The Best Way to Organize Your Files and Folders Der beste Weg, Ihre Dateien und Ordner zu organisieren La mejor manera de organizar tus archivos y carpetas A melhor forma de organizar os seus ficheiros e pastas 整理文件和文件夹的最佳方法

- Welcome to the most exciting video

that you are ever going to watch.

Yes, it is.

And what will we be covering you ask?

Sports cars, explosions,

the top 10 most dangerous bees?

Even better, file organization.

Oh yes friends.

Buckle up because this is going to be one wild ride.

And especially I have access to all this explosion footage

which I am going to apply liberally throughout this video.

(explosion)

Now I should say that this is 1/2 of a wild ride

because there are in fact two halves to your file system.

The files that exist in your computer,

and the ones that exist here in the real world.

And if you're anything like me,

most of the files exist digitally.

And we're gonna cover exactly how to organize them

in the next video in the series.

But due to my very intense study

on game design principles, I have learned

that it is best to start off with the easier stuff.

So today we're gonna focus on your physical file system.

Now my personal physical file system is pretty small

and that is because whenever I get a piece of paper,

my first instinct is to either recycle it immediately

or digitize it and then of course recycle it.

And later on on this video, we're gonna talk

all about digitization and how to do it easily.

But sometimes you're gonna have physical files

that you just need to keep for one reason or another.

Perhaps, it's your birth certificates or your passport.

Or that clipping of a newspaper article that mentioned you

back in the eighth grade.

Gotta keep that for posterity's sake.

Whatever it is, it is time to organize it.

So when it comes to storing physical files,

I use a simple system that consists of three locations.

The main file box,

the inbox and a portable file folder.

The main file box is the place where the majority

of your physical files should eventually end up,

if you're not going to digitize them.

And if you have a lot of papers you need to store,

you could buy a multi-drawer filing cabinet

for this purpose.

However, I find that a single file box

is more than enough for me.

And this is what it looks like.

And now you know why the continuity arrow was there.

Now this file box, and pretty much every single

other one like it is built to store hanging folders,

each of which gets a label.

And that's how you can easily see what's in them.

Now when you're creating your structure here,

I think it's a good idea to try to adhere

to a tree structure where you have a top level

of organization, which is essentially your root

and then for which you can create

multiple, deeper sub-levels or branches.

And personally, I use these hanging file folders

as the top level of my organization system.

I don't really have a whole lot of files

so that's really all I need.

Though there are ways that you could go deeper

if you need to.

The first is to simply put multiple, regular folders

within your hanging folders. dentro de sus carpetas colgantes.

And I actually do have an example of this

because my landlord left this entire file box

with the house that I'm renting

because she is supremely organized.

And honestly, she should be making this video instead of me.

But within her box, each hanging file folder

is actually just a repository for multiple, regular folders.

And each of these folders in here is a place to store

all the manuals and instructions for all kinds of stuff

in the house.

So things like the air conditioner,

the dryer, the hose reel.

Now if you don't wanna use the folders within folders method

'cause you don't wanna buy tons of folders

or you don't want 'em take up so much space,

there are other methods such as

using a piece of printer paper

as a divider between different sections

within your hanging folders.

And to make sure that you can easily thumb through

and see where your dividers are,

you can use these little sticky flags.

I often use these for taking notes in books

and making sure that I can see which page I took a note on.

But if you just take one of these off of here

and then sort of you know stick it

right on your piece of paper.

Then that sticks up and you can put that

into your file folders and be easily

able to thumb through them.

And if you wanted to, you could use construction paper

instead of normal printer paper so it's a little bit,

you know, different feeling from the rest of the documents.

But either way, it's pretty easy.

Now aside from the ones I just mentioned,

there are other methods such as the one

that you can see in this picture

where they're actually using the colors of the folder labels

as an even higher level of organization.

But let's move on to the next location in the system.

The ice box.

Wait, that's not right.

The inbox.

So be honest with me here.

When you get a piece of mail that needs to go

into your file box, how often do you immediately

open up that file box and put it in the correct spot?

I'd wager a guess that it's not a 100% of the time.

And that your kitchen table is often used

as a convenient place to toss things

that will get dealt with later. que se tratará más adelante.

Here's the thing.

The first part of that is fine.

