pm_maarten

I like to work with two different methods. \

One very important thing I always keep in mind: Keep it as simple as possible. Any friction in a fancy system I design will cause me not to use it.

File management

To organize my files, I use the PARA methods: Projects, Areas, Resources and Archive. I use this file structure at all my apps and devices.

1. Projects
   Everything that has a deadline, something you can finish should be a seperate folder here.

2. Area
   These are all your areas of responsibility. Imporant parts of your work and life that require ongoing attention. One key difference with projects is that areas do not have a deadline. Areas are never really finished. These might include your work administration, managing kempenhaeghe recordings or (more personal) staying healthy.

3. Recources
   Anything that you find interesting and want to learn about. This can be right now, at some point in the future. Think of:

   • Data vizualization
   • Python programming
   • Local field potentials
   • Plotting brains
   • Coffee
   • Gardening
   • Personal productivity
   • Graphic design

4. Archive
   Anything that was a project, area or resource, but it no longer active or relevant. Just move it to this folder and you wont lose it. The archive folder is unorganized, and I barely look at it. But when you search for topics, you may still find some old project that becomes relevant again.

Additional to the PARA folders, I have two more folders:

• Inbox
  Sometimes you dont immediately know where to place something, or you dont have time to organize it. Then I just throw it in the inbox folder and every now and then I clean the inbox out. This is to make collecting new information as frictionless as possible. If you dont know, just throw it in the inbox. Sometimes I clean out the inbox every week, sometimes once every three months. I have multiple inboxes on different devices. One that I find super useful is a whatappgroup with only me, to share links from the news or X to.

• _archive
  Every folder on my devices can have an _archive folder. All files that become irrelevant can be moved in there to keep the main folder clean. For example, when writing a manuscript you generate many versions. The old versions become irrelevant, but maybe you want to occasionally look back to these files. Just drag them in _archive and keep organized.
  With all these archive and inbox folders, any search function is your best friend

For a comprehensive view on PARA, see here.

For my todo list, I simply have a single file in Obsidian (my note taking app), with check boxes. I throw anything I think of in there, and move todos around with alt + up/down arrows. In that way I reorganise my todos in importance for that day/week, and irrelevant todos slowly sink out of view.

Keeping organized

Whenever I lose oversight or control, I start doing a weekly review. I take 30 to 60 minutes every week (for me friday or monday morning works well, but its personal), to go through all the inboxes, go through all my projects, and make a plan for the week. This includes fully planning my agenda to assign time to work on things that need to be done. Usually these are non-urgent but important projects. Projects that are very important, but easily moved for more urgent, but less important projects.

More info on the weekly review

Tools

I use:

• Obsidian: Notes, todo
• whatsapp: Inbox
• Readwise/Reader: Inbox (for videos and things to read specifically)