Ne, how you sort information?

[Ghost of the dead horse]

I've thought a bit of how to arrange for all my little projects, with a mixed success with every method. My main task is that of remembering every part of some task, while remembering other tasks and tangents as well. Sometimes I lose the sight on what's interesting to me.

• Self-made how-to guides: I follow my own advice just ok, so it works But a guide is just on one topic, so there's still problems.
• To-do lists: these tend to skip the motivation phase, so I tend not to be motivated to follow my own to-do lists. I tend to lose these lists if there's a lot of time between making the list and doing the tasks.
• Mind maps: These seem to work a lot like my mind does, but I'd have to make them huge to account for everything that comes into my mind. I don't know how I could tie individual mind maps together.
• Schedules: Ok for keeping track of time spent to some task, and remembering some absolute times. Bad when the schedules change, makes me abandon them alltogether. Moreover, schedules have to be kept track of, physically.
• Interlinked www documents: I did these for a while, and it worked absolutely great! I was able to make tables of contents, different lists, prose, multimedia, all linked together. I found it a tiring task to maintain the links tho.
• Wiki software running on my own computer: Never tried, I'll want to! Editing the individually created documents is very easy with MediaWiki software, and the interlinking works great, too. I don't remember what's everything that needs to be set up for Wiki to work.
• Self-written papers stored in file cabinets: These are fun to do. It's easy to write drawings, texts, pictures.. and connect them all. It's in easily accessible form. But it's hard to maintain an index of the topics, with the different topics varying immensely in length, sometimes needing just 1 page, sometimes 80 pages.
• Individual documents spread out on the hard drive: This is what I've done so far, too, and I hardly ever find my old documents again. The names I write aren't descriptive enough.. good name would be like 80 characters. The directories become easily cluttered.
• Notes on a bulletin board: they work for a while until I run out of space. I also don't like for some of the stuff being visible to others. Perhaps I could make a big bulleting board, like 6'x4', and make a curtain over it

So, what's worked out for you the best?

edit: on the amount of information I produce, it's about 2-6 pages of text on a word processor each day for about 10 years, and 2-4 pages of drawings, text and such on paper.

 

[alcea rosea]

So, what's worked out for you the best?

Nothing so far.

I'm on never ending mission to find a good sorting style for myself. I have tried almost everything and nothing has really worked well so far.

 

[arcticangel02]

I just generally jot things down on whatever piece of paper is nearest to me at the time - I'm sure to always carry a notepad or something wherever I go. Because things tend to come to me when I'm not expecting it and something easy and portable is super-useful.

As far as using what I've written down - as long as I keep all my scraps of paper in a similar spot (in my case they all get piled on the side of my desk), I can look through them when I need to recall something. As long as I cross things out and throw the paper out once I've done everything on the list, then it stays reasonably in order. Of course, with the amount of paper you go through, it seems like something like that would get out of hand very quickly. Maybe there's some way to adapt that?

But it requires very little organisation = bonus because unless my Te is awake (which is rarely), I struggle to organise things regularly. And of course, that's less useful when you need to remember schedules/times...

Otherwise I have a calender (and a diary) which I write down major things that I need to remember in... although I don't use it as a reference very much, I forget.

 

[Geoff]

Learn to access your SJ, if you don't have it. It gets easier with age...

Me, I use to-do lists at work where I have lots of jobs on the go. These are computerised task oriented lists, sorted by importance, client name, deadline etc. It keeps me sane, because it's less effort than coping with the consequences of being disorganised.

 

[Ghost of the dead horse]

I just installed MediaWiki, whee!

I just can't wait to get to write everything I write in there It has to be the most easily usable platform to write incredible amounts of information on.

 

[bluebell]

Um, how big are your projects? That sounds, uh complicated.

I'm Ti dom, not Ne dom, but still... At home, I'm pretty disorganised. There's a filing system of sorts for bills and receipts, but that's about it. Bills get stuck on the fridge with a magnet so they get paid on time.

