5 Tips for Document Management
62% of Americans say they have a cluttered desktop? Don’t let this be you!
If you’re struggling with document management, know that you’re clearly not alone. However, you can make things easier on yourself by learning simple tips for organizing all of those files and folders.
Keep reading to get 5 major tips on document organization and management.
1. Be Consistent
The most important part of organizing documents is that you’re doing it all the time. Starting right now, as you plan where you’ll put your files, you have to do the same thing each time.
Otherwise, all of the work that you put into the organization practice is going to be pointless. It will continue to pile up in the way it did before and then you will still face the same issues that you have now.
2. Don’t Save Everything
You shouldn’t just save something because you received it. Instead, it’s a better idea to only save items that you believe you’ll need now or in the future.
Document organization will take much less time if you’re only going through the documents that you are really going to need. Otherwise, you’ll need to sort through all of the clutter to find documents that you’re looking for.
3. Create a System
You need to have specific names for different types of files and folders. This way, you’ll be able to find things with ease, regardless of if they are meant for business, leisure, or something else.
You can read about document management to get some ideas for an organization system that works in Google Drive, as an example.
If you need to use long names, try to come up with nicknames or abbreviations that will help make the files easier to see at a glance. To become super organizing with document managing, try color coordination on your folders to make fast access even easier.
4. Don’t Make Folders Too Big
While you want to be meaningful with where you place your files, you also don’t want to accidentally save too much to one folder. Otherwise, you’ll have hundreds of documents in one spot that you’ll still have to sift through to look for what you need.
Consider sub-folders if possible. If you’d rather avoid that, you can also label your similar folders by year, location, or whatever other description would help. For instance, a folder called “Yearly Project for Work” could become “Yearly Project 2020” and “Yearly Project 2021” (and so on).
5. Go Digital
Instead of using paper documents, it’s really important for you to consider putting things on your computer instead. Most of our organization tips here are related to an electronic organization system, and since we are living in a more digital world, this is a smart move.
Some of the benefits of doing this include:
- Increased storage space
- Less waste
- Easy to share with others
- Simple to search for/access
- Ability to backup important documents
Become a Document Management Pro
As you start to practice better document management, you’ll wonder why you didn’t start doing it as soon as you started to accumulate a collection of different documents and folders. It can be hard to know how to organize, but with a little bit of work, you can have a crystal clear desktop that looks exactly as you’d like.
Did you find this article useful? Don’t stop here! Check out more of our helpful tips and tricks next.
Trevor Anderson wrote this article on behalf of FreeUp. FreeUp is the fastest-growing freelance marketplace in the US. FreeUp only accepts the top 1% of freelance applicants. Click here to get access to the top freelancers in the world.
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