How to organize digital files and notes effectively to reach maximum productivity and efficiency?

13 min readJul 23, 2022

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How to Organize digital files and notes effectively to reach maximum productivity and efficiency?

You are probably familiar with this situation:

You want to work on something and you have collected a lot of information researching the subject, or you have collected all the relevant material you need to analyze something.

But instead of writing or doing what you need to work on, you spend hours of your time trying to find where you have put all the information, may it be a document file or a note in your digital note-taking app, or even where you wrote a few paper notes on it — Some of it is in your downloads, some of it is on Notion, some of it is in OneNote and some files are spread across your document library…

You keep going back and forth every time you need to get something and spend precious minutes each time to find the next piece of information you have stored.

This is a very frustrating process and a very time-consuming one since you constantly context switch between notes and files searching for the content.

It was costing me way too much time and I had to find a way to solve this problem…

Why is Digital Organization the key to efficiency and maximum productivity?

Being organized with your digital files and folders is not just about archiving things correctly for the day you will need them, it’s about reducing the context switches you need to do when you are looking for the material and reviewing it.

Each one of these contexts switches of drilling into your long documents, switching between your notes apps and trying to remember where the document is, is reducing your focus level and taking you out of the zone, and worst, it might pull you to start looking at unrelated information that you come across which you were looking for last time or suddenly rediscovered.

So this is something that we want to completely minimize.

We want to be able to pull the relevant information we need, quickly and efficiently without context switches.

This will reduce the overhead and defocusing which happens a lot in this day and age of information overload and this will get us to stay in the zone, focus, and spend minimal time searching for the information.

If you want to learn how to do the same for emails — read this Post.

The 2 types of people in how you store and retrieve your digital information

There are 2 types of people when it comes to searching information you stored in your digital files or notes:

The Travelers: These are the people that when they need to search for information in their documents and notes start traversing the folder layout and sections. They have everything sorted into folders and directories and they store everything in place.
The Teleporters: These are the people that get all the information by “Searching” for it. Either in their file explorers or their note-taking app.

Although there are 2 types — very few people are strictly one or the other. Most of us apply a bit of both…

None of these types is bad or good, they have different advantages and disadvantages and we need to utilize all of these to be efficient and use the time to be productive and not let it go to waste.

What is the most important thing in digital files and information organization?

As always when becoming productive — the most important thing is the mindset.

You need to understand that you need to have a system that can allow you to pull information fast and equally important, a fast system to store the information.

This might take you a bit off your comfort zone — if you like everything on the Desktop or if you are an organized person that needs everything in a hierarchy of 50 levels of directories.

You will need to make a few changes which in turn will save you a lot of time …

What are the goals of a system to store digital files, notes, and information?

Simply put, there are 3 things this system needs to achieve:

Easy to use — This needs to be something simple and fast, something that can become a habit. If this requires too much thinking, too many steps, or a complex flow chart — it’s not going to be sustainable.
Easy to find — The method needs to allow you to find what you need easily and without too many steps and hopefully without any context switches.
Easy to file — The method needs to save you time on storing information as well as on the retrieving of it. if it’s easy to find what you want in seconds but takes you hours to store it’s not getting you to a productive state with your tasks.

Let’s deep dive into each one.

How to store digital information which is Easy to USE?

The most important thing here is that this system is simple to use and gets the job done in the 80/20 rule… Do not stress about it — it doesn’t have to be perfect.

It needs to be good enough so that you will keep using it correctly and save you time.

Even if things are not 100% accurate — there is no point in wasting hours each week to keep it all perfect when it only saves you less time to get the information.

“You don’t want to spend any more time on the input side than Is necessary to find it on the output side.” David Sparks

And the most important thing is that it needs to be something simple that can become a habit.

If you keep delaying putting files or notes into the system because it takes too much time and is too cumbersome — you will stop using it and fall back into a complete mess.

How to store digital information which is Easy to FIND?

