How to index non-J.D-managed media?

10-19 Concepts 14 Build your system
1

Hello everyone!

I know Johnny himself doesn’t recommend uisng J.D for media, photos, etc. and I agree that one should just organise that stuff separately, using the principles that already work neatly for that (YYYYMMDD for photos, alphabetical author sort for books, etc.).

However, I’m wanting to somehow index their root folders so that they are not just there lying around freely and to be able to neatly refer to them and their location.

So far, I’ve come up with two proposals to do this, but I can’t choose between the two. One separates these “externally organised” things better, while the other integrates them with the rest of the J.D’d things.

The first proposal is as follows:

[my normal J.D system here]

M0-M9 Media
    M1 Music
    M2 Books
    M3 Films
    M4 Series

N0-N9 Notes
    N1 General
    N2 Knowledge
    N3 Writing
    N4 Linguistics

P0-P9 Photos
    P1 Camera
    P2 Phone
    P3 Screenshots
    P4 Videogames
    P5 Inspiration
    
S0-S9 Studies
    S1 University
    S2 Master's

This one leverages the AC notation, but it creates a clear distinction from the actual J.D-managed files by using letters for the area. With this, in theory, I could create 10 J.D-managed areas, since I wouldn’t be using their numbers.

The second proposal is as follows:

20-29 Creation
    21 Projects
    ---
    2G General
    2K Knowledge
    2L Linguistics
    2W Writing

[other normal J.D categories here]

50-59 Studies
    51 Paperwork
    52 Accomplishments 
    ---
    5M Master's
    5U University

60-69 Images
    61 Wallpapers
    62 Profile
    ---
    6C Camera
    6I Inspiration
    6P Phone
    6S Screenshots
    6V Videogames
    
70-79 Media
    71 Audios
    ---
    7B Books
    7F Films
    7M Music
    7S Series

This second proposal also uses letters to differentiate them, but this time they are in the category part of the AC notation. As I said, this one integrates better with the already defined areas of my system, but it does so by using up space (both in areas and categories) that could be useful in the future for other actual J.D-managed things. Though, in theory, I could still use the normal 10 J.D-managed categories in each area, since I wouldn’t be using their numbers.

Basically, I’m debating whether I should keep these externally-managed things separate from the normal J.D system (proposal 1) or whether I should integrate them within, at the cost of used up space (proposal 2).

Any thoughts, ideas, opinions? Thanks!

2

If you’re going to the trouble of building a JD-like notation for organising the extra media things, it kinda makes sense to integrate it with your other JD-stuff. So at first blush I’m saying option two.

However, the advantage of option one is that you can keep other things that are not the actual images, notes, screenshots, media etc organised in your separate JD “compliant” structure. So if you have some notes to keep on how you are organising your screenshots, that can go in the regular JD index and not clutter up the separate section that is pure media files.

I’m naturally drawn to option one because in my mind, JD lives in my “Documents” and similar folders, but is not required in my “Music” folder (iTunes organises that) or my movies folder (Radarr organises that), etc.

SO in summary, both are good and I’m not helping here. :slight_smile: