A shared envionment. It is a nice place to be. It can also be like a bad roommate situation if there are not best practices put into place. We all have ways that we manage our Outlook inbox or the C drive on our computers. Some people make sure the inbox is kept clear at all times, others utilize rules and folders and others let it pile up. Some people use folders, sub-folders and sub-folders of sub-folders of sub-folders religiously – others may just dump everything into their “My Documents” folder. Each of us uses what works for us, some things are very effective for some people while it would create a virtual nightmare for others.
We have all created best practices for what works for us.
Now imagine every inbox and every C drive in your office being combined at once. Imagine the chaos. It would be like “The Odd Couple” times ten!
This is what could happen in any kind of shared environment without some best practices put in place. Some of you already share computers with signifigant others and understand this in a low scale, low pressure non professional environment. You have both had to compromise on the best place to store the family photos, when to delete email etc. Or – you are in constant battle with each other – no fun and not very productive at all!
The good thing is – it is never too late to put best practices into play!! Here are some hints to keep your Files & Discussions tabs from giving you flash backs to the days of your roommates pizza box laying on top of your nicely organized homework.
Folders – Use folders as one way to organize your documents and files. This is a great way to keep your data in a structered and labeled format.
 Tagging – Use tag words to describe your documents and files. This is a great way to group your data. As an example, you might tag a Client Contract with words such as “contract”, “client ABC”, “PO#1122″ etc. You can then utilize the “Items by Tag” filter in Files and Documents, Tag Clouds and Tag Searches.
Items by Status – Use the Status option on all of your documents. This is a great way to not only isolate and group data by their specific status, but to also run your documents through any workflow you may have. Note that you can create your own custom status options.
Clean Up – Occasionally, go through and do a little clean up. Central Desktop really takes care of everything, but you may want to create Archive folders for last years documents to keep things more intuitive and organized.
Think of others – Remember this is a shared environment, add some “Best Practice” rules to the homepage of your workspace or your intranet so that everyone can agree on how the documents and files should be organized.
Hope that this helps keep everything running smoothly!
Tags: Files & Discussions, Folders, Items by Status, Tagging
