Grab my free Workspace Toolkit: academy.jeffsu.org/workspace-toolkit? TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Different File Management Systems 00:40 How I Organize My Files 02:47 How I Name My Files 04:36 Digital + Physical De-cluttering 05:19 Tip 1 - Organize Files by Where You Use it 05:50 Tip 2 - Leverage Native Features 06:36 Tip 3 - Attach Keyword to File 07:31 Tip 4 - Selectively Star or Flag files 07:59 Tip 5 - Know when to Create a Shortcut 09:03 Two File Management Rules to Live By
My Playback Speed = 0.75 😂. at most. I was gonna post this separately until I saw yours. “Normal” speed is good for the 2nd or 3rd watching when you’re looking for something. My first post is under Su’s pinned Comment under a Reply.
How does anyone avoid the frustration of information overload? In this case, listen all the way through. Luckily, because this one is well-scripted to teach, I return to listen again to catch tidbits I missed (like adding tags 6:50 and staying consistent with their use.
The best parts for me: 1. limitation on the zero/main level 2. folder 99 - always archives 3. naming conventions for files 3a. yyyymmdd - that is obviously useful but many people rejects that possibility replacing it with ddMMMyyy - nonsense 3b. variable granularity starting with year or with year and month or with year, month and day - superb Well done. Thank you.
As someone who used brackets ([ ]) to preface folder names a couple years back for organization, I would recommend against it if you ever need to interact with your directory structure via Windows CLI. Interacting with brackets is possible, but in a lot of instances the bracket is considered a wildcard and causes unneccesary tedium (e.g., something as simple as "cd ./[01] Example" in PowerShell will not allow tab completion AND return an error unless the "-LiteralPath" parameter was specified). However, if you interact purely via GUI it is visually pleasing and convenient. Just my two cents!
I love this tutorial - didn't know there were other organization geeks out here. My top 10 Windows file shortcuts 1. Alt-Enter = File/Folder details/properties 2. F2 = Rename 3. Ctrl-Shift-N = New Folder 4. Ctrl-N = Open 5. Alt-UpArrow = Move a folder up 6. Alt-LeftArrow = Folder Back 7. Alt-RightArrow = Folder Forward (after having gone back) 8. Alt-P = Preview file 9. Tab (while renaming) = Immediately save current name and start renaming next file ... Shift-Tab for previous file (wraps round if you're on the first file) 10. Ctrl-Space = Select current folder (hold Ctrl to navigate with arrows without selecting to you can skip select files in-between) ... makes more sense when you try it out 11. Right-MouseBtn-Drag = pops up a menu in the drag destination to let you do operations like Cut, Make-Shortcut, etc (LM-Drag immediately copies) --- To Jeff: TY for the drive shortcuts, esp N title-rework suggestion: "This Simple Google Drive File Management System Changed My Life!" if you want to maintain your tone or "📁Simple Life-Changing G-Drive File Management System." if you like using emojis & staying closer to the 40-char title recommendation // I imagine it'll be more targeted, tho I do get that you also mentioned some mac & windows stuff --- thanks for the fire video
I just implemented a File Management System mainly based on your method, the comments on this video and my own thoughts. I then added a note on level Zero named "HOW TO USE", with the content below (works for me, might work for others. Feel free to copy and use): HOW TO USE? PRO TIPS - Organize your files by where you will use it, not by where you found it. - When you are not sure where you will find a certain file, use the search bar. - When searching a file, of which you know was shared with you, use the "Shared with me" tab and filter on a specific person. - Make sure what your different (communication)apps do when it comes to storing the files automatically on your device. FILE HIERARCHY - Maximum 5 levels of folders deep. The 6th level can only contain files, no more folders. - Maximum 99 folders within a folder. - Number folders with: [NUMBER] (from [01] until [99]). - When a file is shared with you, take one of the next 3 actions: 1. Make a copy (Use as Template or Reference in the future). 2. Add a shortcut to original file (When working together on the same file with 2+ members). 3. Do nothing (The file is a one-off request). DIFFERENT FOLDERS [01] Inbox - All new files (self-created or shared with you) that need to have a place within your File Management System. - This folder is only to be found once in your main folder. [02] Work - All your work-related documents. [03] Reference Documents - Documents you reference to on a regular basis. Used to quickly access certain files. - This folder is only to be found once in your main folder. - This folder only contains file-shortcuts from other folders. [04] Quick Share - Copies of the files you want to share with others, so that you will not have any duplicates or share what is not necessary (a certain part of the file). - Note: original files that you want to share will stay at the same place. - This folder is only to be found once in your main folder. [99] Archived - Files you do not need anymore (outdated or inactive), but do not have to be deleted, so that they maintain searchable. - This folder is only to be found once at level 0 (all archived docs are placed into this folder). - If needed, you can put folders (no limit) into this folder, but not a must. [99] Other - A misc folder when you are not sure which folder to put your file into. - Do not put any folders within a misc folder. - The misc folder can only be found under the folder "[02] Work" (and possible within each folder of this folder). Do not put this folder in level zero or into one of the other folders (Inbox, Reference Documents, Quick Share, Archive). FILE NAMING - In general, use this structure: Date_Subject_Code_Filetype. Each section is separated by an underscore (_). For spaces within a section, use a hyphen (-). Example: "2024-09-24_Productdesign-Productname_VER01_Doc. But: - Always use a subject name for the file. - Only include date when needed, otherwise exclude date for the file to be sorted alphabetically. - Only include code when needed. Most common examples: VER01, FINAL, DRAFT. Use capital letters for the codes. - Only include file type when needed (read the following). - Key rules for file naming: - When possible, write down the whole date (YYYY-MM-DD), unless the file covers a specific time period. In that case, use the year + time period (f.e.: "2025-Q3" or "2024-May"). - Do not use spaces. - For the file type, use mainly one of the following keywords. All other file types can be filtered out by using the filter option (such as videos, photos...) - Doc (documents) - Meeting Notes (notes you have taken from any sort of meeting) - Notes (notes you have taken for yourself) - Spreadsheet (working files, usually with much edible data. Jeff Su called these "Working Trix"
NOTES - Instead of using "Starred" for files, put the files you need to find quickly in the "Reference Documents"-folder. - Instead of adding a folder with for a back-up, the most important files are backed up on my external storage (not within the same File Management System). - If needed, add another folder for your private life. I like to keep this separate.
Thanks for posting this.. I have been so organized in past but after moving so many laptops and job roles, etc and working cross platform with both WIN and MAC I was struggling to find a good system. Question.... what do you recommend if you work on both WIN and MAC systems to keep things organized etc? I struggle with finding photos and images alot but also files that I save using my iphone then are in my MAC files vs working on my WIN computer
Great tips!! setting that up now. recommend a L0 dumping folder "[98] To Sort Later". I always have one of these in folders and in e-notebooks so I avoid leaving files where they are just because I'm not yet sure where they fit. Have a calendar reminder to deal with it weakly. thanks for this, Jeff!
Hi Jeff, I've been a silent viewer of your content for quite a while and truly admire your work. Your productivity tips are incredibly insightful, and your professionalism combined with a dose of humor makes your videos truly engaging. Your dedication to your viewers is truly commendable - seeing how you respond to each comment inspired me to post my first RUclips comment ever! I wanted to suggest a topic for a potential future video: a comprehensive guide on organizing and storing all types of files - personal media, work assets, useful files, archives, etc. across multiple devices and both in the cloud and on-device storage. I believe many of us grapple with managing our digital assets effectively, especially when it's spread out over multiple devices and storage mediums. Your clear and practical advice would be incredibly valuable in navigating this. Keep up the fantastic work!
Thanks so much for the kind comment and potential topic my friend 😁! I really do care about all my viewers so of course I respond to all comments! That's a great topic for me to explore in the future, will definitely keep it in mind
@@JeffSu Just want to add a +1 to Airdrop Achiver's comment. Love your videos. Would love this kind of structure video but for your mac. I have most of my stuff set up on my Dropbox so it's accessible on my phone as well. Struggle a little bit with keeping it organized and always know where to find stuff (through a logic of the system).
One thing missing is an 'inbox' folder, where new files are put, until you decide whether they are junk or gold. Then keep the good files by organizing them, others stay there until you need storage space, then delete
So, jumping on here several months later... Between this comment and the one above by @AirdropAchiever (AF loadmaster?), and maybe I didn't notice this mentioned in your video (1st time viewer), but what about an indexing mechanism? Especially if you're organizing both personal & professional, across multiple devices, etc? I suffered several strokes last year and have short term memory issues ( among other things), have downsized drastically, and sometimes struggle with where things are.
@@davidwbrown66Indexing mechanism? If we're talking about keeping track of where a file is, on what device, maybe best option is cloud storage, so it's everywhere. If we're talking about naming folders, what I personally do is make a folder for each month of each year - example: 2023-01 for january, 2023-12, 2024-01... That's time based indexing
@@jokinglimitreached1503 Ja, I do exactly the same. A good example would be taxes: Finances Taxes Local State Federal 2023 W2s Investments Receipts Jan Feb ... Donations 2022 But, no that's not to work nonlinear items or things without frequent periodicity. Maybe it's less of an ask specific to his system than about a possible app grabs all folder and file names, snippets of data within or thumbnails, displays an entire hierarchy from 10,000 ft view, but collapses to an index that can export major section titles to a kind of TOC.
