In the Label Files group of the Analysis ribbon, click Properties to create a new label based on an existing label. Select the existing label in the Check Labels to Show Them list and click Add Format or Copy Format to create a new label format. For Space Planning 2016.1 and above, navigate to Label Formats Window. File naming conventions help stay organized and quickly identify files, making it easier for others to navigate your work.
In this tutorial, you used an Arcade expression, labeling properties, and annotation editing to create a clearly labeled map. In the next tutorial, you’ll design a layout to arrange labels, cards, and tags using Canva. Labeling refers to the process of automatically generating and placing descriptive text for features in maps and scenes. When editing annotation, use the “Annotation” tool. Label features and modify label placement properties, set a visibility range for label display, and label features with a SQL expression.
To create a label in ArcGIS Pro, navigate to Label Formats Window, select the label to modify under “Check labels to show them:” list, click Properties, enter information in fields on each project, and click OK. Use space styles to manage the planning and design process. After creating the Space Planner map in ArcGIS Pro, share it to your Enterprise portal using a multistep process and use it in a Space Planner app. Labels are typically in a single file located at C: Program Files (x86) JDA Intactix Space Planning prospace.psl.
In conclusion, Blue is a useful tool for creating retention labels in ArcGIS Pro. To create labels, follow the prompts for the configuration process from the File plan page.
📹 This Simple File Management System Changed My Life!
📹 Best Practice to Organize Your Computer Files
Learn how to organize your computer files for maximum cleanliness and organization. THE DIGITAL ARCHITECT – My guide to …
Grab my free Workspace Toolkit: academy.jeffsu.org/workspace-toolkit?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=134 TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Different File Management Systems 00:40 How I Organize My Files 02:47 How I Name My Files 04:36 Digital + Physical De-cluttering 05:19 Tip 1 – Organize Files by Where You Use it 05:50 Tip 2 – Leverage Native Features 06:36 Tip 3 – Attach Keyword to File 07:31 Tip 4 – Selectively Star or Flag files 07:59 Tip 5 – Know when to Create a Shortcut 09:03 Two File Management Rules to Live By
As someone who used brackets (( )) to preface folder names a couple years back for organization, I would recommend against it if you ever need to interact with your directory structure via Windows CLI. Interacting with brackets is possible, but in a lot of instances the bracket is considered a wildcard and causes unneccesary tedium (e.g., something as simple as “cd ./ Example” in PowerShell will not allow tab completion AND return an error unless the “-LiteralPath” parameter was specified). However, if you interact purely via GUI it is visually pleasing and convenient. Just my two cents!
The best parts for me: 1. limitation on the zero/main level 2. folder 99 – always archives 3. naming conventions for files 3a. yyyymmdd – that is obviously useful but many people rejects that possibility replacing it with ddMMMyyy – nonsense 3b. variable granularity starting with year or with year and month or with year, month and day – superb Well done. Thank you.
I envy your ability to come up with a solution and then be able to methodically explain it in a article. I can do the first part but the second part always comes out as a jumble. It has made training others at work challenging, and its something I usually delegate if possible. Do you have any tips on teaching complex tasks?
One thing to keep in mind (if you use something like SharePoint), is the overall URL path name has limits that can eventually be hit if you’re adding more and more characters (that go directories deep). In that case, it’s often better to rely on the meta data in the file attributes, rather than adding it to the file name, in my opinion.
I love this tutorial – didn’t know there were other organization geeks out here. My top 10 Windows file shortcuts 1. Alt-Enter = File/Folder details/properties 2. F2 = Rename 3. Ctrl-Shift-N = New Folder 4. Ctrl-N = Open 5. Alt-UpArrow = Move a folder up 6. Alt-LeftArrow = Folder Back 7. Alt-RightArrow = Folder Forward (after having gone back) 8. Alt-P = Preview file 9. Tab (while renaming) = Immediately save current name and start renaming next file … Shift-Tab for previous file (wraps round if you’re on the first file) 10. Ctrl-Space = Select current folder (hold Ctrl to navigate with arrows without selecting to you can skip select files in-between) … makes more sense when you try it out 11. Right-MouseBtn-Drag = pops up a menu in the drag destination to let you do operations like Cut, Make-Shortcut, etc (LM-Drag immediately copies) — To Jeff: TY for the drive shortcuts, esp N title-rework suggestion: “This Simple Google Drive File Management System Changed My Life!” if you want to maintain your tone or “📁Simple Life-Changing G-Drive File Management System.” if you like using emojis & staying closer to the 40-char title recommendation // I imagine it’ll be more targeted, tho I do get that you also mentioned some mac & windows stuff — thanks for the fire article
Hi Jeff, I’ve been a silent viewer of your content for quite a while and truly admire your work. Your productivity tips are incredibly insightful, and your professionalism combined with a dose of humor makes your articles truly engaging. Your dedication to your viewers is truly commendable – seeing how you respond to each comment inspired me to post my first YouTube comment ever! I wanted to suggest a topic for a potential future article: a comprehensive guide on organizing and storing all types of files – personal media, work assets, useful files, archives, etc. across multiple devices and both in the cloud and on-device storage. I believe many of us grapple with managing our digital assets effectively, especially when it’s spread out over multiple devices and storage mediums. Your clear and practical advice would be incredibly valuable in navigating this. Keep up the fantastic work!
