From Piles To Files:
Organizing Your Electronic Data

Contributed by Elaine Landau

I’m a big believer in piles. If I can see it and trip over it, I am forced to deal with it because it is causing me inconvenience. That’s the theory anyway. Unfortunately, I have managed to avoid organizing this mess because many of my piles have become plant stands. Perhaps it’s time to toss the back issues of People, say bon voyage to cruise brochures from 1999, and reprints of articles announcing a new fangled computer thing called DOS. Time to clean up! Then I’ll take that same momentum and clean up my computer. I’ll trash old documents, delete useless e-mails and then organize my files. How do I get started?

Your computer is more organized than you are.
Whether you use a Macintosh® operating system or Windows®, your computer is an electronic filing cabinet. Unfortunately, your computer is not organized the way you work or think. We categorize and organize by person, company, project, or subject. Your computer is organized by application source (web page, e-mail, documents, contacts, etc.) or by format. There’s the rub.

Now you could insist that your computer thinks the way you do, but that would be silly. It probably would be best to try to comprehend the computer’s way of organizing. We tend to overlook the fact that with a computer we have the advantages of the 255-character file name, which can be a combination of phrases and key words. With your computer’s search capability, this feature gives you access to a dynamic organizing tool. By adapting to the computer’s organizational thought process, you can save precious hours.

Never again.
You need a document that has compelling statistics that will help enhance your report. You can’t find it anywhere on your computer. Maybe you lumped it in with another document and filed it somewhere else. Nope. Hey, wait a minute. Did that document come in an e-mail from your Mom? Hummm. I’ve checked the e-mail trash, sent, and saved files. Nothing. Since most companies frown upon making up statistics, your report will be submitted without the impressive statistics you were hoping to include.

Perhaps the easiest way to get organized is to start from scratch.

Now that is not to suggest that you have to lose all your old files. That would be far too painful. You’ll be able to refile existing information with a new filing system.

Key words are key to your success.
Keywords are the key to finding information later. Let’s say you want to save your Aunt Helen’s favorite apple pie recipe. Do you name the file Aunt Helen? Apple Pie? Desserts? What word comes to mind first? That is most likely a good key word.

If you use key words that make sense to you now and will make sense to you later, you will be able to retrieve information no matter where you hid it. After you have lived with this system for a while, you might try to find a file you haven’t looked at in awhile. Type in the word you think of first (hoping that is the key word you settled on) and then other words that might help identify and retrieve your file. You will be surprised to see how fast your information will fill your screen.

Key words are also very important if you need to search for information and you are nowhere near your computer. If you have to guide your assistant, or spouse in some cases, to find a file, keywords eliminate a lot of time and frustration for you and the helper on the other line.

Be wise and centralize.
When starting over, put your documents into a directory. Not only will this make it easier to find documents in the future, but also it is much easier to back up your information for archiving or to transferring data to other locations.

Now that you have a directory, you can create subdirectories for your computer programs such as Word, PowerPoint®, QuickBooks®, and Excel®. Now don’t get directory-crazy. If you create a subdirectory for everything, you may be creating another mess. Keep it simple. With every file or subdirectory you create, ask yourself how you would look it up later. If there is no easy answer or you could file it in more than one subdirectory, you might consider dumping a couple of newly created subdirectories to streamline your system.

Need more help?
Basic computer education is a good way to start thinking like your computer. Take the time to see what valuable educational tools you can discover online. With advanced tutorials in Excel, Word, Photoshop®, and PowerPoint, you can become quite savvy in programs that will help you start thinking and organizing like your computer. The Internet is a valuable resource for information and articles on how to organize your computer files. If the Internet is a bit daunting, take advantage of basic Internet training. It is a valuable tool that you should grow comfortable using.

In a time when most of us work with information that is generated by e-mail and electronic files, it is best to abandon your old paper pile system and make your computer an ally in storing valuable information and retrieving it in record time without a lot of extra effort. It is not an electronic monster that devours all your best work and then hides it in the deep recesses of its hard drive.

Your computer is your friend.

Your computer with organized files is your best friend.

PowerPoint and Excel are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. Macintosh is a registered trademark of Apple Computers, Inc., registered in the U.S. and/or other countries. QuickBooks is a registered trademark of Intuit Inc. or one of its subsidiaries in the U.S. and other countries. Photoshop is a registered trademark of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the U.S. and other countries.

About the Author:
Elaine Landau is a freelance writer, publicist, web site editor, and produced television writer with more than 15 years of experience in marketing, advertising, and publicity.

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