In this quick 5-minute Canva organization audit, I take a look at Diana Stephens’ Canva account to identify small changes that could make a big impact on her workflow. Diana is a Strategic Career Transition Advisor based in Chicago, and she’s been using Canva Pro for three years to create everything from client materials and presentations to social media graphics and QR codes.
If your Canva workspace has been growing quietly chaotic, this audit might just be the nudge you need to get it back under control, without starting from scratch.
Resources Mentioned
- Canva Organization Roadmap
- Clean Up My Canva: The Canva Organization Course
- Canva Organization Consulting
- Organization VIP Day
Transcript
In this video, I’ll be doing a quick 5-minute Canva audit for Diana Stephens, the founder of *Mindful Job Alignment*, based in Chicago, Illinois. Diana is a Strategic Career Transition Advisor, helping individuals who are unhappily employed or recently laid off to manage their anxiety and create a career action plan so they can find a job quickly.
She’s been using Canva Pro for three years and she’s creating a variety of content, not just for herself, but also for her clients—everything from social media posts and LinkedIn banners to client materials, presentations, and QR codes.
When Diana applied for this audit, she shared that her biggest struggle with Canva organization is not being able to easily see where all her files are saved. And after looking through her account, I can see how that’s slowing her down.
Now, before we get into folder structure, there’s one quick tip I always recommend: when you head into your Projects tab, make sure to adjust the Owner filter to show only files that you created.
In Diana’s case, that means filtering by her account here, which is actually just displaying as her email address, so I’ve blurred that out. And a side note that I’d suggest she update her profile so that her account is identified by her name, not email.
By default, Canva tends to surface older designs that may already be filed away in folders, which makes things look more cluttered than they actually are.
Switching that view helps cut through the noise and gives you a much clearer picture of what still needs to be filed.
Let’s start with Diana’s folder structure.
She’s taken the first step by creating folders, which is great to see, but most of them are sitting at the top level without any structure to group them. Many of the folder names are highly specific, which makes it harder to get a quick, high-level view of her content. When too many folders live at the top level, it becomes more of a scroll-and-search situation than an organized system, which can make things feel just as overwhelming as not having folders at all.
A better approach would be to streamline the top-level view by creating a smaller number of broad, intuitive categories and then nesting more specific folders inside of them.
For instance, Diana could create a main Social Media folder, then move her “LinkedIn” and “LinkedIn Carousel Posts” folders inside it. I also spotted quite a few social media designs, like Instagram posts and a LinkedIn banner, that haven’t yet been filed, so this would be a great opportunity to add a few additional subfolders by platform or format to keep all her social media design content grouped and easier to locate.
Another top-level folder that would be especially useful for Diana is “Templates”, and she’s already made a solid start here with a folder titled “Purchased Templates for Canva,” though I’d suggest shortening that to just Templates because when you have a long folder title, it doesn’t show the full title when displayed in Projects.
That said, the subfolders within it are organized a bit inconsistently. Some are grouped by source, such as the name of the creator or bundle, whereas others are grouped by purpose, like content type or use case. That kind of mixed structure can make it harder to know where to file a new template or where to find what you need quickly.
In addition to that folder, there are also several other template-related folders currently sitting at the top level of her Projects area, including ones labeled “LIZ BLOCH TEMPLATES” and “Sean Fargo Social Media Templates.” It’s clear she’s collected a good number of templates over time, but they’re a bit scattered right now, which can make things feel more cluttered than they need to be.
To streamline things, I’d recommend consolidating all of her templates into a single Templates folder and then creating a consistent structure within it. She could choose to organize by source (for example, separate subfolders for templates purchased from different creators) or by purpose (like Social Media, Presentations, Client Resources, etc.). Either system can work; it just depends on how her brain works best to retrieve content, but sticking with one approach will make it easier to maintain over time.
It’s also a good time to do a review and purge of her templates before spending the time reorganizing them. If there are templates she hasn’t touched and likely won’t ever use, especially those from older purchases or bundles, those can be archived or removed to cut down on visual noise.
Now, when it comes to brand templates, I can see through the Brand section of her account that she does have a handful of designs already published as brand templates. However, those templates appear to use what might be old branding that doesn’t align with what’s currently in her Brand Kit. And since those brand templates haven’t been edited in three years, I’m going to assume that they may no longer reflect her current branding or content needs.
If those brand templates are still somewhat usable, I’d recommend updating them to match her new brand visuals. But if they’re fully outdated, it’s likely worth removing them and starting fresh by saving her most commonly used, up-to-date designs as new brand templates. Doing this will make it much easier to start from the right file each time and reduce the risk of overwriting something or using inconsistent branding.
Let’s move on to Diana’s Uploads tab.
Unlike many business owners I audit, Diana’s Uploads section is actually quite manageable. There aren’t hundreds of images to scroll through, which is a welcome change! That said, while the volume isn’t overwhelming, there is a fairly wide variety of image types in there, including headshots, stock photos, illustrations, and QR code images.
Even with a smaller number of uploads, having a system in place can still help keep things tidy and easy to navigate. I’d suggest creating a primary-level Images folder to store visuals like stock photos and headshots, and that way, even as her content library grows, she’ll have a clear place to sort and retrieve commonly used images.
It may also be helpful for her to take a quick pass through her existing uploads and consider whether some images are better stored contextually in other folders. For example, several of the QR code images may be tied to specific client projects or marketing materials, in which case, it would make more sense to move those into the relevant project or client folders instead of leaving them in a general Images folder.
The goal here isn’t to over-categorize or complicate things, especially since her uploads aren’t out of control. But putting a simple structure in place now, while everything’s still manageable, can save time and reduce friction down the road as her Canva use continues to grow.
Lastly, there are quite a few designs in her Projects tab that haven’t been filed into folders. Some of these go back quite a while, so if she still needs those designs, I’d recommend moving them into the appropriate folders, and then for anything she no longer needs, now’s a great time to archive or delete them.
By gathering all of her templates into one place, creating a clear folder structure, and reviewing what’s still relevant, Diana can set herself up with a far more efficient and intentional Canva workflow going forward.
