Spending time searching for a document or clicking unnecessarily to find a folder leads to lower productivity. Getting your files organized on your computer is probably the most practical way to improve your performance and productivity. You must be wasting a lot of time that you can spend on achieving your goals.
#1. Delete All Unnecessary Files & Folders
Once you decide to organize your system, you need to decide what’s going to stay and what will go out of the computer. While you are planning to take control of the inventory, take the time to back up the entire data you deem important, especially your personal files. Before you remove any file, go through it and check if it’s required or not.
By doing this, you will be able to delete the temporary files that might be taking up a lot of storage on your hard drive. If you wish, you can move these pictures to an external storage media, a USB drive, or the Cloud drive to make more storage. Go through all the Word files and PDFs to weed out the ones that you don’t require.
Follow a systematic approach while filtering out and sorting your files and separate them by category. This will allow you to declutter your hard drive easily and efficiently. If you are using a MacBook, do not forget to delete unnecessary files from other volumes in a container for more mac space optimization.
#2. Create Folders for Systematic Storage
Now, when you have finally decided on the files that you want to keep on your system, organize them into folders. Make sure to store each folder by relevant names so that you can easily identify the contents stored within. Follow the naming convention rules for your folders and keep them short and simple.
Sometimes your computer saves files automatically to keep things organized. However, this can backfire your efforts if you do not pay attention to the file storage location when the file is stored. If you create folders by yourself, you will know the exact location of the files, and this will save you from spending time clicking each folder to find the required file.
When you are naming the files and assigning them relevant folders, try to limit the file types that will go into a particular folder. For example, you may select to keep Word files in one folder and PowerPoint presentations in another. Similarly, keep the images in one dedicated folder and store all the video files into some other folder for organizing the content.
#3. Store System Files on a Disk
Most operating systems will store data on the hard drive, and you can find these files in the C Drive. In case of system failure or computer crash, you can end up losing all the data and important files stored in your computer. Always have multiple copies of data, at least one if not more, so that you can restore data in the event of a loss.
You can use a variety of options for saving data, and moving it to CDs or DVDs is an easy approach when you don’t want to keep data only on the computer. An external drive is a handy option as it will allow you to carry your data along wherever needed. Other options include a USB drive or network storage that keeps your data secure.
Moving data to the Cloud enhances data availability across multiple devices and beyond geographical boundaries. It allows you to access your data from anywhere and anytime by logging in to your Cloud account using a registered username and password credentials. The majority of Cloud platforms, such as Google Drive, OneDrive, iCloud, offer 2 GB of free storage on sign-up. This helps keep files organized as you can move important data to the Cloud.
Rules for Organizing Computer Files
Considering file saving rules will help you organize your files systematically. You can follow these tips to store and manage your data, files, and folders efficiently on the computer.
