Johnny Decimal

I ~like~ love Obsidian. I also like Steph Ango and his philosophies. In fact, a lot of his ideas shaped and improved mine. His approach is opinionated. So pick the good ones you like and make your own. For instance, I’m pretty well-organized, and I like it that way. This leads me to native organizations using folders and some patterns that I learnt aloong the way. Nothing more complicated. One day, if I have to walk off Obsidian, I can, and I will still know where things are. Right now, my organization is a loose combo of PARA[1] and Johnny Decimal.[2] Obsidian is another tool; it just happens to be one hell of a good tool. 1. https://fortelabs.com/blog/para/ 2. https://johnnydecimal.com

>There's a great meme with the classic intelligence bell curve setup This meme has taken on the character of the "Einstein was bad at math and school" urban legend. Yes, you can overthink it, but you can also under-think it if you picture yourself to be some romantic-era genius sitting in a heap of notes. If you want to go meta you might as well put the usage of that meme on the middle of the curve. You don't need 15 note taking apps but it does pay off to invest in at least a bit of a system (I'd recommend https://johnnydecimal.com/ because it takes about an hour to set up), because you're not actually the 150 IQ guy and you probably benefit from a bit of structure (as do most very intelligent people in real life)

You could use something like the PARA Method. I don't but I follow another pattern: https://alexandremjacques.com/why-i-dont-use-the-para-system/ I just dump this sctructure inside my Documents folder and iCloud does its sync stuuf. Switch iCloud with your tool of choice and you're good to go. Another option: https://johnnydecimal.com/ Also, there's a ton of applications that can automate organizing files based on rules. Just look around.

Awesome snippet! I organize most of my work using something similar to the Johnny decimal system[0] and use CDPATH for quicker lookups. But I love how you build a dynamic system with a simple oneliner! [0] https://johnnydecimal.com/

Location: Canberra, Australia. Remote: Only if the whole team is remote and the company is set up for it; otherwise I’d prefer to be in the office at least 3 days a week. I work Tuesday-Friday. Willing to relocate: No. I have chickens. Résumé: https://github.com/johnnydecimal/resume You may know me on the internet as Johnny.Decimal [0]. I now live in Canberra and am looking for a role in the data world: think data architect, PM on a data-focussed project, that sort of thing. Alternatively I think I’d run a great PMO: imagine project artefacts liberated from Word documents, given their rightful status as database records. Mmm, nice. I’d prefer something local and in-person but hey, this is HN. Who knows who’s out there. I’ve just done 7 years contracting with a massive systems integrator and am looking for something different. [0]: https://johnnydecimal.com

I did try "PARA" but found it a little bulky.. I've been working with Johnny decimal, have you read about it ? what are your thoughts on decimal ( https://johnnydecimal.com/ )? Do you think its worth switching and enduring the change for an information worker ?

I bet you'll love this: https://johnnydecimal.com/ Edit: Sorry, I should have saved you the bother of clicking. It's a digital file management strategy loosely inspired (I assume) by library classification systems like Dewey's. I don't use it myself, but I admire the simplicity, clarity, and flexibility of the system.

(HFS here means “hierarchical file system”, i.e. one with nested folders.) I tire of the either-or dichotomy. Yes, search is great. But a couple years ago, I adopted Johnny Decimal[0] for storing my archive files and I couldn’t be happier. Our 2023 tax filings are in 22.23. Physics articles are in 34.04. Her CME records are in 43.03. Go into one of those and you’ll find every file I have related to those things. And they’re still searchable. You can still do tag-based queries, indexed text searches, and all that, but you don’t have to. When I want all my 2025 tax deduction receipts come tax filing time next year, I’ll send the contents of 22.25 to my accountant and be done with it, confident we found 100% of the related files. I don’t do those for everything. Music files are in their own directories. Movies live with movies. I don’t try to shoehorn Obsidian into it. But all my long-term storage files go straight to their home in JD. This has the huge benefit that I can instantly locate them when I’m accessing the archive from my phone, my wife can find things without learning special tooling or the vagaries of search, and there’s zero need for any additional apps or software beyond Finder. I love using great search software. I used Devonthink daily for years. But I also adore not having to. [0] https://johnnydecimal.com/

