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What is the best way to organize folders on my computer?
mobius | Oct 26 2006
I think this counts as a "productivity" question, because I find myself getting bogged down rummaging through my files trying to find what I need. In the past I have set a directory structure under My Documents like so:
My Documents
~Docs
~Downloads
~ftp
~Images
~Media
~Audio
~Video
~Misc
~Software
~Work
This has changed over the years and I've added to it and have so much stuff in certain places that I can't combine similar items. I don't know what I am really trying to ask. What do you think is the proper, most efficient, way to organize your personal files on a computer? Keep in mind that I don't care about where things are installed. This is strictly about data. So in the example above, my software folder keeps backup disc images of software, games, etc. It also contains downloaded software such as drivers, install files, etc. The audio and video keep mp3s, movies, tv shows and various clips. If you know of a better way, I'm all ears. How do you organize your files? Thanks. 10 Comments
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 BillK is completely wrongSubmitted by duus on October 27, 2006 - 10:49am.
It may seem like there it's whatever works for you, but my system is, in fact, objectively best. just kidding of course. I organize my stuff topically, as opposed to by medium (primarily), although i do have separate folders for music and my general photos. Images related to particular tasks get integrated into my general documents folder. Here are two Documents/ subfolders I *strongly* advocate using: _IN and _OUT _IN is all stuff I haven't yet processed--downloads, saved attachments, whatever. _OUT is where i keep, for example, local folders of webpages that I mirror up on external drives. This is a very clean way of working, I think. I do a lot of syncing with remote drives, and work across different computers, so having a well defined _IN and _OUT keeps me from overwriting things. (As I first GTD'd, I created _ACTION and _READREVIEW folders. I've abandoned that. It was better to keep pointers in lists then move actual files.) Then I have topical folders, for example Oberlin for my current job; PM for "Project Mine" which is basically intellectual project topics (I'm an academic--this is where my papers and ideas go); P for papers, which is like my .pdf library; Personal, self-explanatory; PPL for people with subfolders for different people, for project support materials related to helping others (hey, duus, could you read my draft? goes in one of these folders); Software for support materials related to software, and the folders of scripts I write for myself; Financial; Gear for documents related to stuff i've bought (like my powerbook and my car); and x_basement which houses my old file structure and what's left of it. The x_basement folder is really nice. That's just the stuff in crates that I don't want to throw away, but don't want it floating around in my active workspace. If you're thinking of constructing a better file structure, I strongly advocate moving your current structure into a basement folder, and "unpacking crates" and putting stuff away. Okay that's it. You're lucky I'm here, so I was able to share my objectively perfect file structure. » POSTED IN:
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