10 ways to organize your digital files

[Music] hey guys it's pat welcome welcome back to my channel in today's video we are going to talk about digital organization i'm not gonna lie i would like to think that i'm pretty organized when it comes to my digital files although there are a few instances when i've lost the file or maxed out my storage but you know what that happens and what matters is you figure out what organization system works best for you this is not the one size fits all and there is no one perfect organization system that can work for everybody so i hope that by watching this video you can somehow get an idea of what system will work best for you aside from my own digital organization system i will also walk you through 10 ways to organize your digital life so i organized my digital life on four digital spaces now this may seem like a lot but i promise they each serve a very important purpose in keeping my digital life together so i organize on my macbook on google drive on google photos and on my hard drive now let's start with my macbook my first step is to sort through your desktop and downloads folder i prefer to keep my desktop folder clear of any files unless these are files that i'm currently working on or files that i haven't finished yet when my desktop is clear of anything i have a clear base to work with and i'm not distracted by the clutter also when i know that i reorganized all the fast that i have on my downloads folder i don't have to worry about misplacing an important file that i recently downloaded i'm going to show you a comparison of my desktop and downloads folder on a very hectic week of academics versus on a day when i have organized them personally it makes a lot of difference on the clarity of my mind and of the efficiency of my work so start by going through all the fast that you have on your desktop and downloads folder rename them if you need to delete unnecessary files and move files that you still need on their corresponding folders monitoring the files that you have on your desktop and downloads folder is simple reassurance to yourself that you have everything that you need in the right place second is to organize your files and by organizing your files i mean take the time to sit down go through all your files rename them and move them into their corresponding folders set up a useful naming system and be as descriptive as you can using abbreviations for your files can only lead to confusion so make sure that you name your files correctly as soon as you create them your naming system should help you navigate through and search for your files easier and faster aside from a naming system creates a folder system use subfolders only as necessary but don't create too many subfolders that you'll eventually defeat the purpose of creating them in the first place on my documents folder i have three main folders one for university one for miscellaneous files and one for youtube i'm gonna go through them one by one starting with my university folder now i only keep the classes that i'm currently taking because if i also keep the files from my previous semesters it would just take a lot of space and that's just unnecessary because i won't be able to keep as much fast as i need from my current semester so as much as possible i only keep the files for my current semester and all the other files from my previous semesters are kept in my google drive and hard drive so in my university folder i have eight subfolders each of which correspond to a specific class inside each folder i have a folder for course files and a folder for each week or module so my course files contains the class syllabus course guide textbooks and other resources of the class so i rename each file as core space title just so it's easier to look for them and organize them i rename all my submissions like that except for lecture videos now inside each week i have all the lecture videos presentations lecture notes and exercises for that specific week or module so i rename each file as lesson number hyphen title and if there are several videos under the same lesson i just put the order in open and close parentheses so that's basically how i organize my university folder moving on to my youtube folder i have four subfolders one for a video that i'm currently working on one for animations one for color grading and one for sound effects these basically store all color schemes sound effects raw footages and raw images that i need while i'm working on a video just so i don't need to reach for my hard drive anymore the last folder in my documents contains all the miscellaneous files that don't really belong to my university or youtube folders so these are just fonts personal documents and other creative files so that is basically how i organize my digital files on my primary folder the next tip that i have for you is to declutter your computer applications take the time to look through the applications that you have and ask yourself have you used it in the past months are they still necessary and do you still need them if your answer to all of these questions is a no then you might want to consider deleting them only keep the applications that you need because you want to save as much space in your computer as possible if you're a macbook user there are several ways by which you can organize your application so that it's easier to navigate through them one of which is by grouping them into folders and another is by categorizing them into tags by designating your applications into their corresponding purposes it's easier for you to know where a certain application is especially when you have several applications programs and software in your computer next is to customize your browsers whether that be google chrome safari or any browsing application there is we probably use them now more than ever because of online classes so it's important to customize your browsers to one that would boost your productivity one of the ways to do that is by grouping your bookmarks or most used websites into folders similar to categorizing your applications grouping your bookmarks into folders according to their purpose helps you to navigate through these links easier and faster aside from grouping your bookmarks go through your browser extensions and remove extensions that you don't really use or need as much anymore browser extensions can be fun and there are several extensions out there that can help you for different purposes i also made a video on that and you can check that up here but if you have one too many extensions i think that it's time for you to sort through them and only keep the extensions that you need next is to customize your finder sidebar finder stores all our files and applications so it's important that we