I'm in the same camp, all my notes are in Markdown files, organized as a tree of folders. Some folders are prefixed with YYYY or YYYY-MM, when needed. My text editor, also VS Code, has extensions for Markdown live preview, to-do lists, and other conveniences - everything I need to manage the "knowledge database". In the terminal, `find` and `grep` are perfect for searching notes. I have a few aliases defined for quickly adding new single-line notes, current date/time, paste a link and title, etc. As a higher-level interface, I wrote a little React app / Node.js server that renders the Markdown files, with hot reload on changes. Not necessary, but I like having a "personal dashboard" of sorts, with calendar and whatever feature/widgets I want to add. I also join the chorus, that we ought to welcome more exploration in the area of knowledge management. I love seeing new systems, open-source projects, applications, SaaS (though not as much) taking on this problem space. Since the days of index cards, through Vannevar Bush's Memex, Ted Nelson's Xanadu, Englebart's mother of all demos, HyperCard.. In some ways I think the past decade took a step forward and a couple steps back. The personal computer, as an augmentation of the human intellect, has creative potential yet to be explored. --- Edit: A recent one I found delightful is the Johnny Decimal System. https://johnnydecimal.com/

Incoming documents (mail, bills, receipts, etc.) go into one large folder. I do a quick gut check before putting them in. Will I need this in 6 month, 1 year? Only if I need it on a long term basis, its put in this folder. End of the week, everything is scanned and the paper is sorted into one of three folders (1) Keep, (2) Throw or (3) Shred. I'd say less than 5% of documents make it into the (1) Keep folder. I have a small filing cabinet for all our physical papers (family of 3). End of the month, the three folders are emptied. That gives me chance to rethink any decisions. I scan using Fujitsu ix500. It's one of the few machines that was discontinued and now has doubled in price. OCRs, deskews, removes blank pages and scans anything flat including credit cards and obnoxiously long receipts. Worth its weight in gold. Its successor, ix1500 is not too shabby either (it's my office scanner). The scanned documents are organized using the Johnny Decimal system [0]. 0: https://johnnydecimal.com/

I use a (slight) variation of the "Johnny Decimal" System (https://johnnydecimal.com). Essentially I have a folder called "library" with subfolders like this: - [1] Personal -- [11] Finances --- [11.01] 2017 --- [11.02] 2018 -- [12] Travel - [2] Work - [3] Education ... [94.xx] is my special inbox folder which I use when I am to lazy to immediately sort something. The website says that you should under no circumstances create subfolders within a [xx.yy] folder. I do break that rule - e. g. [31.04] refers to a specific course at university. Within that folder I have subfolders for specific assignments etc. The alternative would be either a (for me too) large amount of [xx.yy] folders or a messy course folder. The big advantage of the system is that everything is identifiable by a simple number, which makes searching in spotlight really easy. E. g. searching for "[12." brings up all the folders for my trips in the last years. I have been quite happy with the system over the last year or so and would recommend it.

Tell Claude to generate a Johnny Decimal[1] script for your Downloads folder and go from there. --- [1]: https://johnnydecimal.com

At first glance, it's visually pleasing... but I need to see a screenshot with 20-50 folders next! (I use a modified https://johnnydecimal.com/ for email folders, and have probably close to 100 folders, though most stay collapsed so you might see ~20 at one time.)

If you do want to try (or at least read more about) nested folders, you should investigate the Johnny.Decimal[1] organization system. [1] https://johnnydecimal.com/

I use them every single day. Because I maintain the folder hierarchy, I remember how to descend the folders to find what I need. Years of experience has taught me that relying on loose tagging webs and searching mechanisms and fancy tools does not work for me, not for notes, not for emails, not for anything else. I organize things into nested hierarchies. This takes maintenance, but so does maintaining tag webs and using the tools to maintain and mine them. For something that espouses some of these principles (though I do not use this system): https://johnnydecimal.com

I use the Johnny Decimal system[1], and it's worked well for my organizational needs. [1]: https://johnnydecimal.com/

I use Johnny.Decimal [0] for my folder organisation needs. I'm not strict with it but it works for me. [0] https://johnnydecimal.com/

I also have similar data structure for dotfiles... I've been using ~/bin, ~/dotfiles, ~/data, ~/enc (for encrypted files), etc. However, for projects and documents, I use Johnny Decimal system (https://johnnydecimal.com), which works perfectly for my use case. It helps me reduce the decision fatigue of deciding what to name the folder and filenames.