Hi Jeff, First of all, a big, big thank you for your articles! After coming across your articles about a month ago, you really helped me big time to pull through the interview process. And today i got my dream jobs offer. Knowing you have more articles to help us navigate through today’s work place (cause my previous company wasn’t fond of using clouds), I will always come back for more help! Keep up the awesome job!
Great article! Just the textual use of “may” at 3:10 gave me a flashback: Once upon a time at work i received a CSV file to be processed. It was sorted alphanumerically with a date at the beginning. But the date format was like 13-DEC-2012. So it basically started with the first of december of various years, then the first of february of various years, and so on until it started over with the second of december….ugh!
I am going to have to watch this article 99 times to take it all in. Only Jeff can make a file management system article this entertaining and helpful. This was super helpful and gave me an idea. Did I see that your numbering 1-99 is done for sub folders too? Also, why does it have to be either or? Can’t you be a DB and nerdy? :😎 Great article!
Your date prefix is how I’ve done it for certain files for years. However, I do put in a space between the yyyy mm dd as it makes it far easier to read at a glance. One other thing that I do is consolidate PDF files for things like bank, credit card statements, and investment account statements so that each year’s bank statements are in a single PDF file; same for credit card statements, etc. I need to track down individual transactions occasionally and this saves a huge amount of time going through 12 statements per year. If your PDF bank statements are “secured” by the bank, just print them to a PDF app and it will create a new, unsecured PDF although it will be larger. They can now be consolidated into a single file and can also be marked up.
Fun fact: today, most file systems – including on Windows and Google Drive – use what’s called “natural sort order”. It basically means that instead of just doing a simple alphabetical sort, it’s just a little bit more intelligent, and understand that ” folder B” goes before ” folder K”, even though with alphabetical sort since the second characters are “2” and “1” it will put ” folder K” before ” folder B”. With simple alphabetical sort order: Folder A Folder J Folder K Folder L Folder B Folder C Folder D Folder E Folder F Folder G Folder H Folder I With natural sort order: Folder A Folder B Folder C Folder D Folder E Folder F Folder G Folder H Folder I Folder J Folder K Folder L In this case this means that you don’t have to zero-pad your numbers, the folders will get sorted just fine without that! Also, if you want to put folders at the end, you can use something like “(x) Archive”, which will always be at the end no matter how many numbered folder you have! And you can go even beyond infinity using “(y) Another folder” and “(z) Another folder” if you so choose!
The comment trick also works with Windows 10. In the file properties window, switch to the details tab and you can give it a title, subject tag, category or comment. I wouldn’t go nuts on it, but if there’s a category or tag that is important enough to use regularly, you can, but just adding the information as part of the comment does lead to the file being found in the file manager search results.
Having already come up with most of this independently over years and years of not doing things this way, these are all quite sound starting points for a sensible and manageable organization methodology (from someone who is inherently not organized and lacks organization skills). These are all great advice, and will take you years of frustration to come up with on your own – might as well start early and then you’ll have plenty of time to refine this into an even better system instead of reinventing the wheel.
Hi Jeff, thanks a lot for your helpful articles, love it! Got 2 questions: 1. I see you have archive-folders within each folder. Is there a shortcut from each file in an “sub-archive-folder” to the main archive-folder? If not, which documents are to be found within the main archive-folder? 2. How do you combine your note-taking method (PARA) with your file management? I do have files (mostly photos or pdfs) in my notes, do these come back into the file management? Any tips? Does anyone have an idea? Thanks a lot!!
I also do this levelling but on a smaller scale but when i did it felt so good as if i was a receptionist lol. Also it calmed my OCD down.Major advantage was that i found i had multiple duplicate files like my resume, docs, reports etc. There’s one folder i have called Miscellaneous where i just dump files which fit into no category or need future organising. Edit :Sometimes i wish my computer was high tech AI connected to my brain so all i just need to think of naming or organziing and boom done
I have this same system but I dump the 2-digit in favor of 3-digit. I only go as deep as 3 level on the file system directoty structure, because sometimes you will need to copy a folder with already a deep directory structure (i.e. backups) and there are OS and apps that has file system that doesn’t accept paths that are too long. The 3-digit solves this by trying to put folders as close to the first directory and use that extra number for granualar organization. Don’t limit your self to as few top folder, you will ran an issue in the long run because not all category will present itself. You will probabaly will have some interest in the future or have some other furure carreer. You are also forced to manage your file using deep subdirectory. You can reserve the 100s to big categories, then the 10s to sub category. Then increment the directory name by 10 so you can insert something in the future. I also have 999 but I called it miscellaneous where I can drop temporary files and files that need to be sorted out by category. My archive is always 000. I also use this style sorting out some things. Like bookmarks and spotify playlist to name a few.
It’s nice to see a how-to article without an actual product being endorsed (except for the physical part; that one is understandable since its a sponsor). Usually there’s an app or a software, and then show how it works. Here, the process can be used in ANY type of file management software. Thank you for this!
I really like your system! I actually have a somewhat similar system except my naming is all over the place 😅 One thing I do is I have a “Misc” folder at every level as a catch all for stuff I don’t know how to classify Thanks for the article as always and congrats on the sponsorship! And on a more personal level, I hope things are going well :3
Thanks so much. The best article I’ve seen on this. A question… What if we use Google Drive AND another cloud solution like Dropbox? And use folders on our computers outside of cloud backups? I use Dropbox to store my photos and a lot of files. That’s because I can store my Dropbox folder on an external drive. But Google Drive is great for other types of files and sharing with my team. In an ideal world I’d put everything in a Google Drive, but the paths aren’t always persistent on my Mac, which makes automation using tools like Hazel difficult. What would you recommend?
