How to name your files, Part I

Often we keep old copies of our files in the event that we need to review them or just to make ourselves sleep better at night thinking that we at least have a backup for that important proposal that will earn us a million dollars next month.

So how do you name all those old files and still keep your sanity in the event that you need them again some day?

Most have the good sense to add the date to the name of their file, like this:
MyImportantProposal23Dec98.doc

Many months or years later, their folders end up looking like this, sorted alphabetically:
ImprtantProposal99Feb22.doc
ImportantProposal1Jan99.doc
My Important Proposal 2004Jun28.doc
My Important Proposal 28Dec98.doc
MyImportantProposal02Apr2000.doc
MyImportantProposal23Dec98.doc
My_Important_Proposal31Dec1998.doc

This will give you headaches in years to come when you have 232 backup of the proposal, your boss breathing down your neck and the customer is leaving for the airport in 3 minutes, and you are trying to locate the file you wrote in, say, 02 Apr 1999.

The cardinal mistake in naming files is, IMHO, inconsistency.

There are many ways the above files are not name correctly. But if you have at least choosen one naming style and stick with it, you are still in safe territory:
My_Important_Proposal1Apr98.doc
My_Important_Proposal16Dec98.doc
My_Important_Proposal16Mar98.doc
My_Important_Proposal18Jun00.doc
My_Important_Proposal18Jun98.doc
My_Important_Proposal6Aug98.doc

If your folder looks like the above, you would be able to zoom into the file rather quickly, wouldn't you. It pays to be consistent.

But... there are still some problems in the above naming convention. Let me count the ways...

Notice that the files are still not sorted according to date? Files created in December comes before March files. And there is a file created in 2000 right in the middle of the pile.

How do we solve this?
Stay tuned for Part II.