A filing scheme that actually survives
Practice choosing a small set of folders and deciding when to copy a file and when to move it.
People do not give up on their filing because they are disorganised. They give up because the scheme they built asks too much of them at exactly the moment they are busiest.
A scheme survives when filing something takes one decision rather than four. If you have to weigh up “does this go under City, or Property, or 2026, or Letters?”, you will put it on the desktop instead — and so would anybody.
Six folders inside Documents, and the habit of putting the year into the file name rather than into another folder.
Key points
- A scheme survives when filing takes one decision, not four
- A handful of blunt folders beats a careful structure you abandon
- Put the year in the file name, not in a folder of its own
- Move gives you one file elsewhere; copy gives you two, and two is rarely what you want
What to remember
- Ask what a document is fundamentally about, not who sent it. One question, one folder, no hesitating.
- Notice that every one of those took one decision. That is the property that makes a scheme last.
- Copy when you want two. Move when you want one, elsewhere. That is the entire distinction, and it never gets more complicated than that.
- Which of these sounds most like your own filing today?
Try this
Make one folder tonight. One. Call it Money, put it inside Documents, and move the last three statements you can lay hands on into it. A scheme that starts with one folder is the only kind that ever gets finished.
Practice: A filing scheme that actually survives. Your first lesson is free, with no account or card; the rest are part of a Lantern plan. Interactive lessons require JavaScript.