I spend a considerable amount of time thinking, strategizing, and testing certain organizational habits. Every once in awhile a light bulb goes off and an axiom may surface here or there. Let’s see if I can iron this one out:
Organization is the restructuring of parts or steps resulting in a desired measurable benefit. E.g. time-saving, psych-saving, resource-saving.
OK. Here’s a tougher one:
An Area is an collection of projects that for which the success or importance of one project determines the importance of another.
Think of an area like a career. If one career is not succeeding, you want be able to cleanly abandon that career and that folder. E.g. If you run a business that makes and sells video games, the failing of enough projects to make capital would result in the abandonment of other projects in that area. If you are interested in saving that business, all projects for this area should be in one place so you can focus on them to the exclusion of other areas. Otherwise, cut on the dotted line.
Area is the first line of organization. Projects are second. Reference material (known as Support Material in GTD) is third.
In Dropbox, I recommend you order things this way:
\My Business Name\Projects\ProjectNameA
\My Business Name\Projects\ProjectNameB
\My Books I’m Writing\Projects\BookA
\My Books I’m Writing\Projects\BookB
\My Own Name\Documents
\My Own Name\Projects
another example would be
\Company Name I Work For\Projects\
\Personal\Projects\
and in reality my Dropbox looks like
\Aftertouch Games\Documents\
\Aftertouch Games\Projects\ProjectNameA
\Aftertouch Games\Projects\ProjectNameA\Reference\
\Aftertouch Games\Projects\ProjectNameB
\Aftertouch Games\Projects\ProjectNameB\Reference\
\Blog\
\Justin Reinhart\Projects\
\People\FriendA\
\People\FriendB\
and I tweak it here and there as I need.
This is organized in such a way that it is easy to keep personal and professional separate. If you decide to leave that company you are working for, it is easy to pass that folder along to the company and get it out of your life. (In fact, when I left my previous job, I walked away clean and handed everything over perfectly.) If you decide that your writing career is not an area to feed or nurture, you can put it on hold by never viewing that folder.
A good rule of thumb is that most people would never have more than about 4 areas, similar to how one might go about a typical work day. You sleep at home. You drive to work. You study at school. You relax at the beach. Your day is divided into about 4 areas. If you leave your job, the work area dissolves. If you graduate from school, the school area dissolves. If you don’t have time, the relaxation area will wait for you to return.
Organizing my Dropbox files by area has been one of the most comforting and sensible things I’ve ever done.