HOW TO ORGANIZE YOUR ONLINE STORAGE

Sort out your messy files and folders with this foolproof strategy.

- JILL DUFFY

BY  How much do you rely on search to find the files and folders you need? I've met optimistic people who believe search works well enough to pull up the files they want in mere seconds. The optimism fades after a few years, as people accumulate unwieldy amounts of digital stuff. So let me share with you the simplest, most efficient way to quickly clean up your files.

This strategy works for cleaning up your online storage, as well as tidying up email accounts, local storage, and even paper files such as family documents (which you should also digitize). I've used it reliably for almost two decades, and it's never failed me.

CREATE A FOLDER AND NAME IT FOR THE CURRENT YEAR

First, make a folder and call it "2022," or whatever is the current year. This folder should live in your topmost layer of organization. For example, in Dropbox, put this new folder right in the Dropbox folder. In Google Drive, put it in My Drive. In OneDrive, put it in My Files.

For this method of organizing, OneDrive is perhaps the most cumbersome system to work with, but I have some additional tips for OneDrive users, which I cover toward the end. Similarly, Google Drive users will find they need a few unique pointers related to cleaning up files shared with them. I address those points a little later too.

CREATE A FOLDER AND NAME IT 'INBOX'

Create a second folder and call it Inbox." Put this new folder at the same level as your 2022 folder so they appear next to one another. The underscore causes the folder to appear at the top of the list when folders are sorted alphabetically.

MOVE ACTIVE AND RECENT FILES INTO THE FOLDERS YOU JUST CREATED

The next step is to identify your active files, meaning files you open or work on at least once a month. Put those files into the Inbox folder.