I wish other people at my job did this (I don’t use drive though). sigh………. Let me check my own files for a bit. Yeah never really thought about it, but indeed my folders don’t go beyond L5. Year month day naming: I do that too. Good search names (check) Sometimes I do make a Link Folder(quick acces) for a project. This folder has links to specific files that I need for the project (but do not directly belong in the project) i’m currently working on. That way I don’t have to reorganize everthing if some files are needed for multiple projects. I also always have one Misc. Folder. (This is a to be organized folder, I just don’t know where to put it yet.)
Hello Jeff and thanks for the tricks ! i use more or less the same for my folders & files ! Moreover, when working on important projects (books, for example), I add a version number at the end (v1a, v1b, v1c, v2a,v2b, etc)… it’s very useful when exporting G. Docs documents 😉 See U soon. François.
Yeah, sounds really useful. Ever since i can remember, my desktop has been one big mess. Always when i lose control (yeah i know lol), i create folder named (present date) and copy everything there from my desktop. My personal record is like 15 nestings. I do not recommend :’-) I’ll give it a shot! Thanks Jeff! ❤
There are some great things to pull from this, like the project numbering system. There’s too many layers to find one thing in some instances, though. And most people get lazy with organizing over time, it’s natural. So basically even the most detailed and well structured file system is completely useless if it isn’t also efficient when organizing files. Additionally, when working with other people it should be easy for them to come into your drive and find what they need without learning the ins and outs of how you organize. So it needs to be both efficient and immediately understandable. At my work the top layer of our structure is just the year. Once you select the year the next layer is immediately project folders, named example: 05_Title_Client_2023-04-06_editorName. Each of the people on our team probably create around 70 projects a year though, so if you create a lot more, you could potentially add another layer with months. But I would say it would have to be hundreds of project folders a year at the very least. Depending on where you store your files (we use network drives on Mac), you can also add tags. So each year folder is organized by tags, and under each tag by project number. This is optimal because it allows for two separate sorting systems to exist simultaneously inside of one folder. Our tags are client types and stage of completion based. This way I can mark under the client type, of which there are about 10, and also mark it as completed or currently editing.
I’m in awe of how you respond to basically everyone who comments. Not many YouTubers do that. 💕 I’m currently using the P.A.R.A. system that I tweaked a bit to customize it for my industry but am loving it. Your tips gave me better ideas on how to handle my subfolders. TY! (P.s. now that I think about it I wonder if its the speed of the examples that feel too fast, more so than your pattern of speech. Maybe if you slowed those down, it would help some of us who feel like the articles are getting faster and faster. My absolute favorite article that I share with colleagues, your examples are slower and on the screen just a bit longer. It was about Pet peeves about email communication (format). IDK. Random thought. Anyway, thank you!)
each folder has 5 levels. other than files. each level can have upto 99. level 5 contain files. level 0,1,2,3,4. 99 folders. 99 being . 01 Personal 02 Work 03 Reference Documents 04 Quick Share “catch all” share whats neccesary no duplicate in original folder no need to reply on others. 05 Backup 99 Archived NAME 1. data + type Organize information bby where you will use it, not by where u found it. Not projects notes in project notes. but rather by name. see who shared file file w you in shared folder. Press D and add a keyword. P to pv a file N to rename it. Flag and Star. 1. Overoptimizing leads to decreased productivity 2. Pick one system pick one naming convention stick to it FILE HEIRARCY 5 max number of folders. 6th level like files and documents shitt. each level can have upto 99 folders. L0 L1 … L5
Hope you’re doing great! I’ve been browsing through quite a few articles lately and, wow, when I stumbled upon yours, it was like a breath of fresh air! I’m genuinely impressed by your unique perspective and the way you structure your folders. It just makes so much sense. Honestly, your content is like finding a treasure trove of valuable insights. Really appreciate you sharing it with us. Keep up the awesome work, and thanks a ton! 🌟👍
This is the second time I am coming across this type of File Management with levels. Nice. I get the 5 levels in the Hierarchy, but the number still messes me up.,, etc. What determines which folder gets that numbering? Is it just the most used you give the smaller number? Would also love if the folder numbering could somehow show which level you are at.
on my google drive main page. when i put google documents into folder they still show up on the main page leeaving my main page on google drive messy. how do i get the files to go into the folder and then disappear off of the main page for cleaner main page? it creates like a double of the document is in the folder and on the main page at the same time. how to fix?
….Hey! That’s me at 4:18. Nice. Yeah, that coding structure comes from uploading things to websites and whatnot. Since every space adds on “gibberish” to make the space, it can make finding things complicated. We don’t need it as much these days, but it is still nice to have. I also probably overdo it with the number of numbers within numbers, but it does reduce my folder needs down. 01 is the main folder, 02 is a subfolder, 03 is a document, and 04 is presentation. If I search for a doc, I look for 03 and sort by recent. If I remember a portion of the name, I add that in the search as well. Really, don’t take my advice. Follow Jeff’s. His flows better in a modern document control way.
