Major Undertaking

J.D Concepts 14 Build and learn
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Do specific file names remain descriptive without the Johnny.Decimal numbering system, i.e., All-In-One2026.xlsm.

The FIGURE 11.01F. A NEAT FILE STRUCTURE WITH AREAS, CATEGORIES, AND IDS shown on https://johnnydecimal.com/10-19-concepts/11-core/11.01-introduction/ speaks to Areas, Categories, and IDs, while the image shows SHELF, BOX, & FOLDER. What is the relationship between these two types of descriptors? Would Areas relate to Shelf, Categories relate to Box, & IDs relate to Folder.

First, a little about me, a 77-year-old retiree. 21 years as IT/Cadd Manager/SystemAdmin/Architectural Technician for an architecture firm in Iowa, USA. When I retired, I brought with me the filing structure type we had used during those 21 years, which had obviously become refined over time. These were as follows: E:\Jobs, F:\User, G:\Cadd, H:\admin, & L:\Library. Upon retirement, I continued using this format, except that I no longer had much need for the E drive, as after a period of time doing remote work as a retiree, I no longer worked on architecture projects. So the E drive became something else, but was left with the drive name of Jobs. These 5 drives all exist on a single partitioned 1 Tbyte HDD.

My life took a very different turn prior to retirement after my wife of 25 years passed away. Within six months after her death, I was communicating with a Russian woman inside Russia who eventually became my wife. This process started a whole new gamut of documents, etc., regarding citizenship naturalization, passports, and various travel documents and certifications. This then became even more convoluted when, upon retirement, we decided to move to the Czech Republic. Many, many additional documents, permits, visas etcetera. By this time, my HDD drive was fast filling with files previously never considered during a simpler life in Iowa, USA. The move from the Czech Republic to Kaliningrad in 2024 further complicated this as now I had to deal with many, many documents regarding my residency in Russia.

All that to say, I literally have thousands upon thousands of documents, files, etc., that are spread across hundreds of folders; and in many cases, literal multiple copies of files saved to specific folder locations that serve specific purposes for these copies. The first problem I see happening is losing the links to the many files that are linked in other documents as I progress through this daunting task.

All in all, I feel totally overwhelmed even before I begin.

I have begun seeing light at the end of the tunnel regarding the search for files via the use of a recently discovered free file search tool called Everything.

I have long held that any task is a cinch by the inch and hard by the yard. I suppose at the very least I can leave a more organized mess for my wife to have to wade through when I am ready for my long-awaited dirt nap.

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I believe I have chosen the wrong venue or subject for this post.

Perhaps a different subject would garner some support, but I am not familiar enough with the short list of subject options in which to post.

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Hi, I think the answer to this question is yes.
Because when you decide which is the right folder for that All-In-One2026.xlsm and that folder will have of course the “AC.ID Label” format, you’ll be able to put that file in it in your filesystem or Google Drive.

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Welcome, Codger, and don’t worry about where this is posted. Where it is is fine; the forum is small enough that it doesn’t really matter.

This is common, normal, and to be expected.

The best advice I can give is just to do a bit at a time and don’t give up. That’s hardly revolutionary, I know, but it’s what works.

The trick is to pick the stuff that actually matters to you, today. That sounds like your move (wow!) to Russia. What’s going to have the biggest impact on your life today? What, if really neatly organised, is going to make you think oh boy this is good, I’ll do more of this?

Start there. For me, in my personal life, I’m taking great care to file the documents related to the worldwide trip we’re on. (We live in hotels around the world. Today: Valencia, Spain.)

Just an hour ago I was at the front desk extending our stay for a week. This hotel’s booking systems are … unorthodox, shall we say … so the guy, despite me having been here a week, and despite him standing behind the desk, couldn’t find my reservation.

But I could! I got my phone out, I went to 15.53 Jucy's World Tour, I went to the subfolder 40 Somewhere to stay, and there it was, the last document in the folder, which is neatly sorted by yyyy-mm-dd.

This was a great relief, and it’s the reason that I file this otherwise tedious paperwork so neatly.

Find that stuff in your life. Organise it first. Feel the benefit. Repeat.

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Yes, I have to tell you that it happened to me just a few days ago in a business trip to Manchester.

But it happened also when I had to recall a Slack thread I had on a specific project the week before.

JD works for sure and it is the best.
I used other methods and tried to use them to keep this kind of things, but they didn’t work well as JD. The weakest point of other systems I see continuosly mentioned as “a thing that work” is the fact that they are based on search. But that’s week. Search in Obsidian doesn’t work really well if your intention is to search many notes. Search in JDex instead works like a charm and then you identify the AC.ID and you restrict the search to just the places mentioned in JDex.

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