29 August 2010

Productivity Tip: Folder Names

post it boardI want to be productive. I like the feeling of GTD. I believe that even small things make a difference in productivity. For example assigning a keyboard shortcut to the calculator application. I don't use the calculator very often, but when I do, I have this warm and cosy feeling that I saved one or two seconds to open it. I'm always assigning keyboard shortcuts. I have been doing it since the early days of Windows 3.1.

One trick I found recently is to name folders beginning with different letters. For example some time ago my main work folder contained subfolders article, code, community, posts, presentation and resource. To speed up folder switching I renamed them to article, blog, community, develop, presentation and resource. Now all folders start with a different letter. Each folder is uniquely accessible by pressing a single key in explorer or any navigator. The same is true for drives.

Finding names can be difficult. They should describe the files inside them. If I don't find a proper synonym or word in a different language, I don't change it.