Most of my info isn’t in files. Should I build the Index before the file structure?

J.D Concepts 14 Build your system
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I’m setting up JD at work to manage my ever-expanding pile of “stuff”. I’m trying to follow the Workbook as closely as I can, but I’ve hit a question.

I’m finishing up on Area 30-39 (Create your categories and areas), which means 40-49 (Build your System is next). Having read ahead, this boils down to numbering the Areas and Categories and then implementing a file-system.

Here’s the thing. Less than half of my IDs, maybe even less than a quarter, will have a file on the file system associated with it. Most of the stuff I need to manage is in one or more of:

  • notes in OneNote
  • Email
  • Saas systems like Jira and Confluence

… so building out folders wouldn’t include the majority of my IDs. I feel like I’d get to the end of the section with the bulk of my information still not in the system’s control, and the comment at the end of 45 (at this point you should have a working JD system) wouldn’t be true.

Under these circumstances, would it make sense to still number everything, but then skip to building out the JDEX, capturing locations for everything and then going back to manage the file system to match the JDex?

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Totally absolutely yes. JDex is the master of all things. It is your system. Files/folders only need to exist if required.

Interesting, this feels familiar to me. Work was heavily notes-based rather than files-based.

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