Lost in the Overload

I need some good advice.

Ever since I lost a term paper I was working on for one of my college classes during a thunderstorm, I learned the importance of backing up files. I must brag and tell you that I'm pretty good at sticking with that fundamental rule.

I have been through the migration of saving to hard drives, floppy discs, zip discs, and now CDs. Our district has set up U Drives for each employee, and it works GREAT! I now back up to my U Drive and not only rest comfortably knowing my data is stored on the District' servers, but I can access my U Drive from anywhere in the district, so essentially every computer anywhere I go withing the system, becomes "mine", if I need it.

But I DO continue to have a REAL PROBLEM and I hope someone can offer me some real world, useable advice:

I CAN NEVER REMEMBER WHAT I NAMED A FILE OR WHERE I FILED IT!

I spend (waste) too much time searching for files that I know I saved, but don't remember what I called them. I have tried alphabetical (but you still have to remember the first word), dates (but who remembers WHEN they wrote a certain memo, etc.

The best I've come up with is to file by year. At least I get closer faster if I can remember what year it was written. But I spent way too much time last week looking for a report I wrote about Community Service Projects in 1998. (It was under Shannon Contracts in the 2001 file.)

I need a better system.

As I go paperless, this will be a real concern, because instead of pulling open a certain drawer and looking through a certain stack (and I am the king of finding bits of paper in stacks), I will have to remember when and where I filed something...what did I name it? Why did I name it that?

This is a very real problem for me, and to me, one of the major disincentives for going paperless. But I am determined to forge ahead...

Any suggestions??