Summary
I share this fun fact often because it frequently surprises people: McKinsey found that the average worker spends 20% of their time looking for information. That’s about 10 WEEKS a year! Much of that time is spent dealing with email, and I covered that in a separate blog post. In this one, we’ll cover some strategies and best practices around organizing and naming your folders and files. These will help you save time not just on looking for information, but also creating it in the first place. Here are some high-level takeaways we’ll discuss:
- Organize folders and files logically with the expectation of needing to find them quickly.
- Name things descriptively but succinctly (who-what-when).
- Automate processes for creating folder structures and files and for searching them.
- Consistency is key above all else
Organizing Folders and Files
Have you ever walked into a grocery store after they’ve completely rearranged things? Or maybe you went to another location in a chain and everything was backwards? How about one where things were just randomly put on the shelves (there’s a store like that near me – Amazon has virtually replaced it!). We subconsciously appreciate organization, yet most of us don’t take the time to organize our personal or professional stuff the same way. Those of us that do take that time realize that the upfront investment pays dividends later on.
While it’s important to keep your individual files organized, it’s even more important to keep shared files organized. Think about it: the more people that search for the same files, the more time they could potentially waste looking for unorganized files. A different approach might be needed for some shared files, but following similar approaches for your individual files could help. After all, your team may need your individual files if you win the lottery and never come back! Then there’s always an important team member to keep in mind – your future self!
I’m not going to dictate the exact way you should organize your folders and files – that’s highly subjective and based on your personal preferences/experiences, line of work, and what works best for your brain. I will share what works for me and some thoughts that can guide you for your own methods of organization. I’ve worked in three distinct types of roles in my 17-year career: public accounting, corporate accounting/financial reporting, and pre-sales consulting. What worked for me for each of those roles was a mix of the approaches below. The most important thing you can do is organize things consistently.
Generic folders
I can see almost everyone in a professional type of role benefiting from having some generic folders right under the “Documents” main folder:
- Templates – This is where I keep all the files I use as a starting point – questionnaires, client notes, presentations, checklists, etc. For the ones I use at least weekly, I have a “_Key” subfolder that I use to find files very quickly.
- References – I use this as a catch-all for all types of files I often refer to – whitepapers, data sheets, product manuals, scripts, competitive analysis, calendars, etc.
- Training – I keep training-related materials here – example files, screenshots, homework, etc.
- Projects – I keep files for projects outside of my normal, recurring responsibilities in date-stamped project-specific subfolders.
- Team – This is where I keep anything related to my team – stuff I help them with, feedback, interview notes, and goals (including my own).
Categorical folders
The categories you use will likely depend on your business. Some examples I’ve seen are:
- Departments – Most functional groups tend to have a folder they use to store shared files, often with access restricted to department team members.
- Clients – Most B2B businesses with a relatively low number of customers (often in service/consulting industries) tend to organize files by client. See the screenshot to the right/below – I organize my client folders underneath this hierarchy.
- Products – Businesses with a relatively high number of customers tend to group files by products and product lines.
- Regulatory – Businesses with substantial regulatory requirements will often have folders that contain files associated with each reporting period (annual, quarterly, monthly, etc.).
Date folders
Subfolders grouping files by date are very common, especially with accounting and finance groups where so much of their work is highly cyclical. When using dates, I’ve found it helpful to use these approaches:
- Use leading zeroes – 01, 02, 03…10, 11, 12 will sort in order better than 1, 10, 11, 12, 2, 3, etc.
- Include year and month – While you could just have a hierarchy of the year and months (i.e. 2020 >> 01, 2020 >> 02), I include the year in the month folders too (i.e. 2020 >> 2020-01, 2020 >> 2020-02). That way if I have two separate windows open comparing the current year month and same month last year, I can tell them apart and minimize version control issues. See the screenshot to the right/below – I organize monthly folders in this manner.
- Use numbers – If you can, just use numbers instead of full words or abbreviations (i.e. 01 instead of Jan or January). The latter can be misspelled or used inconsistently, which might break automated processes.
Folder templates
Within categorical or date folders, you may tend to always use the same subfolders. To save time and ensure consistency, use a template folder with those [empty] subfolders in it, ready for you to copy and paste in the new folder. See the screenshot below – the underscore makes the template folder sort to the top of the list where it’s very easy to find. Some people refer to this usage of the underscore as “floating.” In some situations, it can be helpful to use this approach, but I only recommend it when you do not intend to rename the folder at some point. Using this to make folders temporarily easier to find can cause all sorts of issues (broken links/shortcuts among them).
