How to Organize Your Digital Files with Cloud Storage and Automation

With increased agility, competitive differentiation, and improved collaboration, organizing digital files is no longer optional but an essential business practice. Think how much time you will waste sorting through unorganized work folders, files, and documents when needed! Thus, file organization should be taken seriously.

When your digital files are organized, it becomes easy to find what you need quickly, and it can also help save time and reduce stress.

Now, the question is how to do it. In the digital era, leveraging the right technology can help you streamline processes, eliminate manual tasks, and empower your team to work more efficiently. Having said that, using cloud storage services is the best way to organize files seamlessly.

This article explains how to make the most of cloud storage to organize your digital files. So, without further ado, let’s get started!

Tips to Automate the Process of Organizing Digital Files with Cloud Storage

The first question is, can you automate the process of organizing files without errors? Well, yes. You can use cloud solutions such as Google Drive, Dropbox, etc., to manage digital files seamlessly.

Simultaneously, you can also use automatic file organization software, including Zoho, Salesforce, and many more tools, to organize files and folders automatically. However, this article will focus on managing your documents with cloud solutions.

Look for the following tips for organizing digital files with cloud storage:

1) Choose the Right Cloud Solution

Choosing the best cloud storage services that offers complete flexibility with less downtime is important. The best options include Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, Dropbox, and iCloud.

All these platforms offer different storage capabilities and integration with other apps. Therefore, evaluating your needs and selecting the one that aligns with your business goals is always recommended.

Another essential thing to look for before choosing the cloud platform is to evaluate the security measures and advanced search & categorization features.

All of the cloud storage platforms we have mentioned are secure and reliable options for storing your data. Since the files are stored online in the cloud, there is no risk of losing your data or even when the hardware is letting you down.

2) Delete or Archive Duplicate Files

The most crucial aspect of organizing your files is to delete unused and unwanted files. However, if you do not want to delete it permanently, you can transfer the files into the archive folder. This will eliminate extensive searching by keeping the files away in the archive folder you do not want to use actively.

3) Embrace the Power of Naming Files Clearly

File names must be clear, concise, and easy to understand. You must also ensure consistency in the naming system across your organization, which will make finding the content easy and less time-consuming. Standard naming conventions will allow your team to know exactly how to name files and folders in the same pattern and find them.

For instance, if you had a statutory meeting with the board of directors in January 2023, name the folder ‘2023Jan_StatutoryMeeting’ so every concerned person in your company can easily find out. If you follow this naming convention, the following year would be ‘2024Jan_StatutoryMeeting,’ and so on. This way, you can create uniformity in folder names to make the search easy.

4) Create Folders and Sub Folders with Clear Hierarchy

Begin by categorizing your files and documents. You can do this by creating a clear and logical folder structure to keep your files manageable, navigatable, and accessible. The best practice to create these folders is by following this structure-

• By Name
• By Project
• By Date

Additionally, you can create sub-folders within the main category folders. For instance, if you have an accounting folder, you can create multiple sub-folders within this by naming the ‘Auditing’ folder, ‘Cost Accounting’ folder, ‘Tax Accounting’ folder, and so on.

5) Implement a Tagging System

If you want to find a way that goes beyond the constraints of folders, tagging is one of the most flexible ways to organize digital files effortlessly. You can assign relevant tags to your files based on topics, themes, and keywords. Tagging facilitates classifying files into multiple categories without duplicating them and proves to be one of the advanced search functionalities.

6) Secure your Digital Files

Digital files exist to make your work easy, but they are prone to server crashes, cyber-attacks and outages, which could lead to data loss. This is where cloud-based file storing platforms come into the picture, as they can help get your lost data with minimum loss. In fact, it is advisable to opt for additional security to protect your files, which includes-

• Virtual Private Network (VPN)- It protects your data when you use public Wi-Fi or hotspots by encrypting your data and location.
• Cloud Wi-Fi- For added security, it is recommended to add cloud-based network security to your company or office Wi-Fi.
• Mobile Security- Secure your data on mobile devices as well by preventing phishing, malware, and suspicious sites
• Email and Spam Security—It has been observed that most malware and spyware originate from employees opening innocuous emails. Therefore, it is best to use spam security to filter out these emails.

7) Always File As You Go

If you work with multiple files simultaneously, organizing the folders at least once a month is best to avoid chaos on your desktop or storage space. If you do not file them, you will soon have a backlog of files needing to be filed, which will take a lot of time to organize and understand. Therefore, file as you go and manage your documents folder-wise immediately after working on them.

Make sure to name every file correctly so that it is easy to search for and comprehend. Even if you accidentally save these files in the wrong folder, a clear naming convention can help you find them quickly.

8) Make Digital Copies of Physical Documents

Nowadays, almost all companies ensure that their documents are accessible online, but numerous physical documents might still need to be digitized. There is a high chance of losing physical documents, so it is important to digitize them and file them in the appropriate folder.

Various tools are available that can help digitize your handwritten documents or even photos. For this, you can use a document scanner to scan physical documents, and they will be ready to be filed. If your cloud storage has Optical Character Recognition (OCR) built-in, you can turn those scanned images into text-searchable PDFs.

9) Ensure your Content is Backed Up

One significant file management tip is to back up your files regularly. Unexpected events, such as system crashes, hardware crashes, etc., can cause data loss. However, taking regular backups can be a lifesaver in such cases.

Cloud storage can help you access your files from anywhere and everywhere, and for this, it is important to keep your data up to date.

It is best to set up your cloud service settings to sync your files across your devices automatically. For additional security, you can save your files to an external hard drive or another service so that you have a backup if anything goes wrong with the primary service.

10) Streamline Email Attachments

Cloud platforms make sending emails with attachments less time-consuming. You do not need to upload large and heavy files. Instead, you just need to share the cloud platform’s link. This not only helps you save space but also ensures the latest version of the file is always accessible.

11) Optimize for Mobile Use

Whatever cloud storage service you use, ensure its app is optimized for mobile devices. This way, even if you are on the go, you can still access, edit, and share files with your team or colleagues. The best part of accessing a cloud-based storage device on your mobile is that it will provide easy collaboration and automatic backup and recovery to ensure your files are always safe and recoverable, all through your go-to cloud storage app.

Conclusion

Cloud solutions have revolutionized how we manage our documents and organise the entire content lifecycle.

Following all these practices, you can eliminate manual work from file management without spending much time and resources. These tips will optimize your document management, saving 80% on costs and 90% on time.

Centralize your files on secure, all-inclusive cloud computing technology and make your work easy, from finding and organizing to signing, sharing, editing, storing, or classifying your documents.

Unlock the full potential of your device and productivity by keeping your digital files organized.

FAQs

What is digital file management?

Digital file management is the systematic process of organizing, storing, accessing, and maintaining files within a computer system or network.

What are the benefits of organizing digital files?

Some major benefits of keeping your digital files organized include increased productivity, improved data security & compliance, better decision-making, cost savings, enhanced communication & collaboration and effective resource utilization.

How to organize digital files manually?

Some effective tips to organize digital files manually include:

• Naming digital files clearly
• Make decluttering your habit
• Standardizing your document types
• Merge documents strategically
• Zip it up with zip folders
• Use folder nesting systems