How I organize my files.
If you're anything like me, your downloads folder can get chaotic rather quickly. Downloading files from the internet is a crucial part of my daily workflow, so having a process in place to easily manage those files has been a total life saver for me — and I think it'll help you, too!
In this video, I'll show you how I organize the contents of my downloads folder using a program called Hazel by Noodlesoft. Specifically, you'll learn how to sort your own downloads folder automatically based on each file's extension type. If you're new to Hazel or file organization automation in general, no worries. This tutorial is short, sweet and easy to follow. :)
If you have any questions, you can email me at: hello@theproductivityshop.co
You can also join the conversation and stay updated on time-saving hacks by adding The Productivity Shop Slack channel to your workstation: http://prodshop.co/slack
Transcript
Hey I'm Luke, and I'm gonna show you how I organize my downloads folder. Whenever it gets messy it becomes difficult to find something that I need. I came across a program that helps out by sorting the files into subfolders according to their extension, and then naming the folder the extension. This makes it a little bit easier because there's less to look at. Instead of looking at a long list, you're looking at a list of folders - and normally you know the extension of the file that you're looking for. Screenshots are usually PNGs, images are JPEGs and documents or PDFs or dot DOCs, etc. The program that I use is called Hazel by NoodleSoft, and it does all of the work for you. You basically choose a folder for it to watch, and then it'll run a rule on that folder. Each time a new file is added it'll rerun the rule. In this case the rule that we're going to be running is sort files into subfolders according to their extension. PS: This isn't sponsored by NoodleSoft, I only have 85 subscribers - and PSS: whoever came up with that name is a genius. So let's get started. So actually before we get started I'll show you before and after. So this is before, long list of files hard to find stuff, and this is after. We'll have an "organize" folder and then everything will be nice and tidy inside of subfolders. Go ahead and go to noodlesoft.com and you can download the trial. I recommend buying the program if you like it. Having a clean desktop and downloads folder makes life a lot easier so it's totally worth it. Once you have it installed it's gonna show up in the menu bar here. You can open it by clicking on Open Hazel, or if you have Alfred, you can just type in Hazel and it'll automatically open the Preference Pane. Or you can go to System Preferences. The first step is to find which folder that you want to watch. Now you could select the Downloads folder, but each time that you would download something it would automatically move it into a subfolder - and that's a little bit too fast for me. So what I do is I create a folder called "_organize" that stays at the top and then I watch that folder. Whenever my downloads folder gets messy, I'll drag and drop everything into the _organize folder and Hazel will do its' magic. Go ahead and click the plus sign at the bottom left, and then go to your downloads folder, so option-command-L, or you can click downloads on the left, and then we'll do a new folder, _organize, open. Cool, we're ready to go. So we picked which folder. Now we need to create a rule to run on that folder. Click the plus sign here in the rules field. I'll call it "sort by extension." I'll change the conditions to be if "any", and then go here and click "any file." Go here and select "sort into subfolder" - with pattern, click here, extension, done - ok - and we are ready to go. I'll just jump over to my downloads folder, and I'll do command a to select everything, I'll deselect _organize, because I don't want to move that, command C to copy, and then option command V, to move it. After a couple seconds Hazel will do its magic and you'll see everything nice and tidy, sorted into subfolders, awesomeness. One other thing, if you drop a folder into the _organize folder, it won't sort it. So what I usually do is I create a folder called _folders, and I'll put all of the folders in there until they have time to go back and sort it out. Now I personally keep my _organize folder inside of Dropbox, and whenever I have a lot of downloads, I'll throw it in there, and then also when my desktop gets messy, I'll throw it in there [as well]. So it's the same method for keeping my desktop clean and my downloads folder clean. In another video I'll show you how I actually organize my files using an adapted version of the Dewey Decimal System - but more on that soon. Thanks for watching and if you have any questions please reach out at hello@theproductivityshop.co, or you can join the Productivity Shop slack channel at prodshop.co/slack, and you can ask any questions. Thanks for watching! Bye! [Amazing Theme Tones I made]
Hey I'm Luke, and I'm gonna show you how I organize my downloads folder. Whenever it gets messy it becomes difficult to find something that I need. I came across a program that helps out by sorting the files into subfolders according to their extension, and then naming the folder the extension. This makes it a little bit easier because there's less to look at. Instead of looking at a long list, you're looking at a list of folders - and normally you know the extension of the file that you're looking for. Screenshots are usually PNGs, images are JPEGs and documents or PDFs or dot DOCs, etc. The program that I use is called Hazel by NoodleSoft, and it does all of the work for you. You basically choose a folder for it to watch, and then it'll run a rule on that folder. Each time a new file is added it'll rerun the rule. In this case the rule that we're going to be running is sort files into subfolders according to their extension. PS: This isn't sponsored by NoodleSoft, I only have 85 subscribers - and PSS: whoever came up with that name is a genius. So let's get started. So actually before we get started I'll show you before and after. So this is before, long list of files hard to find stuff, and this is after. We'll have an "organize" folder and then everything will be nice and tidy inside of subfolders. Go ahead and go to noodlesoft.com and you can download the trial. I recommend buying the program if you like it. Having a clean desktop and downloads folder makes life a lot easier so it's totally worth it. Once you have it installed it's gonna show up in the menu bar here. You can open it by clicking on Open Hazel, or if you have Alfred, you can just type in Hazel and it'll automatically open the Preference Pane. Or you can go to System Preferences. The first step is to find which folder that you want to watch. Now you could select the Downloads folder, but each time that you would download something it would automatically move it into a subfolder - and that's a little bit too fast for me. So what I do is I create a folder called "_organize" that stays at the top and then I watch that folder. Whenever my downloads folder gets messy, I'll drag and drop everything into the _organize folder and Hazel will do its' magic. Go ahead and click the plus sign at the bottom left, and then go to your downloads folder, so option-command-L, or you can click downloads on the left, and then we'll do a new folder, _organize, open. Cool, we're ready to go. So we picked which folder. Now we need to create a rule to run on that folder. Click the plus sign here in the rules field. I'll call it "sort by extension." I'll change the conditions to be if "any", and then go here and click "any file." Go here and select "sort into subfolder" - with pattern, click here, extension, done - ok - and we are ready to go. I'll just jump over to my downloads folder, and I'll do command a to select everything, I'll deselect _organize, because I don't want to move that, command C to copy, and then option command V, to move it. After a couple seconds Hazel will do its magic and you'll see everything nice and tidy, sorted into subfolders, awesomeness. One other thing, if you drop a folder into the _organize folder, it won't sort it. So what I usually do is I create a folder called _folders, and I'll put all of the folders in there until they have time to go back and sort it out. Now I personally keep my _organize folder inside of Dropbox, and whenever I have a lot of downloads, I'll throw it in there, and then also when my desktop gets messy, I'll throw it in there [as well]. So it's the same method for keeping my desktop clean and my downloads folder clean. In another video I'll show you how I actually organize my files using an adapted version of the Dewey Decimal System - but more on that soon. Thanks for watching and if you have any questions please reach out at hello@theproductivityshop.co, or you can join the Productivity Shop slack channel at prodshop.co/slack, and you can ask any questions. Thanks for watching! Bye! [Amazing Theme Tones I made]
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