🔍
The Best Way to Organize Your Files and Folders - YouTube
Channel: Thomas Frank
[3]
- Welcome to the most exciting video
[5]
that you are ever going to watch.
[7]
Yes, it is.
[8]
And what will we be covering you ask?
[10]
Sports cars, explosions,
[12]
the top 10 most dangerous bees?
[15]
Even better, file organization.
[17]
Oh yes friends.
[18]
Buckle up because this is
going to be one wild ride.
[22]
And especially I have access
to all this explosion footage
[25]
which I am going to apply
liberally throughout this video.
[27]
(explosion)
[28]
Now I should say that
this is 1/2 of a wild ride
[31]
because there are in fact two
halves to your file system.
[34]
The files that exist in your computer,
[37]
and the ones that exist
here in the real world.
[39]
And if you're anything like me,
[41]
most of the files exist digitally.
[43]
And we're gonna cover
exactly how to organize them
[45]
in the next video in the series.
[47]
But due to my very intense study
[49]
on game design principles, I have learned
[51]
that it is best to start
off with the easier stuff.
[54]
So today we're gonna focus
on your physical file system.
[57]
Now my personal physical
file system is pretty small
[61]
and that is because whenever
I get a piece of paper,
[63]
my first instinct is to
either recycle it immediately
[66]
or digitize it and then
of course recycle it.
[69]
And later on on this
video, we're gonna talk
[71]
all about digitization
and how to do it easily.
[74]
But sometimes you're
gonna have physical files
[76]
that you just need to keep
for one reason or another.
[79]
Perhaps, it's your birth
certificates or your passport.
[82]
Or that clipping of a newspaper
article that mentioned you
[84]
back in the eighth grade.
[85]
Gotta keep that for posterity's sake.
[87]
Whatever it is, it is time to organize it.
[90]
So when it comes to
storing physical files,
[91]
I use a simple system that
consists of three locations.
[95]
The main file box,
[96]
the inbox and a portable file folder.
[99]
The main file box is the
place where the majority
[101]
of your physical files
should eventually end up,
[103]
if you're not going to digitize them.
[105]
And if you have a lot of
papers you need to store,
[107]
you could buy a
multi-drawer filing cabinet
[110]
for this purpose.
[111]
However, I find that a single file box
[114]
is more than enough for me.
[115]
And this is what it looks like.
[116]
And now you know why the
continuity arrow was there.
[118]
Now this file box, and
pretty much every single
[120]
other one like it is built
to store hanging folders,
[123]
each of which gets a label.
[125]
And that's how you can
easily see what's in them.
[127]
Now when you're creating
your structure here,
[129]
I think it's a good idea to try to adhere
[130]
to a tree structure where
you have a top level
[133]
of organization, which
is essentially your root
[135]
and then for which you can create
[137]
multiple, deeper sub-levels or branches.
[139]
And personally, I use
these hanging file folders
[142]
as the top level of my
organization system.
[144]
I don't really have a whole lot of files
[145]
so that's really all I need.
[147]
Though there are ways
that you could go deeper
[149]
if you need to.
[149]
The first is to simply put
multiple, regular folders
[152]
within your hanging folders.
[154]
And I actually do have an example of this
[156]
because my landlord left
this entire file box
[160]
with the house that I'm renting
[161]
because she is supremely organized.
[163]
And honestly, she should be
making this video instead of me.
[166]
But within her box,
each hanging file folder
[169]
is actually just a repository
for multiple, regular folders.
[173]
And each of these folders
in here is a place to store
[176]
all the manuals and instructions
for all kinds of stuff
[179]
in the house.
[180]
So things like the air conditioner,
[181]
the dryer, the hose reel.
[183]
Now if you don't wanna use the
folders within folders method
[186]
'cause you don't wanna buy tons of folders
[188]
or you don't want 'em
take up so much space,
[189]
there are other methods such as
[191]
using a piece of printer paper
[194]
as a divider between different sections
[195]
within your hanging folders.
[197]
And to make sure that you
can easily thumb through
[199]
and see where your dividers are,
[200]
you can use these little sticky flags.
[202]
I often use these for
taking notes in books
[204]
and making sure that I can see
which page I took a note on.
[207]
But if you just take
one of these off of here
[209]
and then sort of you know stick it
[212]
right on your piece of paper.
[214]
Then that sticks up and you can put that
[215]
into your file folders and be easily
[217]
able to thumb through them.
