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Ask HN: How do you organize files on your computer?

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Re: Ask HN: How do you organize files on your computer?

#11

Post by tacostakohashi »

I use a simple two-level hierarchy. If you add one extra level to what you have, I think you'll find it works pretty well.

medical/eye-doctor

medical/dermatologist

bankA/account1234

bankA/account5678

bankB/account9999

https://johnnydecimal.com/ is a slightly more elaborate system. The basic idea is the same though, just have a fixed number of levels, it turns out 2 levels works very well. You don't need to overthink the categories at each level too much, e.g. maybe bankA + bankB could be "finance" instead.

finance/bankA-account1234

finance/bankA-account5678

finance/bankB-account9999

If there number of second-level directories gets out of hand, split it up into multiple, more-specific top level directories. If you just have 1 or two second-level directories, combine into a more generic top level directory.

Lets say you end up with 20 ish top level directories, and they each have 20 ish second level directories... now you cn have 400 ish directories (which is plenty), but you only have one "screenful" at each level to ls, navigate, etc.

Within each folder, the files are named YYYY-MM-DD-some-name.pdf. The second level folders are generally some individual/organization/account, and all the things pertaining to that relationship go in there - so, the eye doctor receipt goes in:

medical/joe-smith-md/2024-09-25-receipt.pdf

The joe-smith-md subfolder has all the things from that doctor... receipts, prescriptions, charts, whatever, with dated filenames.

Re: Ask HN: How do you organize files on your computer?

#12

Post by al_borland »

About 20 years ago I read a post on LifeHacker about having folders a-z (and one for numbers) at the top level and using that to avoid a never ended list of top level folders.

I set that up and still have it. It’s not my day-to-day management, but it’s my filing system. If I need to find my childhood vaccination records, I go to H/Health/vaccinations.txt

It’s not perfect. I need to remember what I called something. Health vs Medical or having separate sub folders that might live somewhere else… but I just do what makes sense to my brain at the time, and usually that’s where I end up looking later.

I’ve tried looking up more prescriptive systems, and they never work for me, because it works how someone else’s brain works, not mine.

Re: Ask HN: How do you organize files on your computer?

#14

Post by skydhash »

Mine is mostly purpose driven. There are the fundamentals folders. Each have their own naming and categorization strategy. Then there are the folders inside these folders to help with the above, and there are the container folders, which are mostly content types.

The fundamentals projects are often automated or augmented with tools. If not I just think about what are the primary keys I would have when I'm looking for it (and I don't mind duplicating if the file is final, like receipts or contracts). For stuff you're currently working on, you can use versioning and timestamps to have stuff to file.

It has become surprisingly easy to find files after that. And with tools like spotlight (macos), the result makes much more sense.

Re: Ask HN: How do you organize files on your computer?

#15

Post by skydhash »

paulcole wrote: post #7

I will put stuff like tax returns and my apartment lease into iCloud and just delete everything else. I never end up coming back to anything and thinking about organizing files is just not fun to me.

Take care with iCloud as it's just a syncing tool, not a backup one. You should probably have timestamped backups in some (encrypted) drives or other online storage.

Re: Ask HN: How do you organize files on your computer?

#16

Post by paulcole »

skydhash wrote: post #15
paulcole wrote: post #7

I will put stuff like tax returns and my apartment lease into iCloud and just delete everything else. I never end up coming back to anything and thinking about organizing files is just not fun to me.

Take care with iCloud as it's just a syncing tool, not a backup one. You should probably have timestamped backups in some (encrypted) drives or other online storage.

I honestly have never looked at them again. If iCloud loses them, that's life. I just don't care enough to be bothered. Data storage isn't a hobby of mine.

Re: Ask HN: How do you organize files on your computer?

#17

Post by paulcole »

curious_soul wrote: post #10
paulcole wrote: post #7

I will put stuff like tax returns and my apartment lease into iCloud and just delete everything else. I never end up coming back to anything and thinking about organizing files is just not fun to me.

I don't like having my data in the cloud. I just use syncthing for now for backups, but setting up a proper NAS and improving my backup strategy is on my todo list.

Isn't it easier to just like having your data in the cloud and not spend your time on setting up a proper NAS and improving your backup strategy? Or is it more that you find that kind of tinkering fun and a good use of your time?

Cloud is good enough for millions of people. What makes you different?

Re: Ask HN: How do you organize files on your computer?

#20

Post by curious_soul »

paulcole wrote: post #17
curious_soul wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't like having my data in the cloud. I just use syncthing for now for backups, but setting up a proper NAS and improving my backup strategy is on my todo list.

Isn't it easier to just like having your data in the cloud and not spend your time on setting up a proper NAS and improving your backup strategy? Or is it more that you find that kind of tinkering fun and a good use of your time? Cloud is good enough for millions of people. What makes you different?

I care about data privacy.
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