I’ve been working on my own file system for months. This is what I came up with: – No spaces or gaps in folder and file names. I just use “_” and “.” for separation – All filenames start with date in the “yyyy.mm.dd” format – folder names start with “00_”. Can have many “00_” folders, and can separate groups by adding series of incremental prefixes. Something like 00_DOCUMENTS 00_INSTALLERS 00_SHARED and then 01_VIDEOS 01_MUSIC 01_IMAGES, etc – I keep an abreviated folder structure in folder names, so I always know where I’m at: 01_IMAGES -> 00_IM_PHOTOS -> 00_IM_PH_EDITED etc
Nice system! In your Quick Share folder, I would go one level further and have a subfolder by project name or person. Then you can explicitly manage access permissions at that subfolder level vs the higher Quick Share folder. For dates, your system is way too wordy for me. As a graybeard, I know spaces and other special characters in file names and titles eventually lead to errors and outages. My date system is simple, and it always sorts correctly by default. YYYYMMDD. If day is too deep, then just go YYYYMM. Quarters? YYYYQ1, YYYYQ2, etc. Halves? YYYYH1 or YYYYH2. Halves will sort higher than quarters. Use “W” and 1-52 for weeks and they’ll sort lower than quarters. Finally, always use a spacer character, either “-” or “_” between words in filenames. Old computers will thank you (yes, millions of lines of COBOL are still out there), nobody cares how it looks, and anyplace you need the link (like a Google doc) you can format the hyperlink text to be anything you want without even displaying the actual filename.
I sometimes have slightly deeper structures than 5, for example something like Reading/Books/Fiction/Authors/A/Agatha Christie/4_50_From_Paddingtion/book.pdf or Music/Lossless/Classical/A-Z/B/Beethoven/Berliner Philharmoniker – The 9 Symphonies/CD1/Track1.flac Also if you’re only using folders 01-09 mostly, why not use 10, 20, … 90 instead so you can easily add another folder somewhere in between without having to rename a bunch? (The latter will mess up your backup retention unless you use deduplication.)
This seems like a variation of the PARA method. Project: Short term work that you are doing right now, projects at home, at work etc. Area: Long term responsibilities that you manage like your home, your work and your health. Resource: General useful information related to a theme, interest or assets. If you don’t store personal information the whole resource folder is shareable. Archive: Where you store things that are no longer relevant like old projects, old responsibilites, this is also where you can keep your daily notes. Short tip that I found useful: Don’t confuse hobbies and dreams with projects and goals. A project without a corresponding goal is a “hobby”. A goal without a corresponding project is a “dream”. What’s great about the PARA method is that it is replicatable in all places where you can have folders, so you can use the same structure for all apps, that way you don’t need a central place to store things.
Started organizing my GDrive and its so much better. No clutter in root directory. Thanks for this! And I started organizing document files. There are many different let’s say categories of documents eg. personal, work or college. Would you create Documents folder in root directory or create Documents folder in each category folder eg. Personal, Work, College? Thanks once more!
I like the article. First time to the website. For normal banter it’s ok to speak at this speed. But it would be nice if you slowly down alittle when you are giving the instructions. It’s very fast and abit hard to process and a lot of rewinding involved to comprehend in detail so much anxiety when trying to follow the process. I don’t know if others have this problem or I’m just stupid. Hahaha.
Hey Jeff! I really gotta say that I very much appreciate the work that you do. I started working at a big fintech organisation a while ago and initially really didn’t like the fact that they used Google workspace and was kind of lost with it. But after finding your tutorials and perusal many of your Google focused productivity guides, I nowadays really enjoy using Google workspace and have become a real believer in it. Up to the extend that even my managers came up to me and asked me for help and tips with Google workspace. I have now even led the implementation of Workspace for the charity I’m involved in and for a friends‘ company. All with knowledge and excitement that initially came from you and your articles. Hope you realise the great impact you make with your work, Jeff. Really appreciate all you do.
I understand the searchability concept, but some keywords you’ve highlighted seem very redundant as they seem to mirror the file type (presentation, doc etc) that you can filter via the file system (gdocs in particular). I also believe you could have stuff like a Brief (overview of the task) can come in different forms, could be slides as well as a document (in different projects)
I’m on a. Mac. In my documents folder, I have a folder for each year. Then within years are months. Then are individual documents. I lean on Smart Folders (folders with search criteria attached). In my sidebar, there is a smart folder with documents either created or modified within a certain time. I can also pin documents I want to have handy for an unspecified time. Smart Folders do the regular organization.
Great article! Just unsure to ignore the Pictures folder on the Mac oder add anything picture related to it. I liked the idea of having just one main folder with all informations, but things like photos or Lightroom libraries are automatically added to the photos folder. So I have constantly check if everything is in the right place
I don’t like these very deep hierarchies and prefer fewer subfolders. I find PARA quite useful, there are only a few folders at the top. Your numbering in brackets serves as a sorting aid so that the more important folders are at the top? (You probably said this in the article but I would have missed it somehow)
Using Month names instead of Month digits is insane, as it doesn’t sort because alphabetical order for months is April, August, December, Feb, …. If you have want sort order to match chronological order, you need to base it on YYYY MM DD . This is particularly critical in a shared environment where you have people from different parts of the world who use different casual date formats (only USA uses MM/DD/YYYY) or month names.
