Create a Highly Organized, Synchronized Home Folder with Dropbox
10:02When you love Dropbox like we do, you start syncing more and more stuff. The more stuff you sync, the harder it is to organize. Here's a simple way to sort quickly and stay organized across multiple computers, Windows, Mac, or Linux.
We're going to deal with two things here: organization and synchronization. Organization is the big part, since that relies mostly on you (whereas synchronization relies almost entirely on Dropbox). We'll tackle organization first, then take a look at some of the issues you may encounter when syncing almost everything you do on your computer. While I came up with these organizational ideas using Dropbox, many could apply universally to any modern file system. Some will require Dropbox, but you can still use most of these organizational ideas without it.
The Structure
- The Dump
- The Landfill
- Projects
- Documents
- Your Flex Folder
- Applications
- Movies
- Music
- Photos
- Shared Folders
Ed. note: If, after consideration, Adam's folder structure doesn't feel right to you, you may also want to consider Gina's My Documents organization structure.
The Dump and the Landfill
First go through and find things you've saved to The Dump that you no longer need and delete them. Next, select the files you're not quite ready to throw away and put them in the folder called The Landfill. The Landfill exists so you don't have to spend time deliberating over whether or not you need to keep certain files, and if you do, where to put them. Once a month you'll need to spend some time cleaning out The Landfill, but a month away from most of your "maybe" files will give you better perspective on whether or not you need to file them or throw them away. Most of the files in The Dump will either end up deleted or buried in The Landfill at the end of the work week. Once you've gotten through those, you'll find you have a handful of other files that should only take you a few minutes to sort. Sort those and The Dump is ready to go for next week.
These two folders—The Dump and The Landfill—will be the most important part of how you keep things organized in your Dropbox because they allow you to be a little lazy, but it's important to not just let everything flow or you'll become overwhelmed as it gets later in the work week. When you're working on something new, even if you think it might only require a file or two, make a new folder inside of The Dump to contain it. Do not make efforts to spend time organizing the dump, but definitely take a second to keep similar files together so you can move through The Dump quickly while you're working.
Projects and Documents
Your Flex Folder
The reason this is necessary is because my Flex Folder is sort of a combination between active projects and archived documents. Everything I save into my Writing folder could end up staying there untouched indefinitely or could be very active. The problem is, I don't know which category each piece of writing will fall under. As a result, having a Flex Folder for writing lets me organize these documents with that extra flexibility. If you do any kind of work that doesn't allow you to apply the active/archive structure, a Flex Folder is often the answer.
Applications
Because we're syncing all of these folders between multiple computers, it's easy to end up with a machine that requires a certain Application that isn't installed. While it's not that hard to download what you need online, it's annoying to have to stop your work to search for the application you need, wait for it to download, and then getting back to work. If you're focused and in the zone, you want to minimize these problems as much as possible. Keeping installers for commonly used applications (or even portable applications that you're running directly from your Dropbox folder) in a synchronized folder will help you do that. While you're not going to keep big installers in here (like Photoshop, for example), it's a great place for smaller installers for those applications and utilities you can't live without. As an added bonus, if you ever need to share an app with a friend you can do that directly from your Dropbox.
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