Having already come up with _most_ of this independently over years and years of not doing things this way, these are all quite sound starting points for a sensible and manageable organization methodology (from someone who is inherently not organized and lacks organization skills). These are all great advice, and will take you years of frustration to come up with on your own - might as well start early and then you’ll have plenty of time to refine this into an even better system instead of reinventing the wheel.
It's nice to see a how-to video without an actual product being endorsed (except for the physical part; that one is understandable since its a sponsor). Usually there's an app or a software, and then show how it works. Here, the process can be used in ANY type of file management software. Thank you for this!
Nice tips, just don't keep your files exclusively in cloud storage, have local backups as well. Because if they're lost, no amount of organization will help you find them again...
One thing to keep in mind (if you use something like SharePoint), is the overall URL path name has limits that can eventually be hit if you're adding more and more characters (that go directories deep). In that case, it's often better to rely on the meta data in the file attributes, rather than adding it to the file name, in my opinion.
@@MachoMaster The longest Windows path limit is 32K characters and Linux is a much lower 4K. However If you're swynching with a cloud based storage system then the lowest common denominator wins and that's going to be
@@mike-williams Linux itself has no hard path length limits. Posix has 4k, but can be worked around. I don't remember all the details at this point anymore, but I personally (!) had problems with Windows's limitation on total path length. Just normal usage. Afair it was with just basic file explorer, but might have been some basic program instead. But it doesn't matter, because the chain's limitations are being determined by the chain's weakest link.
This video ALSO changed my life. I stayed up till 2am to organize my google Drive to look like this. My life just got so much better already! Thank you!
@@hanoszprime5431 when you have highlighted the file(s) you want to share. Just press . And the share box appears. I do use Mac, but I don’t think this is a Mac feature
As a windows user, I have used Everything for a while and it's pretty damn good. It can pull a lot of file types and it's blazing fast (once it's built a file map). If I can't find something through the explorer I have eventually done so through Everything
I came across this video while I was thinking about how to sift through the files because my Google Drive has reached the 100GB limit. I didn't feel the desire to do something like this until this video came out, but you, my friend, your technique is very nice.
Your date prefix is how I've done it for certain files for years. However, I do put in a space between the yyyy mm dd as it makes it far easier to read at a glance. One other thing that I do is consolidate PDF files for things like bank, credit card statements, and investment account statements so that each year's bank statements are in a single PDF file; same for credit card statements, etc. I need to track down individual transactions occasionally and this saves a huge amount of time going through 12 statements per year. If your PDF bank statements are "secured" by the bank, just print them to a PDF app and it will create a new, unsecured PDF although it will be larger. They can now be consolidated into a single file and can also be marked up.
I just use 230611 instead of 20230611 because I've heard and experienced that 6 digits are the maximum (and the perfect) length for recognizing at a glance 2023 06 11 is too long and I don't like having any whitespace in prefix
I spent over 2 years refining and reworking my filesystem hierarchy. I haven't touched it in a while but it's based on 3 rules. 1. Everything has 1 place of belonging 2. It needs to be flexible enough to be usable in all situations. 3. I should be able find a file regardless what the filename is or if I even know the files name. Its structures like so: Archive - Backups, old files, completed projects Collections - photo albums, government documents, etc. Entertainment - movies, music, books Projects - tasks, projects, responsibilities (loosely based on para) External - shared files, network filesystems. Organize - inbox/Lost files, downloads folder
The other item I would suggest is to reduce or eliminate spaces in filenames. If you ever need to use a tool to manage the files, such as scripting, then you won't want to have to deal with quoting filenames. Your IT admin will also thank you.
For the same reason I avoid slashes in files names. I use underscores between words and hyphens for dates. Example: “Meeting Notes 5/15/23” becomes 2023-05-15_meeting_notes
This also makes sense on a Windows machine since a space in any file name constitutes 3 characters rather than an underline which only take up 1 character. Which is not crucial, but if you ever want to export a folder and share it with someone else, and that someone has the Windows character limit activated… well he’s going to be in for a treat.
I envy your ability to come up with a solution and then be able to methodically explain it in a video. I can do the first part but the second part always comes out as a jumble. It has made training others at work challenging, and its something I usually delegate if possible. Do you have any tips on teaching complex tasks?
Hope you're doing great! I've been browsing through quite a few videos lately and, wow, when I stumbled upon yours, it was like a breath of fresh air! I'm genuinely impressed by your unique perspective and the way you structure your folders. It just makes so much sense. Honestly, your content is like finding a treasure trove of valuable insights. Really appreciate you sharing it with us. Keep up the awesome work, and thanks a ton! 🌟👍
your video saved me. in the last 3 days after watching this video, i spent time organizing around 28½GB worth of data over multiple google accounts. it's made life so much easier already. following it will take a while to get used to, but this is absolutely brilliantly made!
I have this same system but I dump the 2-digit in favor of 3-digit. I only go as deep as 3 level on the file system directoty structure, because sometimes you will need to copy a folder with already a deep directory structure (i.e. backups) and there are OS and apps that has file system that doesn't accept paths that are too long. The 3-digit solves this by trying to put folders as close to the first directory and use that extra number for granualar organization. Don't limit your self to as few top folder, you will ran an issue in the long run because not all category will present itself. You will probabaly will have some interest in the future or have some other furure carreer. You are also forced to manage your file using deep subdirectory. You can reserve the 100s to big categories, then the 10s to sub category. Then increment the directory name by 10 so you can insert something in the future. I also have 999 but I called it miscellaneous where I can drop temporary files and files that need to be sorted out by category. My archive is always 000. I also use this style sorting out some things. Like bookmarks and spotify playlist to name a few.
I realized that I’ve been doing all of this from the very beginning unintentionally because I have OCD. Doing things this way gives me a sense of satisfaction compared to not doing them.
To make sharing easier, I’ve created a top level folder called Public Files and make everything in there shareable or viewable with a link. The folders inside are organized by file type, then client, then project. Makes it easier for me to revoke access when I need to.
@industryrule-4080 I’m in construction. Would I keep an internal copy of folder Project X and also a public copy of Project X? How to keep them synchronized?
Never thought of using shortcuts this way - brilliant! I'm often confused by the way other departments or managers organize files because it works for them but not for me. This solves the problem!
I've been working on my own file system for months. This is what I came up with: - No spaces or gaps in folder and file names. I just use "_" and "." for separation - All filenames start with date in the "yyyy.mm.dd" format - folder names start with "00_". Can have many "00_" folders, and can separate groups by adding series of incremental prefixes. Something like 00_DOCUMENTS 00_INSTALLERS 00_SHARED and then 01_VIDEOS 01_MUSIC 01_IMAGES, etc - I keep an abreviated folder structure in folder names, so I always know where I'm at: 01_IMAGES -> 00_IM_PHOTOS -> 00_IM_PH_EDITED etc
I also do this levelling but on a smaller scale but when i did it felt so good as if i was a receptionist lol. Also it calmed my OCD down.Major advantage was that i found i had multiple duplicate files like my resume , docs , reports etc. There's one folder i have called Miscellaneous where i just dump files which fit into no category or need future organising. Edit :Sometimes i wish my computer was high tech AI connected to my brain so all i just need to think of naming or organziing and boom done
I'm in awe of how you respond to basically everyone who comments. Not many RUclipsrs do that. 💕 I'm currently using the P.A.R.A. system that I tweaked a bit to customize it for my industry but am loving it. Your tips gave me better ideas on how to handle my subfolders. TY! (P.s. now that I think about it I wonder if its the speed of the examples that feel too fast, more so than your pattern of speech. Maybe if you slowed those down, it would help some of us who feel like the videos are getting faster and faster. My absolute favorite video that I share with colleagues, your examples are slower and on the screen just a bit longer. It was about Pet peeves about email communication (format). IDK. Random thought. Anyway, thank you!)
I respond to everyone because my viewers are the only reason I'm making these videos! Why wouldn't I want to chat with you? 😁 Thank you for the kind words my friend, and that's some great feedback. Can I confirm with you it's the Harvard Business Review video on email etiquette...?
This seems like a variation of the PARA method. Project: Short term work that you are doing right now, projects at home, at work etc. Area: Long term responsibilities that you manage like your home, your work and your health. Resource: General useful information related to a theme, interest or assets. If you don't store personal information the whole resource folder is shareable. Archive: Where you store things that are no longer relevant like old projects, old responsibilites, this is also where you can keep your daily notes. Short tip that I found useful: Don't confuse hobbies and dreams with projects and goals. A project without a corresponding goal is a "hobby". A goal without a corresponding project is a "dream". What's great about the PARA method is that it is replicatable in all places where you can have folders, so you can use the same structure for all apps, that way you don't need a central place to store things.
Some call me a categorizer, analytic freak when it came to files and folders. I wrote my 1st categorizer in early 1990 in DOS, but there was the limitation of 256 characters in a folder path. I'm not going to give you a link to my video, as I do not want to intrude or advertise, but instead, I'm giving you this: AAM1 Last niggles - a program written for a friend of mine. My program do exactly what you doing here, except it's available in a program - even with your 5 folder level and then files! Love your video. ❤
This couldn't have come at a better time. My company has an integration and switch to Google happening, so this is perfect. I will think about how to implement it in my own folder organization. Thank you!