The problem I experience is that the person I securely shared the file with can see all my other files. I only want the person to be able to see the file I sent them, not the list of files in my dropbox account. On top of that the password I create for the shared folder is not required. I want the share file to require they enter the password I created. Dropbox is not a product that is secure. You need to use another program for that.
Thanks for a great article – I enjoy this kind of discussion! I think two great things I saw in the article that you didn’t explictly talk about: 1. You can uses spaces creatively in filenames in Google Drive. You don’t have to name things in weird squashed ways like “2003_project_blah” “2018Resume”… (very typical of Windows users) Even the example you gave of the system with hyphens looked gross. File names with spaces in Google drive are MUCH more readable and enjoyable. 2. You have this wonderful colour palette on your top level folders. It is even in gradient order. Tell us about that! Overall I suspect your taxonomy is a bit too complex for my liking – it’s going to add workflow drag on keeping it consistent. However your point is correct – we should not just rely on search but have a decent folder structure.
I just implemented a File Management System mainly based on your method, the comments on this article and my own thoughts. I then added a note on level Zero named “HOW TO USE”, with the content below (works for me, might work for others. Feel free to copy and use): HOW TO USE? PRO TIPS – Organize your files by where you will use it, not by where you found it. – When you are not sure where you will find a certain file, use the search bar. – When searching a file, of which you know was shared with you, use the “Shared with me” tab and filter on a specific person. – Make sure what your different (communication)apps do when it comes to storing the files automatically on your device. FILE HIERARCHY – Maximum 5 levels of folders deep. The 6th level can only contain files, no more folders. – Maximum 99 folders within a folder. – Number folders with: (NUMBER) (from until). – When a file is shared with you, take one of the next 3 actions: \t1. Make a copy (Use as Template or Reference in the future). \t2. Add a shortcut to original file (When working together on the same file with 2+ members). \t3. Do nothing (The file is a one-off request). DIFFERENT FOLDERS Inbox – All new files (self-created or shared with you) that need to have a place within your File Management System. – This folder is only to be found once in your main folder. Work – All your work-related documents. Reference Documents – Documents you reference to on a regular basis. Used to quickly access certain files. – This folder is only to be found once in your main folder.
Regarding file naming with dates, if you’re going to use yr and month, please for the love of god, don’t use alpha for the month (2023-May), use numeric month (2023-05). By using yyyy-mm-dd (all numeric) your dates are human readable, and will sort properly. If you use alpha for month, you get CHAOS!
HERE’S MY SITUATION: For example, I have 50 folders that deal with family events for the year 2022. Each folder is titled with the year and then the title (2022 CAMPING) then (2022 BIRTHDAY PARTY) etc. What I want to do is that since my folder titled (2022 NEW YEARS) has pictures of New Years Eve ’22 and pictures of New Years eve going into 2023, I wanted THAT folder to be the last folder of of the year 2022 but the title “2022 NEW YEARS” goes alphabetically between “2022 MOTHERS DAY” and “2022 ORANGE DAY”. Someone told me that you can type a certain symbol in a folder title and it will automatically put the folder to be the last one in that years grouping?? Please Help!
what I tend to do more and more is have a MS Word docx for each project (sprint in IT) where I write everything. I add header formats and with CTRL+F, all headers are displayed on the left side where I jump back and forward. The end of anything I mark with –END– header, and major section ends with //////////////header.
Tried many, the simplest and easiest – ABCDE ETC. then eg under C. car insurance whatever your saving you almost always use the same phrase eg. W. workshops walter smith ‘Parent files’ and minor files and using the year etc, just too complicated, and not needed when you simply search under the initial that starts your file.
AHDGSOFIDH, screaming internally(with happiness) inside. This has help me immensely! Your explanation and showing make it easy for me to implement and put it in action. While I had my own version of file management system, your explanation has helped me refined it and optimize in finding/saving document much easier. So, thank you very much, Jeff! Keep up the great work!!😊
It is just crazy that google drive is, more than ten years after its launch, still so incredibly limited. We are living in the 21st century but if you listen to Jeff’s Tips for organising your google drive, he could’ve made the same article about the File Manager from Windows 3.11 And not because his tips are bad, but Google drive still follows the same outdated logic. The fact that we still have to use folders and need to use “Description” instead of tags just kills me!
Hello! Great article, clear and concise! Do you know if there is any way to automatically create a website with the files I have on Google Drive so that my employees, clients, or distributors can download them? Something that allows me to choose the colors and add my logo? It would even be great if it also allowed categorizing the contents into multiple categories: Business line, Sub-business line, product type, document type (user manual, brochure, templates, images for events, etc.)?
Hello Jeff, I found you still replying to people। Thats so much you, I need a help, can you do a management system for e-commerce files, and data and design folder for clients. Trust me, design folders are hideous, all cluttered mood boards, refference, typefaces, assets, mockups, numerous formats raw files, clients word or notepad file (😢), individual email ids and passwards and what not? I feel chaotic whenever I open my clients folder😂
Awesome article. One tip about “Archive” is that it’s not supposed to be there at all. The main idea is that if you put a bunch of files, as you said, “I may never use them again,” you are spending time going through them, which is a waste of time. So we remove the “archive” approach at all and move to regular backups and we delete the files.
I’ve never understood the fascination with finding a perfect structure for these sorts of things. I’ve been using computers since they were invented and never not been able to find a file I was looking for. For me this seems like goal seeking organization for the organizations sake. It probably helps you form a better mental picture but it feels more like a subjective bias towards organization rather than retrieval optimization.
