How Do You Organize Your Data?

kpellegr asks: "After returning from a well deserved holiday, I was faced with an exploding inbox. While organizing and deleting my mail, I realised I was having trouble classifying each mail into one specific folder. I had the feeling I should be able to link to one email from several folders (e.g. product information should be linked to from the 'vendor' folder, as well as from a specific project folder where this product is used). The more I thought about this, the more I realised that trees (such as the Windows filesystems) are not really ideally suited for organizing data. On UNIX-like filesystems, symbolic links allow the creation of simple graphs for organising data, but I have the feeling data could be organized more efficiently. How does the Slashdot crowd organize their data? How do you manage files, email, contacts, meetings and all the relationships that might exist between them?"

Comments

I put everything in one folder

[Anonymous Coward]

That way, I never need to worry about what folder to put it in.

Re:I put everything in one folder

[FireBreathingDog]

I print everything out on paper, then sort it according to the integer value of the MD5 hash of each page's contents.

Virtual Folders

[spencerogden]

This is exactly the concept behind virtual folders. The idea is that folders, whether they be in the context of an email program or a filesystem, are actively updated searches. For example, all of your emails could be in one pool, invisible to you. Then each folder would be associated with a rule similar to email filter rules we use now. If an email matches, it shows up, maybe in multiple folders. Bayesian rules allow for even better classifications, if an email is similar enough to several catagories, it can show up in all of them.

Re:Virtual Folders

[waveclaw]

The idea is that folders, whether they be in the context of an email program or a filesystem, are actively updated searches.

This is a Good Thing IMHO. But, I find that abstract views are almost as good. I'd love spend my time contriving useful query-based views of my mail (e.g. select * from ~/mail where address like family and pr0n = false and spam = no) rather than doing some other things [1] but alas. Fortunately there is the 'in the file system' approach that Hans Reiser and crew are working toward. Files as directories of content/properties, indexes built from custom searches on transactional filesystems. And all of it open to tinkering and improvement. The UNIX 'file-os-ophy' of text files and meta-data would make my ideal open and convoluted mail storage system trivial.

Worried about space? Run it through transparent filesystem level compression. Worried about security? Gpg ain't exactly new. Want more meta data? No problem: the filesystem of the future has plenty of flexibility for your X-Hot-Natalie-Portman-With-Grits field.

[1] One of the few things tying me to M$ right now is the preponderance of custom sorted, property-extended email stuck in M$ proprietary formats. If I have to write another shell script to parse MBX, PST or OST formats...I think I'll scream.

Re:Virtual Folders

[dwhittington]

Virtual Folders (in Evolution) are quite handy. I used to dump all of my email in silly folders until I came to the same realization as our poster. These messages really fall into multiple categories. So, I use Evolution's virtual folder feature to create folders such as "customer, vendors, eFaxes, Follow-up, Important". In the rules for folders such as vendor or customer, I add applicable email addresses or domain names under the 'sender' filter. Another helpful categorization method is to create folders named after the person who sent the email. These days, its not uncommon for Joe Bob customer to have multiple email addresses. Virtual folders can easily consolidate all of those messages into one place. It all boils down to how we think and associate data, as the ultimate goal is easy retrieval of the data. If one associates events with a person, by golly, create vfolders w/ peoples names. :)

Agreed...

[Suhas]

...it's a windows only product, but for organizing email on windows boxes, I would recommend Nelson. I use it at work, and it allows me to organize a single email using multiple classifications and has a ton of other feartures. Check it out.

that's easy

[underpaidISPtech]

porn1
porn2
New Folder
New Folder(1)
unsorted_porn
mp3s

Wiki

[arrogance]

I love wikis (see also Twiki, a very flexible one, and Openwiki if you prefer M$ technologies): you can organize anything you want, with anyone you want. It's more suited to a workgroup of people, but they work for individuals too. They're totally flexible, extensible, and templatable.

I'm sure people here will come up with ideas like knowledge trees and weird topological concepts, but gimme a wiki any day.

