# Breaking the rules / exceptions - allowed subfolders? What do other people do?

**URL:** <https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/t/breaking-the-rules-exceptions-allowed-subfolders-what-do-other-people-do/1618>\
**Category:** Workbook/Workshop\
**Created:** [July 6, 2024, 11:31am UTC](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/t/breaking-the-rules-exceptions-allowed-subfolders-what-do-other-people-do/1618 "2024-07-06T11:31:59Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![johnnydecimal](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/user_avatar/forum.johnnydecimal.com/johnnydecimal/32/1759_2.png) [@johnnydecimal](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/u/johnnydecimal)\
**Post date:** [July 7, 2024, 7:55am UTC](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/t/breaking-the-rules-exceptions-allowed-subfolders-what-do-other-people-do/1618/2 "2024-07-07T07:55:29Z")

</div>

I’ve changed my mind on subfolders.

You should not be afraid to use subfolders. **But** they must be structured.

This ties in with my thoughts on the granularity of IDs: that is, they should be waaaay less granular than you might think. See [this post](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/t/22-00-00050-granularity-of-ids/1481/3) for more on that.

So if your IDs are less granular, you need subfolders. But I think they should either:

1. Start with the date, or
2. Follow a template.

Two examples. In the JD system we have:

```txt
10-19 Office management
   15 Technology
      15.12 Hardware purchases

```

And that covers _all_ hardware. Whereas previously I might have created an ID for `iPhone 15`, now that just becomes:

```txt
10-19 Office management
   15 Technology
      15.12 Hardware purchases
            2024-03-21 iPhone 15

```

Also in that system we’re following the [creative pattern](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/t/15-02-creative-pattern/1610):

```txt
90-99 Portfolio of creative outputs
      ...
      90024 YouTube video
            10 Design elements
            20 Words, text
            30 Images, drawings, screenshots
            40 Photos
            50 Audio, music
            60 Video, animation
            90 Exports, finals

```

And those folders are the same in every `9xxxx` folder.

This is an idealised view of course. No doubt I’ll have exceptions of my own.

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_[View the full topic](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/t/breaking-the-rules-exceptions-allowed-subfolders-what-do-other-people-do/1618)._