I'm sick of having a disorganised "My Documents". How do you organise yours?

[reggiep]

I am constantly having to search through my documents to find what I need and have decided I need to be a bit more regimented with them.

 

Has anyone found the perfect folder structure for this?

Edited October 8, 2010 by reggiep
spelling!

[Butuz]

Lol - I know exactly what you mean!!!

 

I organise My Docs badly and just use the search feature. Check out one of my folders I use when I can't see my desktop background any more

 

 

*sigh*

 

Butuz

[pete]

Yup, I just use a decent search tool or sling it in the wiki instead of bothering to organise. Only finished stuff for consumption by other people gets placed somewhere with an orderly folder structure and naming conventions.

[elsiegee40]

Now, I'm organised... but it's no point giving you my perfect file structure as my job and yours won't be the same and also what's logical to me isn't going to be logical for you.

 

My folders at the lowest level do contain folders by acdemic year to make sorting things out easiest.

 

So my Home Drive will be something like:

 

H:\

-- Admin

------Memos

-------- 2009 Term 1

-------- 2009 Term 2

-------- 2009 Term 3

--ICT

-------- Suppliers

------------ CPLtd

------------ RM

---------------- 2009 Term 1

---------------- 2009 Term 2

---------------- 2009 Term 3

------------ TCS

 

You get the idea!

[CyberNerd]

My docs Folder structures are a bit 1990's.

Tagging your documents in the cloud are the way forwards for me.

[tech_guy]

My solution - delete everything after a month.

[wizzard]

My solution - delete everything after a month.

 

Then comes the "oh ...." moment when you realise you've deleted something you should have really kept

[srochford]

Simple! Just keep everything in the bin, but don't empty it.

 

By the way, I have actually seen this in use as a filing strategy (for Outlook)

 

You don't work at Imperial do you? I know someone who does just that (and got very upset when something emptied his recycle bin!)

[gibbo_ap]

mine is not perfect but kinda works

 

word documents

excel documents

access documents

notes (notepad files)

 

simple but i like it saves tidying

[Fatmas]

I have two folders in "My Documents" at home:

 

Pr0n.

 

Not Pr0n.

[browolf]

lifehacker always has the answer:

 

Geek to Live: Organizing "My Documents"

 

also

 

http://www.thepinkc.net/geek-girl/geek-girl-top-5-tips-for-organizing-your-computer-files/

Edited October 8, 2010 by browolf

[Duane_Dibbley]

Simple! Just keep everything in the bin, but don't empty it.

 

By the way, I have actually seen this in use as a filing strategy (for Outlook)

 

My mate does it at his work (outlook). IT emptied his trash...restore from backup.

[Sirbendy]

I bung a "tidy" folder in and routinely move stuff to "tidy". If I've not called on it in half a year, bin or zip to USB, take home, dump on NAS

[Flakes]

my file structure,

 

-Documents

--work

---manuals

-----Office

-----Intranet

-----Laptops

-----Desktops

-----Other

--Htdocs

---School Website

---code snippets

---Books

--Personal

---Jokes

---Financal

---Videos

---Pictures

----Date(aka 08.10.10)

 

sorted, im very organised cant stand messy "my Documents" and i really hate desktop icons.

[reggiep]

@Butuz I like that desktop structure!

[reggiep]

I have two folders in "My Documents" at home:

 

Pr0n.

 

Not Pr0n.

 

LMAO!!

[philwaud]

More and more, I keep stuff on a pen drive and sync it to my home PC.

 

Docs are prefixed with "01-", "02-" etc so they stay in the order i want.

 

You should invest a bit of time to kick everything into some kind of order, then spend a few minutes each day sorting stuff to keep it that way. It takes seconds to make sure new content goes into the correct place.

 

Having said that, I ignore it all, just keep it all in a big folder with sensible names like "document 1", "important stuff", "dont delete" etc... works a treat, I can never find anything!

 

Phil

[john]

Generally a folder per area / item so have one caled E-mail for email related stuff, Data Protection, Notices, Bulletins, Meetings, LA ICT Group, etc... I have a projects one which has all my info RE projects ive done and planned and costed so its a folder per project and its got specs, quote request letters, emails etc inside them etc

 

I am a bit messy within those though, but Windows 7 search is great and works a treat for me

[mrbios]

I don't really use my documents primary hard drive is an 80GB SSD so i don't like saving things to it, rather than redirecting my documents i've just got in to the habit of saving everything to my second drive (or at work i save it on to the network, or my second drive there depending on what it is)

[russdev]

Best example I have seen is that you are have download/inbox folder which all your stuff goes into and then move from there into some organised system. Maybe GTD labels @home, @work,@edugeek etc etc.

 

Key is that download folder you have a script that deletes every week so that you must move and store it otherwise you lose it.

 

 

Russ

 

Sorry see that life hacker link discusses automated delete system.

 

Also keeping your structure same on your my docs and your memory stick good so then can just copy across.

Edited October 8, 2010 by russdev