File Naming Tactics | Hacking the Alphabetical Sort for Effortless Efficiency

Over the years I've adopted several patterns for how I name files and it really has helped me in the long run. The importance of a well-structured naming convention is often overlooked or neglected for the sake of speed, but they are the little tactics that embody slow down to speed up, as they significantly enhances organization, retrieval, and overall efficiency in managing digital documents. The benefits extend beyond your desk to your collaborators.

Seperators: En dash and Underscore

Long time ago en and underscore used to have different meanings and functions in coding that has sense been accounted for, especially now that you don't have to worry about including spaces in your file's names. Yet, when working with older enterprises it can come up. Whether it prevents corruption or not for your systems, using the en dash ("-") with underscores ("_") to replace spaces creates a lovely visual dynamic that makes your documents more scannable.

The shorter en dash -- or hyphen -- sits higher and keeps letters closer together, which conveys closeness in relationship between the words being separated. I'll use this to break out names. This can be better than employing camel case or added in between camelcase so that you subtle have an unofficial third level in this visual, text-based hierarchy.

For example:

RockyRoad-BaskinRobins

Product-Trials-in-the-Acme-Framework

ProductTrials-in-the-AcmeFramework

I was thinking why I don't use the em dash in file names and it's probably because it would be fairly redundant in it's usage to the underscore and few people -- including myself -- actually know the quick key to create it but rather rely on the system auto converting the double en dash.

The underscore carries more visual wieght to the en dash for the obvious reasons: it sits lower and is longer, so it emphasizes the vertical difference between the top and bottom of the letters. This makes it great for seperating larger categories.

For Example: ProductTrials-TeamA_HarvestTreatments

Tomatoes_Fruits-or-Veg_Honesty-vs-Findability-Study

Specific to Broad vs Broad to Specific

I usually with advocate for ordering your information with the most specific and seperating details as the beginning as it helps you scan your files for those keywords that are most important to you, but if a file is recreated repeatedly, you'll likely want to reverse this, becuase the when you sort your files alphabetically, then your files will suddenly be organized as if you have an exposed folder system. That alone has saved me tons of time in locating the oldest or youngest version of files on demand.

When trying to decide how to organize your file naming, consider that if these documents were sorted into folders, how deep would you want them grouped. Also, how deep do you want that grouping to really go. I mean it -- really! The more categorizations you include, the longer your name is going to be and at some point you will look back and go "I've created a monster" when you need to copy paste long strings to maintain consistency.

The sweet spot is just underscores deep, because I always include a date at the end which becomes that comfy third level.

Jira Card Naming

When working out a naming structure for jira cards, my devs preferred the specific to broad approach for scannability and we used pipes ("|") and en dashes ("-") as the visual seperator. This is because of truncation. In many Jira card views longer names may be truncated into an elipsis, but the keywords in the title help keep the jira card searchable.

Date Goes Year Month Day

Fresh out of school in the United States this may make you feel uncomfortable, because it's unfamiliar, but I will always end my documents with _YYMMDD or _YYYYMMDD. This is a big one. No matter how good your autosave, versioning system is, I come from an era when we were taught to click a save button every five minutes and auto versioning hasn't saved me as many times as personaly versioning my files. This is probably because I have working memory of when in my design process the version was created and why, but I digress.

For Example:

AcmeFile-XYZ_070707 vs AcmeFile-XYZ_20070707

Not me suddenly realizing that much of the confusion of yester year was probably due to being in the 2000s when the end of the year could look like a day or month, and that's probably not an issue for the next several years.

If you put the date at the end of your filenames in this way they will always be sorted by date when your sort alphabetically. And, that's a time saver. I don't have to think "Which month was the last month that I made that doc. I don't have to guess "is this last year or this year in May?" I sort and grab the last one in the list. I like when past me makes it so future me doesn't have to think.

This is a great example of slowing down to speed up.

The thing about this that may change from time to time is whether and how I separate the date and month. I usually prefer a dot/period, but that can cause anxiety at the end of a file, especially on Macs as it can end up making you question if the file got a formatting designation or not. I think it's usually best to use the full year instead of the two digit, because on occassion you will look at that date and question, if you are looking at the month or not. You can bring in the old en dash as seperator, if it feels important to you, but this is one case where I go on vibes, because honestly as long as you have the 4-digit year and the two digit month and date, you can typically interpret the date on glance.

I will say that it's important any time you include a numbering system like a date to give yourself the padding of that zero space in front of the digit. It can be just a precautionary measure, but I hate to have to go back an rename numerous files because I just went from 9 to 10 and now my newest file is showing up next to my oldest.

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Finally. The finale.

In conclusion, the patterns I have established for naming files are not merely a matter of personal preference; they are a fundamental aspect of effective digital management. By implementing a consistent and thoughtful approach, I have created a system that not only serves me well in the present but also lays a solid foundation for future endeavors.

When naming your file, consider the search terms you'll use to find it. Utilize hyphens, underscores, and camel case to include relevant information and organize them in a sequence that mirrors how you'd sort documents into folders. This approach ensures that when you sort files alphabetically, they are easy to scan, eliminating the need for extra thought.

The end.