The only thing I love more than good food, traveling, outdoor exercise, and a leisurely trip to a winery is – DIGITAL ORGANIZATION.

Just like Monica Geller loves her apartment being organized, I love my computer being organized (and yours, too, while we’re at it!). 

But while you might know my love for all things digital organization (and good wine!), there’s an excellent chance that you didn’t know how much I love keyboard shortcuts.

I use keyboard shortcuts to literally whip through any and every computer task. Just editing this blog post, I’m barely touching my mouse to navigate around the words. I love not having to keep reaching for my mouse when keyboard shortcuts can help me navigate my computer faster! 

With time being the one thing we wish we could grow on trees, saving every moment of it is key. From copying and pasting to undoing a task (and that’s just scratching the surface!), keyboard shortcuts save a huge chunk of time in front of a computer. Trust me.

I was recently creating monthly folder templates for my students so that if they didn’t feel like creating a bunch of folders themselves, they wouldn’t have to. During this project I found myself flying through setting the folders up with a series of keyboard shortcuts, so I want to show you how fast it can be to make a bunch of folders in a flash.

Not only is this keyboard shortcut easy, it’s a totally time saver!

Here’s the Folder-Creation Keyboard Shortcut

The shortcut I’m using to create folders in lightening speed is Ctrl-Shift-N to create a new folder. Here’s how I applied this shortcut to my task:

I’m naming the initial new folder I’ve created as “2017-01”. In this example the naming convention is YYYY-MM.

When I make the first new folder I enter the year and month as the folder name, and then I copy that folder name onto my clipboard (that’s Ctrl-C (Cmd-C for Mac) to copy the name of the folder I’ve just created).

Now that I have that folder name on my clipboard, I can create another new folder with Ctrl-Shift-N (Cmd-Shift-N for Mac) and then while the folder name is New Folder, highlighted, I hit Ctrl-V (Cmd-V) to paste the name that was on my clipboard (“2017-0”). Then I can add the next number on the end of the name for the next monthly folder I am creating, until I’ve created all of the folders that I need. 2017-01, 2017-02, 2017-03 and so on.

And then I repeat until I have each folder I’ll need for the year!

That’s all there is to it. It’s a simple little keyboard shortcut combination to help you create folders in the blink of an eye.

With this method I’m able to create new folders and rename them without typos or mistakes. It’s absolutely heavenly! I have my folders all ready to go!

AND HERE’S THE GOLD: When you have somewhere to put your files before it’s time store them, it makes it so much easier to be organized and to put your digital files away right from the start!  

Do you use keyboard shortcuts? Share your favorite in the comments!