A new year and a new decade provide lots of opportunities for fresh starts. But a fresh start is difficult when we’re weighed down by lots of baggage. That is certainly true for your computer! Folders full of unused or unnecessary junk slow your computer down. And a messy desktop slows YOU down when those important documents are impossible to find.
Discover my easy do’s and don’ts for getting your digital life off to a clean, well-organized start in 2020.
Digital Organizing Do’s
- Rename your documents to make them consistent and easy to find. If you scan a document, don’t let the name stay “Scan1” or “Scan2”. Give it a name that includes the date if possible, and a short simple description like “2019.08.30 Capital One Statement” or “2019.09.01 Washington Gas Bill”. If you want documents to line up in date order, always name them beginning with the year, month and day.
- Get rid of multiple versions of the same document. Once you have a final draft, there is usually no need to keep older copies of the same document, and if you do have to for whatever reason, make sure to date them so you know which one is the most recent
- Clean out or archive your old documents and emails on a regular basis. There is most likely no need to keep old emails (unless they are sentimental or important for historical purposes) and all they do is take up storage space and make it harder for you to find what you do need. If you want to keep an email permanently, you can export it as a PDF and put it in a digital file folder that makes sense, or even print it out if necessary.
- Clean out your Downloads folder! You’d be surprised at how much junk accumulates there that you probably aren’t even aware of!
Digital Organizing Don’ts
- Don’t use your email as a filing system – don’t keep important attachments like invoices, contracts, and receipts in your email. Download them, rename them if necessary, and move them into the correct folders that you have created.
- Don’t use your computer desktop as a filing space. It should be clear of anything that you are not actively working on. The clutter makes it hard to focus.
- If you are a visual person and need to see what you are currently working on immediately when you open your computer, create folders with meaningful names and keep your documents in there. If you clutter your desktop with too many random documents, it will make it harder, not easier to find them.
- Once you have finished with a project, move the folder into your Dropbox or other cloud-based file system and off your desktop.
- Don’t try to memorize all your passwords or use the same password for all your accounts, especially those with sensitive financial data. This is a sure-fire way for someone to access multiple accounts if they manage to hack into one. Use a secure online password manager like Last Pass to generate and save secure passwords.
For more in-depth tips on getting your computer decluttered and organized, go to my blog post series here! If you follow even just a few of these tips, you’ll be well on your way to getting an organized start for the New Year!