I'm a bit more organised at work, but not much. Things are out of sight, out of mind for me, so urgent to do stuff needs lots of notes left in inconvenient places or stuck up around my cubicle with key dates highlighted.

In terms of sorting stuff, it shifts all the time. I have yet to find a bluebell-proof system that won't break down when I'm super busy. I quite like intrays with bits sorted in plastic sheets for each project/task. Trouble is, I forget to look at them. Ring binders can work too, with those sticky flag things to make it easier to find stuff. Works well for reference documents that I'm always looking up.

Electronic filing - totally messy at home (my desktop is covered with icons). But at work, it's a shared drive, so things are somewhat organised. Have you tried trees? Gets around the need for long titles, and it's easy to navigate. Folders with subfolders and sub-subfolders and sub-sub-subfolders blah blah blah.

 

[Ghost of the dead horse]

Learn to access your SJ, if you don't have it. It gets easier with age...

This SJ is more or less incompatible with my thought processes, so that the smartest filing systems will fail when I have to input some Ne data. I've written lists, descriptions and all SJ stuff alright, no problem there. The problem is the lack of applicability to the data in hand.

Anyways I'm trying that MediaWiki software, it supports writing, linking, categorizing and changing everything so well.. oh my god, this is the best thing I've done in this area in years.

 

[Nocapszy]

A file cabinet.
Keep the type of important document written on the little flap that comes up, so you can quickly find the file and deposit the document in the appropriate folder.

I don't do this all at once, but nothing ever gets lost, 'cause I never put any important things in places I wouldn't look -- they always end up on my desk, which I clean up once I notice there are too many important documents getting soda spilled on them. Stack 'em up and drop 'em in. Doesn't take long either. Pay stubs in one folder, bank slips in another. Tax returns in another. It's pretty easy.

I don't need to keep a schedule of what my weekend forecast is. I keep it in my head pretty well. No need for a calendar. But I intentionally avoid planning too far into the future, 'cause I know I'll forget that shit. Also, I ask whoever my correspondence is to remind me at some point. Most anyone who I'll be spending time with knows me well enough to know that it's not because I don't like them, I just honestly forget, so they have no problems letting me know a few days in advance, and then I keep track of it.

 

[Ghost of the dead horse]

I'll have to get a file cabinet too - so far I just arrange my papers in these, but I have to make holes in the papers for them to be archived, which doesn't suit my workflow. What's the english word for these?

I have 5 feet wide bookshelf filled with those at the moment. It's hard to find anything in there tho, even tho I've tried arranging them well.

 

[heart]

No matter what system I try to use, I still manage to get too random. It is very hard for me to remain organized.

 

[miss fortune]

Organize?!?

umm... I kind of tend to drop things in places where I used them last

 

[Grayscale]

isn't Te the CP used for systemization?

 

[Nocapszy]

Mostly yeah. Thinking in general, but subjective Ti, of course is ever evolving, and therefore unsure of itself in the unchanging, unyielding object world. If more information comes in, Ti has to mend the formulation.

Once the individual is comfortable with what Ti comes up with though, it's perfectly reasonable that it's applied out here, but until then it remains inside, incessantly formulating/systematizing.

Most commonly, it's found in legal documents -- which are still mostly subjective, but it's not unheard of for a TP to 'get organized' or get their shit together.

Same things apply with planning.

I haven't seen whether or not the E_TPs or I_TPs are particularly more apt or inclined toward applying their logic.

 

[Ghost of the dead horse]

Organize?!?

I go about organizing too for stuff that's done for the sake of organizing

But, I'm thinking of any information management that lets me remember most of everything in a way that's efficient to me.

I think I keep all my meetings in head and calendar, but I forgot most of the creative and technical inspirations I get I forget my personal decisions too, even if they would be so useful and good to remember.

As I now forget most of the ideas I should remember, I'll save time by storing and finding then later, when needed Sadly, none of my information keeping systems so far have kept up with my needs of flexibility and the amount of information produced

Oh I'm expecting so much from that new Mediawiki I installed.

