File Organization? Make it easy on yourself! Tuesday Tech Tip – Studio Workflow

Stay creative by adding a little dull predictability to your workflow.

We are amazingly creative individuals. That serves us exceptionally well when we deliver the 23rd take of a seemingly simple line during a session. Or when an audition opportunity appears with that oft-repeated admonishment “don’t sound like a voice actor” but starts with the word “Introducing…”

While it’s stunning how many different ways our skill set can be brought to bear, that strong creative approach often fails us when it’s time to organize files on our computer.

We may begin with a great idea on how to keep stuff in order. But, after a few months (or sometimes less), we decide it makes much more sense to use a slightly (or entirely) different method. Lacking time to go back and undo the old way, we create a brilliant organizational structure which now makes even more sense.

Best Intentions… meet the real world

Then we become rushed and decide to just save the day’s auditions to the computer desktop, intending to just come back and organize them later. However, since you generally won’t have time for any task that involves the phrase “…just come back…”, things get horribly cluttered. After a couple weeks, you dump that crazy pile of files in another folder so you can once again see that inspiring desktop screen image, stash that folder…uh…somewhere… and get on with things.

Then a new client reaches out, absolutely loving that audition you sent over 2 or 3 (mmmmmight’ve been 4) weeks ago and just wants you to send the full-spectrum audio WAV because they can use it just the way it is.

Uhhh… Ok. Except you aren’t sure which of your various folders that audio ended up in, and those folders are themselves stashed in… um… Downloads? Desktop? “Stuff to Go Through”?

The problem is that as creative individuals, we are extremely prone to reinventing stuff.

It naturally expands in other parts of our lives. Which means that down the road, you’ll need to precisely recall today’s brilliant insight about the Amazingly Pervasive Organizing Plan Of Success (or APOPOS) in which you organized files by the number of syllables in the project title, which is of course divided into sub-folders for source of the audition and the microphone used…

This is the place where a consistent (some would say “boring”) approach serves us much better.

Or as is attributed to Albert Einstein – “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler…”

Think of it as a Consistent Framework For Creativity – or CFFC (somehow my brain is on an acronym kick today). Here’s a plan I find works well:

First Rule: Everything you create gets stored in your DOCUMENTS folder.

Of course, if you do any volume of auditions, that would get crowded quickly, so we’re going to organize things a little more.
Inside the Documents folder, create an “Audio” folder
Inside the Audio folder, create the following:

• a folder called “Auditions”
• a folder called “Booked Work”
• a folder called “Classes” or “Coursework” or “Clinics” or “Creative” (which will also contain files for workout groups, workshops or coaching)
• a folder called “Demo Files” (where you keep samples of portfolio work you like or demos you have recorded – the samples you might send out – or even recordings you really like as guides for your next formal demo recording)
• Why those names? When you sort the contents of your Audio folder by name, they line up A-B-C-D. I love stuff like that.

And that’s it. Everything you record goes into one of those four files. For me – Auditions is the “dump” file – I seldom spend any time organizing that. I do keep my audition TEMPLATES in there, but since they all start with a “SPACE”, they sort first alphabetically. (If you aren’t using Templates in your workflow – here’s an article about why they are helpful).

Using this method:

Booked Work gets organized by sub-folders – first by Client Name the first time I work with someone, then with specific Project-Date folders as we do more together. Classes has sub-folders for Class or Coach or Group. I only have one sub-folder in Demo Files called “Stuff I like” for recordings I want to build out when refining a specific Demo.

I get it – it can be scary to not “see” your files – which is why it is so tempting to spread them out on the desktop of the computer. But if EVERYTHING is ALWAYS in your AUDIO folder inside your DOCUMENTS folder, then there’s only really one place to look.

It’s that framework which lets me focus on the creative bits – I don’t have to remind myself how to use the tool. It may seem like I’m channeling my inner CPA, but it’s not overly complicated for no clear purpose. It’s simple enough to be flexible.

If you have been less consistent with your files, it’s worth taking some time to deal with this. The benefit will be long lasting.

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