It can feel like drinking from a fire house when information is coming from a million different sources for a particular project. More information means greater likelihood to get lost in its sea.

Staying in control of the information is critical because if it can’t be found when you need it, it might as well not exist.

Here’s the organization system that works for me:

1. All information (PDFs, other documents, and relevant emails) are filed into the “Background Materials” folder of the project
2. Also within the “Background Materials” folder is a Word document titled “Document Key” which is basically a table that lists descriptions of all of the files within the folder. It’s a simple table with unlimited rows (1 per document) and 3 columns:
   1. “Materials”: brief description of what’s in the file
   2. “Date”: time stamp of the file; all files are arranged in chronological order
   3. “File Name”: name of the file as it appears in the folder

For every minute spent organizing, an hour is earned –Benjamin Franklin