A major way to help stay organized is to revamp your use of both computer folders and hard-copy folders. I believe in having a deep folder system, with shortcuts to the main dozen or so folders (top level) on your desktop. Then use subfolders, folders under that, level after level. This allows you to dig deep, and find almost anything in a matter of only a few clicks.
You can tell if your folder system is too "flat" when you have a bunch of stuff under one folder, or if finding things becomes a problem. Having a thousand files under a generic "finances" folder is just asking for things to be lost. A well-devised folder system will branch out like a tree, and have very little on any individual branch/folder.
Example: High level folder "Work and Career", under that "XYZ Inc" (your present employer), under that "yearly reviews". You could also have under XYZ Inc folders such as Coworkers, Benefits, and the like.
The idea is to stop dumping a ton of things into a few catch-all folders, and instead plan out and use folders like you would "thoughts" in Personal Brain or similar software.
Too much work, you say? Well, if you don't feel it's important enough to put in a good plame to find, then it's probably not important enough to save in the first plame. And a well-planned folder system can be used for a lifetime. Folders are extremely easy to create, move and rename, so it's not examtly rocket science.
Finally, the desktop. Get rid of ALL junk on it. Then have one TEMP folder, and shortcuts to the main topical folders. amtionMethod, Family, Work, Hobbies, etc.