Maybe no folders could do it.

[Pig Hogger]

I've been toying with a folderless idea to organize e-mails.

All mail are kept into one place (say, a MySQL database). You, however, setup filters (that is, SQL queries) that show your e-mails in virtual folders.

That is, messages can be in as many folders as they meet the selection criterion of.

In addition to the obvious "from", "date", "subject", you could assign an arbitrary number of categories which could constitute more selection criteria.

Scopeware and Evolution

[hbo]

David Gelertner, the comp sci professor author and unabomber victim, has created software he calls Scopeware. It basically organizes information in a series of related chains. These can be date based or otherwise. I haven't used it, but I've read that he is responding to some of the same concerns you mention.

On a less lofty, but free, note, Evolution has "virtual folders" in which you can place anything a filter expression can select. I use them to sort my email by sender address. I still have my main inbox, and all the categorized subfolders, but the virtual folders select particular people out of the massive mail database. So I can recall that Joe said something three weeks ago that relates to a current problem, and look in the "Joe" virtual folder to find it. There's still no easy way to add arbitrary messages to a virtual folder, other than adding a filter rule that selects just that one message. At least I haven't found a way. But it seems to address part of your concern, for email at least.

Two Folder Organization with Replication

[Proudrooster]

I have a organizational system which uses two folders and replication.

Folder 1: INBOX
Folder 2: SENT EMAIL

Any email which is important I send to one or more anal-retentive people who will create nice organized folders in which to store the email. This how I implement replicated storage with automatic retrieval. If I ever need an email back I can simply ask for it and get a copy forwarded to me. Using this method I don't have to waste valuable brain power deciding what folder things go in. As a backup, if for some reason my replicated storage goes on vacation or is out of the office, I can search my sent folder and usually find what I need in there.

This method works extremely well plus it has the advantage of replicated storage which helps thwart hardware failures.

Good luck! Staying organized is a full time job!

That's simple

[jdc180]

I use microsoft exchange, and it randomly deletes, my data and users so i don't have to worry about organizing it :)

Sorry, i'm frustrated... I'm setting up an exchange server right now.

Opera M2

[tlianza]

It also sounds similar to how Opera handles mail with the M2 e-mail client. It defines "access points" that can (but don't have to) look like folders for jumping into messages that meet a certain criteria. For example, all messages with an attached image are grouped together, as are all messages from a specific person, and all messages meeting some sort of user-defined criteria might also be lumped together under an "access point." In the end though, there really is only one mail box, these tools just allow you to "slice and dice" through your mail.

Haystack from MIT

[kevin_conaway]

I think MIT has a project called Haystack designed just for this

OmniGraffle, OmniOutliner, and more

[metalligoth]

For file systems I use symbolic links in a column viewed filesytem. I really like what a company formerly known as NeXT has done with some of their products. Their software for pictures and music both have a "Library". From there you can drag songs or pictures into "Playlists" (music) or "Albums" (photos).

Very cool.

As for software, I use OmniGraffle and OmniOutliner from OmniGroup. OmniOutliner is especially simple, yet unique. I wonder why no one else has an idea organizer that is so incredible? I couldn't do my job without it. Well, I could, but I'd use a lot of paper or spend a lot of time in OpenOffice messing around with things.

Re:Inefficiently

[stephens_domain]

Magic prioritization:
Step 1: Reply to the email ASAP with a question. Emails are (at best) only half thought out to begin with, so this is typically necessary anyway. It is best if it is something the person will have to look up or follow up on, rather than something they will know right away.
Step 2: Delete the email.

If it takes the person two weeks to get back to you, you know that it is not important AND you just bought yourself two weeks.
If your phone rings 30 seconds after sending the email, it is urgent.

Everything else falls in the middle somewhere, but you get the idea. In my case, probably close to 5% of these never get a response (or get a quick reply that they will look into it, but no final answer), or having been forced to think about their request, they send a response that they need to work on the details of the request before I begin working on it.