Expert Tips On How to Manage Your Digital Files
Looking for tips on how to manage your electronic files efficiently? You’ve come to the right place!
Keeping your digital documents organized and managing them efficiently can be quite a chore in today’s digital world. You’re storing hundreds of files daily and exchanging them with your peers. Sounds like nothing too complicated, right? And, yet, you find yourself in that one moment when you can’t figure out how your computer’s storage has become such a mess.
It’s easy to end up with a pile of electronic files when you don’t have a strategy on how to keep them organized and efficient. You can quickly find yourself in a situation where you simply can’t find that ONE document you need so desperately.
You shouldn’t have to sacrifice your time and nerves to search for important files. You should be able to find whatever digital file you need within seconds, not minutes. What’s more, you should know precisely how to handle all these electronic files not to waste time and be as productive as possible.
Here are some expert tips on how to handle your electronic files efficiently!
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Keep your desktop clean
We get it. Simply saving a new file you’ve just received on the desktop of your laptop or computer is a lot easier. Looking for the correct folder to save it may take some extra seconds. Yet, it is so worth it to take that extra time to store your new files where they belong.
On occasion, it can be handy and even more efficient to put a file or two on your desktop for temporary storage to find it more quickly. However, don’t make this a habit because you’ll quickly end up with a desktop with a gorgeous high-resolution wallpaper that no one can actually see.
Think of your desktop as a room and your electronic files as clothes. If you keep your “clothes” nicely organized in the closet, the “room” will look clean. If not, you’ll end up with a massive mess on your desktop that will make you lose a lot of time finding what you’re looking for.
Think minimal when creating folders
Another way to make sure that you keep your electronic files organized and efficient is to think minimal when it comes to folder creation.
Don’t just create random folders to “hide” all your digital documents to have a clean desktop. Actually, map out and create a plan with these folders. For example, if you need to store files related to work, university, entertainment, and so on, make sure that each category has a designated folder for that. More precisely, take entertainment, for example. Don’t create five different folders for movies, music, photos, videos, and books. Instead, create a folder called “Entertainment” and create a hierarchy inside it for all these things you need to store there.
Name all your files strategically
Not naming each of your files strategically is the best way to get lost in everything you store on your computer. So, don’t do that! Instead, make sure that whenever you save a new document on your computer, you give it a name that:
- It is actually representative of the content of the file.
- It doesn’t contain special characters (unless using special characters makes sense for that specific file).
- It isn’t just a random sequence of letters.
Using these tips to name your digital files is a great way to make sure that whenever you search for something, you will find it within seconds. Here’s the deal: the more confusing the name of the file is, the more difficult it will be for you to find it when you need it in the future.
Send PDF files
If you regularly share digital documents with your peers, you’ve likely encountered that situation when the receiver can’t open the document you’ve just sent. To get that fixed, you need to spend some extra time and energy to figure out what’s wrong and how to send a document that the receiver can actually access. Yet, you don’t have to do that. The answer is simpler than that: send your documents in PDF format.
As the experts from PDFChef explain, “PDF is the most malleable file format as it maintains the graphic integrity of the file, it’s compact, and it ensures all viewers see the document as intended, regardless of the native application or device used.”
So, if you want to send electronic files like a pro, make sure to convert them into PDF format before attaching them to your emails or messages.
Keep essential files in the cloud
Cloud storing services have grown in popularity over the last couple of years, and there are plenty of good reasons for that. More precisely, keeping your files stored in the cloud brings benefits like:
- Security (Locally stored files can get lost if the device is damaged by accident).
- Flexibility (You’ll be able to access all your electronic files from wherever you are, whenever you want).
- Data security (Cloud storage providers use a number of security measures to ensure your data privacy).
- Collaboration (It’s easier to send your electronic files to other people when you need to).
- Unlimited storage capacity (Even when you run out of cloud space for data storage, you can always change your plan and increase the amount of storage).
Organize them by type
If you don’t like the idea of organizing digital documents in multiple folders, you have one more option: organize by file format and type. Another way to keep electronic files in order and efficient is to have them organized by type.
Think about it: when you need a particular Word document, isn’t it easier to look for it in that specific folder with all Word documents? We think yes. The story can be the same for all file types, from PDF to HTML and HTM, XLS, or TXT.
Organizing files by type will simplify your search for that ONE file you need. If you need an excel spreadsheet file, you can easily find it in that one folder where you keep all documents of this type.
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