A small system for naming files
Date, project, thing, version. It takes five seconds and saves an afternoon a month.
Every folder I open that I did not tidy myself looks the same: final, final-2, final-FINAL. Here is the system I use instead.
The pattern
2026-10-08_press-pigment_poster-a3_v03.pdf
Date first, so the folder sorts itself. Then the project, then what the thing is, then a version number. Lowercase, hyphens inside a part, underscores between parts.
Why it works
Because you can read it aloud and it still makes sense, and because the next person will not have to ask.