How to Organize Freelance Writing Assignments in Google Drive

There are as many different organization systems as there are different writers. Me, I love and use Google Docs and Google Drive to organize all of my files by client. This system provides a number of benefits that a professional writer can appreciate:

• I can see exactly what I deliver each month (Making it easy to double-check  invoices)
• I can easily access old work according to the deadline I delivered on (Making it easy to answer the inevitable “When did you turn that in?”)
• I can access client work and notes from any computer anywhere (This has definitely come in handy while I travel)

If you’re considering a transition to storing your freelance writing assignments in the cloud (or heck, even just on your computer), here’s a look at how to organize those assignments using Google Drive (or any cloud-based storage application):

Google Drive Freelance Writing Assignment Organization

At any given time, my Drive looks something like this:

CURRENT CLIENTS

CLIENT 1 – Company Name

2015 01
2015 02
2015 03
2015 04

CLIENT 2 – Company Name

2015 02
2015 03

CLIENT 3 – Company Name

2015 01
2015 02
2015 03

There are a few important elements here:

First, I list each client by their full name, not company or number. This helps me remember my point of contact for each company very easily and it also gives me the subtle reminder that I work for people, not numbers or money. So the organization of the file looks something like this:

ANNE Smith – Nova Corporation

I also include the year (to account for clients I’ve had over the years) and the month (to have files that clearly correlate with my monthly invoices). “Retired” clients go in a different folder, but I keep everything in case I need to verify, repurpose, or resend any work I have completed since 2013.

Google Drive Flexibility

Having this information in cloud storage also means I can access work from anywhere — my home computer, my Chromebook on vacation, or on a public computer somewhere else. At any given moment, from any location, I can login and quickly find work I did for “Anne Smith” in November of 2011. I also don’t need to worry about my main computer crashing or breaking. Aside from losing some very recent photos and music, my work history is safe.

Finally, it helps that documents are relatively small files. So long as you don’t store files or research, you can usually keep a few year’s worth of work without paying for extra storage.

Are you on a desktop or in the cloud? How do you organize your files? Share below!