only keep the links that we often use in our sidebar remove links that you don't really use as much and replace them with links to folders that you often use if you use a specific folder often you can add that to your sidebar and you can easily access that folder without having to go through your entire folder system next is to practice the habits of inbox zero inbox zero is an approach to email management that aims to maintain zero unread emails in your email inbox now this doesn't simply mean that you only need to mark every unread email as read you have to take the time and focus your attention to these emails you have to make an action plan for these emails and for many people that can be a difficult thing to do think of your inbox as your study desk and think of the emails you're receiving as the papers on your desk when you're working on your study desk you want to minimize as much papers as you can to keep your mind clutter free and to do that you have to deal with the papers one by one and sort them into their corresponding places that pretty much works the same way with your email inbox you have to deal with your emails one by one so that you can keep your mind clear of anything aside from keeping an inbox your habits organize your emails into tags personally it has made a huge difference in my work because i don't have to go through all my emails just to look for a specific one tags are like folders so by organizing my emails into tags i know where the important emails are and i don't have to worry about overlooking one back up your files so you won't lose them that's it we can only keep a certain number of files in our computer so for fast that have been dealt with and files that you don't really need in the present back them up i use three additional spaces for doing so i have google photos google drive and my hard drive i use google photos for storing travel and personal photos i use google drive for storing my academic files and i use my hard drive for storing everything so my folder system in my google drive is the same with the folder system that i have on my macbook which i showed you earlier so i have a folder for every semester named as academic year and semester inside each semester i have a folder for each class and inside each class i have a folder for course files and a folder for each week or module i make sure that the folder and naming system in my google drive is the same with the one that i have on my macbook just so it's easier to back them up later on i suggest that you use your academic email for storing your academic files because your academic email comes with unlimited storage so you can store as much files as you want now i have two hard drives one for academic and personal files and one for youtube i used to have just one but my youtube files took up a lot of the storage so i figured that i needed to separate them so in my hard drive that contains my academic and personal files i have a folder for each year a folder for college and a folder for senior high school so every year consists of all the photos that i have for that specific year but these are mostly just travel photos that i love to keep you can also see that i skipped years because i only started really organizing my photos in 2017. my college and senior high folders work the same way with my google drive and macbook so they store all the files from my previous semesters admission files and application files so every file that is relevant in my college or senior high years i store them here in my other hard drive which contains all the files for my channel i have a folder for each year and folder for in progress footages every year consists of folders corresponding to a specific video so i name each folder as year month day of publishing space title inside each folder i have five files one for the animations that i used the thumbnail the final video a folder for raw images that i shot for my thumbnail and a folder for the raw footages so every file is named the same with the folder year monthly of publishing space title except for the raw images and footages for my raw images and videos i named them as year month day of publishing space raw video or image and then a number so that is basically my organization system for backing up my digital files i know that it may seem tedious but this organization system has helped me significantly in keeping my digital files organized next don't be afraid to delete digital files that have already been backed up if you've already stored these files in your drives don't be afraid to get rid of them completely make sure that you're practicing a mindful habit of keeping your trash bin empty because although you're not seeing these files in your computer they're still there and they're still taking up a lot of your space stick with your organization system it's possible that you won't get the ideal organization system the first time but don't just give up after a few days because it always takes a little while to adapt to something new try out and commit to your digital organization system for a few weeks or for a few months and if you're still feeling like it's not working out well for you evaluate what went wrong and take it from there set a certain day in your week to keep everything organized it's easy to set these aside especially when you have other pending tasks awaiting your attention but setting a certain day in your week when you can just sort through your files and keep them in the right place allows you to tackle your upcoming tasks more efficiently i sort organize and back up my digital files every sunday and i keep that as part of my weekly reset routine because it allows me to reset and refresh for the upcoming week by organizing my digital files every week i am preventing these tasks from piling up and from adding up to the stress that i will have in the future so that is my digital organization system i hope watching this video helps you figure out the best organization system for you if you have your own digital organization system in place i would love to hear them in the comments below who knows maybe others can learn from you as well thank you so so much for watching this video you guys are the best and i will see you in my next one [Music] bye [Music] you

Channel: Patrisha Dictado

Views: 15,371

Rating: 4.9542203 out of 5

Keywords: digital organization, organizing files, digital organization for school, digital organization college, college, 2021, study vlog, productivity, organization, digital files, digital life, organize digital files, organize computer, digital declutter, how i stay organized, google drive organization, google drive, organize files

Id: jGEmX1YRodc

Length: 12min 33sec (753 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 30 2021