Month: January 2016

Second in the series of posts on organizing for the new year.

• We all have important documents that need safekeeping. The problem is that we don’t have access to these documents when we need them the most, say after a disaster, during a medical crisis, or in a travel emergency.
• More than online storage, the Siftsort.com service allows households to securely organize, access, and share important family documents and records using various technology devices.
• Users can access medical records, financial papers, or other family information securely over the Internet or by calling a Toll-Free Hotline.
• Professionals such as doctors, accountants, and lawyers can securely view, contribute, and exchange information on behalf of the user.

While Siftsort.com is great for storing and securely sharing important documents with advisors, family and medical professionals, you certainly have digital documents that don’t need of that level of security.

As you go through your files, you may find some you need to add to your Siftsort.com account, which is free if you don’t have huge storage needs.

We do not use ‘shared’ cloud infrastructure, we use only dedicated servers and storage disks for further protection because we license our platform to financial companies, who prefer it that way.

Here are some ways to organize those non-critical documents now from Apartment Therapy:

“Everyone’s digital life and needs are different. Consider this a very basic guide on how to do a little digital cleaning and organizing of your computer in a couple of hours so you can have a system that runs a little smoother and so you can find files you need a little easier.

1. Backup now!

Before you start doing any deleting, fiddling, cleaning or sorting — backup everything important to you, whether in the cloud, by syncing with another computer or by using an external hard drive….

3. Design a file structure that works for you

There are many ways to structure the files on your computer. In fact, you can get fairly technical with this task (we like articles like this one and this one from Lifehacker). But if you’ve got all of your data files — photos, PDFs, text documents and more — cluttering your desktop, you could benefit from establishing and using a basic file structure — much like you would organize your paper files.
→ The starting point is deciding what your highest level folders are. These are the big parts of your life. From your photos, to work files, to finances to half-written sci-fi novels, these are the categories that will serve as the first portal into your digital life. (Some folks let these big folders live in “My Documents,” others stick them straight to the hard drive — just don’t put these folders on your desktop!)

→ Put all the free-floating files into the correct top level folders. Put any errant photos in the big photo folder. All taxes, bills and more in the finances folder. (Or whatever folders you’ve made for yourself).

→ Then, organize each big top level folder into smaller, more specific sub-folders, one at a time. Take it one folder at a time, and start putting files (or other folders) in an order that will make sense when you need to find them again. Consolidate existing folders so they begin to fit into your new, more organized file structure. Don’t be afraid to go deep with sub-folders. You don’t really want to have a folder with say, 1 file in it, but you don’t want to stop at folder that has like, 50 files in it. ”