My logical folder organization is a photos folder, with subfolders for each year “YYYY,” then subfolders for each month “MM,” then subfolders for specific shoots “DD projectname” or just “DD.” I usually don’t have a project name, but the “DD” helps organize chronologically anyway, in a way that doesn’t interfere between named or unnamed projects.

My physical data organization workflow:

• Shoot on redundant SD cards, two cards in my camera. (2 copies in the same device).
• That day, I copy from SD to my laptop and my NAS. If I’m out and offline, then I copy from SD to my laptop and an external SSD. (4 copies in 3 devices).
• Once I get home, if I used the external SSD, the external SSD gets backed up to the NAS. (5 copies in 4 devices).
• I have automated sync between the NAS and a local hard drive and a remote cloud service. (6 or 7 copies in 6 devices, in at least 2 locations, including 1 offsite)
• Once I’ve confirmed my NAS has synced to the local and cloud backup, I mark the SD cards and external SSD for deletion. (4 copies on 4 devices, in at least 2 locations).
• If I need the space on my laptop, I’ll delete the old files there (3 copies on 3 devices, in at least 2 locations).

My NAS copy is the main place where I have Lightroom looking for the original files, but that’s not super practical for editing outside of the home (I have a VPN that allows me to access the NAS from anywhere, but the typical hotel or mobile internet connection is too laggy for doing edits on RAWs stored elsewhere). So I sometimes manually use the external SSD or local laptop storage for editing and processing on the road.