Does your desktop look like this?
Well, it might be time to develop some more effective organizational strategies. If you find that your digital workspace is cluttered, disorganized, confusing, or challenging to navigate, check out some of my tips for organization and file management.
You may be asking yourself… What's the big deal? I thrive in disarray, chaos is my middle name! I know where my files are… and besides! I can always do a quick search for what I’m looking for… at least… If I could only remember what I named it. Well, that all very well may be the case but in nearly every situation I’ve seen firsthand, organizing one’s computer files is not only helpful, it’s crucial. Keeping an organized computer will help you think more clearly, be more efficient, minimize mistakes (like uploading a meme instead of an essay to the LMS–yikes!), and will allow you to focus more on the creative process rather than spending your time searching for files. If you can get into the habit of organizing your files now you are going to save yourself countless headaches and hours of frustration in the long run. It’s going to make your workflow so much easier, trust me. So let’s get into the most important steps for improving your file management and organization.
Every file should have a folder (home)
When I first started classes at RMCAD I created a folder for each class and then subfolders for each week. This can be a really useful method to keep track of assignments and look back on what you’ve done in the past with ease. This is what I recommend to all RMCAD students… create folders for classes, projects, assignments, weeks, etc… whatever makes sense for you. The key here is that every file on your computer has a labeled home.
Another useful tip is to create a separate folder that houses all of your assets. Assets are things that you might use on more than one project, like fonts, stock imagery, textures, brushes, notes, audio files, etc. You can even create subfolders for different categories of assets.
Visually organize your folders in a way that makes sense to you
Once everything has been sorted into the appropriate folders, it might help to visually organize them in some way that helps you see what is where at a glance. I am a huge fan of color-coding my folders using the color tag feature on my Mac. But you can also organize folders alphabetically, or by region. For example, I like to cluster all my personal folders on the left of my desktop and all my client folders on the right so I don’t get them mixed up.
Save changes as separate files
First of all, if you are working in any software please save a version of the native file before you save it as anything else. For example, if you’re working on a Photoshop project, save it as a .PSD file before you save it as a .jpg. This will ensure that you can open the PSD file and edit it later. Secondly, when you are making changes to a document, it can be good to get into the practice of saving and titling each version. This way, if you, your instructor, or a client ask you to go back to a previous version you can easily do so.
Develop naming conventions that are easy to remember
Of course, there are usually naming conventions that are required by instructors for assignments in the LMS. When applicable, use those naming conventions. However, when you’re working on a personal project or an assignment in progress, feel free to come up with your own naming convention for files. It really helps to create a standard naming convention or a template of sorts. For example, this is a naming convention I use for most of my projects:
Title_Project_Date_Version
This might look like: OwlCircle_SLCLogo_2022_V3.png
An important thing to note is that I do not use spaces in my file titles, and generally, neither should you. It won’t be the end of the world if you use spaces but I’ve always been told to use underscores or dashes to create spaces in my file names. Doing so will ensure that you avoid problems opening the files across multiple platforms.
Lastly, get into the habit of backing up your files!
This is one I can’t stress enough. I learned this lesson the hard way. Halfway through a final project during my sophomore year, my hard drive failed and I lost EVERYTHING on my computer. Apple told me it would never be recovered. Unfortunately, I had not been backing up any of my files, can you guess what I had to do? I had to start all of my projects over from scratch, halfway through the last week of the term. It was absolutely soul-crushing. So, don’t make the same mistakes I did, and please, just back up your files at least once a week.
These are my top tips for keeping a tidy digital workspace. If you have any questions about file management, naming conventions, backing up files, etc. Please schedule a meeting with a tutor by emailing learning@rmcad.edu!
Martha Neth
