.
Like taxes, it is best to set aside dedicated time to do a semi-annual habit check.
An informed information culture is one that creates a navigable environment.
Happy File Organizing!
Amanda Rose Horsman
The unLibrarian
댓글