How To Organize Your Google Drive, Dropbox, or (gasp) C drive
I have entered into the world of quite a few entrepreneurs, and I have seen the inner workings of their businesses. And let me tell you, it ain’t pretty. Some of the most successful entrepreneurs I know are not at all good at organizing. They have gotten to where they have by sheer grit and determination, and could have most definitely made it a hell of a lot easier on themselves if they had introduced a basic sense of organization to their work.
You might be wondering, how does this help my business? My Google Drive isn’t making me money, now is it. Well yes and no. See, many business owners get so bogged down with making sales and what it takes to drive money into their business, they don’t realize how much extra work they are doing trying to train employees, find needed documents, or quickly pivot and make changes to their online offerings.
Having an organized filing system can create hours of free time for you to get more done in your business. If you are organized, training new employees becomes easier for both you and them, you can send documents to clients with ease, and keep all our web links refreshed and ready to go.
You know exactly where to go to find things and your business can be operated from the tips of your fingers. So if you are struggling with organizing your drive, whether it be Google Drive, Dropbox, or even your poor computer’s C:/ drive, have no fear. By implementing at least one organizational technique from the list below will help your business tremendously. And implement 2 or more, well I can already hear the angels singing.
Declutter
Are you a collector? I know, we all have our vices. And being a collector isn’t necessarily a bad thing. You just need to know how to hone it.
Start by sorting your drive first by ‘size’. You’d be amazed by how many blank, duplicated or useless files you accumulate over time. Start deleting. Do the same thing again this time sorting by ‘date’ to find the ancient stuff, then finally by name to get rid of duplicates.
Do this same process within every folder.
Organize Folder by Folder
I find this to be the trickiest part of organization, whether you are organizing a closet or a file system. Take a look at your overall business and figure out the best way to group files together into folders at a high level. Since my work is client based, I organize my folders by client. You can also organize by project or time (like month or year).
There are endless ways to organize your files. Think about what works best for you and start sliding files into each folder based on your given criteria.
If you come across files that are of a personal nature and do not pertain to your business, move them to a different account or create a ‘personal’ folder. You might also find files that you need to delegate to someone else, put them in a folder and share that folder with them.
Mastering Folders and Subfolders
The first part of mastering folders is taking the steps above. But subfolders are a key component to this and can really take your organization to the next level.
Within each of the main folders you created above, subdivide the files within each of the main folders into categories of their own. If categories are related, don’t be afraid to nest the folders within each other. Just make sure that the way you are nesting the folders is logical. You want to be able to find your files, not hide them away into a black hole.
Place New Files Where They Belong
Now that you’ve taken the time and done all the hard work, you need to continue it. As you create new files and your business moves forward, save each newly created file in the proper folder. Otherwise you will have to do this over and over again and who really wants to spend their free time organizing?
