# My personal system **URL:** \ **Category:** Workbook/Workshop\ **Created:** [March 20, 2022, 3:27am UTC](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/t/my-personal-system/412 "2022-03-20T03:27:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![johnnydecimal](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/user_avatar/forum.johnnydecimal.com/johnnydecimal/32/1759_2.png) [@johnnydecimal](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/u/johnnydecimal)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2022, 3:27am UTC](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/t/my-personal-system/412/1 "2022-03-20T03:27:48Z")
Details are scattered around here, but I’ve never documented my personal system in its own post and someone has asked via email, so I’ll respond here. For almost ten years, my entire home[^1] system fit inside a single system. Only recently have I expanded to a [`PRO.AC.ID`](https://johnnydecimal.com/concepts/multiple-projects/) system at home. The system I’ll describe below is now `101 Personal`. [1]: So I had separate systems at my job, but this one covered my entire personal life, including all of the business-related stuff. Here are my areas, then we’ll explore each in more detail. ```plaintext 10-19 Personal, daily life 20-29 Personal, projects 30-39 [Name of the company I own] 40-49 Strange Attractor 50-59 Johnny.Decimal 60-69 Marriage celebrant 70-79 [Blank, can’t remember why] 80-89 Learning specific things, usually technical ``` The first two was an idea which didn’t really work. I thought it would make sense to separate stuff that was just ‘daily life’ from stuff that I classed as a ‘project’. Turns out this really is one of those areas where you can’t remember where you put a thing. I’ve since merged these two areas, because the categories within were identical: ```plaintext 10 Management & meta 11 Process 12 People & organisations 13 Financial 14 Knowledge & data 15 Technical 16 Travel 17 Entertainment 18 [blank, don’t remember why] 19 House & home ``` - `11 Process` is ‘life stuff that I need to do’. Get a passport, ship an electric piano from the UK, register to vote. - `12 People & organisations` is notes/files about/from people or organisations. My home life isn’t really complicated — don’t own a house, no kids — so I don’t have a lot to organise. I just pay my bills, pretty much. I’ve written [elsewhere](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/t/could-i-use-this-system-for-tutoring/192/4) about how I use the numbering within this folder; worth a read, I won’t repeat here. - `13 Financial` is obvious enough. Tax returns and whatnot. - `14 Knowledge & data` is stuff that I like to learn, remember, and so on. I expanded it recently from just `Knowledge` to encompass the fact that this contains ‘data’ items like my resume. - `15 Technical` is also pretty obvious. - `16 Travel` needs no introduction. I long to start filling this one up again… - `17 Entertainment` is also obvious, concert tickets were the main item here. - Might be worth noting that I do _not_ recommend using JD for media libraries. The alphabet works best for music, movies, etc. My music is Apple Music, my visual media is all on Plex with a basic `/tv`, `/movies` hierarchy. Nothing clever, no need. - `19 House & home` is for rental agreements, moving, that time I had a motorbike, etc. `30-39 [Name of my company]` follows a similar structure. The main difference is `34 Contracts`, given that I am a contractor. Otherwise I find I still need many of the same things as I do in my personal life. `40-49 Strange Attractor` was a podcast that my partner and I did a few years ago. It’s still out there if anyone is morbidly curious. Don’t judge us. - `41 Documents and notes` has just that. Original notes about setting the thing up. - `42 Episodes` contains all of the actual content. There’s a folder within there per episode, and then in true breaking-the-rules fashion there are subfolders within each episode folder. - But, crucially, they’re all identical: - `01 Audio - raw, as recorded` - `02 Audio - Logic package` - `03 Audio - bounced files for internal review` - `04 Audio - auphonic processed` - `05 Audio - podcast as released` - Notably, the entire `42` category is on a different drive (as it’s massive). - `43 Website` - `44 Images & other assets` - `45 Marketing & PR` - `46 Financial` are all obvious enough. `50-59 Johnny.Decimal`, which is now its own project, contained: - `50 Management & meta` - `51 Notes` - `52 Website` - `53 Development` as in software. - `54 Demo folders` for the website screenshots. Pretty simple, there’s not much going on there. `60-69 Marriage celebrant`, because I became one to marry my best friends, contains: - `61 Administration` which is another word for ‘process’. Paying the annual fees, doing the annual training, all that nonsense. - `62 Attorney general documentation & forms` is obvious. - `63 Weddings` contains a folder per wedding. And that’s it. `80-89` didn’t really work out so I won’t mention it. Nothing too clever there, but hopefully that helps someone. ---
**Author:** ![warrenthrush](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/user_avatar/forum.johnnydecimal.com/warrenthrush/32/245_2.png) [@warrenthrush](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/u/warrenthrush)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2022, 12:50pm UTC](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/t/my-personal-system/412/2 "2022-03-21T12:50:48Z")
Johnny, Thank you for this! I think we all appreciate this practical example from your own experience in developing and using the JD system. I’m also a contractor who moves from client to client with their own project needs. Would you consider including a real-world example using the PRO.AC.ID approach? ---
**Author:** ![johnnydecimal](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/user_avatar/forum.johnnydecimal.com/johnnydecimal/32/1759_2.png) [@johnnydecimal](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/u/johnnydecimal)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2022, 2:44am UTC](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/t/my-personal-system/412/3 "2022-03-23T02:44:19Z")
Sure! Have set myself a reminder, realistically will be the weekend. ---
