Your computer may be a digital jungle. There are too many files, and they’re everywhere the place. And once you want to seek out a design file, it becomes almost impossible. So how does one keep your files from getting out of control?
Luckily, it’s not that tough to stay your design files in check . Some sense , with a touch of self-discipline, and repeat. a bit like brushing your teeth: once you get into the habit of doing this stuff , you won’t even notice it. You’ll just naturally keep your computer and style files in check .
Alright then, here are the 5 effective ways to stay your files in check .
1. Ruthlessly delete unnecessary files
This one might sound forehead-slapping obvious, but sometimes the foremost common-sense steps are overlooked. Forget any productivity software, and file streamlining workflows, and the other pat-on-the-back productivity nonsense: simply delete old and unnecessary files.
It’s an equivalent as cleaning your room or organizing your physical files. You undergo your stuff, and when watching an item, you decide: is that this relevant to something important? If not, you ruthlessly throw it away. That’s how you stay organized: by minimizing the amount of stuff you've got . No tricks or secrets.
Similarly, when you’re browsing the files on your computer, decide if all remains relevant or important. If it isn’t, ruthlessly delete it – you won’t need it again, and it’s just cluttering up your digital workplace. Usually, these files are old project files like earlier drafts or outdated designs.
That’s nice and every one , but when do you have to ruthlessly delete old and unnecessary files? in any case , practically everyone hates cleaning their room.
Well, a bit like the way you'll minimize having to schedule cleaning your room is by taking care of an object as soon as you encounter it, so too do you have to decide if you would like to delete a file once you encounter it. This leads us to #2…
2. Take immediate action on files you encounter
The best thanks to avoid having to schedule sorting and cleaning of your computer design files is to not have it's necessary. whenever you encounter a file, take immediate action thereon .
But little question you’ve got things to try to to , places to be. You can’t drop everything you’re doing and lookout of every file you encounter. So how does one decide when to require action? Use the 5-minute rule: if taking immediate action on the file will take 5 minutes or less, lookout of it as soon as you encounter it.
Sound familiar? It’s because this is often “influenced” by David Allen’s popular book GTD: Getting Things Done. In it, he says you'll avoid accumulating an extended to-do list by immediately taking care of a task you encounter as long as it’ll take no quite minutes.
This applies to your computer design files as well:
Found a half-finished logo? Wrap it up and send it off.
Almost through with a bit of code? Finish it.
Have a gaggle of files you’re unsure you would like anymore? undergo them, decide, and delete if necessary.
3. Consolidate files when possible
This is an easy one. If you'll somehow consolidate two or more files into one, then you’ll naturally have fewer files. And fewer files equals less clutter.
The other advantage of consolidating files is it becomes easier to seek out what you’re trying to find . Your files become more organized. How? You’ll naturally have relevant content beat one file, so no got to hunt multiple files that pertain to an equivalent project.
How does one set about consolidating your files?
For text, simply copy/paste related content from multiple files into one main document .
For visual designs, you'll copy/paste different elements and variations into one main graphic file.
Every major and minor graphics app supports layers and therefore the labeling and grouping of them, so cash in of that. It are often variations of a logo, or multiple aspects of a much bigger design – beat one graphics file.
Granted, not every sort of file or content are often consolidated. Code, for instance . So that’s why the above is titled “when possible” – do the simplest you'll , and any amount that helps to scale back the amount of files may be a net gain.
4. Have as few folders as possible
Create only a couple of folders for your sort of work, and be as general with the category as possible. rather than getting a distinct segment with countless folders being weakened , just have things like ‘logos’ and ‘websites’. otherwise you can have folders for every project, and any sort of file that’s associated with it goes in there.
Why do this? Two reasons:
No indecision paralysis: is that the file a logo, website stuff, or a part of a project? Just throw it within the respective folder and be through with it.
Anti-too-many-files filter: once you see the folder filling up with too many files, you’ll be more inclined to delete old and unnecessary ones. almost like seeing an excessive amount of stuff in your room, instead of hiding it in drawers and other rooms.
Avoid getting too specific with folder names and categories. The more specific you name a folder, the more categories you’ll have. And with more categories, you’ll need to decide where the new file goes.
Chances are it won’t neatly fit into only one of them, so you’ll arbitrarily pick one. Then when it’s time to arrange more files, you’ll remember to which category you select with an identical file last time. to not mention not clearly knowing which category each file belongs to.
Why not just use some tagging system? Then you'll do away with folders altogether, right? While in theory, this could work, actually , it’ll encourage you to make and keep way too many files.
Here’s what is going to happen:
You tag your initial files, feeling good that you’ll be ready to easily find them later by searching via tags.
You become liberal with tags by creating too many tags that are too specific – this is often thanks to indecision paralysis since you couldn’t choose from two tags and decided to make a replacement one specifically for that one file.
you finish up having too many tags which become overwhelming to seek out stuff with.
What’s worse is since you didn’t feel the necessity to stay your file count low, you now have more files than if they were constantly visible during a general folder you looked in.
5. Ditch auto-organizing features
Auto-organizing features (think iTunes’ auto-rename-and-sort feature but applied to all or any files) are the nemesis to keeping files in check . They encourage liberal file creation and saving. While it seems fine initially , the more files you've got , the less you’ll know where everything is.
Why not just delete files when they’re old or unnecessary? The auto-organizing feature will encourage you to not delete. kind of like Gmail’s never-delete-just-search feature. But unlike email, where you simply have one sort of content (text) and thus easy to look , your files are hard to look this manner .
There’s no simple thanks to search inside the content, especially for visual and audio files. therefore the only thing you’ll need to work with is filenames and perhaps some meta description tagged onto it. That’s a recipe for file overload.
By not using any auto-organizing features, you’ll be in charge of every file you create. You’ll see it and concentrate thereto a minimum of once, so you’ll be more aware of each file on your computer. This way, you’ll get a far better pity once you r files are becoming out of control – and when you got to ruthlessly delete them.
Conclusion
Hopefully these 5 ways weren’t just a few productivity porn: things to read to avoid doing actual work that gets you desired leads to your life. No, these were written with the intention to be actionable belongings you can start applying now to stay your computer and style files from getting out of control.
No one actively wants to arrange and manage their computer and style files. So these 5 ways will assist you to make habits that’ll avoid wanting to do this . And like any habit, the foremost important thing is to only start doing them.
Your turn: what other ways have helped you to effectively keep your computer and style files under control?