Scanning Keepsake Documents - File Naming Convention

Scanning documents can be a slow process...  Sometimes, it is easy to get distracted listening to the radio or doing other things.  However, I see my pile of stuff shrinking at starts and stops.   Some items may generate such thoughts as  "Why do I have duplicates of the same 1995 goals and vision statement for myself?" or why did I save this receipt in the first place?  It is good to set time aside to do this, but not to much (an limit to a few hours).  

2 Philosophical Thoughts:

Chip Ingram in a recent "Good to Great in God's Eyes - Empower Great People (2 Part  talk)" talked about how in the past people would celebrate various feasts or weddings for extended celebrations such as 6 days.  What is even more amazing is the mindset, for those in a 'production' or 'perfection' mode of thinking that we should live to party and NOT work so that we can then party.  

Are you capturing your keepsakes to remember those party like events or for 'work' purposes of just building a resume of vacation trips so to speak?

Saving Documents by Name Tip:

A good naming scheme for documents is starting a file off with the year the document was created, person (and or place) and then substance descriptor of the document.  Here is the reasoning for using this name scheme.

Year - the document your scanning will not have a year behind in the file only the date it was scanned. Try searching for a document on a time say a 1984 trip itinerary when you don't have that year in the file date saved on the hard drive or usb stick?.  That is the reasoning for putting the year first in the file name.  If your not certain of the date try for example 1990 Circa or the closest decade marker.   Pick something that works for you. 

Person - what is the tie in of the keepsake document being scanned and who is it related to -- such as a family member or family in general.  

Substance Descriptor - Such things a driver's license photo, funny birthday card with a very special note, graduation diploma, vacation itinerary or journal.  

Bottom line.  With a date descriptor first it helps group like documents when sort by date computer together and then eliminate duplicates by deleting files and picking the best scanned image.   Ultimately with keepsakes your only going to have a limited number by each year anyway.  Using a date scheme will also help visually identify duplicates for deletion and create a nice timeline. As noted above in the illustration, my own naming scheme is not perfect and only the date is what I rigidly hold on to as everything else generally follows the set naming convention.