As a child, I was constantly trying to find new and innovative ways of avoiding chores. Cleaning my room was by far the worst--operating under the motto "Out of Sight, Out of Mind," I would use a single ploughing motion to bury my stuff far under my bed. The advantages of my system were immediate but fleeting. And it always left me sorting through a mess of my own making.
In my design career, it soon became clear that my personal housekeeping techniques just wouldn't do. The lack of organization in my computer workspace caused me great stress. Thankfully, with some persistence, I eventually organized my digital work environment and, in so doing, exponentially increased my productivity. I no longer spend time needlessly scouring a disorganized database to find a single file. This makes for faster project turnovers and more deadlines met.
If you think your personal organization is just your problem, consider this: your project may eventually pass into other designers or developers who will use the files for their own purposes. Passing off a mess of files to them will cause them undue frustration and may even spoil your chances of landing future projects. In my own career, I've learned the hard way that the benefits of organization can't be overstated. And so I have reformed. Here are a few of my personal tips for those of you looking to turn over a new (and I hope orderly) leaf.
Folder Organization
It's time to get rid of some of that clutter, or at least divide it into manageable chunks. Organizing your folders is the first step to getting a grip on your files. Some first steps:
- Separate your workspace from your personal files, dedicate a hard drive or partition if possible
- Create a logical structure of nested folders and subfolders
- Sample structure: Workspace > Clients > Client Name > Job number > Images, Documents, Screenshots, Source files, Project Files (> indicates subfolders).
- Continuously archive old files to keep your attention focused on your current projects
File Naming
What's in a name? A lot, when it comes to file organization. A consistent file naming system is very important.
- Keep files names in lower case alphabet or numbers
- Use underscores or dashes instead of spaces (these first two points prevent compatibility issues)
- Adopt a detailed naming system with more than one descriptor tag
Sample structure:
[Short Description]_[Date: ie, ddmmyy]_[Number Sequence] Example: kittensatplay_240407_05
- Add a second or third descriptor when necessary, such as version tag (i.e. file v1, v2, etc)
