Bit Literacy - Mark Hurst [52]
Files stored in the file system are easily transferable. This is in contrast to e-mails stored in an e-mail program, which are “locked in” to that application only. Files in the file system can move freely. They’re easy to back up, share with friends or coworkers, or move to a different computer—even a different operating system.39
One other way to minimize the possible locations for a file is to avoid using sub-folders.
About sub-folders
Sub-folders that sit inside the project folder should be avoided except in certain situations. This may be a difficult guideline for users who like to over-organize their folders into sub-folders, sub-sub-folders inside them, and so on—but there’s little value in having so many levels in the storage hierarchy. The goal of bit literacy is to minimize the time you spend getting organized, so as to maximize your time for more important things, like working efficiently and enjoying life outside work. Sub-folders generally don’t improve on the bit-literate system of properly named files, all sitting together in a single project folder.
There are exceptions, however. A sub-folder or two can optionally serve for specialized uses. For example, a project folder may contain one or more of the following sub-folders:
An “old” folder, for files so old that they are no longer relevant but still need to be archived. In a long project spanning several years, the “old” folder can be replaced with “year folders”—“2005”, “2006”, etc.—containing project files from those calendar years. (This also saves the user from typing the year into the date field of file names, since the containing folder would show if they’re from a past year.)
A “deliverables” folder to hold the documents that were delivered and accepted by the client (or boss or other recipient). The file names don’t have to include the word “final”, since residing in the “deliverables” folder implies that these are the release versions of the files. Having such a folder makes it much easier to retrieve the milestone documents for a project without a bunch of irrelevant drafts cluttering the folder. One iron-clad rule, though, is that users can put a file in the “deliverables” folder only after the client confirms that they accept the file as the deliverable.
A “clips” folder containing press clippings about the project: either mentioning the client by name, or touching on a topic related to the project and thus useful for later reference. In this case, the “clips” folder then operates as a category folder, containing a bitstream of one particular type, and thus can use a more relaxed naming scheme. Category folders are described below.
The category folder
Unlike a project folder, which holds many different types of files pertaining to one project, a category folder contains one kind of file. While occasionally a category folder may sit inside a project folder (as in the example of “clips” above), most category folders sit on the first level of the parent folder, alongside all other project folders.
Here are some other common examples of category folders:
“expenses”: This folder stores past expense reports and digital receipts. These should be dated with the standard file naming scheme, since the file might be shared with other users or an accounting department. (For example, “mh-011607-expenses.xls” would be an Excel spreadsheet showing my expense report from January 16, 2007.) An “old” or “already handled” sub-folder is good to set up, too, to hold past expense reports and receipts that have been taken care of. This reduces clutter by separating out past, irrelevant documents that simply need to be archived. An “expenses” folder may look like this:
“regs”: This folder can contain all the passwords, registrations, and welcome e-mails from websites you register for. The files in this folder are created either by saving an e-mail (e.g., a confirmation e-mail from a website you signed up with) or by creating a text file and typing