Filing System and Achives

Behind every post and project on this site is a simple filing system that keeps ideas organized and easy to find.

This page shows how that system works in practice.

If you’d like to see the full workflow from idea to published work, visit How It Works.

If you are early in your work as a creator, archiving may not seem important yet.

But if you have a long creative history, you quickly learn that your archives become one of your most valuable assets. 

Some quick questions:

Can you easily find the files related to a project from last year?

How long would it take you to find them?

Do you have a list of your completed or in-progress work?

My answers when I started were:

No.
Forever.
And no.

With the help of Orion—and a simple system—things are much better.

My primary archiving tools are:

Microsoft OneDrive — where most of my historical files live
Google Drive — the home for most new projects

When something no longer belongs to an active project but still has value, I add it to a simple archive log in Airtable with a short description and a link to where it lives in the system. 

This is how all work is organized at the highest level:

Creative_Work
├── Projects
│ ├── Quiet_Selling
│ ├── Stitches_and_Starships
│ └── Luminous_Hollow
│
├── Admin
│ ├── Finance
│ ├── Accounts
│ └── Business_Operations
│
├── Shared_Assets
│ ├── Images
│ └── Templates
│
└── Archive

Projects live in one place, while admin tasks and shared resources are kept separate. Everything lives under your creative umbrella.  

Projects
└─Project_Name
├──00_Inbox
├──01_Brand
├── 02_Projects
├── 03_Content
├── 04_Website
├── 05_Marketing
├── 06_Operations
├── 07_Research
├── 08_Tools
├── 09_Assets
├── 90_Backups
└── 99_Archive

Each project follows the same structure. This keeps work consistent and makes it easier to move between projects without confusion. 

Every project begins with a folder called 00_Inbox.

This is where new ideas, drafts, and in-progress work are captured as they appear, and where they live while they are still evolving.

Nothing in this folder is expected to be finished.

Ideas rarely arrive at convenient times. A quick text file or document makes it easy to capture that fleeting thought in a place you know you can return to—without interrupting your current work.

During the week, I focus on creating—not organizing. Ideas accumulate here naturally as I write, experiment, and explore.

Then, once a week, I review the inbox.

Much of the friction in creative systems comes from deciding where things belong too early. The inbox removes that decision until the work is ready.

Files that are ready get renamed if needed and moved into their proper folders.

Some are linked in Airtable. Others stay a little longer until they’re ready.

This keeps unfinished work from mixing with completed work, and removes the pressure to “put things in the right place” too early.

Over time, the inbox becomes a quiet staging area—one that captures ideas without letting them slip away.

Folders organize projects, but file names are what make individual files understandable when you encounter them later.

A good name should answer a simple question:

What is this, and where does it belong?

I use a simple naming pattern that keeps things easy to recognize at a glance:

Category – Area – Content – Version

This isn’t a strict rule—just a helpful starting point. Find your own pattern—then consistency becomes your friend.

For example:

Post – Quiet Selling – Whirlpool V1
Post – Quiet Selling – Whirlpool Final
Brand – Visual – Color Scheme V1

While a piece is evolving, it stays in the 00_Inbox with a working name. Once it stabilizes, I give it a clearer name and move it into the project structure.

The goal isn’t perfect naming. It’s clear naming. Over time, this makes your folders something you can scan quickly instead of search through.

When you can recognize what something is without opening it, the system is working.

With the structure in place, the only thing left is a simple rhythm to maintain it.

The system works because it is maintained—gently, and on a regular rhythm.

Once a week, I spend a block of time reviewing my work and putting things in order.

During the week, I focus on creating. The 00_Inbox collects ideas, drafts, and in-progress work without interruption.

The weekly review is when everything settles.

I open the inbox and:

• rename files if needed
• move completed work into project folders
• link important items in Airtable
• leave unfinished work where it is

Most sessions are short. Some weeks there is very little to do. Other weeks take a bit longer.

The goal isn’t perfection. It’s consistency.

This simple habit keeps the system organized without interrupting the creative flow.

Over time, it turns a scattered collection of files into a working archive you can rely on.

Once this foundation is in place, everything else has somewhere to land.

The tools you choose, the systems you build, the writing you create—they all begin to connect in quiet, practical ways.

If you’re curious how this shows up beyond file organization, you’ll find it woven through the rest of the site.

In Tools, I talk about what earns a place in the system.

In Systems, I explore how these pieces fit together over time.

In the blog, I occasionally share real moments where this process comes into play—how a story moves from a rough idea into something finished, how a tool earns its place (or doesn’t), or how a small change in structure makes everything feel easier again.

This isn’t a system I built once and finished. It’s one I return to—quietly, repeatedly—whenever something new takes shape or something old needs to be found again.

It’s all part of the same process.

If you’re building your own way of working, I hope this gives you not just a structure, but a sense that it can evolve alongside you—one small adjustment at a time.

Not a finished system, but one that grows, settles, and improves as it’s used.