I'm not any PC user, but a One UI (Android) Mobile user. I switched my entire file management system from Local to Cloud Storage (Google Drive/Apps), and I organised those folders as: 1. Default Grandparents Folders (Android, Backups, Documents, Download, Movies, Music, Pictures, Takeout). 2. Default Parents Folders 3. Folders/Files! Works so conveniently with easier organisation or naming convention! (I'm bored of managing my files on my phone with multiple apps since last two years! So switched to Drive/Photos for all my files/media). Thanks for your ideas/tips sir, subscribed! ❤😊
Yeah, sounds really useful. Ever since i can remember, my desktop has been one big mess. Always when i lose control (yeah i know lol), i create folder named [present date] and copy everything there from my desktop. My personal record is like 15 nestings. I do not recommend :'-) I'll give it a shot! Thanks Jeff! ❤
This five-levels-deep file organization framework is brilliant! I've been struggling with a messy file system for years, and this seems like a simple, yet effective way to get things in order. Thanks for sharing! 👏
There are some great things to pull from this, like the project numbering system. There's too many layers to find one thing in some instances, though. And most people get lazy with organizing over time, it's natural. So basically even the most detailed and well structured file system is completely useless if it isn't also efficient when organizing files. Additionally, when working with other people it should be easy for them to come into your drive and find what they need without learning the ins and outs of how you organize. So it needs to be both efficient and immediately understandable. At my work the top layer of our structure is just the year. Once you select the year the next layer is immediately project folders, named example: 05_Title_Client_2023-04-06_editorName. Each of the people on our team probably create around 70 projects a year though, so if you create a lot more, you could potentially add another layer with months. But I would say it would have to be hundreds of project folders a year at the very least. Depending on where you store your files (we use network drives on Mac), you can also add tags. So each year folder is organized by tags, and under each tag by project number. This is optimal because it allows for two separate sorting systems to exist simultaneously inside of one folder. Our tags are client types and stage of completion based. This way I can mark under the client type, of which there are about 10, and also mark it as completed or currently editing. Appropriately sorting your tags allows for projects you're currently working on to filter to the top of the folder for quick access. Inside each project folder is a hierarchy of folders as well. We use PostHaste to create these for each of our projects. Your structure will depend on the type of work you do and how you like to organize. This probably makes no sense to read, but it's super simplified I promise XD
Genuinely useful. This was the kick up the arse I needed to sort out my riot of a Google drive! I keep all my folders neat like this in work but been really bad with my own!
Hi Jeff. Can you PLEASE NOT HIDE this video, just in case you regard this video to be outdated? 🙏 At the time of this comment, I noticed Google Drive has revamped their keyboard shortcuts. This video helps me astoundingly, and I believe a lot of us too. The whole concept is still very helpful and applicable for referencing. And I'd love to rewatch this on your channel rather than other ways... Keep up the great videos, Jeff!
Excellent video! Big thanks for making and sharing this. I implemented this system immediately, and it is changing things for the better. You're making solid content that helps people. I really love you're energy and you get right down to it. No need for a response, I know checking comments is on your non negotiables and you'll read this. Just keep making great stuff. Respect!
Hey Jeff! I really gotta say that I very much appreciate the work that you do. I started working at a big fintech organisation a while ago and initially really didn’t like the fact that they used Google workspace and was kind of lost with it. But after finding your tutorials and watching many of your Google focused productivity guides, I nowadays really enjoy using Google workspace and have become a real believer in it. Up to the extend that even my managers came up to me and asked me for help and tips with Google workspace. I have now even led the implementation of Workspace for the charity I’m involved in and for a friends‘ company. All with knowledge and excitement that initially came from you and your videos. Hope you realise the great impact you make with your work, Jeff. Really appreciate all you do.
love how you didn't make a fuss about all these AI tools, kept it classy. Wonder how YOUR integration of AI tool would be like. Keep up the good work !
Hi Jeff, First of all, a big, big thank you for your videos! After coming across your videos about a month ago, you really helped me big time to pull through the interview process. And today i got my dream jobs offer. Knowing you have more videos to help us navigate through today's work place (cause my previous company wasn't fond of using clouds), I will always come back for more help! Keep up the awesome job!
Wow, thanks for this heartwarming comment and making my evening my friend 😁. Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn! I would love to see where you ended up!
Awesome video. One tip about "Archive" is that it's not supposed to be there at all. The main idea is that if you put a bunch of files, as you said, "I may never use them again," you are spending time going through them, which is a waste of time. So we remove the "archive" approach at all and move to regular backups and we delete the files.
Curious what backup system you use. To me the benefit of an archive folder/archive system is that the files within it are a) instantly accessible, b) instantly searchable and c) easily browsable. This means you spend the least possible time locating both 1) files you know/have some suspicion are buried somewhere, and 2) relevant files you have no recollection of, or have in fact never had any knowledge of (eg team environment / institutional memory). The archive folder, like any folder, should of course be subject to regular incremental backups. However, IMHO, the purpose of a backup is that data not be lost, whereas the purpose of an archive is that the data can once again be found. Subtle but important difference. For my use cases at least, a backup can never replace an archive, just as an archive can never replace regular, redundant, backups. It would be like replacing a fruit with an elephant. Both are necessary but serve entirely different functions (one would hope). 🙂
Normal 1x speed is too fast and 0.75x is too slow. 😅😅 Still figuring out the best speed to get the complete value from your videos. But the video itself, good job!
Really informative video, Just a quick suggestion brother - If you can slightly decrease your speed of explanation as it is harder (for me not sure for others) to keep up with you. As you are bombarding with much good information with speed its really hard. :(
I have to slow the video down in the settings on videos like this one. You're not alone. 💕 Still, I'd rather have fast Jeff than no Jeff so I just wait until I can watch the videos on my laptop. 🥰
Great video! Just the textual use of "may" at 3:10 gave me a flashback: Once upon a time at work i received a CSV file to be processed. It was sorted alphanumerically with a date at the beginning. But the date format was like 13-DEC-2012. So it basically started with the first of december of various years, then the first of february of various years, and so on until it started over with the second of december....ugh!
oh well... some people like the human readable format but machine goes by ISO ... once I had to take over a laptop from a previous user in the company, the file hierarchy is maddening... there's barely any "stack" cos basically all files are in that one single stack.
I would love this exact video for setting up *Business* organizations. It's very helpful to see how you organized this for yourself but am struggling setting up the same thing for my organization! Great video!
@@JeffSu True! I'm specifically speaking to 3:47 where you've housed things like 'Business operations' and your Record keeping for accounting. I could assume the business operations folder has what I'm talking about but sure you didn't include it for privacy purposes. But yeah that exact video is a content gap I'm struggling with finding here on RUclips! 'File management' for business!
TBH, just back everything up with software that deduplicates things. I'll generally add a .noback suffix to anything that I specifically don't want to back up. But, honestly, with how cheap external drives are, you probably want to just back everything up unless it can be automatically generated from files that you've got and then just have them removed from the backup after they've been deleted for an extended period of time. And if you're organizing your stuff like in this video, then it shouldn't be too hard to just have specific folders that don't get backed up and are visibly not being backed up due to the suffix being included in the name. If you change your mind, you can easily rename the file to either include or exclude it from backups, as most backup software has some provision for filtering the files that are being backed up. And if you remove it from being backed up, the files remain backed up until such a time as they naturally time out, which is usually a good thing. (Although not such a good thing if these are illegal files. :-P) For some files, like tax records, you may need to manually manage that, I put the date on which I'm allowed to permanently delete them, and they should probably be grouped in a folder with that indication on it.
Thanks for providing me with an option on how to handle "Quick share" files without simply placing on my desktop for quick access, but only to have to do this over and over, as I delete these to "clean up" my desktop (quick the vicious cycle)...
Hello Jeff and thanks for the tricks ! i use more or less the same for my folders & files ! Moreover, when working on important projects (books, for example), I add a version number at the end (v1a, v1b, v1c, v2a,v2b, etc)... it's very useful when exporting G. Docs documents ;-) See U soon. François.
when i say ive been seeking this exact type of content to organise my entire digital life....please do. photos, icloud, cross android and mac organizing as well , this kind content is v needed! Thaankkkkk youuuu!
I’m on a. Mac. In my documents folder, I have a folder for each year. Then within years are months. Then are individual documents. I lean on Smart Folders (folders with search criteria attached). In my sidebar, there is a smart folder with documents either created or modified within a certain time. I can also pin documents I want to have handy for an unspecified time. Smart Folders do the regular organization.
....Hey! That's me at 4:18. Nice. Yeah, that coding structure comes from uploading things to websites and whatnot. Since every space adds on "gibberish" to make the space, it can make finding things complicated. We don't need it as much these days, but it is still nice to have. I also probably overdo it with the number of numbers within numbers, but it does reduce my folder needs down. 01 is the main folder, 02 is a subfolder, 03 is a document, and 04 is presentation. If I search for a doc, I look for 03 and sort by recent. If I remember a portion of the name, I add that in the search as well. Really, don't take my advice. Follow Jeff's. His flows better in a modern document control way.
