One of the reasons why we lack in the productivity department is bad organization. If you don’t know where things are when you need them, half of your time will be spent on searching. And this is time you could be spending doing more pleasant things.
For instance, have you ever thought about your Google Drive space organization? We tend to crowd tons of images, files, and folder in there with little to no thought when it comes to organization. So, how long does it take you (on average) to find the document you need?
Regardless of the fact that you are a manager or a simple employee, good organization and using Google search is the best way to go. That’s why today we’ll discuss several tips and tricks to help you get your Google Drive organized and find documents fast.
A visual hierarchy
If your business uses a common Google Drive account, then you desperately need organization. As you can see in the video, there are lots of features you can use to make things better. For instance, you can always make use of the native Drive folder hierarchy which is:
- My Drive (here you can create new folders and make your own hierarchy);
- Shared with Me (files that people shared with you)
- Recent (files you recently accessed)
- Starred (your favorite files)
Its also very important to setup the correct sharing permissions on your top level folders. We recommend adding your Google user accounts into groups then setting the group with correct permission access to that folder and subfolders. This way when a new employee starts, you simply add them into the group e.g sales group and know they have access to all the relevant folders and restricted access to what they shouldnt access.
Staring
By adding a star to your files, you move them in the Starred folder. This is an effective and very simple way to get organized and have the most important files at the tips of your fingers.
Color Coding
As the video explains, adding colors to your folders is a great way to separate one folder to another. Colors are easier to recognize than words and this makes sorting through files a lot quicker.
Naming conventions
When you’re working on a shared folder with the team, everyone needs to know which file is addressed to which member, this also helps you get faster responses when using the search bar. So, this can be easily sorted out using naming conventions (see the video for a more detailed explanation).
However, it’s important to specify that everyone needs to be on board with these conventions. Otherwise, if no one or only some members use them, your shared folder will be a total chaos.
Learn how to properly name files
So, if you’re going to use naming conventions, you must know how to name a file so it will be easy to recognize years from now. A file that is simply called “Marketing meeting” will be difficult to recognize without opening it in just a few days after it was created.
So, to properly name a file, here are several rules you need to follow:
- Specify the type of document – invoice, presentation, contract, etc.
- Add the date when you created/modified it
- Who should have access to it – the team/branch or managers by name
- Specify the department where the document should go
- Introduce the topic or name of the project
- Add the version number – if the file is going to be in several versions
- Status of file – filed, for review, approved, saved, archived
- Security level – confidential, for general use
Now that you know how easy and fun it can be to organize your Drive, there’s no excuse for sloppiness.