Very good. However, I disagree with tip #1 for some use cases. An example is recording article or photo footage. I would rather store it in a collections folder where you record all your content and then make copies of it for different projects. Therefore, you can use one file and reuse is for multiple projects and versions. The second thing is I would be careful with using a 01 – 99 numbering convention. You can use it just be careful when using it with linked files. If you ever want to restructure or your use case changes, you may have to rename your folders. However, all files that are linked may become unlinked and you may have to spend the time relinking all those files. depending on the software you use it maybe a simple fix or a tedious one. What I found that works well is using a primary naming convention that works for your personal files, and an alternative naming convention depending on the project you are working on. Therefore, you can go as many levels deep as you need. You can simply make shortcuts which leads to those project files or resources. Other than that this is great.
Gdrive is not friendly to mac os. That is I hate him. I am using one drive and icloud to replace it. I stored about 500g files on Google Drive. When I installed Google Drive on mac os, the Google Drive app will always sync all the file stored on local drive. It can’t let me which one need to be save on local drive. But one drive can let me to decide. My local drive only 256g.
love the article and have successfully organized my work folders to this! One thing I’ve noticed is Excel doesn’t allow me to save files directly in folder that has the bracket ( ), other office apps (Words, PPT) and pictures are ok, have you run into that issue before? I don’t know if it’s an excel thing or if it’s a weird Windows folder vs Google drive folder type of thing
Thanks Jeff! Been perusal your articles for a while and appreciate your helpful ideas and tips. Clarifying question though – At 8:38, you began talking about making a shortcut to shared files and that this was preferred due to the ability to save and sort the file in your own filing system. Does making a shortcut ALSO allow you to make changes to the document AND those changes appear in the original document?
I’m baffled by using the months in letters… the months will be all mixed up! (not in order top to bottom) When i prefix a filename with a date I only use numbers. I might omit the day, but would do like “2023-07″… so they appear in order top to bottom, and can easily be reversed as well. For things that I’m organising seriously, I don’t use spaces, I use underscores and dashes, basically I’m trying to mix file naming using the BEM convention (CSS coding); a file could look like this: 2023-07-filename(what)–filename(details) (eg 2023-07–ticket–portugal.pdf for a plane ticket – day not needed because is not like I fly every other day, and it would be anyway at the top of the cluster before)
00:00 Effective file management tips 01:14 Organize files in folders with lower numbers for frequently accessed items and higher numbers for archives. 02:28 Organizing files and folders for easy access 03:39 Consistent naming conventions make files easily searchable 04:46 MagSafe lineup offers convenient and sustainable charging solutions 05:57 Tips for efficient file management in Google Drive 07:10 File management tips for efficient workflow 08:20 Add shortcuts to files for better organization Crafted by Merlin AI.
great tips. I have set some folders in numeric order but still need to set default naming structures to some files in my Gdrive. Also I managed to write a script to automatically save attachments of incoming emails into a attachments folder, so i can later find all sent docs here and then organize it where I would like in my drive. 😁
For me it depends on what for I create a structure. Sometimes it can be benefitial to not use 1 2 3 4 5 6 but rather 10 20 30 40 50 60. Because then you can structure thematically. E.g. 10 11 12 13 14 etc. are finances, 20 21 22 23 etc. are designs. But that only makes sense if you keep folders in one hierarchy that somehow share the same topics/content types and you don’t want to have another level of folders to include them all into one main “finances” folder. Funnily I always let my archive have the name “archive” so it stays on top because for me an archive isn’t data I don’t use anymore but rather data I don’t intend on changing anymore. So past projects which I still refer to often will land in archive (only looking, no editing) and therefore I like it to be on top.
This is a great article but it does deal only with static files structures. Structures will need to change over time (or, at least, the relationship between contents and structures will) so then you can use your shortcuts tip for that – new folder for new structure but put a shortcut in to link back to where it came from and a shortcut in where it came from to where it is now. Also, the files will move through a lifecycle in two ways – the evolution of the content of the file and the processes the file goes through. Versioning can be used for the evolution of the content of the file (as in, v01, v02, v03, etc. in the file name). For the processes, “markers” (or tags) can be used in the file name – for example “MA0B0C0D0E0” which is where “M” denotes the start of the markers, and A, B, C, D, E are the markers, then the number next to the marker is the status (obviously, one character give 10 states). One way I use this is for marking whether the file being stored in the current location is an original of the file or is it a copy, or is it temporary – so A0 is a file that has not yet been assigned to a location, A1 is a temporary file, A2 is in the right place and A3 is a copy. Another use is for files being reviewed by others – B0 is no assigned reviewers, B1 is ready for review, B2 is sent out for review, B3 is comments or queries remaining, B4 is review complete. Letters can be assigned any way you want. This system means you can search on states by using “*MA?B?C2*” to find files in state C2 (assuming the file system allows ?
Even though you trashed the other high-concepts – your system is arbitrary. It’s not stupid – it’s just arbitrary. So it’s not a natural science – which would be better and you just criticized that as a non-starter. I personally find your intentions are helpful because you’re a very bright Beanstalk Jack (information Hacker) – but you’ve missed many first principles that come first – meaning you can’t make this a golden egg layer. Technical developments by Xerox Star and the original Apple Lisa leap-frogged this system by 1980. Basically the OS File System IS a database – not too dissimilar from MS AFS – except it had an integrated development system – a piggyback hidden data file for working files and folders. Tweaks in the existing system can eliminate the inherent problems and opportunity cost with rigid hierarchies of logic and symbol. Think of that. And add me to your system cause I’ve got the product to release shortly, Great Spirit vectored =.
