Areas of Focus and References

A

alevici

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Hello everyone i hope you are doing fine!
I'm need to migrate my reference system from my personal Dropbox to OneNote/Ondrive in my work account.
I have few question for you
1) how do you correlate (if you do at all) areas of focus and references categories
2) do you use single layer of reference categories or nested categories
3) do you use bookmark for url in your web browser or do you keep them in a page all together?

Every example is welcome!
 
My digital file system is simply an A-Z list of folders; I don't organize by areas of focus. If a subject is particularly complex I will use subfolders, but often not. It closely mirrors my hard copy reference structure.

My Areas of Focus list, on the other hand, lives in my digital note taking app. I'll review this as part of my weekly review as a trigger list for new actions and projects. It's just a simple bullet list without hierarchy.

I often find that my projects and reference materials will overlap several areas of focus. It's much easier using a straight A-Z system - it keeps me from wondering where things are filed (Now, did I put that mortgage paperwork under Household or Financial?) :)
 
RS356 said:
My digital file system is simply an A-Z list of folders; I don't organize by areas of focus. If a subject is particularly complex I will use subfolders, but often not. It closely mirrors my hard copy reference structure.

My Areas of Focus list, on the other hand, lives in my digital note taking app. I'll review this as part of my weekly review as a trigger list for new actions and projects. It's just a simple bullet list without hierarchy.

I often find that my projects and reference materials will overlap several areas of focus. It's much easier using a straight A-Z system - it keeps me from wondering where things are filed (Now, did I put that mortgage paperwork under Household or Financial?) :)
Click to expand...
Interesting..Do you use a name coding for reference folders?
 
For my personal files, no. Some work files are referenced by a case number. My personal folders are labeled ad hoc: Auto repairs, Banking, Cell Phone, Gift Cards, Manuals, Medical, Retirement, Roof Repair 2018, Taxes, and so forth.
 
alevici said:
Hello everyone i hope you are doing fine!
I'm need to migrate my reference system from my personal Dropbox to OneNote/Ondrive in my work account.
I have few question for you
1) how do you correlate (if you do at all) areas of focus and references categories
2) do you use single layer of reference categories or nested categories
3) do you use bookmark for url in your web browser or do you keep them in a page all together?

Every example is welcome!
Click to expand...

Hello Alevici

Organizing my own files has been an area that I wanted to get better at. Where does my gift ideas live and where does my book list or travel plan documents go?

I have recently discovered something called P.A.R.A and it appears to work quite nice.
Link:
fortelabs.co

The PARA Method: The Simple System for Organizing Your Digital Life in Seconds

Learn how to organize your digital life in seconds. Stop wasting time looking for information and gain greater focus on what matters most.
fortelabs.co fortelabs.co
 
RS356 said:
For my personal files, no. Some work files are referenced by a case number. My personal folders are labeled ad hoc: Auto repairs, Banking, Cell Phone, Gift Cards, Manuals, Medical, Retirement, Roof Repair 2018, Taxes, and so forth.
Click to expand...
The (reference) filing is the one thing of GTD I struggle with the most. I'm trying to understand the system that you describe RS356, but I am not entirely following it.

You mentioned that you are using an A-Z system and do not organize by areas of focus. But the personal folders that you mention, such as Auto repairs or Retirement, do kind of sound like areas of focus to me. Could you possibly elaborate a bit more on this so that this autist can also wrap it's head around it?

Much appreciated!
 
YuriDaniel said:
The (reference) filing is the one thing of GTD I struggle with the most. I'm trying to understand the system that you describe RS356, but I am not entirely following it.

You mentioned that you are using an A-Z system and do not organize by areas of focus. But the personal folders that you mention, such as Auto repairs or Retirement, do kind of sound like areas of focus to me. Could you possibly elaborate a bit more on this so that this autist can also wrap it's head around it?

