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General Reference Questions
fade | Jul 26 2006
Hi. First post here. I just read (and re-read) the portions of GTD on creating a general reference filing system. Unfortunately, the book leaves this part a little fuzzy. I understand that that's probably to allow the user to roll their own, so to speak. It's unclear, for example, exactly how to file a new piece of information. The book seems to contradict itself a bit here. Allen says to forgo using a categorical filing system, then proceeds to file things according to category (albeit alphabetically), in the example involving gardening references. It's also unclear when to make a new folder. He uses the phrase "make a new folder and file it" when dealing with reference material. Is he championing using a folder for every piece of reference material, or for every topic of reference material. If, for example, I make a folder on Microwaves, should I put all microwave stuff there, or should I be making "Microwaves--propagation" and "Microwaves--recipes", etc? I.e., a different folder for each subtopic. Thanks. 6 Comments
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 A couple of points I've...Submitted by mdl on July 26, 2006 - 11:45am.
A couple of points I've taken away from the book (though I may be misreading it): 1) It's OK to create folders for individual pieces of paper. In fact, the more discrete your folders, the easier it will be to find particular items, provided they are clearly labelled. Files tend to become unmanageable when they become big amorphous categories, such as "Finances." Instead, create folders called "Mutual Fund X - Quarterly Report" or "Credit Report 6/15/06." This approach also makes it much easier to purge files later. (It also works much better if you don't have a hanging file system.) 2) Allen recommends a simple A-Z filing system. He has a pretty flexible labelling system. He labels something by topic, person, company, or project (if I remember correctly). I also like to include "thing" in this list, such as "Passport." Basically, use whatever label will be easiest to find later. If you have to look in a couple of places, that's OK. The point is to be confident that there are a limited number of places where the file will be. » POSTED IN:
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