Our Favorite Tips for Organizing Your Digital Storage
There are plenty of tips on the internet for organizing your digital storage — so many, in fact, that they tend to get a little overwhelming. Organization should be simple — you don’t need an avalanche of information to confuse the process.
With this in mind, take a look at our three favorite tips for organizing your digital files, photos, bookmarks, contracts, or anything else. Keep it simple, and keep it effective.
1. Look to automation wherever possible
Modern organization apps and programs use powerful automated features to do much of the heavy lifting associated with organization. This may include the deletion of duplicate files, the completion of forms, creating a link to Zoom for a certain type of meeting or sending automatic email responses that help you stay on top of information and organization.
Zapier can provide an automatic link between programs and storage locations, making the process of organization even easier.
2. Define a system — a simple system
Make sure you know how you will organize your digital files ahead of time. Decide which folders will house which files, which shortcuts will lead to which areas of your storage setup, and which files can be deleted.
But — and this is very important! — make sure your system is streamlined. The less steps in your digital system, the better. If it is needlessly complicated, some of your files may fall through the cracks, or you may give up on your system altogether.
3. Commit to the best program
There are lots of apps and programs to help you get organized, but resist the temptation to simply skip between different apps. Give yourself some time to choose the one that best fits your needs, and then stick with that. Provided you do your research properly and give yourself enough time to make a decision, you should be able to reliably find the best fit for you.
If you end up with three or four programs open side by side, you’re bound to run into some organizational difficulty.
Remember, organization doesn’t have to be complicated. The simpler you make the process, the better.
FileThis: The Awesome Tool for Going Paperless You Don’t Want to Miss
Going paperless is not so tricky. You simply need the right solutions to support you — and this is where FileThis comes in. Once you have switched your accounts to e-statements, FileThis provides the crucial next step you need.
What Is FileThis?
FileThis is a program that delivers e-statements from each of your accounts every week whether it be your checking, savings, investment, credit card, mortgage, cell phone, internet or your gas and electric accounts. You simply register with FileThis, connect the program to your bank, financial institution and/or utility company turn on your notifications, and you’re all set.
The Benefits of FileThis
- Ultra secure
To establish the connection between your financial institution, you must use your financial institution’s encrypted log-in portal. All communication takes place via the same encrypted channels, minimizing risk.
- Easy organization
FileThis will store PDF statements wherever you instruct it to. In this way, you can quickly and easily organize all of your statements, retaining as much manual control as you want while still leveraging the labor-saving benefits of automation.
- Effective tax records
Financial institutions often make historical statements available through their portal, but these often only go back about three years. Unfortunately, this is not enough for your tax records, and you will need statements that go back longer than three years. FileThis makes it possible to build a long and comprehensive chain of statements that can be used to produce effective tax records.
- Convenient notifications
Users receive email notifications whenever they have a bill that needs attention, or another urgent message. FileThis makes sure that users do not get left in the dark when it comes to important actions.
- Lots of advantages in the free version of the program
Users can register six connections for free, which can be set to check different accounts once a week. For example, if you want your savings and credit card statements checked, you can set these up under separate connections. If you want each connection to have its own log-in, you can set it up this way.
Users can register up to 12 connections on the paid version, with plans starting at only $2 per month.
Want to learn more about Going Paperless? Watch our Free The Best Practices for Going Paperless Webinar.
Related Post: FREEING-UP DIGITAL PHOTO STORAGE SPACE: THE CHALLENGES OF DELETING & FINDING DUPLICATE PHOTOS
Alex Brzozowski is a professional organizer and productivity specialist. She started Be because she believes there’s a better way to organizing people’s lives—focusing not only on the home, but specializing in digital and business organizing and productivity, including digital documents, CRM programs, photos, music, email contacts, calendar and more! Her goal is to help her clients free up time to do what they love by bringing order and efficiency to their business, digital life and home.
Alex’s Midwest upbringing and values as well as her schooling at Butler University around “The Butler Way” are the pillars that have built her successful career in San Diego.
As a Paralegal for 5 years, she spent much of her time at a leading San Diego “paperless law firm”. As the “go to” person when it came to keeping case files and documents in order, she created a deep understanding of building systems, tracking and storing highly sensitive and private documents online and off.
Alex founded Be Organizing in November 2012. Shortly thereafter she became a member of the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO). She is active in the San Diego Chapter of NAPO and currently serving as the Chapter President. She also is Co-Author of “It’s Not About the Food: Personal Stories and Inspiration from Health Coaches and Wellness Experts to Transform Your Weight Loss Mindset and Lose Weight Without a Diet” where she writes about organizing and it’s relation to weight loss. It’s not just about the food, it’s about so much more!
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