@@CoralineLowes Goodness, I am a bit rusty at it now all things considered. That level of detail was for work, but I don't need that much detail anymore. Let's see. XX-XX-XX00-000-name First two XX - the company or customer abbreviation it goes to. Second two XX - the department it addresses (qc for quality control, cs for customer service, so on and so on) XX00 - What sublevel department the document would go under (dc03 - a document for document control for QC, for example) 01 - Main file 02 - Subfile 03 - Document 000 - Revision to the file Other categories - 555 for not released file 999 for an archived document. name for any easy name I can search for. There are a lot of generic names, but you can always give it a unique one to help you search. That way, if I type 03 in my Drive and look at just documents, then I can look at the file names and find that file I am looking for Hope that helps!
Bro this is so good, I did not think it would make my filemanagement sooo ungodly good, but this system is genius. This video popped up randomly and I‘m so glad it did😂
Thanks for a great video - I enjoy this kind of discussion! I think two great things I saw in the video that you didn't explictly talk about: 1. You can uses spaces creatively in filenames in Google Drive. You don't have to name things in weird squashed ways like "2003_project_blah" "2018Resume"... (very typical of Windows users) Even the example you gave of the system with hyphens looked gross. File names with spaces in Google drive are MUCH more readable and enjoyable. 2. You have this wonderful colour palette on your top level folders. It is even in gradient order. Tell us about that! Overall I suspect your taxonomy is a bit too complex for my liking - it's going to add workflow drag on keeping it consistent. However your point is correct - we should not just rely on search but have a decent folder structure.
Thanks so much for your input Wayne!! 1. Yes spaces are awesome 😁 2. Ah I just used the default color palette that comes with Google Drive to make the first 2 levels a bit more colorful 😂
what is so special about using spaces ? maybe they had a funny restriction ? i don't use g-drive, my stuff i stored with me, not with google and not with nsa, and i can use spaces in folder/filenames since last millenium so what's the fuzz about spaces ?
This was so helpful. My Drive has become a mess of different management systems! I'm going to follow this system and tidy up my files. Thank you! I would love to see a video of how you organize your Notion, I haven't found a system that works for me yet.
I really like your system! I actually have a somewhat similar system except my naming is all over the place 😅 One thing I do is I have a "Misc" folder at every level as a catch all for stuff I don't know how to classify Thanks for the video as always and congrats on the sponsorship! And on a more personal level, I hope things are going well :3
I am going to have to watch this video 99 times to take it all in. Only Jeff can make a file management system video this entertaining and helpful. This was super helpful and gave me an idea. Did I see that your numbering 1-99 is done for sub folders too? Also, why does it have to be either or? Can't you be a DB and nerdy? :😎 Great Video!
If only you can like it 99 times as well James 😉 re:sub-folders - Yes so basically I include numbers if I think some folders are "more important" that others and I want those at the top. If they're all "equally important" I don't include numbers. I tried to be a douchebaggy nerd but it didn't work out 🥲
Thanks for this video. I absolutely hate the fact that I can’t keep the sort in Google Drive set to File Type > Name. It just feels cluttered. This folder structure naming and organization philosophy will help.
As an IT admin, please make your folder structures wider and not deeper and keep the folder names short Windows has a 255 character limit on Paths and some symbols count as 2 characters
I‘m struggling with the limitation of Windows… A lot of my folders&files aren‘t sync with my different cloud storages because of the character limit :/ It‘s a lot of „work“ to reorganise the whole folder structure for me :D
@@trogdorstrngbddoes this work for an existing set up (a pc already loaded with files) or only change when you first set up the system.? I don't want to change the setting to find it corrupts everything 😮
@@MikeBuhagiar Yes it works without needing to reinstall Windows. Some programs might not be compatible with it but I personally have never run into any issues.
. I come from the 8-character planet of DOS, where space was tight on my $989 10MB disk-drive, much less my tiny apartment on the moon of Seattle in 1984. My window was my ashtray. 230131 fits 6 characters, works with BBS dashes if needed, skips the useless "20," and sorts cleanly. If available in 75 years, these files will be easily searchable and will have been archived in that current decade anyway...
Grab my free Workspace Toolkit: academy.jeffsu.org/workspace-toolkit?
TIMESTAMPS
00:00 Different File Management Systems
00:40 How I Organize My Files
02:47 How I Name My Files
04:36 Digital + Physical De-cluttering
05:19 Tip 1 - Organize Files by Where You Use it
05:50 Tip 2 - Leverage Native Features
06:36 Tip 3 - Attach Keyword to File
07:31 Tip 4 - Selectively Star or Flag files
07:59 Tip 5 - Know when to Create a Shortcut
09:03 Two File Management Rules to Live By
@Taufik Tibro 🤓🤓
Is this applicable to Windows Search? Not suggesting search results irrelevant to entered filters
What about mobile
@@LamAnopro_ What do you mean?
@@JeffSu managing files on mobile devices :)
99% of RUclips videos need to be watched on fast speed. This one needs to be slowed down. Thank you for saving our time @JeffSu.
I value my viewers' time Rodrigo! 😁
My Playback Speed = 0.75 😂. at most. I was gonna post this separately until I saw yours. “Normal” speed is good for the 2nd or 3rd watching when you’re looking for something. My first post is under Su’s pinned Comment under a Reply.
still 1.5x, not your why it does not bother me
How does anyone avoid the frustration of information overload? In this case, listen all the way through. Luckily, because this one is well-scripted to teach, I return to listen again to catch tidbits I missed (like adding tags 6:50 and staying consistent with their use.
Yeah like 0.25 speed is perfect
The best parts for me:
1. limitation on the zero/main level
2. folder 99 - always archives
3. naming conventions for files
3a. yyyymmdd - that is obviously useful but many people rejects that possibility replacing it with ddMMMyyy - nonsense
3b. variable granularity starting with year or with year and month or with year, month and day - superb
Well done. Thank you.
This is the type of comment I love to see, thank you! 😁
YYYY-mm-dd wins. It is clear, and the lexical order is the same as the temporal order, unlike ddmmYYYY mmddYYYY. It is also an ISO standard 😝
As someone who used brackets ([ ]) to preface folder names a couple years back for organization, I would recommend against it if you ever need to interact with your directory structure via Windows CLI. Interacting with brackets is possible, but in a lot of instances the bracket is considered a wildcard and causes unneccesary tedium (e.g., something as simple as "cd ./[01] Example" in PowerShell will not allow tab completion AND return an error unless the "-LiteralPath" parameter was specified).
However, if you interact purely via GUI it is visually pleasing and convenient. Just my two cents!
That's a good point! Thanks so much for being objective about this!!
If the person is just using this in google drive or cloud file structure only, may be safe.
what a good alternative to using square brackets?
How about designing a power shell or batch file to simplify things?
@@magnemite4287 without it and followed by underscore would look good too. 01_Work
I love this tutorial - didn't know there were other organization geeks out here.
My top 10 Windows file shortcuts
1. Alt-Enter = File/Folder details/properties
2. F2 = Rename
3. Ctrl-Shift-N = New Folder
4. Ctrl-N = Open
5. Alt-UpArrow = Move a folder up
6. Alt-LeftArrow = Folder Back
7. Alt-RightArrow = Folder Forward (after having gone back)
8. Alt-P = Preview file
9. Tab (while renaming) = Immediately save current name and start renaming next file
... Shift-Tab for previous file (wraps round if you're on the first file)
10. Ctrl-Space = Select current folder (hold Ctrl to navigate with arrows without selecting to you can skip select files in-between)
... makes more sense when you try it out
11. Right-MouseBtn-Drag = pops up a menu in the drag destination to let you do operations like Cut, Make-Shortcut, etc
(LM-Drag immediately copies)
---
To Jeff:
TY for the drive shortcuts, esp N
title-rework suggestion:
"This Simple Google Drive File Management System Changed My Life!"
if you want to maintain your tone
or
"📁Simple Life-Changing G-Drive File Management System."
if you like using emojis & staying closer to the 40-char title recommendation
// I imagine it'll be more targeted,
tho I do get that you also mentioned some mac & windows stuff
---
thanks for the fire video
Thank you for your Windows shortcuts recommendations! I learned (and noted) some of them
This is awesome!!!! Thanks for sharing my friend!
glad to help
Awesome short cuts - thanks!
@@longboardfella5306 you're welcome
Try number folders in increments of 10. This allows you to insert new folders you need to add anywhere in the hierarchy.
That's a great point, thanks for sharing Dave!
You reminded me with QBasic where we numbered the code line in the same fashion
Interesting idea. Thanks. Alternatively, just add lower case alphabet when needed or hypenated numbers.
01a 01b 01c
01-01 01-02 01-03
Great idea Dave! I'll give that a try!
@@tokyojerry That's a bit much IMO
I just implemented a File Management System mainly based on your method, the comments on this video and my own thoughts. I then added a note on level Zero named "HOW TO USE", with the content below (works for me, might work for others. Feel free to copy and use):
HOW TO USE?
PRO TIPS
- Organize your files by where you will use it, not by where you found it.
- When you are not sure where you will find a certain file, use the search bar.
- When searching a file, of which you know was shared with you, use the "Shared with me" tab and filter on a specific person.
- Make sure what your different (communication)apps do when it comes to storing the files automatically on your device.
FILE HIERARCHY
- Maximum 5 levels of folders deep. The 6th level can only contain files, no more folders.
- Maximum 99 folders within a folder.
- Number folders with: [NUMBER] (from [01] until [99]).
- When a file is shared with you, take one of the next 3 actions:
1. Make a copy (Use as Template or Reference in the future).
2. Add a shortcut to original file (When working together on the same file with 2+ members).
3. Do nothing (The file is a one-off request).
DIFFERENT FOLDERS
[01] Inbox
- All new files (self-created or shared with you) that need to have a place within your File Management System.