Correctly name your digital folders and notes section. See section below.
Keep Naming conventions You need to have a simple naming conventions system that will make it easy to find. For instance: bills can always start with the Client name first, and Documents for a project should always start with the Project name. This will make it much easier to find the exact file when searching for it.
Name each file and folder with a meaning Sounds simple — but people usually work with their digital file system as they would work with their paper systems. Having invoice.pdf under a path of directories that creates the logic — means you will not find it by searching — keep naming things and follow the convention. The best method that I am using is that for a project that I am working on the directories under the project directory all start with the project name — that way, searching for all the relevant project material is easy — I use it on some of the files too to make searching even faster.
Learn to search Search is the preferred tool of the “Teleporters” and it saves tons of time when you need specific data — “embrace it”! If your files are uniquely named (and dated where applicable — for instance in bills and receipts) searching will have a very low number of results making it easy to find the exact thing you need.
Use shortcuts Shortcuts are a valuable step and each OS has its way of pinning a directory to a “Favorites” so that by one click you will get to the folder you use most or that you are currently working on. Learn and use Keyboard Shortcuts — Keyboard shortcuts save a lot of time when you work, either simple steps like copy-past, window, and desktop switching or the advanced stuff of running Macros when you press a keyboard combination. Don’t run to learn them all at once — Learn 2–3 keyboard commands — use them for a couple of weeks and then move to the next one.
Stop using your “Downloads” folder as a storage/WIP files location The “Downloads” directory is not an easy place to find things once some time has passed and you keep putting files there. Moreover, it is not backed up automatically — so it’s a very bad place to store important things.
Have different logical paths to each folder/note Never have two logical paths to the same file: ”Design documents” and “projects”→” Project x” → “Design Documents”. This ensures that some files will be in one path and the other files in the other path making you constantly go back and forth searching for information or when storing it.
Delete unnecessary files Unnecessary files which can be: duplicates, things your already reviewed and extracted all the relevant information, old versions of files, and more, create clutter and duplication, this will impact the speed at which you find things. So keep your work area as clean as possible without information that is irrelevant or duplicated.
Don’t use your email as a files storage system Simply put — it’s not meant for that, and it’s not good at it. Don’t use tools that are not made specifically for a use case in other ways, they have many drawbacks. If you want to archive a file — move it to its relevant folder.

How to store digital information which is Easy to FILE?

Correctly name your digital folders and notes section. See section below
Shallow When creating digital directories try not to create too many levels. Too many levels will cause the storing and retrieving process to become cumbersome with too many clicks for each step and more problematic: you will get more than one logical direction for storing.
Do not create too many folders You want your file directory structure as simple as possible. This saves time both on the information storage and on the information extraction. If you find you are coming to the same path over and over and keep thinking that you need a folder there — it’s a good indication of a required folder, or if your folder becomes overcrowded with more than 20 files (just a number, pick yours and stick to it).
Unique Folders should have a specific name that is easy to understand and search and more importantly there should be one path to reach each file. If it makes sense to reach 2 different locations by following a different directory flow then you will inevitably have many folders containing part of the content that you need.
Helper Tools Don’t be afraid to use storage helper tools that automatically move files to folders and rename them by a certain set of rules — like Hazel on Mac and Juggler on Windows.
Your “Desktop” is not meant for storing files Although it’s there, your desktop should be as clean as possible with only a handful of links to reduce the mental clutter this creates on your brain. Keep on your desktop — if you must — only the files that you are currently working on, 2–3, no more. If you want these files or directories easily accessible, think about the shortcuts section again.
Templates are helpful Pretty soon you will identify that you have and need about the same directory structure in different areas of the same topics — like: Customers, projects, etc. Create a template and copy-paste it between the folders as soon as you open a new one. it will save you time and create logical consistency between your folders.
Use the PARA method. See this section.

How to correctly name your digital folders and notes section?

This is an important section of the methodology. There are a few targets to correctly naming your folder layout:

to make it as intuitive as possible when you are going to store your data.
to make it as intuitive as possible when you come to collect the files and use the information.
quickly zoom in on files when you are searching.

