Hi there!
I wanted to briefly mention the nature of my system in its current state, which is “heretical” in many ways.
I simply found that my brain is too hard-wired for grouping, which led me to revert to a more hierarchical system. I continue to use the J-Dec numbering system, and the same strategy for enumerating individual items. But I’ve gone back to a hierarchy that breaks the system in a number of ways.
As an example, I had a section in my “Consolidated Systems” entitled “05 Distractions,” which include any “substitutions” I use to redirect anxiety, etc. These are mostly hobbies and some other groups of things for a similar purpose (e.g., pictures that provide a sense of calm). I have coding and related items running from 05.10 (heading) to 05.19 (different languages or systems get different identifiers). Music production topics were covered from 05.20 - 05.26. Play and activities for my daughter and family were in the 05.30 - 05.39 range. Art was 05.50 - 05.56, and writing was in 05.60 - 05.65. I had gardening in the 05.40 - 05.49 space. I have started regressing to folder groups. I have been doing so much in the gardening section of the system, and my app of choice for working (primarily in Markdown) is Notebooks. I found that having all these individual numbered sections, running from 05.00 to 05.65 was just not aligned with my… brain needs? I’m in the process of consolidating everything now, such that my Gardening range, for example, encloses its relevant folders (with the same naming structure): something like 1 - general plant care; 2 - working flowers (things I’m growing); 3 - bonsai work and references; 4 - gardening equipment and assets; 5 - individual entries for my seed collection (about 120 entries, each with information about the plant, its needs and growth tips, etc.); 6 - a similar collection to 5, but articles cover groups rather than individual species (articles about shade perennials, articles about regional flora here in Connecticut). These folders are nested in the Gardening heading (so I guess it’s no longer a heading). I think my point is that I’ve settled on a heavily-nested structure because it is most intuitive for me, and I use other parts of the Johnny.Decimal framework to make it more usable (the numbering structure for each item, and- critically- the index or a table of contents that provides an easy map of the content).
I’m not able to read much of the forum, as much as I value it- this may be redundant, covered elsewhere, etc. I just wanted to share my strategy, insofar as the parts of Johnny.Decimal I am using, and my selectivity for things that are sort of anathema to the system in its strictest form. I continue to benefit from Johnny.Decimal and all these resources, though I have settled on a strategy that undoes some of its advantages, in favor of a framework that resonates best with me, personally.
(Sorry if this was a poor use of the forum, misplaced, or otherwise mistaken!)
Best,
Ted