Files, Files and More Files!

It's still organization week around here. I'm definitely taking my own advice and organizing my work space. Still pondering Pinterest, trying to decide what kind of storage would work best for me. (Pondering Pinterest is a great blog name!)

As I mentioned, Brandi Parker Bosserman and Samantha Ryan are talking about organization this week. Brandi over at Finding a Path for Me gave a fabulous tip about timing yourself with an actual timer while organizing. She applied that tip to her bedroom. 

Samantha at The Marble Jar shared tips about organizing your meal planning, especially if you have particular dietary concerns. It's a tip I wish I'd found years ago when I was a working single mom because it's a fantastic time saver.

If you're in an organizational mood, check out their posts, too.

File organization

My files are way more organized than my desk. It has to be, so that I can stay productive. In freelance writing, it's essential that a writer remain speedy and organized. There are deadlines and clients to deal with if you want to get paid. You can hardly say, "Oops. Sorry about losing your article." They would say, "Oops. Sorry, I lost your check."

I keep every article I've written. There are various reasons for this, but I like knowing what I've written in the past. I may never look for it, but I like knowing that I could if I wanted. I have work and personal files separated.

Work Files

I have my work files divided by client. If I'm working on an assignment from a content mill, I try to include the type of order in the file name. Otherwise, I save under the various online sites that I use. When I have a personal client, I save under that person's name or company name.

That's the extent of my saving. I don't need to back up these files. I'm keeping them for my own peace of mind, not for any concrete reason. I write about the same topics quite frequently. I might need to make sure I'm not being repetitive.

Blog Files

I write my blog posts in Open Office before copying them into Blogger. Blogger likes to eat things. If it ever eats all my posts, I'll be able to recreate many of them. I organize them into folders by month then by theme week. Any pictures used are kept in the file folders with the posts, too. If I ever had to recreate my blog, I could do it. I might cry a little about the amount of work, but it wouldn't be a total loss. When you are using a free service, you're at their mercy. They can change their terms of service, delete your account, or mess with your blog for any reason. It's important to have everything saved.

Story Files

Each story has it's own Scrivener document, of course, but each story has its own folder in the story section of my computer. I keep that as organized as possible because often I'll edit, but keep the old file for a while in case I've made a mistake. I make sure they are clearly marked. It might say something like "Guardian angel first edit after beta" but that's perfect for me because I know exactly what that means. When I'm ready for promotion, I'll create a file for the media information which includes links to the buy pages, blurbs, excerpts and covers of various sizes.

Everything for personal use is saved to Dropbox, which is a free service that gives you 3GB. I'm not sure if this would be considered organization software, but if it isn't, it should be! I believe Google Drive does the same. It helps when I'm switching between computers. I can access a file I've been working on when I move from the laptop to the desktop and vice versa. It's also vital that you back up your files every month or two in case something horrid happens like the blue screen of death or whatever.

Pictures

I don't have a lot of pictures on my computer. For those that need help with that, there is photo organizing software that helps with keeping pictures organized and easily accessible. Actually, I should find something for that since I do have a lot of stock art for book covers.

Even though I'm fairly organized, it's still a constant work in progress for me, too. If I had one piece of advice, it wouldn't be to purchase photo organizing software, it would be to back up everything you value and hold dear.