The key point here is that you need to think about the “Future You”, the one that is going to search for the information a month from now and will not remember that he thought a month ago that putting that file in a folder called “Downloads” will be a good place because you will obviously not remember that it’s there because last month it was important to you.

So what are the rules:

Uniquely naming each folder in the tree:
Your file name should be informative as possible.
Use Dates where applicable — in directory names and file names. Don’t assume that the Date in the directory is enough and all the bills can fit in the folder — you are impacting your ability to search by file name — you will search “Electricity bill and get ~20 results”.
Have a personal documents folder and a business documents folder — separate these
Suggestions for Personal folder:

/Documents/finances
/Documents/social
/Documents/play
/Documents/mind
/Documents/health

b. business folders will highly depend on your occupation — so pick something simple that matches your line of work.

How to effectively store digital files in the cloud? Or What is the best way to Organize Digital Files on One Drive, Google Drive, and Dropbox?

Or any other file sharing and cloud storage you use.

This is basically the same as regular digital files on your computer.

The main points to keep are:

The optimal way is that your Documents folder is synced to the cloud so you are not actually using 2 systems but instead you use one which automatically keeps everything organized and backed up.
Keep the same organization method and directory layout on both systems so it’s easy to follow the same logical path to all your information (and think again about syncing them).

How to effectively store digital notes? Or What is the best way to Organize Digital notes in Notion, OneNote, Evernote?

As with your digital files — digital notes are exactly the same — in the sense of where to keep the notes.

The main points to keep are:

Make sure you have the same layout across your file system and digital notes app — see the PARA method below.
Use only one note-taking app — we will not go into which one is better, just make sure that the one you pick — fits your needs, and use only that one.
Do not use your digital notes app for anything else but the job that it was planned to do — store notes! Do not store files, images, documents, emails, etc. in it — it’s not meant for it.

The PARA Method: A Universal System for Organizing Digital Information

For the sake of length, I will just give the highlight for this method, but I highly recommend that you will deep dive more into this method in this excellent article:

The PARA Method: A Universal System for Organizing Digital Information — Forte Labs

The PARA method is a system to impose the same layout across all of your digital files storage systems and your notes — and also as a side benefit has a direct link to your task manager.

What is the PARA Method

P.A.R.A. stands for Projects — Areas — Resources — Archives, the four top-level categories that encompass every type of information you might encounter in your work and life.

Projects — “a series of tasks linked to a goal, with a deadline.”

Examples include “Complete app mockup”; “Develop project plan”; “Write a blog post”; “Finalize product specifications”; “Lecture in a conference”.

Areas — An area of responsibility is “a sphere of activity with a standard to be maintained over time.”

Examples include Health; Finances, Professional Development; Travel; Hobbies; Friends; Apartment; Car; Productivity; Direct reports; Product Development; Writing.

Resource — is “a topic or theme of ongoing interest.”

Examples include: habit formation; project management; transhumanism; coffee; music; gardening; online marketing; SEO; interior design; architecture; note-taking

Archives include “inactive items from the other three categories.”

The difference between Projects and Areas

A project has a goal to be achieved — a discrete event that will happen, allowing this item to be completely checked off and struck from the list. And this goal is supposed to take place at a specific moment in time.

It has a deadline or timeframe, whether externally or self-imposed.

An area of responsibility, by contrast, has a standard to be maintained. And there is no end date or final outcome. The standard continues indefinitely and requires a certain level of attention at all times.

Go paperless to be Productive

If you have paper documents that you use I strongly suggest moving them to a digital form using a document scanner or a phone scanner and using an OCR application to change it from a picture to an actual document that can be searched in.

As before, having one unified system is critical to finding your information quickly and on time. This includes any bills and invoices you need, documents that you are working with, and more importantly — any note that you are writing and needs to be with all the other information in your digital note-taking app.

Summary

Storing your digital files and notes, or any digital information, is critical to being productive and efficient — it will save you time while you are storing the information, finding the information, and while you are working on the information by reducing context switches and information re-search every time you need something.

Use the above tools, tips, and best methods to correctly work with your digital information so that you will be the most productive and efficient that you can be and reach your true life goals.