- This folder is only to be found once in your main folder.
[02] Work
- All your work-related documents.
[03] Reference Documents
- Documents you reference to on a regular basis. Used to quickly access certain files.
- This folder is only to be found once in your main folder.
- This folder only contains file-shortcuts from other folders.
[04] Quick Share
- Copies of the files you want to share with others, so that you will not have any duplicates or share what is not necessary (a certain part of the file).
- Note: original files that you want to share will stay at the same place.
- This folder is only to be found once in your main folder.
[99] Archived
- Files you do not need anymore (outdated or inactive), but do not have to be deleted, so that they maintain searchable.
- This folder is only to be found once at level 0 (all archived docs are placed into this folder).
- If needed, you can put folders (no limit) into this folder, but not a must.
[99] Other
- A misc folder when you are not sure which folder to put your file into.
- Do not put any folders within a misc folder.
- The misc folder can only be found under the folder "[02] Work" (and possible within each folder of this folder). Do not put this folder in level zero or into one of the other folders (Inbox, Reference Documents, Quick Share, Archive).
FILE NAMING
- In general, use this structure: Date_Subject_Code_Filetype. Each section is separated by an underscore (_). For spaces within a section, use a hyphen (-). Example: "2024-09-24_Productdesign-Productname_VER01_Doc. But:
- Always use a subject name for the file.
- Only include date when needed, otherwise exclude date for the file to be sorted alphabetically.
- Only include code when needed. Most common examples: VER01, FINAL, DRAFT. Use capital letters for the codes.
- Only include file type when needed (read the following).
- Key rules for file naming:
- When possible, write down the whole date (YYYY-MM-DD), unless the file covers a specific time period. In that case, use the year + time period (f.e.: "2025-Q3" or "2024-May").
- Do not use spaces.
- For the file type, use mainly one of the following keywords. All other file types can be filtered out by using the filter option (such as videos, photos...)
- Doc (documents)
- Meeting Notes (notes you have taken from any sort of meeting)
- Notes (notes you have taken for yourself)
- Spreadsheet (working files, usually with much edible data. Jeff Su called these "Working Trix"
NOTES
- Instead of using "Starred" for files, put the files you need to find quickly in the "Reference Documents"-folder.
- Instead of adding a folder with for a back-up, the most important files are backed up on my external storage (not within the same File Management System).
- If needed, add another folder for your private life. I like to keep this separate.
This is awesome 😁
Thanks for posting this.. I have been so organized in past but after moving so many laptops and job roles, etc and working cross platform with both WIN and MAC I was struggling to find a good system. Question.... what do you recommend if you work on both WIN and MAC systems to keep things organized etc? I struggle with finding photos and images alot but also files that I save using my iphone then are in my MAC files vs working on my WIN computer
Great tips!! setting that up now. recommend a L0 dumping folder "[98] To Sort Later". I always have one of these in folders and in e-notebooks so I avoid leaving files where they are just because I'm not yet sure where they fit. Have a calendar reminder to deal with it weakly. thanks for this, Jeff!
That's how I do it. Weakly 😂
@@jockwishart👍🏻🤣
Hi Jeff,
I've been a silent viewer of your content for quite a while and truly admire your work. Your productivity tips are incredibly insightful, and your professionalism combined with a dose of humor makes your videos truly engaging. Your dedication to your viewers is truly commendable - seeing how you respond to each comment inspired me to post my first RUclips comment ever!
I wanted to suggest a topic for a potential future video: a comprehensive guide on organizing and storing all types of files - personal media, work assets, useful files, archives, etc. across multiple devices and both in the cloud and on-device storage. I believe many of us grapple with managing our digital assets effectively, especially when it's spread out over multiple devices and storage mediums. Your clear and practical advice would be incredibly valuable in navigating this.
Keep up the fantastic work!
Thanks so much for the kind comment and potential topic my friend 😁! I really do care about all my viewers so of course I respond to all comments!
That's a great topic for me to explore in the future, will definitely keep it in mind
@@JeffSu Just want to add a +1 to Airdrop Achiver's comment. Love your videos. Would love this kind of structure video but for your mac. I have most of my stuff set up on my Dropbox so it's accessible on my phone as well. Struggle a little bit with keeping it organized and always know where to find stuff (through a logic of the system).
@@modestbukowski I actually use Synology NAS to sync my phones, iPads, and my laptops 😂
@@JeffSu I'm curious how you structure all your files and folders on your laptop that's not related to Google Drive :)
@@modestbukowski Basically the same way haha
One thing missing is an 'inbox' folder, where new files are put, until you decide whether they are junk or gold. Then keep the good files by organizing them, others stay there until you need storage space, then delete
You make a great point!
That's actually a really good tip! Thanks !
So, jumping on here several months later... Between this comment and the one above by @AirdropAchiever (AF loadmaster?), and maybe I didn't notice this mentioned in your video (1st time viewer), but what about an indexing mechanism? Especially if you're organizing both personal & professional, across multiple devices, etc?
I suffered several strokes last year and have short term memory issues ( among other things), have downsized drastically, and sometimes struggle with where things are.
@@davidwbrown66Indexing mechanism?
If we're talking about keeping track of where a file is, on what device, maybe best option is cloud storage, so it's everywhere. If we're talking about naming folders, what I personally do is make a folder for each month of each year - example:
2023-01 for january, 2023-12,
2024-01...
That's time based indexing
@@jokinglimitreached1503
Ja, I do exactly the same.
A good example would be taxes:
Finances
Taxes
Local
State
Federal
2023
W2s
Investments
Receipts
Jan
Feb
...
Donations
2022
But, no that's not to work nonlinear items or things without frequent periodicity.
Maybe it's less of an ask specific to his system than about a possible app grabs all folder and file names, snippets of data within or thumbnails, displays an entire hierarchy from 10,000 ft view, but collapses to an index that can export major section titles to a kind of TOC.
Having already come up with _most_ of this independently over years and years of not doing things this way, these are all quite sound starting points for a sensible and manageable organization methodology (from someone who is inherently not organized and lacks organization skills). These are all great advice, and will take you years of frustration to come up with on your own - might as well start early and then you’ll have plenty of time to refine this into an even better system instead of reinventing the wheel.
Glad to hear this my friend, thank you! 😁
It's nice to see a how-to video without an actual product being endorsed (except for the physical part; that one is understandable since its a sponsor). Usually there's an app or a software, and then show how it works. Here, the process can be used in ANY type of file management software. Thank you for this!
Hahaha thank you! Hope you didn't mind the sponsorship segment too much 😁
@@JeffSu No worries. I didn't mind.
Nice tips, just don't keep your files exclusively in cloud storage, have local backups as well. Because if they're lost, no amount of organization will help you find them again...
+1 to local backups. I actually bought a Synology NAS just for that purpose!
Additional tip to this, use archive in sections by naming it with some period of life that is happening. Easy to reference on the long run
Great point, thanks for sharing!!
One thing to keep in mind (if you use something like SharePoint), is the overall URL path name has limits that can eventually be hit if you're adding more and more characters (that go directories deep). In that case, it's often better to rely on the meta data in the file attributes, rather than adding it to the file name, in my opinion.
That's a great point, thanks for sharing Randy! 😁
@@JeffSu thank you! Your content is amazing!
This path limit is dependent on the used file system. Windows has a limit, but in Linux there is no such limit that one has to worry about.
@@MachoMaster The longest Windows path limit is 32K characters and Linux is a much lower 4K. However If you're swynching with a cloud based storage system then the lowest common denominator wins and that's going to be
@@mike-williams
Linux itself has no hard path length limits. Posix has 4k, but can be worked around.
I don't remember all the details at this point anymore, but I personally (!) had problems with Windows's limitation on total path length. Just normal usage. Afair it was with just basic file explorer, but might have been some basic program instead. But it doesn't matter, because the chain's limitations are being determined by the chain's weakest link.
the 'folder of things I'll never use again but cant bring myself to delete' really spoke to me
😂
This video ALSO changed my life. I stayed up till 2am to organize my google Drive to look like this. My life just got so much better already! Thank you!
Woohooo glad to hear it! 😁
Great to have you back in the Google eco-system again Jeff!
One keyboard shortcut I used daily is "." for sharing a file or folder.
Oh WOW I didn't know that! Thanks for sharing Kristian!!!
how does this work? is it a Mac shortcut?
@@hanoszprime5431 when you have highlighted the file(s) you want to share. Just press . And the share box appears.
I do use Mac, but I don’t think this is a Mac feature
I too wish to understand how this works. Any insights
I am a Mac user, but I don’t think it’s a Mac feature. Select the file/folder and press .
That should be it 😊
As a windows user, I have used Everything for a while and it's pretty damn good. It can pull a lot of file types and it's blazing fast (once it's built a file map). If I can't find something through the explorer I have eventually done so through Everything
Is it paid?
@@JeffSu Nope, it does have a donation section on their website but that's it
So do I, little keywords in naming and you van forget about Explorer :)
I came across this video while I was thinking about how to sift through the files because my Google Drive has reached the 100GB limit. I didn't feel the desire to do something like this until this video came out, but you, my friend, your technique is very nice.