Lots of analog tools in this space. Some are * Bullet Journal - https://bulletjournal.com/ * Getting Things Done - https://gettingthingsdone.com/ * Johnny Decimal - https://johnnydecimal.com/ * Zettelkasten - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zettelkasten The last I point to Wikipedia, as there are many styles and alternatives of the idea of a "slipbox" and taking notes and the like. I am partial to Scott Scheper's Antinet Zettelkasten, in the tradition of Niklas Luhmann.

Here's one possibility: https://johnnydecimal.com/. Good luck - please share what works for you so the rest of us can learn.

The method you describe sounds a lot like Johnny Decimal: https://johnnydecimal.com/ I've thought about doing this but never got around to it. I've never noticed any major inefficiencies with doing it the usual way, but I'm also not old enough to be storing 30 years of documents. On a related note, one minor annoyance I have on Windows is all the old programs that put files that should be in %appdata% in %userprofile%\Documents instead. On Linux, it's all the programs that clutter the home folder with config files instead of using ~/.config . Sometimes you can fix this in the program's settings, but sometimes you can't and you're stuck with what the developers chose.

I prefer folders. Memory, on a biological level, is tied very strongly to place or paths. Not just in humans, not just in mammals. My folder hierarchy gives me a path that lets me find things. I remember where I put them, I remember where to find them. If I need to search, fd and rg at a high level of the folder tree is a godsend. Tags mean it is just floating in some cloud somewhere, locationless. There can be friction if something could go into multiple categories, and one will always need a wildcard category, but these can be managed. The Johnny Decimal system https://johnnydecimal.com/ can be a nice structured approach. Creator is here on HN somewhere; that's where I learned about it.

Someone linked to your johnny decimal system earlier today. https://johnnydecimal.com/ I liked the idea but I noticed that it didn’t seem to be 0 indexed. If I adopt this i’m definitely going for zero indexing.

A few approaches combined make for a very "shallow" search whenever I need something - Johnny Decimal (https://johnnydecimal.com/) to structure folders - agkozak/zsh-z: Jump quickly to directories that you have visited "frecently." A native Zsh port of z.sh with added features. (https://github.com/agkozak/zsh-z) - catfish for searching (https://docs.xfce.org/apps/catfish/start) The 2nd and 3rd component have many alternatives across platforms.

This is the mandatory linky to Johnny Decimal, which is another method with a little more detail on how to name your content taxonomy: https://johnnydecimal.com

In order to keep everything simple and not locked down to a platform or application I have all my documents (legal or not) organized using Johnny decimals numbering (https://johnnydecimal.com/). They are then stored in Seafile for easy access and sharing.

Unfortunately I think we are stuck with Confluence. I don't have the sway to change software. To help with finding things we are using a slightly modified implementation of the Johnny Decimal system (https://johnnydecimal.com). That's one of the news things I have implemented. I like the idea about no orphaned articles, I think we have a few of those that need to be placed somewhere. Pointing out that responsibility thing is good, I'll have to make sure that we change our attitude a bit towards that.

Options: 1. Make your own according to your own needs (what I do). 2. Copy one of the other comments here. 3. Something yet more structured like https://johnnydecimal.com/ Don't forget about symlinks. They can be helpful

It's no substitute for a librarian, but I am interested in eventually trying out the Johnny.Decimal system [0] to build my own taxonomy based on what I use most often. (Basically choose 10 categories, and then subdivide those ten more times, by usage. These get numeric prefixes, to simplify navigation.) It's not for everyone, but the author says [1] he's used it for years. [0] https://johnnydecimal.com/ [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25412267

https://johnnydecimal.com/ After discovering this on HN, I've wanted to put it into action. Seems like a streamlined and simple way to mimic Dewey.