Top 4 Tips for Organizing Digital Files

When I covered paper filing in the past, one of my top tips was, “The best way to keep track of paperwork is to make sure it never arrives in the first place!” But what about digital organizing?

Go digital when you can. Not only does it reduce paperwork that takes up physical space in your home, it reduces paper usage in general. Good stuff! At Organize to Excel, we aim to eliminate waste and help the environment wherever possible.

If (when!) you follow my advice about paperwork, you’ll end up with more digital files than paper ones. But if you don’t have a filing system in place on your computer, you’re just swapping paper clutter for digital clutter.

Here are my top 4 tips for digital organizing, keeping your computer files as neat and tidy as your physical ones.

1. Mimic Real Life

Would you throw your mail on the floor as soon as you brought it in the house? Do  you file everything as “Important”? If you do, give us a call and we can help you straighten that out!

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It doesn’t make sense to do these things, because all you’d get is a big pile of mail on your floor, and tons of time wasted spent searching for that one bill you kinda remember being in this pile…or is it this pile? Eek!

Physical clutter is more obvious than digital clutter because it’s in the way when you try to eat dinner at the table, or a tripping hazard in your hallway. And, you have to physically go through items one at a time. But digital clutter is real, and it’s costing you time and money you don’t need to spend.

Imagine your computer is a tiny filing cabinet. It needs labels, folders, and subfolders. It needs an internal logic, so the folders and subfolders are useful. If you think about digital files like they’re paper, it only makes sense to put them in some sort of order.

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On the Go: Checks & Balances

Checklists

Last week I wrote about making to-go kits for your car to avoid clutter and save time. But what about work? Learn how checklists and restocking cues can keep your supplies organized! Now I’d like to expand that idea to include hot-desking. If you have to pack up your desk at the end of every day, you need to use similar principles:

  • limit clutter,
  • have a home for each item, and
  • make sure it’s easy to put things away when you’re done.

There are all kinds of bags that can help, with designated laptop sleeves, expandable sides, and lots of compartments to contain everything a mobile office might need. This one is pretty neat!

Before you buy a bag, take stock of the things you need every day at work (and keep a critical eye, because when it comes to hotdesking, traveling light is key!). Buy a bag that has room for these items with some extra space for flexibility, but don’t go way bigger than you need. If your essentials only fill up a third of your bag, you might be using the wrong one.

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How to Declutter and Let Go

Decluttering is the process of deciding what to do with each and every item you have. It’s a lot of work, but it doesn’t need to be overwhelming! Here are some ideas for how to declutter.

Your Rules

When you’re organizing your house, you’re organizing YOUR house. This means that you make up the rules. You get to decide what goes in it, how much goes in it, and what to let go of. That’s a lot of power! To determine what you want to stay in your home, ask questions like:

  • Do I love it?
  • Do I need it?
  • Can someone else use this more than me?
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How to Organize ANYWHERE

I love easy-to-follow systems that let you organize anywhere. No two homes or businesses are the same, and over the years I’ve relied on the I CARE system to help clients get and stay organized. You can use it anywhere–homes, businesses–wherever there is stuff!

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Practical Tips to Organize Your Business Paperwork

Organizing business paperwork takes dedication and consistency, but once you have systems in place and you (and your employees) use them, it becomes a routine part of business life. Here are my ways to make organizing business paperwork go more smoothly.

Shred it and forget it

When paperwork is past its “keep until” date, shred it if it has personal information. If you have a small business you may be fine with a small shredder. For larger business, there are also services like Shred-It that pick up shreddable materials and turn them into recycled paper. 

New year, new folders

At the beginning of your financial year, create new folders you can use throughout the year. Keep in mind the 5-20 rule! Any folder with fewer than 5 items in it should be combined with another, and any folder with more than 20 should be subdivided into other folders. This streamlines searching for documents, saving you time and money!  

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Practical Tips to Organize Your Personal Financial Paperwork

Here are some of the ways I keep track of my personal financial paperwork, and help others keep theirs under control. 

Date, not category

Filing bills based on date instead of by category works better for me. Sorting by date allows me to keep what’s current in front of me and see all of my bills at a glance instead of having to correlate different bills from different files. 

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