Glad to hear it my friend 😁
Your date prefix is how I've done it for certain files for years. However, I do put in a space between the yyyy mm dd as it makes it far easier to read at a glance. One other thing that I do is consolidate PDF files for things like bank, credit card statements, and investment account statements so that each year's bank statements are in a single PDF file; same for credit card statements, etc. I need to track down individual transactions occasionally and this saves a huge amount of time going through 12 statements per year. If your PDF bank statements are "secured" by the bank, just print them to a PDF app and it will create a new, unsecured PDF although it will be larger. They can now be consolidated into a single file and can also be marked up.
That's a great tip, thanks for sharing David!!
"I do put in a space between the yyyy mm dd as it makes it far easier to read at a glance"
I do the same!
I just use 230611 instead of 20230611 because I've heard and experienced that 6 digits are the maximum (and the perfect) length for recognizing at a glance
2023 06 11 is too long and I don't like having any whitespace in prefix
I use ISO 8601. That means YYYY-MM-DD most of the time.
Spaces in filenames create problems when working with any CLI
I spent over 2 years refining and reworking my filesystem hierarchy.
I haven't touched it in a while but it's based on 3 rules.
1. Everything has 1 place of belonging
2. It needs to be flexible enough to be usable in all situations.
3. I should be able find a file regardless what the filename is or if I even know the files name.
Its structures like so:
Archive - Backups, old files, completed projects
Collections - photo albums, government documents, etc.
Entertainment - movies, music, books
Projects - tasks, projects, responsibilities (loosely based on para)
External - shared files, network filesystems.
Organize - inbox/Lost files, downloads folder
Excellent points!
The other item I would suggest is to reduce or eliminate spaces in filenames. If you ever need to use a tool to manage the files, such as scripting, then you won't want to have to deal with quoting filenames. Your IT admin will also thank you.
That's a great point! Thanks for the input!!
For the same reason I avoid slashes in files names. I use underscores between words and hyphens for dates. Example: “Meeting Notes 5/15/23” becomes 2023-05-15_meeting_notes
@@ash.mystic Makes sense!
This also makes sense on a Windows machine since a space in any file name constitutes 3 characters rather than an underline which only take up 1 character. Which is not crucial, but if you ever want to export a folder and share it with someone else, and that someone has the Windows character limit activated… well he’s going to be in for a treat.
@@ash.mystic Underscores sometimes make it hard to search. For example Projects_Slides is seen as one word as Projects-Slides is seen as two.
I envy your ability to come up with a solution and then be able to methodically explain it in a video. I can do the first part but the second part always comes out as a jumble. It has made training others at work challenging, and its something I usually delegate if possible. Do you have any tips on teaching complex tasks?
I'm not joking: Read "case interview secrets" by victor Cheng
Hope you're doing great! I've been browsing through quite a few videos lately and, wow, when I stumbled upon yours, it was like a breath of fresh air! I'm genuinely impressed by your unique perspective and the way you structure your folders. It just makes so much sense. Honestly, your content is like finding a treasure trove of valuable insights. Really appreciate you sharing it with us. Keep up the awesome work, and thanks a ton! 🌟👍
Thank you Michael, really appreciate that 😁
your video saved me. in the last 3 days after watching this video, i spent time organizing around 28½GB worth of data over multiple google accounts. it's made life so much easier already. following it will take a while to get used to, but this is absolutely brilliantly made!
Nice! 😁
Yesterday I spent several hours getting organized my google drive because of you! 😂 Thank you!
I hope that was time well spent 😁
Fast, simple, effective, everything I've asked for. Good job man.
You're very welcome my friend 😁
Thanks for the advice. Watching from the Philippines.
I've always wanted to go to Manila!
I have this same system but I dump the 2-digit in favor of 3-digit. I only go as deep as 3 level on the file system directoty structure, because sometimes you will need to copy a folder with already a deep directory structure (i.e. backups) and there are OS and apps that has file system that doesn't accept paths that are too long. The 3-digit solves this by trying to put folders as close to the first directory and use that extra number for granualar organization. Don't limit your self to as few top folder, you will ran an issue in the long run because not all category will present itself. You will probabaly will have some interest in the future or have some other furure carreer. You are also forced to manage your file using deep subdirectory. You can reserve the 100s to big categories, then the 10s to sub category. Then increment the directory name by 10 so you can insert something in the future. I also have 999 but I called it miscellaneous where I can drop temporary files and files that need to be sorted out by category. My archive is always 000. I also use this style sorting out some things. Like bookmarks and spotify playlist to name a few.
Great points my friend, thanks for sharing!!
I realized that I’ve been doing all of this from the very beginning unintentionally because I have OCD. Doing things this way gives me a sense of satisfaction compared to not doing them.
Same here 🤣
To make sharing easier, I’ve created a top level folder called Public Files and make everything in there shareable or viewable with a link. The folders inside are organized by file type, then client, then project. Makes it easier for me to revoke access when I need to.
That's an excellent tip, thanks for sharing Terence!
@industryrule-4080 I’m in construction. Would I keep an internal copy of folder Project X and also a public copy of Project X? How to keep them synchronized?
Never thought of using shortcuts this way - brilliant!
I'm often confused by the way other departments or managers organize files because it works for them but not for me. This solves the problem!
Wooohooo!!
I've been working on my own file system for months. This is what I came up with:
- No spaces or gaps in folder and file names. I just use "_" and "." for separation
- All filenames start with date in the "yyyy.mm.dd" format
- folder names start with "00_". Can have many "00_" folders, and can separate groups by adding series of incremental prefixes. Something like 00_DOCUMENTS 00_INSTALLERS 00_SHARED and then 01_VIDEOS 01_MUSIC 01_IMAGES, etc
- I keep an abreviated folder structure in folder names, so I always know where I'm at: 01_IMAGES -> 00_IM_PHOTOS -> 00_IM_PH_EDITED etc
Oh that's awesome! Thanks for sharing 😁
I also do this levelling but on a smaller scale but when i did it felt so good as if i was a receptionist lol. Also it calmed my OCD down.Major advantage was that i found i had multiple duplicate files like my resume , docs , reports etc. There's one folder i have called Miscellaneous where i just dump files which fit into no category or need future organising.
Edit :Sometimes i wish my computer was high tech AI connected to my brain so all i just need to think of naming or organziing and boom done
Hahaha maybe one day AI will be so advanced we'll get there 😁
Dude, you are doing most things right with your videos. I hope you are proud of yourself ! I am proud of you.
Woohooo thank you 😁
I'm in awe of how you respond to basically everyone who comments. Not many RUclipsrs do that. 💕 I'm currently using the P.A.R.A. system that I tweaked a bit to customize it for my industry but am loving it. Your tips gave me better ideas on how to handle my subfolders. TY! (P.s. now that I think about it I wonder if its the speed of the examples that feel too fast, more so than your pattern of speech. Maybe if you slowed those down, it would help some of us who feel like the videos are getting faster and faster. My absolute favorite video that I share with colleagues, your examples are slower and on the screen just a bit longer. It was about Pet peeves about email communication (format). IDK. Random thought. Anyway, thank you!)
I respond to everyone because my viewers are the only reason I'm making these videos! Why wouldn't I want to chat with you? 😁
Thank you for the kind words my friend, and that's some great feedback. Can I confirm with you it's the Harvard Business Review video on email etiquette...?
@@JeffSu Yes, I believe that is the one! You describe how to put the question first and then the context, among many other tips. 🥰
@@3t3rnalstudentAwesome!
This seems like a variation of the PARA method.
Project: Short term work that you are doing right now, projects at home, at work etc.
Area: Long term responsibilities that you manage like your home, your work and your health.
Resource: General useful information related to a theme, interest or assets. If you don't store personal information the whole resource folder is shareable.
Archive: Where you store things that are no longer relevant like old projects, old responsibilites, this is also where you can keep your daily notes.
Short tip that I found useful: Don't confuse hobbies and dreams with projects and goals. A project without a corresponding goal is a "hobby". A goal without a corresponding project is a "dream".
What's great about the PARA method is that it is replicatable in all places where you can have folders, so you can use the same structure for all apps, that way you don't need a central place to store things.
Exactly! Thanks for the input 😁
I always had the Problem with File Organization & Jeff Sir, you Solved it! 👍🏻 Thank You!
Glad to hear it my friend 😁
@@JeffSu Thank you for Replying, Jeff Sir & Team!
@@geek_for_life No problem my friend 😁
Some call me a categorizer, analytic freak when it came to files and folders.
I wrote my 1st categorizer in early 1990 in DOS, but there was the limitation of 256 characters in a folder path.
I'm not going to give you a link to my video, as I do not want to intrude or advertise, but instead, I'm giving you this: AAM1 Last niggles - a program written for a friend of mine.
My program do exactly what you doing here, except it's available in a program - even with your 5 folder level and then files!
Love your video. ❤
Thanks 😁
This couldn't have come at a better time. My company has an integration and switch to Google happening, so this is perfect. I will think about how to implement it in my own folder organization. Thank you!
Glad to hear it, let me know how it goes 😁
@@JeffSu Same here. Is good to know real experiences
I'm not any PC user, but a One UI (Android) Mobile user. I switched my entire file management system from Local to Cloud Storage (Google Drive/Apps), and I organised those folders as:
1. Default Grandparents Folders (Android, Backups, Documents, Download, Movies, Music, Pictures, Takeout).
2. Default Parents Folders
3. Folders/Files!
Works so conveniently with easier organisation or naming convention! (I'm bored of managing my files on my phone with multiple apps since last two years! So switched to Drive/Photos for all my files/media).