--

And btw, I am sure it is much more difficult to sort the information to support artistic and technical development compared to what it is to store some regular data of a known form.

 

[LucrativeSid]

I do a little bit of everything and just sort of adapt as I go. I tend to rely mostly on instincts and memory.

What kind of information are you trying to keep track of? How much of what you record do you actually use?

 

[Ghost of the dead horse]

What kind of information are you trying to keep track of? How much of what you record do you actually use?

Hmm, there's some vague categories I can describe. Plans about life, creative ideas and practical matters. They kind of merge sometimes.

Plans about life:
I usually formulate these as projects and they become practical matters, too. Sometimes it's in essay form, and becomes more creative.

For example, the project of getting a job.
-doing self-analysis of my skills
-mock interview with a friend, and feedback on my interview performance
-company data
-analysis of different job requirements
-some essay about the process
-different versions of job application
-chart of companies I've applied in with all the contact data

That's one project. I might do a project on getting to good shape, altering my diet, making some creative work done, learning a skill, earning some amount of money by some deadline, etc.

Creative ideas:
Usually in the field of interior design, visual arts, design, software engineering.

For example, one product development phase included
-dozens of developmental memos
-several mind maps, flow charts and such
-comparison of hardware
-market research data
-advertisement material, text and hundreds of pictures
... and 10 other categories of info.

Other creative idea would be to plan how to sell art, what kind of a painting to paint next, self-reflective essays about life, diary, etc..

Practical matters:
Assortment of info to get myself through my everyday needs.

-To-do lists on simple matters
-financial plans
-calendar
-following up my life plans, if they included something measurable.. like distance run, amount / type of foods eaten, etc..

EDIT: there's such a volume of data generated, that I forget the location of perhaps half the documents I write in about a week. I'd need to find my ideas easier, so that I wouldn't duplicate my work. I think I have something like a 100% recovery rate on important documents, 70-80% on mid-level, and 50% on low-importance documents.

I'd still like to find the least important stuff I write.

Edit 2: I can find the important documents I've written, but sometimes I lose important papers I've received. I should file them well, too, but there's hundreds of them, dispersed in about 6 feets of files

 

[Seanan]

I have 5 planners that looked like a good idea on the store shelf... now they're on mine collecting dust. I think I resent them. To do list is on the fridge... items on it are what I could still remember by the time I got there.

 

[celesul]

Most things I drop where I put them last.

My school things all go into an expandable folder, although it gets really heavy every now and then. I never get around to emptying it.

On the computer, I dump stuff in folders, with some element of randomness. I also have an extremely long and semi-organized list of webpage bookmarks, which work well.

I'd have major trouble if I had many things to keep track of though ^.^

 

[miss fortune]

when I HAVE to remember stuff I either program it into my phone and hope that I have the ringer set to on, or I write it on my hand. The best plan is usually to tell my ESFJ friend though- she's good about either calling and reminding me or coming by my house to retreive me!

Things though, I just have to rely on remembering where I used them last and looking there

 

[kelric]

Organize?!?

umm... I kind of tend to drop things in places where I used them last

Same here. I count on being able to remember everything I need to, or remember that there's something I need to remember and where to go to get it. For instance, if I get invited to something (call it X) a month ahead of time, there's only a fair chance that I'll remember the time and place. But there's a very good chance that I'll remember that I'm planning to do X within a few weeks, and that I know that I received an email from Y giving me the details.

At work I just have a ton of various notepads and loose paper spread out all over my desk - with the assumption that I'll remember what the piece of paper with any given bit of information on it looks like (yellow, lined, a piece taken out of the top right corner, etc.) I'm certainly not perfect at remembering all of that (I wind up shuffling through the piles once or twice a week), but it works okay, and as the more something requires formal organization, the less likely I am to do it, it's probably for the best .

Information-wise, Google is my friend.