And you probably shouldn't be opening up

your file box and finding the exact folder every single time

you need to file at the exact moment you get it.

It's a lot more efficient to have a specific time

blocked out for processing all of your unorganized files,

mail and of course, cryptic messages nailed to your door,

written in cut out magazine letters.

But your kitchen table does not deserve

to be a dumping ground for all these things

in the meantime.

Because that is a job for your inbox.

So an inbox is a simple tray, or a stack of trays

if you really wanna get fancy,

that sits on your desk.

And whenever you get something that needs to be processed

later on, you put it in the inbox.

And then at least once a week, you wanna go through

everything that's in this inbox.

And decide what needs to be done with it.

If it represents a task like paying the water bill,

then you wanna deal with it.

Otherwise, you might wanna digitize it or recycle it.

Or put it in your main file box.

Pretty simple.

And that brings us to the final piece

of your physical file organization puzzle.

Which is the one that travels with you.

So when you're out of the house,

and you're away from your file box and your inbox,

you still need some way to store any papers you get

from work or class, and of course,

from the guy outside your local coffee shop

holding the End is Nigh sign.

He's got some pretty interesting pamphlets

and you should probably take one.

Now depending on the type of work you do

and the classes you attend, your portable file folder

can function either as a portable inbox,

which you wanna clear on a regular basis.

Or as a mini file box that actually holds papers

for a significant amount of time.

Now if you are anything like me,

then you probably don't have any physical papers

that you need to carry with you.

You might have like a physical notebook,

or be carrying a novel.

But you're not actually carrying worksheets

or other papers that you actually need to use

on a regular basis.

And if that's the case, then I recommend

just keeping a single folder in your bag.

This gives you a safe place to temporarily store

any papers that you get when you're out and about.

And it doesn't take up a whole lot of space at all.

And then when you get home each day,

you can move any papers and End of the World pamphlets

that you've received on all of your adventures

to either your inbox for later processing

or into your main file system if you have

a decent amount of time.

But what if you're a student who needs to carry around

assignments and handouts.

Or what if you're a high powered,

slick-haired business person who needs to carry around

well, you know, your business papers.

If this is the case, then I think

a single file folder probably

isn't going to cut the mustard. no va a ser suficiente.

Actually, hang on a second.

Anna.

Do you have any mustard? ¿Tienes mostaza?

- [Anna] Yes.

- [Man] Where's the mustard?

- Why?

- [Man] Science.

- Uh,

okay.

You're worrying me a little bit.

- That's enough.

Okay.

Oh my god.

Okay I stand corrected. Vale, me corrijo.

The edge of a folder is more than capable

of cutting mustard.

But you still shouldn't use it.

Instead you wanna look into getting a portable

accordion folder.

These give you several folders in one slim

compact package which means they act

as a portable file box that you can actually work out of.

And you can easily separate and organize

all the different papers,

for your classes or very important business deals

and unlike old school binders

with a hard spine, these expand or contract

based on how much you're carrying.

Now before we move on,

I wanna briefly mention a couple of other locations

that you may wanna add to your file system.

The first is what I call a manual's box.

And for me, it's just a regular old cardboard box

where I put things like my piano manual

or my TV manual because I don't like keeping these things

in my main file box since they're bulky.

But they're really aren't enough of them

to warrant a whole new folder system.

Which brings me to a point that I wanted to mention here.

Sometimes, over optimizing one tiny part of your life

ends up taking so much time that you kind of de-optimize

your life as a whole.

So sometimes letting something be a little bit messy

or a little bit, you know, unorganized is fine

because it really doesn't matter in the long run.

So that being said, the second one

that I'm gonna mention here is a safety deposit box.

And you can rent these at banks,

and they can be a safe place to keep things

like the original copy of your birth certificate,

or your passport and the rest of your John Wick coins.

Now I don't use one of these, since I can just store

all of my John Wick coins under the concrete floor

in my basement and because well, they cost money.

But I do wanna mention them because I know

a lot of my viewers live in dorms and apartments

with roommates who don't always take

even simple security matters, like not leaving

the front door wide open, seriously.

So you can consider it.

(upbeat music)

All right, to round out this guide,

I wanna talk about something that's even better

than properly storing and organizing your paper files,

namely, digitizing them.

