Organize better. Search less.

Create and classify folders.

The first step to have your files in order is to identify your folders. Depending on the work you do, create separate folders to save different sets of files. You can classify folders based on projects or tasks. For example, if you work in Sales and Marketing, your folders can include Marketing Analysis, Ads & Campaigns, Press Releases, Blogs etc.

It's a useful practice to use dates in folder names. This pays off well when you want to find a particular file long after you created it. It also creates coherence and consistency in your folder structure. If you generate marketing reports on a month to month basis, create a folder named Marketing Reports 2017. The sub-folders or files in this folder can be named April 2017 - Marketing Report, May 2017 - Marketing Report etc.

Follow a format to name your files.

A file's name should identify its contents. Use crisp and short filenames which contain key terms that represent the information inside the file. It'll be much easier for you to name your files and find them later if you follow a uniform format to create filenames.

Let's say you have a folder named Blogs 2017 where you save all the blogs you write in the year 2017. You create a blog on how to plan a holiday. Your filename can be Planning Holidays - Blog- Apr 2017. This filename follows the format: <Topic> - <Category> - <Date>. Similarly, you can create formats that make it easier for you to search, identify and locate files.

Remember to add tags.

Tags are keywords associated with the subject of a file. Once you add tags to a file, you can use these keywords to search and find the file later, even if you forget the filename and the folder to which it belongs. For a write-up on Planning a Holiday, the tags can be holiday, destinations, travel, visit etc.

Add to Favorites.

Sometimes there'll be files that you frequently need to refer for various purposes. Add those files to your favorites list so that you can access all of them in one place.

 

Trash outdated files.

Clean up your folders once in a while to get rid of files that you don't need any more. This will prevent piling up of unnecessary files and folders.

Make use of Sort.

Control the order in which files get listed on your screen.You can sort files according to three parameters in Zoho Docs: Last opened, Modified date and Created date.