Organizing Your Computer
Not only should your physical office be organized and easy to use, but your virtual office, your computer, should also be organized and neat. After years of not being able to easily find files and such, I've come up with a simple way to organize my computer. Oh, I am running a PC with Windows XP, but this should work for any system.
First, I have a "Children's Ministry" files in my "MY DOCUMENTS." Next, I
created a file folder for the current year. You can use your budget year, a
calendar year, but I decided to use the school year
(ex. 2003-2004). Inside the year
file, I have created files folders with topics like: classes, events, print
items, safety. The class folder holds folders with the names of various classes
that I have curriculum for, including our children's church. Events folder
contains folders for each specialty event for the year like camp, Halloween
alternatives and so on. Print items can include things that are printed through
out the year like FAX covers, brochures, business cards, postcards and labels.
Another folder I have inside the Children's Minister folder is Children's Ministry Resources folder. Inside this folder, I have folders such as Things to Make, Teaching, Things to Do, Working with Kids and Children's Ministry folders. Inside these folders I have articles, resources, and documents on all things children's ministry. The "Things to Make" folder has folders for such things as props & costumes, room & set design, and audio/video. The Teaching folder contains articles, lessons ideas, curriculum and presentations from other people. I also have Bible topic background and resource material there. The other folders contain things that pertain to children's ministry areas and kids issues like divorce, ADD, child abuse and so on.
I keep all of my digital pictures in the "MY PICTURES" folder that is a default folder of Windows XP. I create a folder with the event or activity name and the date. This way I know where and when the event was and can easily locate the pictures later. I've also started with Adobe Photo Album which will let me organize all my digital pictures and then pull them up by certain keywords or groups.
Now, if you're like me and sometimes need to do some work at night from the house, it's good to have your files and info there also. So, with my resources and current year files separated, I just drop them onto their own CDR or DVD (depending on the size of the folder) and have a backup that will also give me access to information while at home. It's important to keep up with current copies of work. You don't want to overwrite your most current work with something a week old. So be careful. If you plan to do a lot of update on your CD, pick up a CDRW. They are a little more expensive and take a while to format, but work better in the long run if you are going to be updating and overwriting files. Be sure to label your CDs. I have one labeled Children's Ministry Resources and another with the current school year (eg. 2003-2004).