That's right, it's time to start adopting the,

mostly, paperless lifestyle.

So digitization is the process of scanning

your physical files and turning them into

electronic images or PDFs.

And then from there, you can easily slot them in

to your beautifully constructed computer folder system

where they no longer take up any space in your home

or backpack, but more importantly are backed up

and no longer vulnerable to fires, bullies,

or the random escaped zoo gorilla.

Personally, I try to digitize almost every paper I get,

because it takes very little time to do so.

(explosion) And this is especially true now

that almost everyone has an ultra high resolution

camera built into their phone.

Now in the past, the only ways to digitize paper

is to either to go buy a scanner

or go down to FedEx, Kinko's or Staples

and scan documents there.

But now, you can just use your phone,

which means that you can digitize handouts,

and receipts and other papers, literally wherever you are.

And additionally, if you're using the right app,

you can also automatically send your scans

into your file system with no manual choosing of folders.

So here's how I digitize my files.

And the first thing that I wanna mention

is that for the most part, I send my scans

into my Evernote account, instead

of my computer's main file system.

Why you might ask?

Well all of my article research,

my book notes, my recipes, journal entries,

and almost every other idea that I have

goes into Evernote.

So that's why I choose to send scans there as well.

But there is one other reason.

Evernote makes your scans searchable even if they're images.

Now I tend to upload my scans as PDFs

'cause I often stitch lots of things together

and to like a multi-page document.

But you can also add pictures into Evernote

and it's optical character recognition algorithm

will allow you to search any text in them,

even if it's handwriting.

That being said, I don't actually use Evernote's built-in

scanning tool to do this.

Instead I use an app called Scanbot.

I found that Scanbot's ability to quickly detect

the edges of a piece of paper or a business card,

a receipt, or literally whatever it is that I'm scanning

is a lot better than Evernote's.

And you're also able to scan multiple pages at once.

And then once you're done, then we'll stitch it

into a PDF, which is exactly what I just talked about doing.

And these features makes scanning much faster

but there is one other reason why I like Scanbot so much.

The automatic upload feature.

So within the app settings, you can actually

choose a destination to which all new scans

will be automatically uploaded.

Moreover, you can choose a specific upload folder

or notebook for most of these destinations.

So in Evernote, I've set mine to a notebook called inbox

which is also the place where I create

most new text notes.

And that brings me to the final point

that I wanna cover on digitization.

And this is kind of verging on the computer file territory

but I do think it's good to cover here anyway.

If you choose to upload your digitized files

to your computer's native folder system,

instead of an app like Evernote,

then it might be a good idea for you to create

an inbox folder on your computer.

And some people actually use a digital inbox folder

just like a physical inbox.

They save all new files to it,

and then they relocate them later on

when they have more time.

Now, I don't do this for a couple of different reasons.

One, most of my frequently accessed folders

are pinned to my quick access side bar,

so opening them doesn't really take much time

and more importantly, number two,

a lot of my work involves video editing

and video projects are full of references to footage,

images, music and tons of other files

and changing the file locations for all these assets

can really break a project.

So I don't mess with the inbox folder.

However, using an inbox folder for your automatic

scan uploads is a really good idea.

Because it allows you to scan a document in seconds

and then move on with your life.

You really don't wanna be standing around

in the grocery store digging through Google Drive folders

trying to find the exact right one

for that receipt you just scanned.

Instead, just sit down once a week

and process the inbox folder,

just as you would do with a physical inbox.

And this is exactly what I'd do with my inbox notebook

in Evernote as well.

And when you work this way, you efficiently batch

all of your sorting tasks,

removing as much friction as possible

from the multiple times during the week

where you might choose to make a scan,

which means you become more productive overall.

And this is something that you wanna be doing

in every area of your life.

Looking for ways that you can make things you do

in a repeated basis, more efficient.

Not only will doing this save you time

but it's also a method of thinking in an adaptive way.

And of course, the more time you spend

thinking adaptively, the better you get at it

and at solving the tough problems

that you're gonna be facing in your higher level classes

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Big thanks as always to Brilliant for sponsoring this video

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and thank you to you as well for watching.

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in my file organization series, which is going to be

all about computer file organization.

So I will see you in that next one.

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