Files, organizing, then finding

Gary O'

Gary O'

SF VIP
Location
Oregon
I used to think I was pretty good at organizing things
But
Documents , on line, are taking a large portion of whatever time I have left to find.
Tried files
Too many
To freaking many
Anybody got any tricks I could use?
If so, I’ll prolly not get to it right away, but will put it in my ‘things to do’ file

jF4Y0TG.jpg
 

We have a file cabinet with various files for personal, medical, financial, receipts, manuals, etc. Our cat often helps us locate the files when needed.

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I've been able to cut back on paper files by scanning everything into libraries, which are backed up to an external hard storage drive, DVDs and the cloud. It took me a while to get the libraries arranged so they worked well, but I didn't have a willing and helpful cat so I was on my own. Now it takes little effort to keep up to date.

I like the idea of a Gambrian waifs file. I don't have one of those.
 
TonyK said:
It's not clear to me what you have now and where the problem is.
Click to expand...

First of all, let me say, you guys all think yer pretty funny

and ya are

But
I should have been more clear

Hard copies;
Got that covered
stacked file cabs
meticulously sorted

Computer storage;
not so much
I have files galore
the cloud
zip drive
on my desktop
some ancient ones tucked deep...somewhere

It's just taking me forever to find something, something like a pic I saved...somewhere

I used to have a secretary....
 
Gary O' said:
First of all, let me say, you guys all think yer pretty funny

and ya are

But
I should have been more clear

Hard copies;
Got that covered
stacked file cabs
meticulously sorted

Computer storage;
not so much
I have files galore
the cloud
zip drive
on my desktop
some ancient ones tucked deep...somewhere

It's just taking me forever to find something, something like a pic I saved...somewhere

I used to have a secretary....
Click to expand...

My brain is going, I thought you said flies. A bit OCD, I thought.
 
Shalimar said:
My brain is going, I thought you said flies. A bit OCD, I thought.
Click to expand...

And dyslexic on your part, to boot.

Sorry I can't help you with this one, Gary.

I have bookmarks on Firefox.

Many bookmarks. Lots of bookmarks. Probably too many bookmarks.

And I have folders, At least, for the important things like Pizza, Bacon Cheeseburgers and Taoist Sexual Practices.

But I also have hundreds of unorganized bookmarks, just lurking in the list, laughing at me when I try to find one.

At least once a day I vow to organize them. At least once a day I lie to myself.
 
Gary O' said:
You,sir

are me
Click to expand...

That's a compliment.

I'm also working on what is called "siloing" my websites. It's basically just a neat way of organizing content into ways that are easy for both people and search robots to digest.

You'd think I'd apply those principles to the rest of my life, but no - I still have to excavate every once in a while to find the cat.

paper cat.jpg
 
When we got our first computer I opened a file called "Where did I put things?". It was a brilliant idea, you know - a place for everything and everything in its place sort of thing, all recorded in that little file. I bet you can guess how that worked out.

Yep, I lost the file.
 
I see alot of pile people. They know what pile to look for something. Piles don't work. The most common mistake myself and others seem to make is not leaving space for new stuff. Without a place to put something a pile starts forming. Stuff must be accessible. If it's a lot of work to put away or pull out people being lazy won't use that system.
 
Piles work as long as you never have to move the pile. You judge the date with a ruler---The older the stuff, the deeper in the pile you go. :joke:
 
I mainly uses my computer for document compiling and storage. I use to have a very hard time finding things. I no long have a problem since I found a program called 'Agent Ransack'. It is free but really awesome (even though the name is kinda goofy)!
I've been using it for years and a current version is available; http://download.cnet.com/Agent-Ransack/3000-2072_4-10043846.html
It searches files on any drive windows can see. It can search everything or just a (sub)folder, and any level between.
The search criteria can be a few letters to really complex things (I only use a portion of what it will do).
You can sort the results by; file name, path/folder or date.
Try it. I bet you like it. I don't want to even think about computing w/o it.
HipG
 
HipGnosis said:
I mainly uses my computer for document compiling and storage. I use to have a very hard time finding things. I no long have a problem since I found a program called 'Agent Ransack'. It is free but really awesome (even though the name is kinda goofy)!
I've been using it for years and a current version is available; http://download.cnet.com/Agent-Ransack/3000-2072_4-10043846.html
It searches files on any drive windows can see. It can search everything or just a (sub)folder, and any level between.
The search criteria can be a few letters to really complex things (I only use a portion of what it will do).
You can sort the results by; file name, path/folder or date.
Try it. I bet you like it. I don't want to even think about computing w/o it.
HipG
Click to expand...


THAT'S!!! what I been looking for

thank you, Hip
 

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