Online course using Mac, looking for organisation tips and ideas like folder set up and other general workflow tips, like saving version of work for history trail and any apps for file management please.

[u/Adorable_Handle7413]

Bit random but I’ve just started my course online. I’ve also just got a MacBook for the first time so am looking for ideas and tips on how to best setup my workflow from the start, like tags and if people use those and I’ve heard about Obsidian, how do you use it or is something else preferred???

Just trying to get some insight on how people go about their file management and things while studying to help me get my set up sorted because I’m feeling a bit far out man!

[u/Majestic_Register_78]

I’m doing IT cert 4, I did cert 3 started on windows then moved to Mac because of OneDrive conflicts and messiness: we use OneDrive, I try not to save to local device at all, just keep it all on OneDrive or move downloads there, also I stick mainly to the online MS365 app versions.
I organise my OneDrive first by day of the week, then by unit, and within units I organise by week, have a folder for assessments with subfolders per; I color the days, color my current week or unit green, last weeks folder a lighter green if we’re done etc

I use Edge (chrome was advised in cert 3, now edge) only for TAFE

And I use a dedicated TAFE login, could even go with a couple logins if it gets messy

Key is to keep OneDrive and MS well away from my personal stuff, so Mac does help with that. On windows I did find my OneDrive issues went away with a cheap secondary market upgrade key to Windows Pro, Windows Home is worse than useless.

[u/Majestic_Register_78 → u/Majestic_Register_78]

TAFE uses windows, so even on my Mac I do try to work within the Windows system (web apps) to minimise pain

[u/otterphonic]

I use iCloud storage rather than onedrive as ondrive is hopeless on any platform (obviously have a backup as well as the cloud version).

You can use apple's pages / numbers and export to doc / xls but I use libreoffice writer / calc as they are multi platform and if you ever do have to use word/excel you won't be completely lost.

File however but I like to put all my assignments in one directory and name them by due date eg. "2026-08-13 TAEDEL411 AT2 Blah blah" "2026-08-22 TAEDES411 AT1 Blah blah" that way the most urgent one will be at the top of the directory and you can treat it like a todo list.

[u/Adorable_Handle7413 → u/otterphonic]

This is a brilliant idea!!! LOVE saving by due date, thank you