Much appreciated!
Click to expand...
Hi YuriDaniel. I came across this thread when I searched on the web. I am a fellow struggler! In my world too, things like Retirement or Auto Repairs are quite broad areas. My folder naming is more granular. I have tried A to Z for digital filing - this is what I use for paper filing - but I then find it difficult to correlate information related to a given topic. I have also tried a variation of the PARA system mentioned above, but find the same with this. The whole Area of Focus thing is another difficulty for me! Balancing granularity (something meaningful) against too much complexity. I currently have a list of just under 20 "areas" and am experimenting with organising my digital reference material in folders grouped under these areas. This includes project support material. I am colour coding folders by type (project, guidance, records etc). In the digital app I use, this is not much of an overhead. I'm not convinced that this experiment will end well; I tend to bounce between simple A to Z and the grouping approach. I hope you find a good solution.
 
alevici said:
Hello everyone i hope you are doing fine!
I'm need to migrate my reference system from my personal Dropbox to OneNote/Ondrive in my work account.
I have few question for you
1) how do you correlate (if you do at all) areas of focus and references categories
2) do you use single layer of reference categories or nested categories
3) do you use bookmark for url in your web browser or do you keep them in a page all together?

Every example is welcome!
Click to expand...
My reference, like everything revolves around/above including horizons, '[Four] Areas of Focus'. Alphabetical Order under my 'memory max' Four Focus Areas : 1. DIVINE (Sundays for Deep-Dive), 2. HEALTH (includes everything to do with health: GTD, other persons, medical records, vacations, etc. and Tuesdays for Deep-Dive), 3. UTILITY/TOOLS (Appliances, Car, Home, Digital, etc. and Thursdays for Deep-Dive), and 4. FISCAL with Saturdays for Deep Dive. As such, my Project/Next Action Support Files are Gold, Red, Blue, and Green., which keeps my Support Materials Self-Evidently Color-Coded Aligned with my Areas-of-Focus [Check-Lists, Horizons, Projects, and Next Actions, etc.] . . . @Calls, @Computer, @Errands (Cars, Roads, Public Transit, Sidewalks, viz., Stores, etc. are all Utilities, hence the blue), @Agendas. "@" are gold and simply express one's God given ability to reason, unless of course one believes they gave themselves their own soul and its intellect faculty then they might want to go with red if interested in the color scheme herein. The Deep-Dive Days are not rigidly held, more like putting on specific attire, its' just away I keep myself accountable to the commitment/concern/obligation to prevent anything to be finished from becoming 'eternal'. I mention all of this since "Reference" is the Alpha-Omega of my GTD system, as such, if materials of a completed Project(s)/Horizon(s) is going to end up anywhere, its going to end-up in "Reference" or mirrored its "Archive." Does this makes GTD sense? Thank you
 
RS356 said:
For my personal files, no. Some work files are referenced by a case number. My personal folders are labeled ad hoc: Auto repairs, Banking, Cell Phone, Gift Cards, Manuals, Medical, Retirement, Roof Repair 2018, Taxes, and so forth.
Click to expand...
For my personal files, no. Some work files are referenced by a case number. My personal folders are labeled ad hoc: Auto repairs, Banking, Cell Phone, Gift Cards, Manuals, Medical, Retirement, Roof Repair 2018, Taxes, and so forth.
 
RS356 said:
My digital file system is simply an A-Z list of folders; I don't organize by areas of focus. If a subject is particularly complex I will use subfolders, but often not. It closely mirrors my hard copy reference structure.

My Areas of Focus list, on the other hand, lives in my digital note taking app. I'll review this as part of my weekly review as a trigger list for new actions and projects. It's just a simple bullet list without hierarchy.

I often find that my projects and reference materials will overlap several areas of focus. It's much easier using a straight A-Z system - it keeps me from wondering where things are filed (Now, did I put that mortgage paperwork under Household or Financial?) :)
Click to expand...
I often find that my projects and reference materials will overlap several areas of focus. It's much easier using a straight A-Z system - it keeps me from wondering where things are filed (Now, did I put that mortgage paperwork under Household or Financial?) Ps. Car Insurance is, at the end of the day, 'Fiscal Insurance'
 
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