Thanks for your ideas/tips sir, subscribed! ❤😊
This is great, thanks for sharing!!
Great final two tips. I definitely feel like the first mistake most of us who are into organizing make is to over-optimize.
Agreed Robby!!!
Amazing tutorial. Really strikes a perfect balance between simplicity and complexity while being extremely actionable. Thanks Jeff.
Thanks so much!
Yeah, sounds really useful. Ever since i can remember, my desktop has been one big mess. Always when i lose control (yeah i know lol), i create folder named [present date] and copy everything there from my desktop. My personal record is like 15 nestings. I do not recommend :'-) I'll give it a shot! Thanks Jeff! ❤
That sounds complicated! Yea let me know how it goes 😁
This five-levels-deep file organization framework is brilliant! I've been struggling with a messy file system for years, and this seems like a simple, yet effective way to get things in order. Thanks for sharing! 👏
No problem 😁
Thanks for this filing system Jeff..... my life is now a lot more organised!
No problem David 😁
I independently discovered many of these tips myself. Will go through this again when i am in front of my Mac Mini 2.
Great minds think alike :)
There are some great things to pull from this, like the project numbering system. There's too many layers to find one thing in some instances, though. And most people get lazy with organizing over time, it's natural. So basically even the most detailed and well structured file system is completely useless if it isn't also efficient when organizing files.
Additionally, when working with other people it should be easy for them to come into your drive and find what they need without learning the ins and outs of how you organize. So it needs to be both efficient and immediately understandable.
At my work the top layer of our structure is just the year. Once you select the year the next layer is immediately project folders, named example: 05_Title_Client_2023-04-06_editorName. Each of the people on our team probably create around 70 projects a year though, so if you create a lot more, you could potentially add another layer with months. But I would say it would have to be hundreds of project folders a year at the very least.
Depending on where you store your files (we use network drives on Mac), you can also add tags. So each year folder is organized by tags, and under each tag by project number. This is optimal because it allows for two separate sorting systems to exist simultaneously inside of one folder. Our tags are client types and stage of completion based. This way I can mark under the client type, of which there are about 10, and also mark it as completed or currently editing. Appropriately sorting your tags allows for projects you're currently working on to filter to the top of the folder for quick access.
Inside each project folder is a hierarchy of folders as well. We use PostHaste to create these for each of our projects. Your structure will depend on the type of work you do and how you like to organize. This probably makes no sense to read, but it's super simplified I promise XD
Those are great points, thanks for sharing 😁
Thoughtful & makes perfect sense, tho not applicable to my particular situation.
Genuinely useful. This was the kick up the arse I needed to sort out my riot of a Google drive! I keep all my folders neat like this in work but been really bad with my own!
Glad to hear it Shaun! 😁
Love all of this. I’m a fan of Hazel on Mac. Does all my filing for me and is particularly easy when you have strong naming conventions.
AHhhhhhh yes! I heard of Hazel before! I never used it myself since I don't have many files stored locally but I heard great things!
Hi Jeff. Can you PLEASE NOT HIDE this video, just in case you regard this video to be outdated? 🙏
At the time of this comment, I noticed Google Drive has revamped their keyboard shortcuts.
This video helps me astoundingly, and I believe a lot of us too. The whole concept is still very helpful and applicable for referencing.
And I'd love to rewatch this on your channel rather than other ways... Keep up the great videos, Jeff!
Hahaha I'll try!
Awesome video Jeff. I really enjoyed the part about the naming of specific dates and the subsequent explanation. Keep up the good work my friend.
Will do Peter 😁
Excellent video! Big thanks for making and sharing this. I implemented this system immediately, and it is changing things for the better. You're making solid content that helps people. I really love you're energy and you get right down to it. No need for a response, I know checking comments is on your non negotiables and you'll read this. Just keep making great stuff. Respect!
Glad ot hear it! 😁
Hey Jeff!
I really gotta say that I very much appreciate the work that you do.
I started working at a big fintech organisation a while ago and initially really didn’t like the fact that they used Google workspace and was kind of lost with it.
But after finding your tutorials and watching many of your Google focused productivity guides, I nowadays really enjoy using Google workspace and have become a real believer in it. Up to the extend that even my managers came up to me and asked me for help and tips with Google workspace. I have now even led the implementation of Workspace for the charity I’m involved in and for a friends‘ company. All with knowledge and excitement that initially came from you and your videos.
Hope you realise the great impact you make with your work, Jeff. Really appreciate all you do.
Wow thanks for making my morning Astra!! Glad you found these videos helpful 😁
love how you didn't make a fuss about all these AI tools, kept it classy. Wonder how YOUR integration of AI tool would be like. Keep up the good work !
I love using ChatGPT but I think for now a lot of the AI tools are too "gimmicky"
this is a gamechanger. I love the folders stopping at 5 deep i have so many sub-folders and things get lost
I had the same issue!
Hi Jeff,
First of all, a big, big thank you for your videos!
After coming across your videos about a month ago, you really helped me big time to pull through the interview process. And today i got my dream jobs offer.
Knowing you have more videos to help us navigate through today's work place (cause my previous company wasn't fond of using clouds), I will always come back for more help!
Keep up the awesome job!
Wow, thanks for this heartwarming comment and making my evening my friend 😁. Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn! I would love to see where you ended up!
Woah, the archives thing is such a great idea! i don't know why i haven't tried that before. Thanks for this!
No problem!
Loved it! It's already helping me find files faster with fewer folders and better naming. Any tips for organizing photos on Google Photos? Thanks!
one word: Albums 😂
Jeff, AS USUAL, you captivate your audience out the gate!!!👏🏾 Thank you so much for explaining such an effective file management system.
That's what I love to hear my friend 😁
Really needed this, thanks! This is something super important but it is so hard to teach/learn
No problem! Yea I agree!! 😁
What level of nerd did i reach by clicking so quickly on a folder organization video?
My kind of nerd!
Same. Unite!
Awesome video. One tip about "Archive" is that it's not supposed to be there at all. The main idea is that if you put a bunch of files, as you said, "I may never use them again," you are spending time going through them, which is a waste of time. So we remove the "archive" approach at all and move to regular backups and we delete the files.
Good point!
Curious what backup system you use. To me the benefit of an archive folder/archive system is that the files within it are a) instantly accessible, b) instantly searchable and c) easily browsable.
This means you spend the least possible time locating both 1) files you know/have some suspicion are buried somewhere, and 2) relevant files you have no recollection of, or have in fact never had any knowledge of (eg team environment / institutional memory).
The archive folder, like any folder, should of course be subject to regular incremental backups. However, IMHO, the purpose of a backup is that data not be lost, whereas the purpose of an archive is that the data can once again be found. Subtle but important difference.
For my use cases at least, a backup can never replace an archive, just as an archive can never replace regular, redundant, backups. It would be like replacing a fruit with an elephant. Both are necessary but serve entirely different functions (one would hope). 🙂
Normal 1x speed is too fast and 0.75x is too slow. 😅😅 Still figuring out the best speed to get the complete value from your videos. But the video itself, good job!
Too bad we don't have 0.89 speed :)
Great stuff you shared here, Jeff! The naming convention system is a real deal! Life-changing!
Glad to hear it my friend!! 😁
Really informative video, Just a quick suggestion brother - If you can slightly decrease your speed of explanation as it is harder (for me not sure for others) to keep up with you. As you are bombarding with much good information with speed its really hard. :(
Gotcha, thanks for the feedback!
I have to slow the video down in the settings on videos like this one. You're not alone. 💕 Still, I'd rather have fast Jeff than no Jeff so I just wait until I can watch the videos on my laptop. 🥰
六个月前我看到了这个视频 现在是时候行动起来了哈哈哈哈 感谢Jeff 你真的是我最爱的productivity内容创作者
客气啦～
Great video! Just the textual use of "may" at 3:10 gave me a flashback:
Once upon a time at work i received a CSV file to be processed. It was sorted alphanumerically with a date at the beginning. But the date format was like 13-DEC-2012.
So it basically started with the first of december of various years, then the first of february of various years, and so on until it started over with the second of december....ugh!
Oh yea that's no good. You need to start with the year
oh well... some people like the human readable format but machine goes by ISO ...
once I had to take over a laptop from a previous user in the company, the file hierarchy is maddening... there's barely any "stack" cos basically all files are in that one single stack.
Adding the description is a game changer!
It's a super nifty trick!
I would love this exact video for setting up *Business* organizations. It's very helpful to see how you organized this for yourself but am struggling setting up the same thing for my organization! Great video!
But it's up to all individuals to organize their own files right? Or do you mean from an admin perspective?
@@JeffSu True! I'm specifically speaking to 3:47 where you've housed things like 'Business operations' and your Record keeping for accounting. I could assume the business operations folder has what I'm talking about but sure you didn't include it for privacy purposes. But yeah that exact video is a content gap I'm struggling with finding here on RUclips! 'File management' for business!
@@TrellWest I’m still figuring that out too!!
Thanks for this walkthrough, Jeff! This is super helpful. I loved the tag tip in drive's details 💯
No problem!
