/~wangofett/feels/on_organization.txt on circumlunar.space

	n Organization - 2020-11-04
	===========================
	've been thinking about organization for a long time. Lately it's
	ecome even more important to me as I've realized how terribly
	nreliable companies are. Yes, some of them are cool, but unless you
	ay -- and sometimes even if you do pay -- you cnan't rely on features
	taying there.
	ervices get sold, move, and all kinds of sadness. Ultimately what
	've learned is that if you want to do it right you have to do it
	ourself. Relying on cloud services can be a bit easier. But when they
	o down or when they're unavailable... boo.
	n the other hand, if you host your own, if you have your own
	pplications on your wn computers then things are much, much better.
	eah, use services when you need to for collaboration, but most of the
	ime you're not actually going to need that.
	ecently I've discovered strongly that journaling - especially writing
	ith a physical glyph interface (say pen and paper) has been a really
	reat way for me to organize my thoughts. Reviewing those thoughts is
	retty useful, too.
	he general idea behind organization is that things that are organized
	re easier to find. Think about a messy room, with items just thrown
	ll around. Then think about your local library (though it's probably
	een a few months since you've actually been there). Being able to
	ind those items whenever you want them is pretty fantastic.
	e've seen cultural movements towards organization, with Marie Kando's
	spark joy". There's some other organization show on Netflix. Probably
	ore than one, but I know one of them was getting pretty popular.
	hat kinds of things can we organize? We can organize physical things,
	bviously. We can organize digital bits and bytes. We can organize our
	houghts. We can organize by color, by shape, by size, by least
	ecently used or most recently used, or alphabetically, or by last
	ame, or any other number of characteristics. Sometimes we want to
	rganize by more than one feature at a time, and that can be useful,
	oo!
	ut ultimately, organization is super useful. I'm working on getting
	y digital self and my physical self more organized. I guess I'm also
	orking on getting my mental/note self organized as well. So here are
	ome things that I have found about organizing different things. These
	deas work for me -- maybe they'll work for you, or be something you
	an adapt to better suit your needs. We're all different and different
	ethods work better for different people.
	houghts and Prayers
	-------------------
	ecently I came across a tool about notetaking called Zettelkasten.
	rom the form of the word you can probably guess that it's German in
	rigin. The basic premise of Zettelkasten is that you create notes on
	x5 cards and you can tag them and date them and what-not. But cartds
	ave notes on them to link to other cards, and then you keep them in
	ile boxes.. You might be old enough to remember looking up cards in a
	ard catalog in the library. Zettelkasten is built on this principle.
	enerally speaking, I like that idea. There are a lot of software
	ools that help you do your own Zettelkasten. I don't mind it, but
	've actually hit on something simiilar and more simple.
	he Get-It-Done-Guy has a sweet podcast and in it he talks about his
	aster system and how he organizes everything. He has one single
	otebook that he uses for work, personal, and whatever. This notebook
	s where he writes down... well, everything. But how do you keep
	hings organized in a notebook like this? A table of contents! The ToC
	ccupies the first page in the notebook. Plans for World Domination? p
	. Band names? p 43. Recpies, p99. From there you can interleave ideas
	y using threading. Similar to Zettelkasten where you link cards to
	ther cards, in this notebook system you link pages to other pages.
	tarting the secrets to Life, the Universe, and Evertyhing on p42, but
	ou've filled up a page? No big deal, at the bottom of p42 you draw a
	ittle arrow and add p45. At the top of p45, you put an arrow with
	42. Now when you're looking back through your notes you can easily
	ump back and forth. And the table of contents you can also add the
	ther "start" pages. So Life, the Universe, and Everything would have
	42, p45-53 or something like that.
	his idea has been pretty fantastic for me. I used to caaarry around a
	ournal, then I'd have other notebooks and what-not. By having one
	ingle notebook, I never need to worry about grabbing another one. I
	lways have it with me. The part I have not yet successfully
	mplemented in my life is the Ritual of Transferrence. Under the GID
	uy's system, the RoT happens once per day where you take the things
	n your notebook and you transfer them to your digital stuff, whether
	hat's Google Docs, Evernote, or something else.
	he other system that I found intriguing was Derek Sivers - he talks
	bout keeping a Daily Journal and a Topic Journal. This idea appealed
	o me. It's a bit of a hybrid of Zettelkaten and the master system.
	asically, like Zettelkasten you have topics that you write about, and
	eep organized. But you also keep a daily record about whatever else
	oesn't really fit into a particular topic.
	his idea reonated with me. In the past, I was involved in the
	riginal Wiki - Ward Cunningham's wiki on c2.com. Largely that was
	ecause I used some professional Wiki software... well, Enterprise is
	better word for it. But Quick it was not. On Ward's site, all it
	ook to create another page was to write text in CamelCase/WikiCase.
	ust mash your words together and capitalize each first letter.
