Say goodbye to your online clutter
Remember the last time you needed to find that really important document you stored in the cloud? Sounds easy, but when you’re in a hurry or have thousands of files, it’s anything but.
With both personal and professional cloud usage at an all-time high according to LifeSite partner SkyHigh Networks, and an ever-increasing numbers of files being uploaded all the time, your online storage service can get a bit … cluttered.
Here’s a few tips to bring some order to your online clutter:
Think ahead
For most people, the first thing you do after signing up for a cloud storage account is upload a file. But really it should be to think ahead. Without an idea of how to organize your files, the more you add the more difficult it will be to find individual files, further increasing your online clutter.
When’s the last time you scanned a document at work and saved it to your cloud service, only to realize when you get home that you had no idea what the file name actually was? (It ended up being called “scan001.pdf” by the way, and unfortunately that’s a true story.)
Categories, folders, or sections
No one has the same type of data or files, so it’s difficult to tell you exactly which categories to create. But a good rule of thumb is – the more the better! The more time and thought you invest in creating categories that make sense to YOU, the more likely you are to remember them and the less time you’ll spend searching for your files.
Think of it this way. If you keep all your files in one big folder, it’s easy when you only have 10 files. But when you’re up to 500, you’re going to hate using the service if all you’re doing is scrolling through files all the time.
Levels
Once you’ve chosen your main categories, don’t stop there! Sub-categories give you an even more accurate way to categorize your files. For example, if you’re the head of your household, simply having a “Financial” category isn’t going to cut it. Adding sub-categories like “Taxes”, “Investments”, and “Liabilities” will cut your search time down significantly.
Take it from us, on Tax Day the last thing you want to be doing with 3 hours to go before the Post Office closes is hunting in your “Financial” folder!
Chances are most people are eventually going to be using a cloud storage service at one point or another. Nip any online clutter problems in the bud by thinking ahead, categorizing, and then sub-categorize a few more times as necessary.
And if you’re looking for a safe, secure place to store specifically your most important information and files, take a look at LifeSite Vault. We’ve done all the work for you by coming up with dozens of pre-organized categories and data fields, perfect for every stage of life.