Love this! Would love to see an expanded version of it going into backing up files for personal stuff, or even using an external SSD 😄
That's a great idea Erika, thanks for letting me know 😁
TBH, just back everything up with software that deduplicates things. I'll generally add a .noback suffix to anything that I specifically don't want to back up. But, honestly, with how cheap external drives are, you probably want to just back everything up unless it can be automatically generated from files that you've got and then just have them removed from the backup after they've been deleted for an extended period of time.
And if you're organizing your stuff like in this video, then it shouldn't be too hard to just have specific folders that don't get backed up and are visibly not being backed up due to the suffix being included in the name. If you change your mind, you can easily rename the file to either include or exclude it from backups, as most backup software has some provision for filtering the files that are being backed up. And if you remove it from being backed up, the files remain backed up until such a time as they naturally time out, which is usually a good thing. (Although not such a good thing if these are illegal files. :-P)
For some files, like tax records, you may need to manually manage that, I put the date on which I'm allowed to permanently delete them, and they should probably be grouped in a folder with that indication on it.
@@SmallSpoonBrigade Dam these are great tips, thanks for sharing!
@@JeffSu I'm looking forward to getting my files organized. The other thing is having some automated way of verifying the fines aren't corrupt.
Thanks for providing me with an option on how to handle "Quick share" files without simply placing on my desktop for quick access, but only to have to do this over and over, as I delete these to "clean up" my desktop (quick the vicious cycle)...
Haha glad to hear it 😁
Hello Jeff and thanks for the tricks ! i use more or less the same for my folders & files ! Moreover, when working on important projects (books, for example), I add a version number at the end (v1a, v1b, v1c, v2a,v2b, etc)... it's very useful when exporting G. Docs documents ;-) See U soon. François.
Good to see you on here again François! I love your version numbering system. I'm assuming it's for the offline version of Microsoft Word?
@@JeffSu Yes, for MS Word (or other formats) offline docs ! ;-)
i have such an obsession with this kind of organization thing omg
Hahaha me too!
Great video Jeff, I'll probably do this management this summer break. Thanks for making things easier :)
No problem Dhruv, let me know how it goes 😁
when i say ive been seeking this exact type of content to organise my entire digital life....please do. photos, icloud, cross android and mac organizing as well , this kind content is v needed! Thaankkkkk youuuu!
Thanks for the feedback!!!
Hi Jeff, nice video! I recently started using PARA system for my files and it works very well for me.
That's awesome! Which file management platform do you use?
I’m on a. Mac.
In my documents folder, I have a folder for each year. Then within years are months. Then are individual documents.
I lean on Smart Folders (folders with search criteria attached). In my sidebar, there is a smart folder with documents either created or modified within a certain time. I can also pin documents I want to have handy for an unspecified time.
Smart Folders do the regular organization.
How did you create Smart Folders in Google Drive?
....Hey! That's me at 4:18. Nice.
Yeah, that coding structure comes from uploading things to websites and whatnot. Since every space adds on "gibberish" to make the space, it can make finding things complicated. We don't need it as much these days, but it is still nice to have. I also probably overdo it with the number of numbers within numbers, but it does reduce my folder needs down. 01 is the main folder, 02 is a subfolder, 03 is a document, and 04 is presentation. If I search for a doc, I look for 03 and sort by recent. If I remember a portion of the name, I add that in the search as well.
Really, don't take my advice. Follow Jeff's. His flows better in a modern document control way.
The man of the hour Matthew Eaton! Hope you don't mind me using you as an awesome example 😁
@@JeffSu I am happy to shed knowledge and light onto my poor naming practices haha
Glad to help in any way that i can!
Matthew I found you! Could you please explain your complete file naming convention, I am very intrigued🙏
@@CoralineLowes Goodness, I am a bit rusty at it now all things considered. That level of detail was for work, but I don't need that much detail anymore.
Let's see.
XX-XX-XX00-000-name
First two XX - the company or customer abbreviation it goes to.
Second two XX - the department it addresses (qc for quality control, cs for customer service, so on and so on)
XX00 - What sublevel department the document would go under (dc03 - a document for document control for QC, for example)
01 - Main file
02 - Subfile
03 - Document
000 - Revision to the file
Other categories - 555 for not released file
999 for an archived document.
name for any easy name I can search for. There are a lot of generic names, but you can always give it a unique one to help you search.
That way, if I type 03 in my Drive and look at just documents, then I can look at the file names and find that file I am looking for
Hope that helps!
Bro this is so good, I did not think it would make my filemanagement sooo ungodly good, but this system is genius. This video popped up randomly and I‘m so glad it did😂
Wooohoo I'm glad you came across this too 😁
I agree with this so much, I pretty much use exactly these recommendations, long before I saw this video, even down to always making 99 my archive :)
Hahaha great minds think alike!!
Thanks for a great video - I enjoy this kind of discussion!
I think two great things I saw in the video that you didn't explictly talk about:
1. You can uses spaces creatively in filenames in Google Drive.
You don't have to name things in weird squashed ways like "2003_project_blah" "2018Resume"... (very typical of Windows users)
Even the example you gave of the system with hyphens looked gross.
File names with spaces in Google drive are MUCH more readable and enjoyable.
2. You have this wonderful colour palette on your top level folders. It is even in gradient order. Tell us about that!
Overall I suspect your taxonomy is a bit too complex for my liking - it's going to add workflow drag on keeping it consistent.
However your point is correct - we should not just rely on search but have a decent folder structure.
Thanks so much for your input Wayne!!
1. Yes spaces are awesome 😁
2. Ah I just used the default color palette that comes with Google Drive to make the first 2 levels a bit more colorful 😂
what is so special about using spaces ? maybe they had a funny restriction ?
i don't use g-drive, my stuff i stored with me, not with google and not with nsa, and i can use spaces in folder/filenames since last millenium
so what's the fuzz about spaces ?
finally, he started sharing alternatives for windows too. thanks a lot.
Hahaha it's the least I could do 😂
This is crazy, I've never watched this video before, but it's almost exactly how I set my organizations design team files 5 years ago. 😮
Wow that's amazing! Great minds think alike 😁
I have also transitioned to using such a work flow...thanks for the video...i have learnt new things to implement
That's what I love to hear Laika!! 😁
This was so helpful. My Drive has become a mess of different management systems! I'm going to follow this system and tidy up my files. Thank you! I would love to see a video of how you organize your Notion, I haven't found a system that works for me yet.
That's awesome to hear Kimesh, let me know how it goes! I basically use Tiago Forte / Thomas Frank's PARA system for Notion 😁
I really like your system! I actually have a somewhat similar system except my naming is all over the place 😅
One thing I do is I have a "Misc" folder at every level as a catch all for stuff I don't know how to classify
Thanks for the video as always and congrats on the sponsorship! And on a more personal level, I hope things are going well :3
Your Misc sounds like my archived to be honest 😂
And thank you Andrea!! Life's been busy but still pretty fun 😁
Can see using "Misc" folder for files yet to be reviewed and more permanently filed. 👍
Jeff is the real definition of productivity!
Thank you 😁
I am going to have to watch this video 99 times to take it all in. Only Jeff can make a file management system video this entertaining and helpful. This was super helpful and gave me an idea. Did I see that your numbering 1-99 is done for sub folders too? Also, why does it have to be either or? Can't you be a DB and nerdy? :😎 Great Video!
If only you can like it 99 times as well James 😉
re:sub-folders - Yes so basically I include numbers if I think some folders are "more important" that others and I want those at the top. If they're all "equally important" I don't include numbers.
I tried to be a douchebaggy nerd but it didn't work out 🥲
I thumbed up for "description". Good one. Thanks, Jeff!
No problem 😁
Thanks for this video. I absolutely hate the fact that I can’t keep the sort in Google Drive set to File Type > Name. It just feels cluttered. This folder structure naming and organization philosophy will help.
Glad to hear it Vijay! Let me know how it goes 😁
creating shortcut for a file is life changer, thank you!
No problem 😁
As an IT admin, please make your folder structures wider and not deeper and keep the folder names short
Windows has a 255 character limit on Paths and some symbols count as 2 characters
Awesome, thanks for the input Joshua!!
I‘m struggling with the limitation of Windows… A lot of my folders&files aren‘t sync with my different cloud storages because of the character limit :/
It‘s a lot of „work“ to reorganise the whole folder structure for me :D
@@dennis2594 If you have admin rights, you can change the Registry to enable NTFS long paths. Just search for Windows LongPathsEnabled.
@@trogdorstrngbddoes this work for an existing set up (a pc already loaded with files) or only change when you first set up the system.? I don't want to change the setting to find it corrupts everything 😮
@@MikeBuhagiar Yes it works without needing to reinstall Windows. Some programs might not be compatible with it but I personally have never run into any issues.
这应该是看到的最干货的关于文件整理的视频了，谢谢Jeff
让我太开心了哈哈
This was such a good video. Needed these tips. Thank you!!
Glad to hear it my friend 😁
"The more granular you go..." Love this phrase!
Thanks James! 😁
This is awesome. Well done!
Thank you Sean! Hope you enjoyed this one!
.
I come from the 8-character planet of DOS, where space was tight on my $989 10MB disk-drive, much less my tiny apartment on the moon of Seattle in 1984. My window was my ashtray. 230131 fits 6 characters, works with BBS dashes if needed, skips the useless "20," and sorts cleanly. If available in 75 years, these files will be easily searchable and will have been archived in that current decade anyway...