Many people use their computer hard drive as a junk drive, collecting everything, from the most important files to things they never read. However, a computer hard disk, no matter how large it is, always has limited space, and sooner or later some of the files have to be deleted. The more junk you have on your hard disk, the harder you will find what you are looking for.
An overstuffed computer also tends to slow down, so you will be needing endless patience for completing even the simplest task. The most simple way to make your computer function properly is to sort its inventory and then purge as many folders as you can from it. You can back up files on a disk, if you think you may be using them, or you can delete them once for all.
As a first step, it is good to create categories for your files: one folder for each of your major areas of responsibility. You may have folders named like sales, marketing, human resources, promotion, current projects and so on. Or you can have categories based on the products of services of your company. You can also have different categories for each key customer. You can create subfolders for smaller, more specific categories.
Before you start copying and deleting, you should think about a painting tree: this means you should have a clear picture about where you need to have major folders and subfolders on your computer. If you start filing and then you start organizing your files, it is more than likely you will drown into the large number of different files. If you have some concept about how the painting tree should look like, it will eliminate a lot of copying, cutting, and pasting. You will be able to work efficiently, without frustration.
The greatest challenge in organizing your files is to make possible to retrieve information without wasting time. When you think about the filing tree, and what the major folder names should look like, you should answer a few questions: how do you usually retrieve information? By date, subject, company or project name? Each of us has different priorities depending on the type of business, job description and personal preferences. And you should also keep in mind how your boss or colleagues ask for a certain document: do they ask by the name of the contact you were working with, the location, or the time of the year?
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