Naming Folders and Files
As with the how and the where, what you name folders and files can be just as important. Again, consistency is key. The simple act of typing it can help you remember it later on. Regardless of whether you use the same type of file over and over again or it’s a one-off, these best practices will help:
- Be descriptive but brief (“what”) – Use just enough words to describe the file contents (i.e. “Digital Marketing Report”).
- Include differentiators (“who”) – If applicable, include something to tell related files apart, such as regions, store numbers, departments, vendors, customers, people (initials work well), etc.
- Include periods (“when”) – If applicable, include something to describe the period, with context (i.e. “2020-06 YTD”).
- Include a date stamp – For non-recurring files (generally those that don’t already have any date period in the file name), I usually include an underscore and the date I made the file at the end (i.e. “_2020-06-25”). This has a possibly hidden benefit: you can search for the year and month portion of the date and quickly find it, even when you have no idea what you named it!
- Don’t include symbols – Generally it’s not good to include symbols in filenames, with the exceptions being dashes (“-“), underscores (“_”), and periods (“.”).
- Consider the metadata – You can update data points such as the author, subject, tags, etc. in the metadata within a file – just right-click the file and select the properties option, then update the relevant details. This is one further way you can search for the files you need.
Version Control
Nobody likes version control issues. Rework is perhaps one of the most frustrating things to do. To prevent this, I follow some version control best practices:
- Backup often – This should be straightforward, but it’s often not. Make sure you’re saving files in folders that are automatically backed up (network drives, cloud drives, etc.). It’s not a bad idea to test backups occasionally to make sure files are actually being backed up!
- Save often – While auto-save is nice, it’s failed me enough times that I don’t trust it. I use the Ctrl+s shortcut to save every few minutes.
- Include version in filename – After each significant revision, I add a “.v2” or similar to the end of the filename, unless it’s linked to other files. If it’s linked to other files, I make a copy with a date and the word “backup” in it. I also move previous versions to an “Archived” subfolder for clarity.
- Don’t include “final” or “draft” in filename – If you name it “final,” chances are there will be a change. If you name it “draft” and it becomes final, people may get confused. Instead, use the “.v2”, “.v3”, etc. approach so other people can follow the chronology.
Streamlining and Automating Processes
One of the best ways to ensure that you are organizing, naming, and accessing folders and files consistently is to streamline and automate those processes. The less manual steps you have to perform, the less time it will take, and the less chance you’ll make a mistake. Here are some best practices I use to streamline and automate these types of processes:
- Copy and paste – Whether it’s with folder templates (as mentioned above), or other existing files, copying and pasting can save a lot of time. Just be careful – if you’re starting with a file with data points already filled out, make sure you clear out or change the necessary items.
- Pinned/favorited folders/files – Many applications allow you to “pin” files to access them again quickly from within the application. Windows also supports this from within the task bar – just right-click an app icon to pin/unpin or launch a file. I use this approach for my 5-10 most commonly used files. You can also bookmark or “favorite” files, folders, and websites so you can quickly use them again. I often pin folders for projects I’m working on, then unpin them once completed.
- Macros for creating folders – In my current role, I store my client/opportunity files in a nice, organized hierarchy (see the screenshot below/right). I have a macro that leverages certain system-generated emails to create new folders/subfolders and copy/paste/rename template files, which are stored in those folders. This macro saves 10+ minutes per opp, and I work on 5-10 opps a week, so you can see how quickly the time savings adds up. When I used to maintain many date-based folder hierarchies, I used a macro to create monthly, weekly, even daily folders in seconds! See the video below for an example of this in action.
- Macros for creating files – I’ve used all sorts of macros/templates to create files from scratch, aggregate files, roll-forward previous period files, email them to individuals, etc. I’ve also used several XLEV8 add-in macros to copy, rename, update, split apart, and aggregate files. They’ve saved me a lot of time and potential errors. Aside from the time savings, macros can ensure that files are named correctly and consistently. See the video below for some of these in action.
- Macros for searching for files – Built-in search functions (such as in File Explorer) can sometimes work. I use a macro within Excel, Word, and PowerPoint that works even better. Every time you save a file, it logs it into an ever-growing list. You can then search that list quickly, showing you suggestions as you type. When you follow the naming best practices above, it works like a charm! See the video below for an example of this in action.
Automation Demonstration
If you have other email efficiency tips, please share in the comments below!
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