**Author:** ![dhanya](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/d26b3c/32.png) [@dhanya](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/u/dhanya)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2022, 10:18am UTC](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/t/my-personal-system/412/4 "2022-03-28T10:18:51Z")
What would you do about the old stuff once I migrate to your JD system? Getting all the old stuff into JD isn’t feasible. What would you suggest do? ---
**Author:** ![johnnydecimal](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/user_avatar/forum.johnnydecimal.com/johnnydecimal/32/1759_2.png) [@johnnydecimal](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/u/johnnydecimal)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2022, 6:33pm UTC](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/t/my-personal-system/412/5 "2022-03-29T18:33:00Z")
I’m not sure what you mean. Are you talking about your existing files? You’ve got 3 options, I guess: - Do nothing. Start again. Leave all your old stuff where it is. - Do nothing _until you use a file_. Then bring it in to your new JD system. Just make sure that you actually do this every time. - Take the time to bring your old files in to your new system. ---
**Author:** ![jdnumbers](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@jdnumbers](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/u/jdnumbers)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2022, 2:50am UTC](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/t/my-personal-system/412/6 "2022-03-30T02:50:41Z")
+1. It’s hard to go back to old files. What I did was create an “Archives” folder in my “Management and Meta” section. I dumped a ton of files there. From time to time I have to use one. I’ll grab it and then decide if it goes into an active JD folder or not. I’ve actually done some basic numbering within the Archive section for previous jobs, as I sometimes go look for a project or file I might have worked on in the past. ---
**Author:** ![travisp](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/user_avatar/forum.johnnydecimal.com/travisp/32/216_2.png) [@travisp](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/u/travisp)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2022, 5:53pm UTC](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/t/my-personal-system/412/7 "2022-06-13T17:53:54Z")
Thank you for sharing this. I’m curious how you handle PRO.AC.ID overall. Does your documents folder have a 101 Personal and inside have all of these? I’m also surprised by how broad each category you have is. For example, you have “People & organizations” in 12, “Financial” in 13, “Knowledge & data” in 14, not broken down into further subcategories (even combining data and knowledge here). Do you ever miss not having these further subdivided? For example, in my proposed file plan, Financial is a top level Area, broken down into things like “Annual Taxes”, “Banking”, “Insurance”, “Investing Knowledge” I have a sort of knowledge area broken down into the things I like to learn about, Sailing, Science, Health, etc. My instinct is to make categories as specific as possible, but it seems like you do and recommend the opposite. I’m afraid it’ll be hard to find, say, my resumes in “Knowledge & data” mixed in with everything I want to learn and remember. If you had a new hobby you wanted to pick up, where would it go? ---
**Author:** ![johnnydecimal](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/user_avatar/forum.johnnydecimal.com/johnnydecimal/32/1759_2.png) [@johnnydecimal](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/u/johnnydecimal)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2022, 9:37pm UTC](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/t/my-personal-system/412/8 "2022-06-13T21:37:19Z")
> [@travisp](#): > > Thank you for sharing this. I’m curious how you handle PRO.AC.ID overall. Does your documents folder have a 101 Personal and inside have all of these? Yep, just like that. > [@travisp](#): > > I’m also surprised by how broad each category you have is. Do you ever miss not having these further subdivided? It works great for me. Remember, in each thing you now have 100 things you can store. My life isn’t particularly complex so I don’t have a lot of financial stuff. From memory I’m up to the mid-20s. Mostly annual tax returns. And even those I’d be tempted to put in `13.ID Tax returns` with a folder for each year in there. Think of it like the system is taking you from a world of unorganised chaos — whether or not your previous system was like that — and bringing you to one where you can _immediately_ and with full confidence find your ‘personal financial stuff’. So now within there even if you have to scan a hundred things to find what you want, it’s unlikely to be onerous. And things group together by time, so it’s never like you’re blindly scanning those hundred things wondering where a thing is. I think there’s a risk in going too specific, because now you have to really think about where a thing might be. There’s a risk that your categories overlap. Know what I mean? This will be different for everybody of course. I have a simple life and, frankly, very little interest in personal finance! 😆 I see you have ‘investing knowledge’ as a category. That would make no sense for me but if it’s a big part of your life, well, you probably need it. ---
**Author:** ![mdbaharzaman](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/9fc348/32.png) [@mdbaharzaman](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/u/mdbaharzaman)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2025, 12:44pm UTC](https://forum.johnnydecimal.com/t/my-personal-system/412/9 "2025-09-20T12:44:26Z")
Over time I’ve built my own system for handling playlists—mainly to avoid losing them when switching apps. I use MusConvtool as the core tool to transfer my playlists between Spotify, YouTube Music, and Apple Music. This way, no matter which service I’m on, my playlists stay consistent. It’s also helpful for backing everything up so I don’t have to rebuild from scratch.