Hello everyone.
I’m in the process of organizing my folders, files and notes and thought I’d share what I’ve done with the community. Maybe someone can give some good advice or find something useful for themselves. To be honest, I’ve already spent about a month on what I have between projects and personal stuff.
A bit about the ecosystem.
All my files are stored on Google Drive. I decided to switch from Dropbox (which I’d been using for 10 years) because I needed a convenient way to create and store text files and spreadsheets. I immediately gave up using MS Word/Excel because I often need to share files with others. And at the same time, it was a great opportunity to review and delete all the unnecessary things that had accumulated over the years of using Dropbox (which is ≈ 850 GB of information).
I was looking for a place to store my notes for a long time and finally decided on Notion — I really like the ability to create databases and link information.
For day-to-day tasks, I use OmniFocus and put things in there for a week after regularly checking the list of current projects.
All this month I’ve been trying to somehow link Johnny.Decimals and P.A.R.A. by Tiago Forte. I’m now leaning more towards JD and decided to abandon the four root folder structure from P.A.R.A. I’m left with PROJECTS and AREAS. Everything that was supposed to go in the RESOURCES folder will be split between the PROJECTS and AREAS folders.
The root structure looks like this:
1 PROJECTS
2 AREAS
PROJECTS is where I put all my projects — work, freelance, personal, and home projects (like a refreshing home renovation). My work projects are client projects, so the first question was how to divide it all up so there would be enough folders (99 is obviously not going to be enough based on past experience). I decided to add a letter to the file names (the first letter of the client’s name). I found this idea in one of Johnny’s videos.
In each client folder, there is a folder with an index of 00, which contains static materials such as logos, fonts, etc. It looks like this:
_Client [XNN] ← template folder
AICSA [A02]
Around.az [A01]
Atmosphere Development [A03]
Beat Group [B01]
Clother [C01]
DreamFest [D02]
D02.00 Assets
D02.01 DF24
D02.02 DF24 Identity
D02.03 DF24 Venue
D02.04 DF24 Temporary Poster
D02.05 DF24 Artist Presentation
01_Client Input
02_Docs
D02.05-DreamFest-ArtistPresentation-Comments-v01.gdoc
D02.05-DreamFest-ArtistPresentation-Comments-v02.gdoc
03_Assets
04_WORKING
05_Presentations
06_Proofs
07_OUTPUT
ZZ_Archive
D02.06 DF24 Sponsorship Proposal
01_Client Input
02_Docs
03_Assets
04_WORKING
05_Presentations
06_Proofs
07_OUTPUT
D02.06-DF24-SponsorshipProposal-v02
Document fonts
Links
D02.06-DF24-SponsorshipProposal-v02.indd
zz_Archive
D02.07 DF24 Merch
D02.08 DF24 Signage
Dukkan [D01]
Gettapp [G01]
Home LLC [H01]
Kibrit Tech [K01]
Sea Breeze [S01]
TerraStruc [T01]
Triangle Consulting [T02]
zz_ARCHIVE
The numbering in the project folder is for sorting purposes only and does not affect file naming.
And this is how projects look in Notion. I use the same names throughout.
Now to the AREAS folder. Everything is simpler here. I tried to follow the JD principles as much as possible. The main problem was to find a structure that suits me — I have a lot of different interests and a lot of information on different topics. While I was thinking about how to structure everything, I realized that some things and interests can be left out, because I don’t use this information much.
It looks like this:
10-19 Life Administration
11 Finances
11.01 Home Budget
11.02 Loans
11.03 Kids Education
12 Private
12.01 Documents
12.02 CV
12.03 Green Card
12.04 Canada
13 Health
13.01 Fitness
13.02 Yoga & Meditations
14 Ecosystem
14.01 Software
14.02 Server Administration
15 Family
15.01 General
15.02 Spouse
15.03 Kids
15.04 Parents
16 Home and Environment
20-29 Leisure and Recreation
21 Travel and Exploration
21.01 Amsterdam, Mar 2023
21.02 London, Jun 2023
21.03 Istanbul, Sep, 2023
22 Hiking
22.01 Bazarduzu, Aug 2022
22.02 Heydar-Ataturk, Aug 2022
23 Activities
23.01 Encounter
23.02 Dungeons & Dragons
30-39 Relationships
31 Family
31.01 Spouse
31.02 Kids
32 Parents & Siblings
32.01 Parents
32.02 Sister
33 Friends
40-49 Learning and Growth
41 Books
41.01 Design
41.02 Architecture
41.03 City Planning
42 Courses & Webinars
42.01 BHSAD Intensive, Jan 2013
42.02 Ermolaev Intensive, Feb 2015
43 Personal Development
50-59 Static
51 Assets
51.01 Guidelines
51.02 Mockups
51.03 Omnifocus Icons
51.05 Metro Maps
52 Templates & Checklists
52.01 Presentation Templates
60-69 Photo Archive
61 Personal Photos
61.01 Document Photos
61.02 Portraits
61.03 Misc Photos
62 Family Photos
63 Travel Photos
63.01 Amsterdam, Mar 2016
63.02 London, Apr 2008
What remains to be done:
- Finalize the AREAS folder (I’m a terrible perfectionist sometimes and spend a lot of time planning);
- Move the AREAS folder structure to Notion;
- Migrate all necessary materials from the Dropbox archives.
Thanks for taking the time to read this and I look forward to your comments and feedback.