I’m in an organizing mood. When I get like this I typically shift whatever I’m trying to organize around for awhile until I get bored. Take for instance my past attempts at alphabetizing our CD collection. I typically get through M before I just give up and move on to something else.

Today 2 things got my goat today:

1. Categorizing my blog posts - I have over 500 posts on CJ dating back to 1999. The Wordpress software makes it a sinch to assign categories to each blog post. Unfortunately, I have to go through each post and select the appropriate categories. You’ll notice there’s one category named “Imported” that contains an over abundant amount of posts. Its the default category, so any posts not properly organized exists there for the time being. Over time the number diminishes as I find time to walk through each post. I try to do at least 10 posts a day.

2. Organizing my digital files - I have 4 hard drives at home that are full. The problem is, I don’t know what their full with. I had a tendency to make a backup of my “Documents” folder, which may be gigs in size, because I fear losing my most important documents. I’ve done it so frequently though, that now I can’t find anything. Is it in my 20040112 back up or my 20040620 backup? I plan on breaking down my documents into logical types instead of date based. All of this, of course, is backed up as frequently as possible. I’ve already learned that lesson the hard way.

I once read an article regarding self-organizing manila file folders. It’s basically a way for your most important or often used folders to float to the top of the pile. At work I have a wire stand that I keep all my manila project folders in. As I work/reference the folders I always return them to the front of the stand. That way my most used folders are always in front. This also forces the lesser referenced folders to the back. When the stand gets full I remove the files from the back, since they aren’t referenced anymore, and archive them (either in a drawer or in the trash). It’s a simple but effective technique that I couldn’t live without.