Today I started a new job at a small law firm.  I sat down at my computer and booted up.  Apparently, the last attorney to use the computer didn’t like to use folders to organize things.  I found nearly 100 files saved to the desktop.  This was literally so bad that, when I moved all the visible files to a single folder, 30 more popped onto the screen.  I then opened the My Documents folder and saw ~300 files just floating around.

I had to spend about 30 minutes just cleaning this stuff up this morning.  Even so, all I managed was to get the files sorted into folders by year, and then install a desktop search client to index all the files, so I could find things when I needed them.

Unfortunately, the people who need to hear my plea are probably the same people who aren’t reading blogs, but everyone:

PLEASE LEARN HOW TO USE FOLDER TREES TO ORGANIZE YOUR FILES (at least in some capacity), and if you know someone who simply leaves all the files lumped in one place, spend some time showing them the benefit of organization.  Please.