Any college student will tell you that completing and turning in written assignments would not happen if not for their computer. Any college student will also tell you that ninety percent of their time spent on their computer is spent trying to remember just what they labeled their assignment and where it ended up in the great mess that is their computer. Unfortunately for many college students, the ability to organize, or rather the time to organize, does not come easily. However, organizing your computer is very easy and very painless process. And in retrospect of all the time one would spend searching their computer for documents, organizing the mess is a time saver.

The first step in organizing your computer is to recognize similarities between documents. For instance, if you are an English major and there are a great many documents on Early American Literature, a folder for the topic should be created. Another way to determine what folders you need to create would be find a theme. Perhaps you want to designate folders for particular classes and place all homework assignments in that folder.

Another important step in organization is to label documents with descriptive words. Rather than simple labeling a document ‘writing assignment’, label it ‘Poe Poem Response’. By clearly labeling documents it will be able to find what you are looking for quickly without having to open up every ‘writing assignment’ you ever did. Labeling will also you determine into what folder the document needs to go.

Organizing is as much about storing documents as it is letting go of documents. If there are still documents that you have saved from high school, it is time to say goodbye. Look at the documents that you have on your computer. If you have not opened the document in months, and will probably never open it again, it is time to get ride of it. De-cluttering your computer is as important as organizing it.