Second in a series on FileMAP®: File naming strategies.

The Problem of Big Data

Last week I shared a surprising statistic that framed our critical need to archive our paper and digital information: 80% of what we keep we never use again.

We’ve all heard the typical response when asking someone for information, “Just give me a minute, I can find it. It’s here somewhere…”

Maybe the 5-10 minutes the coworker spent rummaging around wasn’t a really big deal – you needed to get that cup of coffee, anyway.

But maybe the problem is much deeper and is symptomatic of an individual’s, work group’s or department’s lack of strategic information organization for paperwork, folder and digital file management.

Despite technology’s promise of a paperless society, paper usage is on the rise. And the same goes for digital file creation. Images and video files abound. Links to websites. Apps and shortcuts to apps grow and multiply like there’s no tomorrow.  For the sheer, incomprehensible magnitude of this problem, check out my recent post Big Data.

So what’s a girl, or guy, to do?

Naming a Place for Everything: FileMAP®

In a perfect world, the best archiving strategies begin from the top down, an organizational strategy that leads to a  departmental strategy that is further applied into work group and individual strategies.

But you don’t have to wait to get organized. Be the first one to say, “When I file it, I know where it is!”

The secret to successful information retrieval is file naming. An efficient file name is like a well-fashioned handle. You reach for it, you retrieve it.

With an efficient file naming strategy, you can assign a physical or digital location for paper or digital item you want to find in 15 seconds or less.

Yes, find anything in 15 seconds or less.

The Process

1. Separate your information, paper or digital, into Main paperwork and files and Archive files (see 80% of what we keep we never use again).

2. Further separate your Main and Archive items or files into groups based on the work process that those items or files represent.

3. Now assign names to each group of items or files based on the work process that those files represent. Sometimes the work process or work products are general, such as: annual reports, articles, budgets, contracts, financials, legal, policies, research or vendors. Sometimes the names are very specific, such as the name of an individual client or vendor.

4. File naming can also take place on two levels: the name of the container that holds the items or files, and the name of the item or file itself.

For example, here at With Time To Spare, I might organize my digital folder structure like the screen shot to the right. My Books folder, under my @Main folder, in this example has three folders, one for each book. And inside those book folders are the files that make up the book.

In this example, since the three book files are all located in Books under @Main, it would mean that I am currently working on all three of them. Once completed, I would then move them to Archive.

5. Your work processes define your file and folder names. Once you’re organize your file structures around your work processes, you are only a click or two away from any file – if you use a file and folder tool like Windows File Explorer.  You might discover that the goal of 15-seconds-or-less is too generous.

Maybe you’ll enjoy the experience of finding any file or folder in 5 seconds or less.

Enjoy, learn and make your professional life a little easier. 

Coming Next Post

• Critical strategies for successful file and folder naming
• Document and image naming strategies

Related Series Articles

• Introduction - FileMAP®: the secret to streamlined information organization
• Series Post #1: 80% of what we keep we never use again

Throughout my career helping individuals and teams get organized, I’ve witnessed the disorder and chaos that comes from a professional trying to do way too much at the very same time.

This article from Priority Management’s monthly Learning Link Newsletter hits the critical problem of chronic multitasking on the head, no pun intended.

Enjoy, learn and make your professional life a little easier. 

Sue

~

DON’T MULTITASK: YOUR BRAIN WILL THANK YOU

by Issie Lapowsky

Chronic multitasking could be making you less productive. Why? Because your brain is on overload.”

AVOID JUGGLING

Chronic multitasking degrades mental focus, working memory, and the ability to switch among tasks. However, the ability to juggle work has become a standard job requirement.

Researchers have another name for this supposedly desirable skill, however: chronic multitasking.

If this sounds more like an affliction than a resumé booster, that’s because research has shown again and again that the human mind isn’t meant to multitask. Even worse, research shows that multitasking can have long-term harmful effects on brain function.

In a 2009 study, Stanford researcher Clifford Nass challenged 262 college students to complete experiments that involved switching among tasks, filtering irrelevant information, and using working memory. Nass and his colleagues expected that frequent multitaskers would outperform nonmultitaskers on at least some of these activities.

