Each of us has been in a situation where you need to find the necessary information in a short time and instead, you spend an hour or two searching. Of course, this gets on your nerves and takes a lot of resources. Therefore, effective work with files is an important part of time management. Less searching, more concentration and more productivity, right?
But how does one defeat chaos in their files? How to turn a mess into an orderly system? Below, we have collected useful life hacks for both a computer and a phone. Surely, the whole process will take some time, so be sure to use a cheap essay writing service to free up your school schedule. Student help platforms are super handy at times when the number of assignments is simply endless. Indeed, with a talented assistant on your side, it will be much easier to keep your life organized!
Decluttering Your Computer
Get Rid Of Trash
If you forget about the Trash folder, then set up automatic files clearing. On Windows 10 or older, go to Settings > System > Storage. There, you can find the Storage Sense function and turn it on. Then your system will automatically delete old and unused files, including clearing your bin.
Store Everything Important In The Cloud
Cloud services help solve several problems at once. First, it is super convenient that the files are collected in one place. They are easy to find and they are always available from any device. Second, copying and sending something from the cloud is much faster than from a computer. And third, safety is key. Backing up files in the cloud protects them from viruses or hard drive failure.
Develop A Convenient Structure
There should be a maximum of five main folders in your drive or cloud. You can name them like this: “Everyday Life”, “Study”, “Work”, “Hobbies”, “Goals”, etc. Your work files can be divided into “Projects”, “Clients”, “Plans”, “Documents” and “Reports”. In the meantime, the folder for your personal life may contain photos, videos and ebooks. You should have no more than five main folders.
Give Your Files Short, Meaningful Names
File and folder names should be concise and short so that you can easily read them with your eyes. Specify their content, for example, “Essay On Gone With The Wind” or “Presentation On Archetypes In Marketing”. Also, indicate the names of people who are mentioned in the documents. This will make searching easier.
Give the most important files special names. Use symbols like !, #, $ at the beginning, so that the files will always be in the first place, and not in alphabetical order.
Make Organizing A Habit
When creating a new file or folder, save it right away to where it belongs in the structure you have designed. If files are automatically saved to the Downloads folder, sort it once a week.
Review Things Regularly
If you have hundreds of files in one folder, then it’s time for a change. Remove blurred photos, old versions of documents and files that you will never need.
Make Archives
If you are afraid to part with something, pack everything old into archives. This will save space on your computer, plus, the archive is more convenient to move than thousands of separate files. Key archives can be placed in a separate folder and added to the cloud.
Use File Managers
There is a large number of programs that allow you to automatically sort arrays of files, rename them, choose common themes, tags, etc. File managers will also show you which folders you use most often.
Decluttering Your Phone
Remove Useless Apps
Over time, we accumulate a huge number of mobile applications. For example, games that were downloaded out of curiosity, apps that came in handy during a vacation in another country, shopping programs, etc. However, you must remember to take them off your phone.
First, you will have a more ordered desktop. Second, you will free up a significant part of the memory. Third, you will reduce the number of background operations that slow down the phone. The fact is that many applications are constantly running without asking the user. They are checking for updates, determining the location of the device, and so on.
Since Apple has an application called ScreenTime, you can see which applications are used most often. A similar function is performed by Digital Wellbeing in phones with the latest version of Android.
Structure The Programs
When you have removed the useless programs from your phone, it’s time to give the rest a logical structure. Most phones allow you to organize applications into folders and change where they are placed on the home screen. This allows you to group similar applications, for example, to collect everything related to Google (Drive, Photos, Chrome) in one folder, or to select a folder for music, study, etc.
Rely On Cloud Services
When organizing photos on your phone, it makes sense to make a copy of them using a cloud application. So, the most important pictures will not be lost, even if you lose the device or it will fail. In addition, cloud services can save device memory.
Get Your Contacts In Order
Let’s agree, our contacts are usually in chaos. Some of the names appear there several times. Fortunately, all this can be fixed by choosing which contacts will be shown in the search and combining duplicate entries. For example, Android users can merge contacts. The same goes for Apple too.
Delete Unnecessary Files
Do you have thousands of photos on your device? As a rule, we take several photos at once, and then forget to choose the best one. Luckily, smartphones sort photos by faces, locations, and more. But of course, you should regularly review the contents of your gallery to delete duplicate and unnecessary pictures.
To Wrap It Up
Cleaning is an important part of our daily activities. Just the way we tidy our house, it is worth looking into our devices from time to time and getting rid of digital garbage. That’s how you can speed up the work of your phone and computer, and the necessary things will be easier to find. Less stress, more time, more order!