Hi Jeff. Can you PLEASE NOT HIDE this article, just in case you regard this article to be outdated? 🙏 At the time of this comment, I noticed Google Drive has revamped their keyboard shortcuts. This article helps me astoundingly, and I believe a lot of us too. The whole concept is still very helpful and applicable for referencing. And I’d love to rewatch this on your website rather than other ways… Keep up the great articles, Jeff!
Thanks for your process, I do something similar but keep it to 4 levels, one for each of my businesses and one for me. I should probably add another one because mine is rather cluttered. I like the number system, way better than AAA nameoffolder. I am stock piling human made art, mainly because I was studying art before Ai showed up, but now I am stock piling before Ai floods out all human talent online, it makes things even more difficult as I have to organize pictures that often belong to more than one folder which I need to have not over cluttered so when I sort through for reference, I can make a good array for myself, fast
well… why one needs advice how to organize anything, nobody follows the system mummy used i her kitchen, everybody organizes different, who wants someone else to tell you into which drawer to put your socks ? people really have that much private files to organize? a folder with 99 sub-folders which has 99 sub-folders, which can have that would be a million sub-folders for every top-level folder maybe it is time to delete useless stuff ? too much kitty-photos from asocial media friends ?
limit down to 5 levels deep, 99 folders across. Folder 99 is always dedicated to archive to store all unwanted files (or files that are not used oftenly). Organize files by numbers and years. Do not make a separate folders just for your certani projects, so know how to put them on their own appropriate hierarchy level. Add keywords to ease search. KNow how to select files needed to be starred (5 files max, quick accessibility, frequent use) (Jeff’s template for level 0: Personal, work, reference docs, quick share, backups, and archive) Keyb shortcuts for drive: ctrl + / for list p to preview, n to rename, z to move files.
In Windows the free portable app FARR Find and Run Robot Is my super favorite… Plus another portable FreeCommander for file management with wox and everything that I use sporadically… For organizing info docs and books I ask chatgpt for the Dewey DDC of a subject to organize files by DDC Author Year.
Excellent article! Big thanks for making and sharing this. I implemented this system immediately, and it is changing things for the better. You’re making solid content that helps people. I really love you’re energy and you get right down to it. No need for a response, I know checking comments is on your non negotiables and you’ll read this. Just keep making great stuff. Respect!
I’m not any PC user, but a One UI (Android) Mobile user. I switched my entire file management system from Local to Cloud Storage (Google Drive/Apps), and I organised those folders as: 1. Default Grandparents Folders (Android, Backups, Documents, Download, Movies, Music, Pictures, Takeout). 2. Default Parents Folders 3. Folders/Files! Works so conveniently with easier organisation or naming convention! (I’m bored of managing my files on my phone with multiple apps since last two years! So switched to Drive/Photos for all my files/media). Thanks for your ideas/tips sir, subscribed! ❤😊
Hey Great article but the greatest demerit with Google drive or any file management with cloud storage is that if you use their Google docs or Google sheets or any online workspace management system all of the documents are stored outside in the main drive not in their respective folders or any folder you set as a user.
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I agree hierarchical folder structure is a good strategy. I will add the following to the narrative. 1. My Documents is the worst place to store documents. Keep them in a separate folder which is not in Users/ path. You will have a better control over, copying data to a different machine and backup strategy. 2. There is no need to use folders for emails. Google did not have a real concept of folders in gmail for a long time. I was frustrated. But now I understand. Apply tags to your emails. That’s it. Let the computer do the work. Teach yourself how to search effectively more than organizing.
Thanks for article since it is an important topic ! I use hierarchy system. However, I constantly update the structure to minimize the average search time (i.e. minimize overall time spent on searching). Vision is to have 5-10 folders in each folder and name and arrange the files so that each folder is roughly used similar in amount. I do not use numbering since I think it is easier to remember and faster to access by pressing first letter on keyboard. However, somethimes, I rename the start of folders and files to todays date to make them sort (I use autohotkey=windows or autokey=ubuntu for this). For temporary increased work on a particular sub folder, I use links on the top-level to jump directly there. Good luck! ❤👍📂💻
The yyyymmdd date format is useful to keep things organized because it’s sorted alphabetically. I used to do it a lot back in the day when filenames were restricted to 8.3 characters. However, I now use the yyyy-mm-dd format, because I can use also yyyy and yyyy-mm formats when something doesn’t have a specific day or month. In Windows, filenames containing numbers are sorted numerically (which is great, because it avoids situations like 1, 10, 11, … 2, 20, 21, …) but places all yyyy and yyyymm before the yyyymmdd files 😕 So, adding the dashes would sort properly the “incomplete” dates: 2021-03-17 2021-05 2021-08-29 2022 2023-01-01 2023-05 2023-05-27 and so on 💁🏻♂️
I use to create an alphabetical list of main folders (AB,CD,EF…etc) where each folder has sub-folders with their labels for the main topics (personal, work, projects,personal info etc) .It may look quite simple to you, however is so practical when arrives a moment to search any file, moreover the back-up disk has the same structure, so when an updated is needed, all the repeated files are no copied (unless the “weight” is different) ….Your tutorial gives me a new perspective and fresh ideas….Thank you so much Miss David.
