Tips for Organizing Your Digital World

by | Jul 13, 2021 | Organization Tips

Our modern day society is all about digital. Everything is on digital.

Our phones, our computers, our work, our photos, etc.

Everything is digital!

Yet, how organized is your digital world?

Let me ask you this: how organized is your non-digital world? AKA, how organized is your physical space?

Do you have your socks and shirts in the same drawer or are they separated?

Do you have your shoes in a drawer with your kitchen knives?

No? Then why do you have your digital files mix-matched like this?

Clients and people around me have asked me 3 big questions about the organizing our digital space that I want to share with you.

If you want to HEAR more (versus reading), in the YouTube video below, I go through a workshop on this exact topic!

Why Should We Organize Our Digital World?

  • Let me put it this way:

    Have you wanted to wear a specific piece of clothing and could not find it?

    OR, have you ever been late and could not find your keys or your phone?

    You spent lots of time looking for it right? For example, 30 minutes? An hour? 10 minutes?

    No matter how “long” or how “short,” This is:

    • Time wasted.

    • Money wasted.

    • Frustration that could have been avoided.

    Correct organizational tools can improve time management by 38%!

    Crazy huh?

    There is a cost to not organizing. Digital information is no different.

    With digital work and living is on the rise, more and more people are looking to become digital nomads.

    In addition, with COVID, many people are enjoying the remote working atmosphere.

    If this is you, if you are looking for the flexibility to work online wherever and whenever, this is the biggest answer to why you need to be organized digitally.

    Taking control of files now can help us take control over our lives!

What Digital Things Should We Organize?

Now that we covered WHY you need to organize digital things, let’s talk about WHAT should be organized.

Basically, all the places that SHOULD be organized are more places than you think.

The best recommendation is to write a list of all tools and folders and places you use digitally.

Keep this list with you and constantly add to it. Eventually, you will exhaust all the places, but it could take longer than one day.

Here are a few places to start:

  • Apps (like Canva)

  • Emails

  • Photos

How Should We Organize Our Digital Space?

As I have said with different blog articles and what I tell my clients every session, productivity and organization is about what works for YOU!

I can offer my way of doing things, but this does not mean you have to follow it!

I break my own organization into 3:

1) Naming Convention

2) Searchable

3) Structure

Naming Convention

This is how you name files. Instead of having generic file names such as “Thing for work” you can have:

Project name_version_date_employer

Or whatever makes sense for you!

Searchable

When was the last time you have seen a digital folder that doesn’t have a search function?

They all do!

Add some key words into your file name so it is easy to search later.

For example, if you have a file that is about “productivity for remote working,” making sure remote working is in the file name:

productivity_remote_working

That way, when you search, this file will come up for sure.

Structure

Next, have a pyramid or structure of your folders, tabs, and bookmarks. I discuss in detail in the video below!

For example, a folder pyramid hierarchy could be as such: Employer → Paystubs → Year 1 / Year 2 / Year 3 → Months

Then, in each month, you have the paystubs from that month and the months are within the years and all the years are under “Paystubs” folder, which is under “Employer” folder.

For the full video workshop, check out the video! I start at about 5:12

Challenge Time:

As always, I leave you with a challenge.

Create a pyramid of folder hierarchy. It can take time, do one pyramid per week or per two weeks. I mentioned this folder example before, but here it is again!

Employer → Paystubs → Year 1 / Year 2 / Year 3 → Months

Then, create these structures in your digital space!

Once your folders are established, then you can look at renaming file names if you so choose!

Schedule a call with me to see how we can further your productivity!

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