Maintaining A Personal Archive
I like order and categories and beautiful, neat rows of things. At least, that’s the case on my computer. Having data is one thing. Being able to quickly find data is something else entirely. By the end of this article, you’ll have all the tools you need to become a digital Martha Stewart. Let's dive right into it.
Start Big
Create no more than five or six top shelf folders on your computer desktop. From here on out, files you put into your computer will start in one of these folders. My folders are: Teaching // Business // Pictures // Personal // Music // Financials
Of course, these folders have subfolders. Again, keep these small in number. A peek into some of my folders will show:
Of course, these folders have subfolders. Again, keep these small in number. A peek into some of my folders will show:
- Financials>2018
- Tax Info
- Medical
- Business Receipts
- Large Purchases and Warranties
- Tax Info
- Teaching>
- HIS 112>
- Syllabi
- 2018
- 2017
- and so on...
- Units
- Reconstruction
- Lecture Notes
- Primary Documents
- Powerpoint
- Future Research
- Industrial Revolution
- Lecture Notes
- Primary Documents
- Powerpoint
- Future research
- ...and so on
- Reconstruction
- Syllabi
- HIS 112>
- Personal
- Car
- Scanned in service records, titles, bills of sale, etc.
- Family
- By person (medical info, etc.)
- Genealogy
- By family (more on this in another article)
- You get the idea by now…
- Car
Naming Patterns
1. Death to pictures named “pic.”
2. Death to random numbers.
You should be able to instantly look at a file and know everything about it. It’s a beautiful dream, ain’t it? You can make it happen with a consistent naming pattern. Here’s what I do for each file/picture and why:
For pictures, I follow a similar pattern:
My picture folders are pretty easy:
2. Death to random numbers.
You should be able to instantly look at a file and know everything about it. It’s a beautiful dream, ain’t it? You can make it happen with a consistent naming pattern. Here’s what I do for each file/picture and why:
- Year_Month_Day_Type/Location_Natural Name
- For instance, the article you’re reading is saved as: 2018_03_21_Article_Maintaining A Personal Digital Archive.doc in my Business>Articles folder. I can see everything I need to know without having to open the file.
For pictures, I follow a similar pattern:
- 2017_06_21_Italy_Roma_TreviFountain_DSCe53099.jpeg
- The bit on the end is the natural/automatic name that a camera attaches to the picture. I simply add extra info in front. Keeping that natural bit on the end can help if I lose a picture. It can also direct me back to whichever camera I used to take a particular image.
My picture folders are pretty easy:
- 2018
- 2017
- 12 December
- 20170621_Italy_Roma_TreviFountain_DSCe53099.jpeg
- 20170621_Italy_Roma_TreviFountain_DSCe53100.jpeg
- 20170621_Italy_Roma_TreviFountain_DSCe53100edit1.jpeg (for edited images)
- 20170621_Italy_Roma_RestuaruantNearTreviFountain_DSCe5310.jpeg
- 20170621_Italy_Roma_RestuaruantIceCreamNearTreviFountain_DSCe5311.jpeg
- And so on and so forth…
- 12 December
Why not organize photos by type? Or kid? Or pet? Or Location?
Let’s say you have the following pictures folders:
How would you file a picture of your kiddo, Gul, with Memaw on the beach during Christmas Break when Memaw gave Dukat a new puppy? Which folder do you choose?
Me? I’d put it in the December 2018 folder and name it: 2018_12_26_Florida_Keys_CrapMomJustGaveTheKidsAFreakingDog_DSC666.jpeg
But how would you find something if you don’t know the exact date?
Easy. Scroll down to the next paragraph on meta data.
Let’s say you have the following pictures folders:
- Dogs
- Vacations
- Holidays
- Kid 1 Gul
- Kid 2 Dukat
- Memaw
- Work
- Beach and Water Pics
How would you file a picture of your kiddo, Gul, with Memaw on the beach during Christmas Break when Memaw gave Dukat a new puppy? Which folder do you choose?
Me? I’d put it in the December 2018 folder and name it: 2018_12_26_Florida_Keys_CrapMomJustGaveTheKidsAFreakingDog_DSC666.jpeg
But how would you find something if you don’t know the exact date?
Easy. Scroll down to the next paragraph on meta data.
Meta Data
This is a fancy name for that stuff attached to all of our files. If you right click on any image or document, you’ll pull up something that reads, ‘Properties.’ Click on that. Select detail and start typing in the comment box. There, write exactly what’s happening in the picture or the document. You can also also add tags. Think of tags as the tops of manila folders. For the above example, my tags would include: Mother, Gul, Dog’s Name, Vacation, Florida. Now, whenever I search for any of those words in my computer, the image will pop up. See the tags in the image above?
You can also set your folders to always show tags and comments. Simply select VIEW from the top of any open folder and tick the boxes for tags, comments, and anything else you care to see. Stick to underscore, letters and numbers for these file names. If…when…you switch computers, other characters can get squirrely.
You can also set your folders to always show tags and comments. Simply select VIEW from the top of any open folder and tick the boxes for tags, comments, and anything else you care to see. Stick to underscore, letters and numbers for these file names. If…when…you switch computers, other characters can get squirrely.
Back up your data
Remember the 3-2-1 Rule
- 3 copies of everything
- Saved in 2 different formats
- With at least 1 copy offsite
Final Thoughts
Starting this process from scratch will take a long time. It just will and there’s no way to sugarcoat that. The payoff is that once you set up the system, everything becomes so much easier to find, and save going forward. Dedicate a full weekend to this project. Start by dumping all of your pictures into the Pictures folder of your computer. This is also the time to migrate over pictures from phones and tablets. Go through all pictures one by one. Delete any image that isn’t print worthy. Be ruthless. For pics that all happen at the same place/event, select the whole set and tag them all at once. You can do a similar thing with other types of documents.
Now, go forth and be awesome.
Pamela Crawley
CC-BY 2018-MAR-21
Now, go forth and be awesome.
Pamela Crawley
CC-BY 2018-MAR-21