Before the Semester Starts

Set up a filing system for your work.

Everyone has different preferences and needs, so please consider the following as suggestions for creating your own system.

Naming files

Come up with a plan for naming your files to make them easier to find. Here’s a sample file name: 

 

While the name is a bit long, this naming format offers some benefits:

  • The YYYY_MM_DD date format automatically orders files sequentially, making them simpler to find and sort.
  • ‘ENGW1111’ is the course number, which is unique and descriptive and will help you find this file in search.
  • ‘Draft02’ ends this sample file name. This part of the name allows you to keep track of different versions of the file by including a version number.
  • This file name uses underscores to separate components. This avoids potentially problematic spaces, punctuation, and special characters.

Folders

Here’s a sample folder structure: 

In this folder structure, the top-level folder is named 2023_Fall for the Fall 2023 semester. Nested beneath that folder are folders for each course, and within each course are different folders for each major type of material.

Note: You could also name the top-level folder 2023_09. This strategy will automatically sort your folders in semester order (2023_09 for fall, 2024_01 for spring, 2024_05 for summer 1, etc.).

This is only one possible approach. Bear in mind that it may take a few tries to find a filing system that works well for you.

Customize your device settings

Is there something about your device that bugs you, but you haven’t yet taken the time to address? For example, maybe you struggle to find where downloaded files get saved to your laptop. Now’s a good time to look up instructions for your device and change its settings to make them work better for you.

During the Semester

Back up your work

Back up your work regularly and check to ensure that your backups are running.

You may choose to back up your most critical files both to cloud storage (e.g., Northeastern’s Office 365/OneDrive) and locally to your laptop or an external hard drive.

Clean up your files

Set aside some time regularly to organize your digital space:

  • Clean up your desktop
  • Move files to folders
  • Delete anything you won’t need to keep
  • Rename files as needed

If you can do this weekly, it should only take a few minutes to keep your files in order.

Choose and use your citation manager

Citation managers help you keep track of sources you find during your research. They take a few minutes to set up and learn but are one of our favorite productivity tools. Citation managers Northeastern Library supports include Zotero, Endnote, Mendeley and RefWorks. After you get the hang of your citation manager, you’ll be able to:

  • Save information about sources you find with one click
  • Organize sources by project, class or tags
  • Search sources you’ve already found
  • Insert citations into your assignments in any citation style
  • Save notes about your ideas related to each source
  • Collaborate with peers

You’ll still need to know the parts of a citation, but citation managers allow you to think less about how to cite and more about what you want to say. Set one up early to get the greatest benefit.

For more information about citations, refer to the Citation Fundamentals tutorial. When you’re ready to get started visit the Citations and Bibliographies guide for help finding the best citation manager for you.

Between Semesters

  • Delete files from the previous semester that you don’t think you’ll need (e.g., old document drafts)
  • Make sure you’ve saved and backed up any work that you want to keep
  • Set up folders for next semester