Your First Five Files

What do you see when you open Google Drive? How about the Downloads on your computer? What most of us see is a mishmash of important documents and total trash. The file we’re actively working on is surrounded by documents we don’t recognize and projects from years ago.

Maybe you’re more organized than I was. But if you’re still in your messy phase, I’ve got an idea for you to try. Create visual clarity by deciding what the first 5 files you want to see when you look at all of your “stuff.”

The 5 File Framework

Cleaning up our file storage means making it easy to put our hands on what we’re working on, and creating a clear structure for storing what we’re not working on. Most of us can do this effectively with 5 folders. Two of these folders seem standard to everyone, regardless of their lifestyle or work industry. Three more files are tailored to the unique stuff in your life. Let’s start with the two universal folders: Projects and Reference.

The Projects File

If you’re starting with a messy desktop or emptying an old drive of files, the first top-level file you want to make is a Projects Folder. The projects folder on your desktop or in your cloud storage becomes the place where you can put the things you’re opening and working on frequently. If you have a mishmash folder of files to be sorted, you could create a folder inside your Projects Folder called “Sort This Slush.” Drag all the messy files and folders into the “Sort This Slush” folder, and voila! Things already look tidier! Now you can sort what is in this folder when you want to, instead of having to wade through it simply because you open your file explorer.

Create other files inside your Projects Folder to represent the key goals or current areas of focus you’re trying to advance. If you’re trying to get more organized with meal plans, consider creating a “Meal Plans” project folder. Saving recipes or creating checklists inside this folder helps you notice progress and gather bits of ideas for when you’re ready to work on them. If you’re like most of us, you discover bits of useful information at inopportune moments. In our example of meal planning, you may see a tasty recipe during a scrolling break at work – when you can’t get cooking or even check your pantry for ingredients. But if you have a project folder for this, a few clicks can drag the promising recipe into your folder for the project, making it easy to evaluate when you’re back in the kitchen.

Saving it to your own folder also avoids the risk of getting sidetracked and scrolling again, which is what often happens when we have to go looking for something we found earlier but had no place to save. Pulling up Pinterest or repeating our Google search to try to find the recipe can result in distraction rather than making headway on our meal plans. A few minutes invested in working on the information pulled into our own folder goes further since we don’t have to fend off advertisements and unrelated information that makes online sources so time-consuming.

The Reference File

Whether you’re trying to strengthen your personal knowledge management system or just want to store normal stuff on your computer so you can find it again, the Reference file is key. The goal of a reference file is to create One Best Place (OBP) for everything. This means your reference files should be mutually exclusive to avoid uncertainty about where something should go.

Early in my coaching career, I used the David Allen model of an A-Z reference folder file system for reference. This meant I had a hanging folder with each letter of the alphabet set aside, waiting empty until I had something to go in it. Now I create category-based files as needed, arranging them in alphabetical order.

Most of us need some version of the following reference folders.

Automobile

Finances

Health

Home

Learning

Memories

Technology

Travel

Volunteering

Your reference folders will have more life-specific items as well. For example, I have folders for Recipes, Thinking Partners, and Journal Archives. Try to keep the top-level reference folders clear and broad. Nest clear sub-categories to avoid having your list of reference files become too long to easily scan visually. (For example, putting your Taxes file inside your Finances file. And using a broad term like Learning or Education to contain subfolders for conferences, digital courses, and reading notes.) Keeping the top file broad and clear speeds up the filing process.

During large cleanup projects, avoid dumping unreviewed folders of content into your Reference file. If you don’t have time to review it, leave it in a tidy Project folder until you can. It is better to know what you have in the folders you’ve cleaned up than to keep shuffling the slush long-term. Foggy, unclarified folders in your reference file mean that when you arrive to file something new, you can’t be completely sure if there’s already a suitable folder. The lack of clarity compounds, creating a hard-to-navigate set of reference files.

Beyond Projects and Reference

Technically, you could operate your life just using Projects and Reference folders. But it seems like most of us have a few life areas that are broad in scope and constantly in-use. Sometimes things that aren’t concrete projects are still high-access. In this case, you may want the folder containing these items to be one of the first five files you see when you open your file explorer or cloud drive. These specialized reference or supersized project folders can cover any number of topics. But here are some of the top ones I see in my work organizing clients:

Organize Your Kid’s Stuff

Parents of school-age children often have a file for their children’s “stuff.” A file named “Mark & Emma” might have subfolders for School, Soccer, and Health. Saving Memories and Awards or other information worth keeping in their own file makes it easier to access and utilize the information in the future. As they get older, their file can grow up with them, creating archived folders (School Archives, Medical Archives, etc.) to keep things tidy and streamlined.

Organize Your Side Projects

Whether you have a rental property on Airbnb or work as a bookkeeper part time, chances are this area of your life is bigger than a single “project.” It can feel energizing to see your entrepreneurial side-gigs and personal hobbies represented in your top five files. The reminder boosts your awareness and jumpstarts visualization to notice that it is a meaningful, important part of your life. Sometimes these areas of life get siloed from our everyday thinking. This can lead to a lack of mindfulness – both of things that are financially important and personally meaningful.

Organize Super Reference

The other kind of file that belongs in your top five is something I think of as a “super reference.” Like a specialized portion of your reference file, we have super reference files when we spend a lot of time gathering particular information. Most consultants have a super reference file for Client Records, authors have Writing files, and salespeople sometimes have a Marketing Campaign reference they like to draw on. The new emphasis I’ve been hearing on “personal knowledge management,” or PKM, underlines the idea that by capturing the information that fascinates you and developing it over time, you become more engaged in life.

Whether you become an expert and monetize what you know or not, your super-reference file becomes a cache of insights you can draw on as you continue to engage with what fascinates you. Putting this folder at your fingertips makes it easier to keep interacting with these ideas so that they grow.

Because It Feels Good

There is no magic rule that says you should see exactly five files when you open your file explorer. But my life has gotten better since I did. My five files are Projects, Clients (Super Reference), Assets (Super Reference), Reference, and Writing (Super Project). It feels good to get a handle on the "stuff" in my life and have mental elbow room rather than mishmash filling the screen anytime I open a storage area.

If you decide to take the five-file framework for a test run, let me know how it feels. I'd love to know what wild ideas you're wrangling.