File organization is not just file organization

How do you store documents on your computer? Are they on your hard drive or in the cloud? Everything in one folder, or separate folders? Folders within folders? By subject?

You get the point. There are as many ways to organize stuff as there are people doing the organizing. So what happens when more than one person, with different organizing styles, all share the same files? In this post, I’m going to explore a few ways to organize files, then explain why organizing files isn’t, in and of itself, enough.

First, obviously, you’re going to store files in the cloud and not on someone’s hard drive. But beyond that? Let’s look at some organizational options to see what’s most likely to work for everyone.

Flat File Structure

Some people prefer their files unstructured. Every single file in one folder. After all, there’s a search box right there in the corner of File Explorer. That’s what it’s for, right?

That’s fine if you are the only person using the files, and you remember your file names. But what happens when a second person comes in and needs to find something? Will they know the right thing to search?

Flat Folder List

This is a little bit better. Files are sorted into folders. The folders have names. There are a LOT of folders. There are a couple of potential problems here, though. One is that the more people have access, the unwieldy the folder names will become. Maybe you have one folder called “Budget Draft” and another called “Working Budget.” Or my favorite, “Previous year budget.” Which year?! Different people are saving stuff to each of those folders, so the files you need are all over the place.

Hierarchical File Structure

This is your best option. Files are organized into folders that have other folders inside them. So our budget example above is

• Shared Drive

• Budget

• FY 2025

• FY2024

• FY 2023…and so on

The thing is, you can still use the File Explorer search if that’s what you prefer. But your team mate who prefers structure can still get to the documents they need.

The Secret Ingredient

Remember I said file organization is not enough by itself? Let’s look inside those folders. How many of you noticed that one of my example budget files above is named differently than the others? FY2024 doesn’t have a space between the Y and the 2. So if the files are sorted alphabetically, they aren’t going to be in order. And what about these?

• Budget v.1

• Budget 2nd draft

• Budget - Third draft

And, of course, no one wants to change someone else’s file name! You see the problem. So, what’s the answer? 

Naming conventions. When everyone uses the same naming conventions, files are easier to find. It’s as simple as that. Here are some things to keep in mind:

• Be careful of dates - When you sort files, 2025-08-14, 08-14-2025, and 8-24-2025 will all sort differently. If you want your dates in order, put the year first, then use 2 digits for the month and the day.

• Make the rules easy - The more complicated the rule, the less likely people will follow it.

• Document it - Create something brief that stakeholders can keep on their desktop or pin to their corkboard for easy reference.

Don’t want to mess with all this yourself? Contact Entrelac to discuss your needs.