I’ve been using the Hierarchy Structures since the very first time I worked in an office, and I am very happy to see how my method of naming folders and files is similar to yours. While I don’t use sequential numbers for the folders, I also try to apply some level of hierarchy to the files, like: Project_File Type_Date_Version I also wrote a script in VBA to mass read and rename the files, so I don’t have to change one by one. Thank you for your content!
Nice summary, but my main and really only problem is where to put files that cross multiple topics/projects/issues. I label them fine but months later are the database files, meeting, personal, etc. What happens when I want, for example, to see all my database files. But that means I need to put all my personal, professional, etc, in one place. So now I have work and personal stuff in the same place. If I separate them out, then I have to “hunt” for all the files across my computer. Sometimes I never find them again. Lastly, the most incredibly annoying thing is Window’s using the same name but not the same location for folders. I put something (during a ‘save as’ operation) in the “my documents” folder. Later when I want to look at it, it’s not there, nor on the desktop version or cloud, etc.. It’s usually buried somewhere else. It’s frustrating. I wish MS would stop trying to help me and I could just do everything manually so I know where I put the files and then where to find them.
Wow, first time seen yours. I do basically the same being a preacher. Mine is a year folder, then Quarter. The files are 20230507ams -name of file – SLIDE that being a Keynote presentation. I use OUTLINE for you guest it outline of lessons, WEB for something usually a graphic for the web of the lesson. So I wind up with 4 with 3 months in a quarter. I haven’t seen a need for a monthly. Within the quarter I have folders labeled KEYNOTES, OUTLINES and NOTECARDS.the lies go each week in their perspective folder. Enjoyed the article.
I use a variation of those structures depending on the requirement or situation. If I am busy working on a specific topic or folder for a few days or more, then I will put a + or – in front of the Folder name. this will then push them to the top of the folder structure and makes it much quicker and easier to find.
I’ve done various things over the decades! I’ve found the most effective is to dump everything in one “Files” folder then use subfolders if required (eg. Insurance (folder) > House (folder), car (folder). so, probably 2.5 on your list…. It means a quick way to get to my files, plus I can sync everything easily to my external backup. I’ve also moved my desktop and downloads folders in there, but don’t use any other generic Windows folders as they end up full of rubbish (photos, music etc. end up with game music and stuff in).
This is a very good simple instruction on how to organize data files in a PC. I would add one thing I have done is structure my accounting files along the lines of a balance sheet. 01 – Accounting files (then subfiles)01 Cash, 02 Accounts receivable, 03 other current assets, Property and equipment etc. In an accounting department this is a very useful way to organize files.
Thanks a lot for sharing this. I’ve always used a hierarchy in my file system to store and find files afterwards, and I’ve been doing it for more 25 years now. Nonetheless, this article can still ispire me better solutions and an even ‘cleaner’ approach. Managing and organizing files in a very healthy way has always been a very neglected issue, leaving it all to the personal approach, which sometimes is simply not as efficient as it should be. Keep it up Lea, great work!
I would consider at L0 or L1 a “year” folder. And I never change files of completed years. Instead I copy (not move) ‘running’ documents into the actual year. This is making backups easy and saves the status of completed years. In the end there are multiple copies of some files. But this redundancy is useful.
Great presentation on this idea. It is well worth it in the long term. I would add that it may help to add a LONGEVITY capability, i.e. I have a “trash” folder (need the data < 1 day or <1 week) as well as a "_Forever" folder in some topics (i.e. never lose). That can help both reduce data clutter and archiving. Other topics like Photos I organize Year folder > Topic, etc. Working in IT, I’ve done hierarchical storage for many years. At first I thought it was crazy, too much effort… but soon (and with more data) the value became clear. Now looking at someone else’s drive with random or mass dump? … makes me scream. 😱
If you absolutely, positively, no kidding around, must have a file display at the beginning of a listing of files, use this technique. Begin the file name with one of these characters, followed by a space, and then a brief description: # ‘ ! – _ Characters that cannot be used in File names are: < (less than) > (greater than) : (colon – sometimes works, but is actually NTFS Alternate Data Streams) ” (double quote) / (forward slash) \\ (backslash) | (vertical bar or pipe) ? (question mark) * (asterisk)
My approach for office First the Shares = different access levels. It’s easier to try to keep one access level for the entire share. Economy Leadership Archive And then different areas depending on branches Customers New Sales Marketing Purchasing In each Share there will a folder with current year in where there is freedom to create a structure for the share members at the time. Every new fiscal year there is a new year folder created the the old ones are made read only. If you need something, copy this from last year to this year. This will keep a fresh adaptive structure, mistakes disappears without huge sorting jobs and it’s easy to trash old files to comply with gdpr. Inactive customers isn’t cluttering the active list. In some cases technical reasons need to make more shares, for example max 400k files in Google drive creates several customer shares. More than two year old shit is moved to archive which doesn’t need the same storage speed and version keeping. Depending on total size of active data, <2-400 GB => keep everything synced on disk, otherwise cache data accessed last week on disk. And most importantly, no user should be able to do anything that cause data loss for both files, mail, contacts or cals. Ability to browse readonly directories from moths back and restore folders to chosen destination (not original location) If anyone needs help with this you find me. 😉