Tada! My first draft Johnny.Decimal system (and some personal reflection)

[Rogfrich]

@hans

@Rogfrich

hate being in the situation where I think I probably have a relevant note somewhere, … psychologically easier to assume I don’t have any relevant info and start from scratch

So, so relatable. Really annoying when it’s some measurement I have to drive 40 minutes to retake…

Blimey. At least I can usually restart from the comfort of my office chair!

@hans

Thanks for sharing. Good luck and it goes without saying that we’re interested to hear more and help as much as we can.

Thank you. This community feels like a great place to be. Speaking of which…

@johnnydecimal

I think, @Rogfrich, that we are very similar people.

In my last job – the one I quit to do this – I felt the same. Honestly, at times I felt stupid. There was so much going on, it felt almost impossible to keep track of it all. There wasn’t time to actually do the job, and be on top of everything.

Worse, my boss was one of those guys who seems to remember all the small details. So not having them to hand was doubly bad. Who said what about which piece of software now? How does he know this and I don’t?

Until I realised that he only knew all those small details because, despite holding the lofty title of Program Manager, he spent his entire day in his email or chat just shuttling around tiny details.

That’s what he was. A tiny-detail conduit. A shuttle service for tiny details. Here to there and back again. Which, maybe, is what a Program Manager does. I dunno. Maybe he was really great at his job? Maybe. I’m discrete enough not to say much more.[1]

I realised this job was never going to work for me, because I’ve seen how things work when stuff is organised. Work is nicer. People get along. ‘Job satisfaction’ becomes a thing. But that permanent stress, that cortisol-inducing 25% of permanent, niggling stress, from not knowing what’s going on, whether you’re updating old stuff, working on old information … it’s horrible.

And this is why ‘my memory’ was shot. My memory is just fine, thank you very much, when I’m remembering stuff that matters, that’s sane and normal and organised, that I give a shit about, that isn’t a waste of my mental energy, that isn’t a pointless slog.

All of which is to say, in a really round-about way, that this system might not solve all of your problems. Keeping notes about what’s going on is still going to be an uphill struggle. But what you’ve acknowledged? realised? here, with us – thank you – is that you’re one of the Organised Ones. It matters to you, like it matters to us. Just getting through the day moving around pieces of information isn’t good enough. Because it’s fucking not! It’s fucking absurd that so many people do that, day in, day out.

Wow, this has spelled out exactly how I feel, right down to the boss with the incredible memory for detail. Thank you, this was very helpful and inspiring. In particular, the bolded part hit home. I realised that I can very well remember:

• The recipe for the pasta arabiata sauce we like
• Our home phone number from when I was a kid
• How to play loads of different scales on the guitar
• Which film my wife and I went to see on our first date

… and lots of other stuff. Thank you, that was an important lesson.

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@johnnydecimal

Top tip, which I mention in the workshop at 22 where I’m in a suit. I found tremendous success in using my notes as a place of sanity by collecting all of the URLs for other people’s SharePoints, change systems, timesheet systems, request systems, mandatory training systems, all that shite – organise them in your notes app, in your own neat IDs.

This is at the core of my question the other day, which - although I didn’t word it as well as this - was really about how I manage all the information in “other people’s SharePoints, change systems, timesheet systems, request systems, mandatory training systems, all that shite” - and work with it to produce solutions. I think that between the Work packages and admin categories, I’ve got the capability to do this “soft linking” to our Incident and CR tracking systems.

@johnnydecimal

has a deep, deep desire to make it better for those who are, you’re our man on the ground.

Godspeed! x

Agent @Rogfrich reporting for duty. Happy to share my thoughts as I go.