Hi I’m posting this here because I’ve found looking at others’ systems useful and I’d also like to hear any thoughts on mine. Feedback super appreciated!
I will make a follow-up comment on my process once I’ve finished and the digital dust has settled on my system.
Index first draft
- 00-09 System
- 00 The System
- 01 Inbox
- 02 Checklists
- 03 ID and Note Templates
- 10-19 Life Administration
- 11 Identity and Important Personal Information and Japanese Residency
- 12 Applications and CVs
- 13 Japan Outgoings Agreements Contracts and Bank
- 14 House Bills and Organisation and Moving House
- 15 Driving and Vehicles
- 16 UK Tax and Student Loan
- 17 Personal Technology and Gadgets
- 18 Shopping list
- 20-29 Personal Development and Skills
- 21 Practical Notetaking and Writing and Methods of Improving These
- 21.01 PDFgear a free PDF editor application
- 22 Self Development and Self Help
- 23 Personal Finance Strategies
- 24 Exercise Health and Diet
- 25 People and Relationships
- 26 Japanese Language Study
- 27 Korean ~ Chinese and Other Languages
- 30-39 Mission
- 31 Agricultural Research and Farm Planning
- 32 PenPen&Pen Website
- 33 PenPen&Pen Social Media Platforms
- 34 高橋Agriculture.Farm Work and Management
- 35 Other Agricultural Projects and Volunteering
- 36 Wildlife and Wild plant Identification
- 40-49 JET, Teaching and Non-Mission Work
- 41 JET Program Management
- 42 JET Program Teaching
- 43 Other Teaching Jobs and Resources
- 44 Non-Teaching Side Hustles
- 50-59 Leisure
- 51 Travel Adventures Activities
- 52 Books and Media
- 53 Memories and Mementos
- 54 Shamisen
- 90-99 Archive
- 91 Pictures
- 92 Leave Until Needed
- 93 To Be Searched for Useful Material
Thoughts
I could move the archive categories into the System Area.
I could have shopping lists in the checklists category.
I’m still not sure on some of these names:
11 Identity and Important Personal Information and Japanese Residency
13 Japan Outgoings Agreements Contracts and Bank
14 House Bills and Organisation and Moving House
21 Practical Notetaking and Writing and Methods of Improving These
I’m trying to balance having fewer categories with having clearly distinct categories.
Having things distinct provides a structure that makes it easier to have a picture of where things will go in my head, but at the same time may make it harder when making decisions about where to sort things, a paradox almost.
The difficult names is perhaps an indication that those categories are too broad? I may not know until I actually start using it! I can also refine the names later as the numbers won’t change.
This feels pretty good, and I don’t mind the longer category names. They might as well be descriptive, what’s the harm?
As a rule, prefer broader categories than those that are too narrow. I’d question 16 UK Tax and Student Loan for example; couldn’t that be part of a larger finance category? Where is the rest of your life admin finance?
I can also refine the names later as the numbers won’t change.
Yep! 22.00.0020 Renaming a category is ‘free’ • Johnny.Decimal
It’s probably that ‘neat and tidy’ names release more dopamine in my brain !
It’s a good question. Using sticky notes of all my items to organise that’s how it turned out. A massive finance area or category didn’t naturally form. I think because I focused more on what things are for rather than what they are.
After finishing making categories and areas with sticky notes and looking at others’ systems, I realised most people have a finance area or category.
I’m now trying to think whether I’ll get confused between the following highlighted areas.
Index Second draft with some example IDs
- 00-09 System
- 00 The System
- 01 Inbox
- 02 Checklists and Shopping Lists
- 03 ID and Note Templates
- 10-19 Life Administration
- 11 Identity, Japanese Residency and Important Personal Information
- 12 Applications and CVs
- 13 Insurance Tax Banking and Contracts
- 13.01 Phone contract and bills
- 13.02 Residence Tax
- 13.03 Health Insurance
- 13.03 Pension
- 14 Housing Organisation and Bills
- 14.01 Items to Sell before moving
- 14.02 House xx gas bills
- 14.02 House xx rental contract
- 15 Driving and Vehicles
- 16 UK Tax and Student Loan
- 16.01 Translations of Payslips
- 16.02 Student Loan Company Contact letters
- 17 Personal Technology and Gadgets
- 20-29 Personal Development and Skills
- 21 Writing Research and Organisation Skills
- 21.01 PDFgear a free PDF editor application
- 22 Self Development and Self Help
- 23 Personal Finance Strategies
- 23.01 Book - The holy grail of investing - Tony Robbins with Christopher Zook
- 23.02 Investment Ideas
- 23.03 Budgeting plan
- 24 Exercise Health and Diet
- 25 People and Relationships
- 26 Japanese Language Study
- 27 Korean ~ Chinese and Other Languages
- 30-39 Mission
- 31 Agricultural Research and Farm Planning
- 32 PenPen&Pen Website
- 33 PenPen&Pen Social Media Platforms
- 34 高橋Agriculture.Farm Work and Management
- 35 Other Agricultural Projects and Volunteering
- 36 Wildlife and Wild plant Identification
- 40-49 JET, Teaching and Non-Mission Work
- 41 JET Program Management
- 41.01 JET Program payment slips
- 41.02 xx School schedules
- 42 JET Program Teaching
- 43 Other Teaching Jobs and Resources
- 44 Non-Teaching Side Hustles
- 50-59 Leisure
- 51 Travel Adventures Activities
- 52 Books and Media
- 53 Memories and Mementos
- 54 Shamisen
- 90-99 Archive
- 91 Pictures
- 92 Leave Until Needed
- 93 To Be Searched for Useful Material
We had a realisation in the workshop: your (life admin) categories might need to be ‘boring’ — that is, fairly standard, because we’re all human — but you can tizzy things up a bit by giving them interesting names.
So you don’t have to call it finance 
but you probably just need a category that contains all your financial stuff…
In this system 13 and 16 should merge for sure. 14 is okay as a house category, that’s another fairly standard one.
Regarding 23, I once had a separate 20-29 Personal, projects area and it didn’t work out for me. I’m not saying that’s necessarily a bad idea, just that my particular implementation didn’t work. (The categories in mine mirrored my 10-19 Personal, daily life 1:1 and that caused confusion.)