[218]
And if you wanted to, you
could use construction paper
[220]
instead of normal printer
paper so it's a little bit,
[222]
you know, different feeling
from the rest of the documents.
[224]
But either way, it's pretty easy.
[226]
Now aside from the ones I just mentioned,
[227]
there are other methods such as the one
[229]
that you can see in this picture
[230]
where they're actually using
the colors of the folder labels
[232]
as an even higher level of organization.
[234]
But let's move on to the
next location in the system.
[237]
The ice box.
[238]
Wait, that's not right.
[240]
The inbox.
[241]
So be honest with me here.
[242]
When you get a piece of
mail that needs to go
[244]
into your file box, how
often do you immediately
[247]
open up that file box and
put it in the correct spot?
[250]
I'd wager a guess that it's
not a 100% of the time.
[253]
And that your kitchen table is often used
[255]
as a convenient place to toss things
[257]
that will get dealt with later.
[259]
Here's the thing.
[260]
The first part of that is fine.
[262]
And you probably shouldn't be opening up
[264]
your file box and finding the
exact folder every single time
[267]
you need to file at the
exact moment you get it.
[270]
It's a lot more efficient
to have a specific time
[272]
blocked out for processing
all of your unorganized files,
[275]
mail and of course, cryptic
messages nailed to your door,
[278]
written in cut out magazine letters.
[280]
But your kitchen table does not deserve
[282]
to be a dumping ground
for all these things
[284]
in the meantime.
[285]
Because that is a job for your inbox.
[287]
So an inbox is a simple
tray, or a stack of trays
[291]
if you really wanna get fancy,
[292]
that sits on your desk.
[294]
And whenever you get something
that needs to be processed
[296]
later on, you put it in the inbox.
[298]
And then at least once a
week, you wanna go through
[300]
everything that's in this inbox.
[302]
And decide what needs to be done with it.
[304]
If it represents a task
like paying the water bill,
[307]
then you wanna deal with it.
[308]
Otherwise, you might wanna
digitize it or recycle it.
[310]
Or put it in your main file box.
[312]
Pretty simple.
[313]
And that brings us to the final piece
[315]
of your physical file organization puzzle.
[318]
Which is the one that travels with you.
[320]
So when you're out of the house,
[321]
and you're away from your
file box and your inbox,
[323]
you still need some way to
store any papers you get
[325]
from work or class, and of course,
[327]
from the guy outside
your local coffee shop
[328]
holding the End is Nigh sign.
[330]
He's got some pretty interesting pamphlets
[331]
and you should probably take one.
[333]
Now depending on the type of work you do
[334]
and the classes you attend,
your portable file folder
[337]
can function either as a portable inbox,
[340]
which you wanna clear on a regular basis.
[342]
Or as a mini file box
that actually holds papers
[344]
for a significant amount of time.
[346]
Now if you are anything like me,
[348]
then you probably don't
have any physical papers
[350]
that you need to carry with you.
[351]
You might have like a physical notebook,
[353]
or be carrying a novel.
[354]
But you're not actually
carrying worksheets
[357]
or other papers that
you actually need to use
[358]
on a regular basis.
[360]
And if that's the case, then I recommend
[361]
just keeping a single folder in your bag.
[364]
This gives you a safe
place to temporarily store
[366]
any papers that you get
when you're out and about.
[368]
And it doesn't take up a
whole lot of space at all.
[370]
And then when you get home each day,
[372]
you can move any papers and
End of the World pamphlets
[374]
that you've received on
all of your adventures
[376]
to either your inbox for later processing
[378]
or into your main file system if you have
[380]
a decent amount of time.
[381]
But what if you're a student
who needs to carry around
[384]
assignments and handouts.
[385]
Or what if you're a high powered,
[387]
slick-haired business person
who needs to carry around
[390]
well, you know, your business papers.
[392]
If this is the case, then I think
[394]
a single file folder probably
[396]
isn't going to cut the mustard.
[398]
Actually, hang on a second.
[401]
Anna.
[403]
Do you have any mustard?
[404]
- [Anna] Yes.
[405]
- [Man] Where's the mustard?
[406]
- Why?
[407]
- [Man] Science.
[408]
- Uh,
[412]
okay.
[415]
You're worrying me a little bit.
[418]
- That's enough.
[419]
Okay.
[423]
Oh my god.
[424]
Okay I stand corrected.
[426]
The edge of a folder is more than capable
[428]
of cutting mustard.
[429]
But you still shouldn't use it.
