Speaker 1: In this video, I will show you how to properly organize probably the most common thing you own. Well, what could that possibly be? I'm not talking about money, nor it is your clothes or anything like that. It's simply your digital files on your computer of which you own at least thousands or even hundreds of thousands or millions. So in this video, I will not only share the best structure to organize digital files and folders, but also very practical examples how to best organize your files at work, university or school, and within your private life. Following these tips will help you to increase your productivity and organization tremendously, as well as to limit the time searching for documents because you know everything has its place and can be pulled up whenever required. Maybe you're not yet fully aware of the amount of data and files you own nowadays. So just check the number of pictures on your phone real quick, maybe even the number of files on your computer, and you'll realize that you own a ton, a ton of pictures, videos, documents, and any other files or folders. To organize all of the files, overall, there are three major types of file management systems, chaotic storage, mass dumping, and hierarchy structures. And if you stay until the very end, you will not only know what the best practice in digital file management are, but also which crucial aspect you should consider when organizing your files to avoid getting this. First, as I mentioned, there's chaotic storage, which is a system from the logistics industry. So describing that items in a warehouse are always stored whenever there's place. For example, Amazon also uses this method in its warehouses and just stores the same item at random across the entire warehouse. That makes the item faster to pick as part of a bigger basket when the orders arrive, but only works with multiple items of the same type, so might be difficult for organizing your files. Then there's mass dumping, meaning you just have one place where you store all of your documents or files, and by all, I mean all. This is similar to the email inbox approach for some people where they do not have this folder system, but just leave, again, all of their emails in their inbox without any further grouping. Apparently, this works for some people. However, by far the most widely spread and popular, most effective file management system is the hierarchy structure. The hierarchy or tree structure is called like that because it resembles a multi-level hierarchy, which might look like the roots or the branches of a dream. Question to you, if at all, which of these three file management systems are you currently using? And please let me know in the comments because I'm super curious about that. So let's dig into the most popular and effective method, the hierarchy structure, where your entire file system will be based on different hierarchy levels. First, you have level zero, L0, with overarching folders covering broader topics. Then there's level one, L1, which is the first level below, including subtopics of level zero. Then there's level two, L2, which is another sublevel with even more granular subtopics of level one, and so on. So in theory, there is no end to a hierarchical structure, but in practice, it often boils down to three to five sublevels. So now let's take a closer look at some practical examples of how a hierarchy structure can look like at work, university or school, and finally in private life. At work, for example, my level zero usually contains three folders, admin, projects, and topics or domains. And to keep a clean structure, make sure to always number the folders in a proper way, such that they are ordered based on your preferences and do not just randomly move around depending on date of creation or date of modification. Therefore, I recommend using an ascending two-digit number like 01, 02, 03, and so on. So within our admin folder, 01 on L0, most likely I would have subfolders like employment documents, resume, training or learning and development, and so on. Just general folders. Here again, within each folder, use the same two-digit numbers, 01, 02, and so on for all of the subfolders. Within the second folder, my projects folder on level zero, I always have a level one structure like this. Project AB is my project number one, project CD is project two, and project three, four, or five would again be labeled however the project is called. And within each project subfolder, I recommend a level two structure that looks like this. There's an admin folder followed by input data, then there's a folder for analysis, one for meeting documents, and maybe another one for final reports. By having always the same, or at least a very similar structure for my project folders, it makes it super easy to find documents even after a very long time. Let's maybe look at one more level, so within the meetings folder. Within that folder, for example, you could have a level three subfolder for each and every meeting you have, especially for work and university or school, sometimes also in private life, it definitely makes sense to label each document properly. In practice, that means not only stating an obvious and clear name, but also equally important, setting the date of the document. For example, you could label a meeting presentation as follows, 2021-05-21 project AB important meeting, which is year, month, date, underscore project name, underscore title of the meeting. And depending on how many changes you make that day or save several different versions of the document, you can add different suffixes such as V1, V2, et cetera, for the version number of that day, or sometimes something like VF for final or VS, symbolizing that this document was sent out, for example, to a client. Next, let's take a look at an example from school or university. So when I used to go there, I had a quite straightforward file management system that I can highly recommend. When talking about university, level zero was my respective degree. So I had two folders, one for my bachelor degree in international business and one for my master's degree in international business with a major focus on finance. Level one in both overarching folders included the semesters of the degree. However, I slightly changed that numbering here. So I started with an overall admin folder followed by the individual semesters. So my first, second, third semester, and so on. And with each semester folder, I would then have a level two folders for each course. And within that, maybe even level three folders for scripts, term papers, group works, all the like. Finally, let's look at a folder structure that can be used in private life. And that is actually similar to my own structure, which works really well in my opinion. On level zero, you can have overarching categories such as a folder for your finances, one for your insurance, for housing, contracts, vacation, another one for hobbies and maybe one for self-development and so on. Obviously you can mix and match the categories based on your own preferences. For now, let's further take a look at the contracts folder. On level one, you could have subfolders for each and every contract you have, such as your mobile phone, your gym, or your car leasing. Before you're now starting to organize your files and folders, there's one tip that you should definitely know. That for Windows, there is a maximum file length of 255 characters. So the 255 characters are not a maximum for a single file, but for the entire file path. So the one you can see in the file explorer. Therefore, make sure to stick to short and concise folder and file names throughout your file levels. Otherwise you might run out of characters and are not able to label your files and folders anymore. But don't worry, you don't miss that point since Windows will happily remind you with this. And by the way, as you might have seen, I am a Windows user and I use Office 365, including all the common Office applications. The best thing, however, is that OneDrive, the cloud storage of Microsoft, is also included in that package. So this allows you to easily synchronize all your files with your cloud space or even just fully work on your cloud, which is what I'm doing. That way you make sure that all files are safely stored and still available in case you might encounter any hardware problems. So you find a link to Microsoft 365 in the description below. If you found these tips in that video helpful, hit the like button and don't forget to subscribe to the channel. Also check out this video where I share tips on how to become more detail-oriented, or this one, where you will learn how to take effective notes at work or school. Thanks for watching and see you next time.