How to Organise Your Digital Files

Organisation can be a daunting task at the best of times, let alone trying to organise your digital files – it can be a minefield! Opening your documents can really throw you into a spiral of anxiety, or worse, unlock old tabs you forgot you had open in your brain. Realising everything you’ve ever saved is scattered out in front of you like a digital crystal maze. Trying to find that one file you desperately need amongst that chaos in front of you, just makes you want to pull your hair out. Don’t worry, you’re not alone. We’ve all been there.

Let me take you on a decluttering journey. Turn your chaos into calm. I’ll provide you with the space you need to breathe. Throughout this journey, I’ll show you how to streamline your desktop and provide you with my personal tips on how to organise your digital files. So sit back, relax and read my helpful guide, then in no time you’ll find yourself in a state of zen with a freshly organised desktop.

Evaluate and Declutter

The first step you’re going to need to do is to analyse your files; what needs keeping and what can go. Think when was the last time I used this file, is it even necessary anymore? A little tip of mine to start would be to create three folders – Keep, Maybe and Delete. If you implement this, it will make it easier for you to categorise the importance of each file you look at. This will give you a chance to determine critical documents and those that are outdated. As you make your way through the documents, with each one you categorise, you will start to feel lighter and that you are making progress.

Now comes the best bit of this section, go to the delete folder, select all of the documents in there (CTRL+A for Windows or CMD+A for Mac) and move them to trash. How good did that feel? Give yourself a pat on the back, you’ve just made the first step to organising your digital files.

Folders and Sub Folders

Okay, so now you have some sort of order, this next step will revolutionise your documents. Once you’ve done this you should never struggle to locate anything again. You need to create folders. This will give every file somewhere to live and be easily accessible. Think of this as if you’re creating a digital map and every folder has a purpose.

To begin, you’ll need to establish your main folders. Keep these simple and clear, for example, Work, Personal, Confidential, Family, this will get you going with a basic hierarchy. The next step you can do is go back to your Keep and Maybe folder, put the files from there into the relevant new folders that you have created. Once everything is where it needs to be, you can delete those two folders as you shouldn’t need them again with your new system.

Within each of your main folders, you can create sub folders, this will further categorise your files making them easier to find in the future, E.g. client names within your Work folder, of children’s names inside your Family folder. Remember when naming your folders, keep them clear so that you know exactly what to find in each of them. The beauty of folders is that you can easily find what you are looking for and they are such a simple way to organise your digital files.

Downloads Folder

By far the messiest area of anyone’s hard drive is their downloads folder. You know the drill, you’re searching for recipes, or saving images, or email attachments automatically opening. There’s so many ways your downloads folder can get brimming at the edges.

Not only will you want to move these files into their new designated folders as they arrive, but you may also want to create folders within your downloads. With there being a lot of one-time use files downloaded, this is a good place to get rid of a lot of files that are eating up your storage. Go through your Downloads and remove the files you no longer need. 

Top tip: create shortcuts on your Desktop screen. I keep shortcuts to find a specific client folder or important documents asap from my home screen. To do this on Windows, simply right click your desktop and go to ‘new’ and ‘shortcut’ then select the file you want to add to your desktop homepage. For Mac users, in Finder go to the file you want to appear on your homescreen, right click and select ‘make alias’. A copy will appear, simply drag this to your desktop background and you can now access this quickly from your homescreen.

Maintenance

By this point you should be feeling like you’re floating in the clouds, your filing system is set out beautifully and your screen is no longer a mess when you open up your documents. It’s such a wonderful feeling, isn’t it? Remember though, decluttering isn’t always a one-and-done.

Alongside implementing your categorising system with every new file you create or download, it’s important to intermittently come back around and organise your digital files once again. Except the next time you do this, at least it’ll be easier than what you have just done. As long as you keep up with your folder and subfolder system. If you can get yourself in a routine of a declutter session every now and then, you can rest easy knowing your filing system is as smooth as ever. No more struggling to locate those important documents. 

One final tip from me: remember that once a file becomes irrelevant, you can delete it, keeping your digital files clutter free.

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