Storing Electronic Files

Ever since my first computer I have had to work hard to best organize my electronic files. It started with school papers that I thought I would want to keep around forever. Then the problem seemed to explode as film cameras gave way to digital ones and I started storing photos on my computer. Throw in how to best keep e-mail messages and you can see how having a good filing system is required.

Back with my original computer I used floppy disks to store all my school papers. The documents never got very large and so I could use one disk for each class. Even if I still had those disks, I don't have a computer that can read them. Computer operating systems evolved to have a default storage directory or folder for your documents, appropriately named "Documents." There are also picture and movie folders. You can then nest folders inside of other folders to help you organize your electronic files even more.

In my pictures directory I have created a number of folders by subject. I have one folder that I use to store all the pictures of my grand kids and another for my trips to Disneyland. What happens when I take pictures of my grand kids at Disneyland? This is why it is important to have a good filing system. Unix and Linux allow you to easily create symbolic links. This means you can have one file with links to that single file appearing in multiple directories. Unfortunately that is a lot of work to set up when I am just dumping photos onto my computer. Instead I just know all photos related to a trip will appear in the trip folder even if they contain pictures of my grand kids. The "Grand Kids" folder is just the repository for all other pictures of my favorite little people.

What about multiple trips to Disneyland? That is easy. I have a top folder named, "Disneyland," with sub folders inside listing the dates of each trip. I should probably do something similar with my grand kids folder so I know which kid is who while I can still remember. Once kids get older they become much more difficult to differentiate between siblings. I'll save that for another day.

Finally there is the dreaded e-mail organization. I am one of those people that just keeps everything important in my "inbox" until it is no longer needed. Speaking from experience, that is a horrible way to store e-mail. Every week or so, I will go through and delete unneeded e-mails. I also have other mailboxes that relate to major categories. My work e-mail has a mailbox for each project I am working on. My personal e-mail has categories like skiing or Sony, should I receive a work e-mail in my personal account. About once a week, I take an hour and go through both e-mail accounts and move messages from my inboxes to appropriate mailboxes. A lot of the time I will delete messages as they become irrelevant. If I am really on top of things, I will move a message into the appropriate mailbox as soon as it comes in, which is ideal.

So what is your best electronic file storage tip? I'd be interested to know as it may help me. I'm sure others would be interested too.