[430]
Instead you wanna look
into getting a portable
[432]
accordion folder.
[433]
These give you several folders in one slim
[436]
compact package which means they act
[438]
as a portable file box that
you can actually work out of.
[441]
And you can easily separate and organize
[443]
all the different papers,
[444]
for your classes or very
important business deals
[446]
and unlike old school binders
[448]
with a hard spine,
these expand or contract
[451]
based on how much you're carrying.
[452]
Now before we move on,
[454]
I wanna briefly mention a
couple of other locations
[456]
that you may wanna add
to your file system.
[458]
The first is what I call a manual's box.
[461]
And for me, it's just a
regular old cardboard box
[463]
where I put things like my piano manual
[465]
or my TV manual because I
don't like keeping these things
[468]
in my main file box since they're bulky.
[471]
But they're really aren't enough of them
[472]
to warrant a whole new folder system.
[474]
Which brings me to a point
that I wanted to mention here.
[477]
Sometimes, over optimizing
one tiny part of your life
[480]
ends up taking so much time
that you kind of de-optimize
[483]
your life as a whole.
[485]
So sometimes letting something
be a little bit messy
[488]
or a little bit, you
know, unorganized is fine
[490]
because it really doesn't
matter in the long run.
[492]
So that being said, the second one
[493]
that I'm gonna mention here
is a safety deposit box.
[496]
And you can rent these at banks,
[497]
and they can be a safe
place to keep things
[499]
like the original copy of
your birth certificate,
[500]
or your passport and the
rest of your John Wick coins.
[504]
Now I don't use one of
these, since I can just store
[506]
all of my John Wick coins
under the concrete floor
[508]
in my basement and because
well, they cost money.
[511]
But I do wanna mention them because I know
[513]
a lot of my viewers live
in dorms and apartments
[515]
with roommates who don't always take
[517]
even simple security
matters, like not leaving
[519]
the front door wide open, seriously.
[522]
So you can consider it.
[523]
(upbeat music)
[526]
All right, to round out this guide,
[528]
I wanna talk about
something that's even better
[530]
than properly storing and
organizing your paper files,
[533]
namely, digitizing them.
[535]
That's right, it's time
to start adopting the,
[537]
mostly, paperless lifestyle.
[539]
So digitization is the process of scanning
[541]
your physical files and turning them into
[543]
electronic images or PDFs.
[545]
And then from there, you
can easily slot them in
[547]
to your beautifully constructed
computer folder system
[549]
where they no longer take
up any space in your home
[552]
or backpack, but more
importantly are backed up
[555]
and no longer vulnerable
to fires, bullies,
[557]
or the random escaped zoo gorilla.
[560]
Personally, I try to digitize
almost every paper I get,
[563]
because it takes very
little time to do so.
[565]
(explosion) And this
is especially true now
[566]
that almost everyone has
an ultra high resolution
[569]
camera built into their phone.
[570]
Now in the past, the only
ways to digitize paper
[573]
is to either to go buy a scanner
[575]
or go down to FedEx, Kinko's or Staples
[577]
and scan documents there.
[578]
But now, you can just use your phone,
[580]
which means that you
can digitize handouts,
[582]
and receipts and other papers,
literally wherever you are.
[585]
And additionally, if
you're using the right app,
[588]
you can also automatically send your scans
[590]
into your file system with no
manual choosing of folders.
[594]
So here's how I digitize my files.
[596]
And the first thing that I wanna mention
[597]
is that for the most part, I send my scans
[599]
into my Evernote account, instead
[601]
of my computer's main file system.
[603]
Why you might ask?
[604]
Well all of my article research,
[606]
my book notes, my
recipes, journal entries,
[608]
and almost every other idea that I have
[610]
goes into Evernote.
[612]
So that's why I choose to
send scans there as well.
[615]
But there is one other reason.
[617]
Evernote makes your scans
searchable even if they're images.
[620]
Now I tend to upload my scans as PDFs
[623]
'cause I often stitch
lots of things together
[624]
and to like a multi-page document.
[626]
But you can also add
pictures into Evernote
[628]
and it's optical character
recognition algorithm
[630]
will allow you to search any text in them,
[633]
even if it's handwriting.
[634]
That being said, I don't
actually use Evernote's built-in
[637]
scanning tool to do this.
[639]
Instead I use an app called Scanbot.
[641]
I found that Scanbot's
ability to quickly detect
[643]
the edges of a piece of
paper or a business card,
[646]
a receipt, or literally
whatever it is that I'm scanning
[648]
is a lot better than Evernote's.