	angoFett for instance. Save the page, click on that link and either
	ou went and added content, or you could see the content that was
	lready there. This made it super trivial to link topics toether, like
	ettelKasten. But it didn't incorporate the daily journal aspect of
	t.As you may have noticed - earlier I mentioned concern about the
	ermenance of gloud providers. So I didn't want to link my system to
	ny of those. But that left me with a challenge. I'm not using
	ropbox. I'm not using Google Docs. I'm not using Evernote. So what
	ow?
	h other thing that I've been a huge fan of for years is th command
	ine. The more things I can do with plain text files, the happier I
	m. Plain text can be unicode or ASCII, and almost every singel text
	ditor there ever was will handle it properly. Sure, it's not really
	ompressed, but if you need compression it's easy to do that with a
	umber of tools.
	hat's when I struck on an amazing idea that has fit so perfectly for
	e it's practically embarassing.
	hat works great with text files? Git! What is available basically
	verywhere I could imagine? Git!
	o I have a git repository with a file in it: journal.txt This file
	ontains both my daily journal and my topic journal. It's been utterly
	antastic. Vim is my favorite text editor, and it's easy to sort a
	lock of text. vip:sort<cr>
	hat's it. Vim also has a quick find. * will search the file for the
	ord that's under the cursor. Words like "the" are going to be pretty
	ommon. So how do I make things easier to search for? Oh! WikiText
	orks great! Because when I'm talking about WikiText I'm going to
	rite it like that, not like wiki text. That distinguishes the two
	ery easiliy. So my table of contents are sorted - what about the
	ctual entries? Yep, sorted too. Kind of a sneaky way. This is my
	rocess:
	dd a value, e.g. OnOrganization - then * to find the next occurrence.
	sually that's just the one I'm on. If not, I just hit n to jump
	round till I get there. Now vip:sort<cr> and my ToC has been sorted.
	takes me to the entry I just added. yy to yank that line. j* will
	earch for the topic that is just after the one I'm trying to add. A P
	uts my new entry above the existing one. I actually use lists
	ike
	this
	one
	hen I'm doing my ToC. So I'll do a 2x on my line to remove that. Then
	ypVr= will make my entry look like this:
	nOrganization
	=============
	ow I can just start adding more text beneath that - whatever I need.
	actally also add timestamps to my entries, too, because that makes
	t easy to remember when I added information. ^r=strftime('%F %T')<cr>
	ill do that one for me. Then a yypVr- to put a neat little border
	nder it.
	hen I just write whatever notes I need to make. And of course if I
	ant to follow the ZettelKasten link-to-other topics idea, I just add
	ikiText to it. Occasionally I will link to topics that don't even
	xist yet. But that's not really an issue, because if I go looking for
	t I'll discover that it doesn't exist and I can then go add that
	nformation to my topic journal.
	or my "daily" journal, I just jump to the end of the file and add a
	ew timestamp - similar to the way you would do it in a rgeular diary.
	bviously, I can add WikiText entries to this, as well. This process
	as been an epic winning fo me. Because I can edit my text on my
	yberWriter, I can edit my text on my computer, on my phone (termux
	tw!) and then I just use git to sync everything. I actually use
	ranches per device, because sometimes I forget to sync my repos. But
	hat's such a trivial thing - sometimes I'll have merge conflicts when
	forget and add daily journal entries on different systems, but
	ecause I'm using timestamps, it's super simple.
	his is the system that I use to organize my thoughts. I have the
	hysical notebook, and then I have my journal.txt that I sync with
	it, across multiple devices and even back up to flash drives. This
	rganization has given me the best of all the worlds - wiki, plain
	ext, links from Zettelkasten, and a physical notebook.
	he only thing that I have yet to incorporate well is transferring
	hings from my physical notebook to my journal.txt, especially the
	ournal entries.
	nother thing that I have started using is a Work Journal. Basically,
	have a notebook where I keep entries of what I'm doing on a given
	ay. I'll add timestamps so I can remember when, but this allows me to
	lmost trivally go back and see what Ii was working on. But what I've
	ound is vastly more useful is that it allows me to process and
	rganize my thoughts about problems that I'm working on. Sometimes the
	roblems are particularly hairy, and keeping notes helps me think more
	losely and carefully about what I'm doing. It helps me from avoiding
	oing down the same dead end 3 or 4 times. In general it's just been a
	assive boost to my productivity. It also serves as a record, so I can
	o back every period of time and actually talk about what I was doing
	r working on. It may work well to keep this kind of log in a text
	ile as well, but at least for now I'm finding success keeping this in
	y notebook. I do have a bit of a minor confession - I do have a work
	otebook, because most employment agreements talk about returning all
	otes and what-not. This way I can simply either destroy the notes or
	eturn it to the company without having a lot of hullaballoo. That
	eads me to the thought about just putting things in a digital note
	ormat. The biggest challenge that I feel that I face in that arena is
	imply remembering to do it. Something about the modality of switching
	o pen and paper fits my brain better.
