Jun 27 2007
Keep track of your files!
I’m sure, like me, that you’ve had the experience of losing track of an important document on your computer. Of course, there are ways of tracking it down, and the hints that follow will help with this. But mainly they will help you not to lose track in the first place.
In no particular order of importance, here are a few things you can do:
- Give the file a meaningful name: Don’t be lazy and call it ‘letter’, or let your word processor make up a filename for you (otherwise you’ll finish with a lot of ‘Dear Johns’). A file name like ‘John Smith congrats on his graduation’ tells you much more.
- Put it somewhere sensible: Again, don’t let the word processor put it in a default location, put it in a folder that again has a useful name, like ‘Letters to friends and family’ (if you have any).
- Manage those folders: If you set up a number of folders with good names, this is fine while there are only a few, but if they multiply, you’ll finish up with chaos. What you need is a hierarchy: ‘Correspondence’, a place for all your letter folders; ‘Saved emails’, ‘Software manuals’ and so on - whatever suits your way of working.