They found the opposite: Chronic multitaskers were abysmal at all three tasks. The scariest part: Only one of the experiments actually involved multitasking, signaling to Nass that even when they focus on a single activity, frequent multitaskers use their brains less effectively.

Multitasking is a weakness, not a strength. In 2010, a study by neuroscientists at the French medical research agency Inserm showed that when people focus on two tasks simultaneously, each side of the brain tackles a different task.

This suggests a two-task limit on what the human brain can handle. Taking on more tasks increases the likelihood of errors, so Nass suggests what he calls the 20-minute rule. Rather than switching tasks from minute to minute, dedicate a 20-minute chunk of time to a single task, then switch to the next one.

His second tip: “Don’t be a sucker for email.” The average professional spends about 23 percent of the day emailing, studies show. Inspired by that statistic, Gloria Mark of the University of California, Irvine, and her colleague Stephen Voida infiltrated an office, cut 13 employees off from email for five days, strapped heart monitors to their chests, and tracked their computer use. Not surprisingly, the employees were less stressed when cut off from email. They focused on one task for longer periods of time and switched screens less often, thereby minimizing multitasking.

Second in a series on FileMAP®: Archive Solutions

Why We Need to Archive

Everyone who works in an office setting knows just how quickly piles of paperwork can form on a desk, credenza, and worktable. Or on a nearby window ledge, if you’re lucky to have one. Or, ironically, on top of a nearby file cabinet.

Same goes with our electronic desktop. The steady stream of emails accumulating in our in-boxes can grow to hundreds, if not thousands. And some of the information is so old and so deep that it is being pressed into coal!

Technology is working against us. A removable flash-drive the size of a small fingernail can hold up to an industry estimate of 10,000-20,000 documents and images. Hard drives and cloud drives are so large that digital storage is the virtual equivalent of a bottomless pit. And to make matters worse, our computers welcome anything and everything we dump into them. Unlike our moms when we were kids, our computers don’t care how much or where we toss and pile our stuff.

Here’s the illusion: because we know the information is somewhere close by — just out of view in real or virtual stacks — we respond to a coworker or boss’s request with, “Just give me a minute, I can find it.”

A minute. That’s the illusion. That minute might stretch into 3 or 5 — or 60. As one of my clients proudly told me, “If I just can’t find a document, I simply recreate it!”

“Main” versus “Archive”

The foundation of FileMAP® is built around the separation of Main, Archive and Personal files. The terms Main and Archive represent differing categories of work processes. An understanding of these terms is foundational to a successful organizing strategy and all archive solutions.

According to the National Association of Professional Organizers, 80% of what we keep we never use again. My own experience in working with thousands of clients yields this statistic: about 10% of what is within arms’ reach of
your office chair is accessed on a daily basis.

Why? Because our archive files are mixed in with our main files, the current daily/weekly work for the tasks at hand. Archive files are only accessed when someone or some situation requires that file.

Main, or current files, are repeatedly touched — physically or digitally — until they are completed. Then, with the click of a mouse or closing of a folder, a main file can become an archive file. There’s no announcement, no fanfare, simply nothing. It just happens. And more than not, that file becomes the next layer in a stack, mound or pyramid somewhere close by.

Practical Steps for Paper

1. Sort and separate main/current working files and paperwork from all other files. Remember, archive files are files that you will never look at again unless someone or some situation requires them.

2. Eliminate all files that are not main or archive files. These files are clutter and need to quickly find their way to a shredder or trash bin. Yes, I said trash bin – the kind you can roll into your office and then back out of. I’ve watched many clients joyfully toss hundreds of pounds of clutter from their offices, cabinets, book shelves, storage closets and file rooms. You can, too!

3. Keep your current paperwork and files within arm’s reach. Paperwork goes into stackables. Files into hanging folders. In a future post, I’ll feature additional nifty organizing containers that can help you keep files and paperwork from piling into mounds and pyramids.

4. Put your archive files well out of arm’s reach in vertical or lateral file drawers.

5. Use the file and folder naming strategies detailed in the FileMAP® series’ next post.

Coming Next Post

• Critical strategies for successful file and folder naming
• Practical steps for digital files and the challenge of e-discovery

Related Series Articles

• Introduction – FileMAP®: the secret to streamlined information organization
• Post #2 – If I file it, can I find it?: file naming strategies.