Have you pulled out your hair as you’ve rifled through your papers trying to find the right document?

You’ll soon find that these problems also occur when you accumulate digital documents. You might soon find that your desktop is filled with thumbnails of digital documents that conceal your wallpaper!

So what’s the solution? What’s the best way to organize digital documents?

This quick guide will show you the easiest ways to organize and easily locate your digital documents.

Here’s what you need to know.

1. Use Google Drive

Google Drive offers one of the easiest methods of online organization digital documents whether Word or PDF files. You can also convert both types of files into Google Docs files if you wish.

With Google Drive, you can create separate folders and sub-folders where you can store your documents. At any given time, you can rename your digital documents and sort them as you wish.

Google Drive has a built-in search bar so you can quickly find your files. You can also create a Google Sheet where you list all your digital documents and then link directly to them!

You can follow this link to learn the best practices for digital document organization via Google Drive.

2. Use Your Desktop

As discussed in the introduction, it’s likely that you’ve got your digital documents already stored on your desktop. This is the easiest way to access your digital documents but only if you keep them in folders.

Create folders by category for organizing your digital documents via your desktop. For example, you can name your folders as follows:

• Blog Posts
• Photos
• Movies
• Legal Documents
• Things to Read

Within each of these folders, you can include several sub-folders to make it easier to navigate. When adding your digital documents to these folders, you should sort by “Date Modified.” This gives you an idea of which digital documents are the highest priority.

Alternatively, sort by “Date Added” or “Date Created” to organize the digital documents in descending order.

3. Don’t Clutter Folders

As a final tip, you shouldn’t clutter your folders with too many documents. As a general rule, try to limit this to 20 documents per folder and sub-folder.

For example, let’s suppose you have a folder for your tax documents. Make sure you have separate sub-folders for each year. If you file quarterly returns, have another sub-folder for each quarter.

You should also “lock” or “zip” folders that you don’t need to access on a regular basis. This saves you time when looking through your digital documents.

That’s How to Organize Digital Documents

Now you know how to organize digital documents and find them without much hassle.

You should always have an online backup of your digital documents and Google Drive is often the best option. It’s easy to organize your digital documents and find them through the search bar.

You can also keep your files on your desktop by creating folders and sub-folders. You shouldn’t, however, clutter your folders. Follow our best practices to organize them without overwhelming yourself!

You can find more hacks and tips on managing your digital files on our blog.