I’m not always proud of my Drive and Gmail pages.
Usually at the beginning of the year, I’m at inbox zero and my Drive is clean (mostly). Everything’s in its place, easy for me to find.
As time progresses, though, organization takes a back seat to creating and collaborating. All of a sudden, I’ve added ten new folders to my Drive (some of which, let’s be honest, were only necessary to keep for a two-day project), and emails are buried deep within my inbox, patiently waiting responses.
I’ll admit--I do get around to my emails much more frequently than my Drive. I try at least weekly to sort through the lingering emails (the dreaded emails that I read once and then forget about because they’re no longer marked as Unread. And yes, I know I can “mark them as unread,” but my ambition nearly always tells me that, no, I’ll respond in a few moments. Lies!).
So what gives? Are these battles worth fighting? I think so, at least to some extent. I feel better when my desk is clean. I feel more ready to be productive when I have a clear list and focused plan. Does that style work for everyone? Nope. But for those of us who thrive on at least some semblance of order among the chaos, investing time to pretty up our Drive and Gmail can prove quite useful--and, not shockingly, that same train of thought often goes for our students as well.
Here are some strategies (some I’ve tried, some I want to try) to do a digital clean-up:
- Folder Color Coding. Kind of a basic trick, but I’ve found that color-coding my most frequently visited folders helps me navigate much more quickly. To change the color of a folder, simply right-click and select “Change color”--you have a rainbow to choose from! You can also color-code labels in Gmail, although I haven’t found that to be particularly helpful in any way.
- Quick Doc Preview. I just read about this tool that’s been under my nose this whole time. When scanning through several documents and trying to find the one you want, you can get a quick preview box to open up of the document (rather than opening up a bazillion tabs to find the right link). Just click on a file and hit the little eye button at the top:
- Add the exact same document to multiple folders. This tip was revolutionary for me when someone pointed it out last year. Sometimes, as is life, one document doesn’t always fit into only one folder; they’re complex and have several places they might need to go. But instead of having to make a copy of the file to place in three different places, you can place the same live document into several different folders. It’s easy: click once on a document file in Drive (don’t actually open the document, though). Then, hit Shift + Z. The window that pops up will ask you where it should add this file. Find the additional folder, and click “Add here.” Now you can always find that same live document in multiple places! Wahoo!
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Super easy! After I hit Shift+Z, I have a whole world of places where I can add this Vocabulary file. The slideshow will stay right here, too, but now I can access it from elsewhere, as well.
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- Streak Extension. According to the Streak folks, this extension was “born out of the frustration of constantly switching between our inbox and external systems.” This tool is clearly more intended for the marketing/business world (it’s actually called “Streak CRM” = “Streak Customer Relationship Management”), so I haven’t found a ton of use with it quite yet. However, the Snooze feature has been interesting: I can “Snooze” an email, which archives the email but then pops it up again as Unread at a designated time. My inbox gets a little cleaner, and I can help future Alice with reminders about old emails.
- Stop caring. Okay, that sounds harsher than intended. But a colleague recently shared with me that actually, at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter if or how your documents and emails are organized--to find what you’re looking for, you can always just Search for it. So really, there’s no need to organize. For years, I’ve diligently sorted my emails into virtual folders. And I just counted--I would put each email into one of 58 folders. FIFTY-EIGHT FOLDERS. Parent emails went into the “Parent email” folder. Department information went into the “English Department” folder. Emails about NEHS went into the (wait for it) “NEHS” folder. “I’m so clever,” I would think. “Next time I need to go through my NEHS emails, I’ll easily be able to find this one.” Guess when “next time” was? “Next time” was never. I’ve never “gone through” my email folders to find an email. I always just search for keywords in the search box. So, now, when I want an email out of my inbox, I just hit “Archive.” (Note: I am likely way behind the times on this strategy, but I’m still going to celebrate my new learning!)
The next step is, of course, to share this learning with students to help them feel the same satisfaction and sense of productivity with a clean Drive and Gmail. Time is usually a restraint in doing so, however. In the past, I have used little bits of class time to share organizational tips, and I still do; however, I’ve found that the most powerful attempts to help students with organization (via Drive, Gmail, or even with the 12 folders/binders in their backpacks) are through one-on-one conferences outside of class. Usually we’ll be talking about an assignment when the student opens up his/her Drive to reveal a series of documents titled “Untitled” and no folders in sight. Investing those ten minutes in the conference to help the student reorganize does two important things: the student benefits from learning strategies for digital organization, and you model the importance of taking time to organize by giving up some of the conference time to help. That modeling has been really important in holding kids accountable and showing that I value their time and education.
Here are some other sites to check out for tips on organizing Drive and Gmail:
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