Filing simplicity – An alphabetical approach

A good number of e-mails I receive do not require any action. Many e-mails I receive are informational. In these situations, it is something I need to read briefly, get a general idea of what it is, and file it away for future reference.

In the past, I had a highly engineered system for storing these types of e-mails. This included a hierarchy of folders many times 4 or 5 levels deep. Sometimes my folders were organized by project, sometimes organized by a persons name, sometimes organized by priority – Whatever I decided based on my current mood. What a mess! I could rarely find anything.

Taking a tip from David Allen, I changed my filing system to a simple, easily accessible, easy to navigate alphabetical list of folders. Simple yet extremely effective! I can find anything quickly and easily.

The beauty of an alphabetical system is that everything is in front of you in one simple (albeit long) list. Nothing is hidden in a sub-folder of a sub-folder of a sub-folder. I can find something by usually looking in no more than 3 places. Did I file my latest expense report under “expenses” or “trip to XYZ conference”.

I do have a few rules I follow.

1. For projects that contain many mini-projects, I name the folder for the project and the mini-project rather than create a sub-folder structure. For example:
   - PROJECT ABC – Training
   - PROJECT ABC – Planning
   - PROJECT ABC – Staffing
   
   
2. It’s OK if a folder only has 1 item in it. For example, the e-mail telling me about the annual company picnic goes in a folder call “Company Picnic”. If I were to put it anywhere else, I would not know where to find it later.
   
   
3. If it’s in reference to a person, I name the folder “Lastname, Firstname”.

That’s about it. If I find myself creating more rules, I stop. If I start over-engineering my system, it will become too complex, messy and unusable.

If your filing system is failing you more often than not, I’d highly recommend giving an alphabetical approach a chance. You won’t be disappointed with how effective a simple alphabetical filing system can be.