	have discovered that A5 is the perfect notebook size for me. It's
	ot too small, and it's just big enough that I cannnn hold an open
	otebook with one hand and write with the other -- but it's not too
	arge, either. I have been using webnotebooks (notebooks with a pocket
	n the back of the book) for some years now, and that seems to work
	ell. But recently I encountered disk binding, which is a very
	nteresting form of notebook paper inserts that is better than a
	-ring binder, or coils or any other kind of approach. It's more
	urable, and completely refillable. That offers some
	nteresting/compelling use cases - because I can then I could add work
	nd personal notes in the same notebook and simply take out the work
	ages. The bigger trick would be the table of contents and page
	umbering on a long-term basis. So I'm not entirely convinced yet.
	o that's my thought organizer.
	igital Bits
	-----------
	have been a citizen of technology since the NES and the Apple
	acIntosh. I am old enough to remember diaing into BBSes, and when
	raphics were CGE, EGA, and VGA (and SVGA, wow!). I remember the
	oundBlaster and 16-bit audio. I gre up with AIM, Yahoo Messenger,
	SN, and ICQ (I didn't do that much with IRC, since I didn't pirate
	IRC like all my friends). It's safe to say that I have a /lot/ of
	its floating around. I've been super lackadasical about actually
	acking these up, and organizing them well. It's also become apparent
	hat for things like git repos, when Google Code, BitBucket's
	ercurial hosting, and the most recent youtube-dl fiasco, that if the
	epo does not exist on physical mediums that I control, they may as
	ell not exist at all.
	also have a significant number of bits hanging out on old hard disks
	n random locations that I'm working on consolidating. I've realized
	hat what I need to do for my digital bits is what I call a Reverse
	ando. Specifically, with the Kando method you get rid of anything
	hat doesn't "Spark joy". Look at it, and if it doesn't immediately
	park joy, remove it from your life.
	or digital bits, though, the reverse-kando looks like this: if the
	ata sparks dread, "Ew, gross, nope, I definitely do not want this to
	ver see the light of another day", then you keep it. Because storage
	s cheap, and always getting cheaper every day.
	ut I still need to figure out exactly what I need to do. One of the
	ost popular methods is 3-2-1, three copies (original+2 copies), two
	ifferent storage type, and one copy off-site. I've been thinking
	bout doing something like this:
	Get 3 USB drives
	Keep 1 plugged in and typically work from that. Back up data to
	nternal drive daily (minimum)
	At regular intervals (say once per week) copy the current drive to
	he next drive and promote that to the primary drive.
	Take the now-backup drive to an off-site location and swap for the
	rive there
	Bring the offsite drive in and double check that only expected data
	as changed. That drive then becomes the new daily backup.
	Continue forever!
	plan to start this with some cheap flash drives, but will likely
	pgrade to larger SSDs. I would also like to add some NAS to this mix,
	ollowing a similar strategy.
	'll have to update things here with progress on that front.
	rganizing Atoms
	===============
	his is one of the more difficult things. With information and
	lectrons there are a lot of flexiility. But atoms are heavy. It
	akes a lot to move them around, and they take up a substantial amount
	f physical space. We've managed to store more and more bits of
	nformation in the same mass of atoms, and that's just getting better
	nd better. But we haven't come up with anything largely better than
	hat we've got before when it comes to storing atoms. And we've got a
	ot of atoms. I have lots and lots of atoms. I have tools and
	aterials and scrap and... well, just lots of things.
	don't yet have a consistent story for organization there. I have
	ade huge inroads but it's not complete. The bigest thing that I've
	iscovered is that Sterlite Shoebox (6 qt) sized totes are perfect for
	ost of my needs. I can get a bundle of 10 from Walmart for usually
	bout $8 - I found them on clearance a few times which was amazing,
	ut right now they're all out of stock everywhere??
	nyway, these have been pretty perfect for my needs. They're clear so
	can see what's in them, and they're of uniform size. I've used my
	abel maker to print labels, but there are other options like a
	ermanent marker. But the black on white I've discovered is easier to
	ead. This isn't everything, however. I do have some things that are
	arger than a single tote, or too many things to fit in one tote. And
	urrently I have more totes than I have shelving. Though I have room
	or more shelving.
	he other thing that I'm working on doing is converting some things
	rom atoms to electrons - that is, it's no tthe physical nature of the
	bject that is important, but the information on it.
	abels I've found to be important, an I'm a fan of Adam Savage's
	first order retrievability" - the idea that the most important
	ptimization is being able to get the tool or supply that you need
	hen you need it. Things that are in drawers are problematic because
	ou can't put your hand to them, and if you can't see it you don't
	ave it. I have a number of tools and supplies that are a testament to
	his idea. So I'm working on that.
	nyway, this has grown pretty long, and taken several days longer to
	omplete than I had intended, so this is where I will end.
	eel free to direct questions/comments to [email protected] - I
	elcome VSRE emails - http://vsre.info