Organizing Your Files

Some people have an idea how they would like to organize their files. We encourage everybody to organize them in whatever way makes sense to them. Choosing a simple organization structure and sticking with it provides the following advantages:

• decreases file clutter
• improves the likelihood of finding your files in the future
• makes backups easier

If you would like a suggestion on how to organize your files, we have a few suggestions below.

Faculty and other teaching staff

Faculty and other staff members who teach may find that organizing their files by course makes sense. This common scheme allows all the documents relating to a particular class to be kept together without the need to remember when you last taught the course. If the course is taught periodically and the files used change, it may be useful to organize files by year underneath the course. An example follows below:

•  Biology 101
  •  File1.doc
  •  File2.xls
  •  Spring 2006
    •  spring2006 roster.xls
  •  Spring 2007
    •  spring 2007 roster.xls
  •  Fall 2007
•  Biology 152
  •  File-a.doc
  •  Presentation-b.ppt
  •  Frogs.jpg
•  Research

Classified and other administrative staff

Classified staff and other administrative employees may find that organizing their files by fiscal year makes the most sense to them.

•  2004-2005
  •  Student Payroll
  •  Recruitment
  •  Procurement
  •  Office Remodel
•  2005-2006
  •  Student Payroll
  •  Recruitment
  •  Procurement
  •  conference-invite.doc
•  2006-2007

More information on file management

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