Prepare for Success: File Organization

ORGANIZING FILES

Let's compare our computer to a closet. For a storage closet where you only go in once a year to pull out Christmas decorations, you really don't have to spend that much time sorting and organizing and labeling and making sure nothing random goes in there. But your bedroom closet? It makes sense to try to keep some order in the place, so you know where you can find a pair of pants or a sweater. And if that's as good as our closet gets, that's great! With that closet metaphor in mind, let's talk about how you might set up a part of your computer's file system to prepare for success in our class.

JS, Class & Lesson Folders

I recommend that you create a folder on your computer that will store everything you do here (closet). Let's say you call that JS or JessicaSprague or DigiClasses, anything that will help you identify it. Then within JSClasses, create a Class Folder (start a new Class Folder for every class you take).

Within your Class Folder, create a Lesson Folder for each lesson, so you can download and easily find the materials for that project. I also recommend placing the PDF files in the main class folder. Like this:

Digital Supplies Folder

You'll be collecting other goodies too, because that's the nature of digital scrapbooking (yay, pretty things!), and I recommend you put these in a separate folder. Mine is called DigitalSupplies, and everything goes in there. (As for what you do with those, I teach a whole class about organizing THAT folder.)