File Naming Conventions That Actually Work
Last week, I sat with a friend as she prepared to submit a manuscript for publication. As she grabbed her flash drive and plugged it in, her expression quickly changed from one ready to work to one of a sinking ship of sadness. What did she see?
Page1.docx
Page1_final.docx
Page1_final_FINAL.docx
Page1_final_FINAL_use.docx
Page1_final_FINAL_final_use_copy.docx
Otherwise known as the Pyramid of File Fatigue.
Prepared for a task that was only going to take a few minutes, she now faced one that took the whole morning. Nothing is more of a motivation killer than realizing something is going to take a lot more time than you thought.
SO let’s start practicing solid file naming to set ourselves up for future success.
Goal: Create one file naming system and follow it.
Action Items:
Build a formula using the following principles to create a useful system. Build your formula so that it is:
Meaningful: use clear descriptions so that when you read the file name, you know exactly what you are opening. Think about how you will search for the file and that will help guide you towards a meaningful name.
Scalable: build a hierarchy so that your projects can expand easily no matter how big a folder gets.
Computer-readable: avoid using spaces or special characters. If you decide to use data analysis tools or machine learning applications in the future, your files will be immediately compatible with code-based processing, eliminating the need for time-consuming reformatting.
example: 20250417_ProjectA_MeetingNotes_LibrarianF_v2.pdf
Create a little cheatsheet like this one - FileNamingTemplate.pdf - to pass out to your team members to tape to the bottom of their monitor so they don’t have to rely on memory they could just look down.