[650]
And you're also able to
scan multiple pages at once.
[653]
And then once you're
done, then we'll stitch it
[654]
into a PDF, which is exactly
what I just talked about doing.
[656]
And these features makes
scanning much faster
[659]
but there is one other reason
why I like Scanbot so much.
[662]
The automatic upload feature.
[664]
So within the app
settings, you can actually
[666]
choose a destination
to which all new scans
[668]
will be automatically uploaded.
[670]
Moreover, you can choose
a specific upload folder
[672]
or notebook for most
of these destinations.
[675]
So in Evernote, I've set mine
to a notebook called inbox
[678]
which is also the place where I create
[679]
most new text notes.
[681]
And that brings me to the final point
[682]
that I wanna cover on digitization.
[684]
And this is kind of verging
on the computer file territory
[687]
but I do think it's good
to cover here anyway.
[689]
If you choose to upload
your digitized files
[691]
to your computer's native folder system,
[693]
instead of an app like Evernote,
[695]
then it might be a good
idea for you to create
[696]
an inbox folder on your computer.
[699]
And some people actually
use a digital inbox folder
[702]
just like a physical inbox.
[703]
They save all new files to it,
[705]
and then they relocate them later on
[706]
when they have more time.
[707]
Now, I don't do this for a
couple of different reasons.
[710]
One, most of my frequently
accessed folders
[712]
are pinned to my quick access side bar,
[714]
so opening them doesn't
really take much time
[715]
and more importantly, number two,
[717]
a lot of my work involves video editing
[719]
and video projects are full
of references to footage,
[722]
images, music and tons of other files
[724]
and changing the file
locations for all these assets
[727]
can really break a project.
[728]
So I don't mess with the inbox folder.
[730]
However, using an inbox
folder for your automatic
[733]
scan uploads is a really good idea.
[735]
Because it allows you to
scan a document in seconds
[737]
and then move on with your life.
[739]
You really don't wanna be standing around
[740]
in the grocery store digging
through Google Drive folders
[743]
trying to find the exact right one
[744]
for that receipt you just scanned.
[746]
Instead, just sit down once a week
[748]
and process the inbox folder,
[749]
just as you would do
with a physical inbox.
[751]
And this is exactly what I'd
do with my inbox notebook
[754]
in Evernote as well.
[755]
And when you work this
way, you efficiently batch
[757]
all of your sorting tasks,
[758]
removing as much friction as possible
[760]
from the multiple times during the week
[762]
where you might choose to make a scan,
[764]
which means you become
more productive overall.
[766]
And this is something
that you wanna be doing
[768]
in every area of your life.
[769]
Looking for ways that you
can make things you do
[771]
in a repeated basis, more efficient.
[773]
Not only will doing this save you time
[775]
but it's also a method of
thinking in an adaptive way.
[778]
And of course, the more time you spend
[780]
thinking adaptively,
the better you get at it
[782]
and at solving the tough problems
[784]
that you're gonna be facing
in your higher level classes
[786]
and in your career.
[787]
And if you're looking
for more ways to improve
[789]
your adaptive thinking, you
should check out Brilliant.
[791]
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[793]
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[794]
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in a way that focuses on active learning
[804]
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might wanna start with,
[807]
especially if you wanna start thinking
[809]
more naturally about how to
make things more efficient,
[811]
is their Computer Science
Essentials Course.
[813]
This course doesn't require any
coding knowledge beforehand.
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And in it, you learn how
algorithms are designed
[818]
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[824]
of problems aimed at getting
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[826]
it is a great compliment to watching
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traditional, educational videos.
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And if you wanna get started right now,
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you can go over to
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Big thanks as always to Brilliant
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[844]
and being a big supporter of my channel
[845]
and thank you to you as well for watching.
[847]
If you enjoyed this video,
you might wanna give it a like
[848]
and hit subscribe right there,
[850]
if you wanna see more on
this channel in the future.
[852]
Otherwise you might
wanna click right there
[853]
to get a free copy of my book
[854]
and how to earn a better grades.
[856]
Lastly, you can click either here or here
[858]
to get more videos on
this channel right now
[860]
and you might wanna check back next week
[862]
or click right there to subscribe
[863]
if you wanna get that second video
[865]
in my file organization
series, which is going to be
[867]
all about computer file organization.
[869]
So I will see you in that next one.
[872]
♪ Da da da da ♪
[873]
♪ Dara da da ♪
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