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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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 Of course, it all dependsSubmitted by Flexiblefine on July 26, 2006 - 12:25pm.
fade wrote: 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. I think the question of when to lump things into one folder and when to break things out into different folders is a personal decision. (That's not much help, is it?) Using microwaves as an example, it depends on how much information you have to file. If you are some sort of microwave or radar engineer, you may have enough information that you should break it down into various subtopics from the beginning. If you don't have much to do with microwaves except watching them heat burritos, one folder is fine. I think "make a folder" is contingent on whether there is already an appropriate folder in your system. I run my company's web site, so I have a whole bunch of folders about related topics (online store stuff, search engine optimization, Google ads), but I have only one folder for advertising text. Our VP of advertising might have many folders for advertising text, depending on what products are being advertised or what markets the advertising is aimed at. I agree with mdl -- the most important reason to have a filing system is to make things findable, however that works for you. » POSTED IN:
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