What is the best way to name your files? Well, here's a simple three step formula you can use by adding a subject, a date and a code to each of your files, it will make it that much easier for you to both organize and find your files in the future.
Here on the screen in front of you, I've got three different folders with different examples, all of them including a subject, a date and a code and a great thing about this formula is that you don't have to keep it in this order, you can mix and match it based on your needs.
So for example, in my first folder, I've got the subject name, followed by the code, followed by the date. In the middle folder, I have the date, followed by the subject name, followed by the code.
And in the last folder, I have the code, followed by the name, followed by the date. Now let's take a closer look at what makes this file naming system so powerful.
Of course, when it comes to the name or the subject of your file, that's going to differ on each and every file type, but you will notice that I've included a dash between the file name anywhere where a space would normally appear.
Instead of writing a new space hire space process, I've included a dash. Why? Many applications still will not accept a file or process it correctly if you've included a space somewhere within your file name and in some cases they will add special characters in between those spaces.
So in order to make sure that your file can be used or shared with almost any application, I encourage that you include these dashes.
You'll also notice that I've included an underscore which separates these three components. In this example, I have the date, underscore, the subject name and then underscore and then finally the code.
That makes it a lot easier to read and also to see the distinction between these three different parts. Now, when it comes to the date, I highly recommend that you use the following date format, the full four digit year, followed by the two digit month, followed by the two digit date.
And it doesn't matter what country you live in or what the standard date format is for your region, we want to follow this order so it can sort properly. By using the year, month, date format, we can always sort, especially if you've included the date at the beginning of that file name.
Lastly, let's take a look at the final component of our formula and that is by adding a unique code or a unique identifier. Here within the left folder, the special code is as a version number.
Within the middle folder, I've got a combination of different things. I have some, which are the initials, perhaps of the last person who edited or who created this file. It could be a version number or, like in the last two examples, I'm identifying the difference between a draft and a final version.
And then in the right hand side folder, the unique code happens to be a purchase order number, which again makes it nice and easy for me to sort everything that is going on within this folder.
The other thing that you will notice is that I recommend that that unique code is in all capitals.
By using capitals for your code, it will stand out that much more and you can better see the distinction between the three different parts of our file name.
Now, one thing to note, if you are using version numbering, I highly recommend that you use a two digit system like we see here, version zero one followed by zero two and so on.
Why? Even if you don't think that you will get to version 10 or greater, if you do, you want to make sure that this will sort or can be read easily if you do get two double digits. This will save an awful lot of headache and an awful lot of edits in the future.
So the next time you go to create or save a file, just remember this three-step formula of adding a subject, a date and a code, it will make organizing your files and folders so much easier.
Thank you so much for watching today's video and remember, being productive does not need to be difficult, in fact, it's very simple.
