Ask HN: How do you organize your stuff?

There are said to be two types of people - pilers and filers. I&#x27;ve always been a filer, but have found that as my interests spread, and my work has increasingly been to create connections, I don&#x27;t know where to file things.<p>So for my paperwork I have a single &quot;pile&quot;. Each document gets a unique reference number, it gets filed in alphanumeric order, and I keep a file with the number and every keyword I can think of that might be relevant. When I want something I do a keyword search on the file and that pops out all the related documents references, along with the other keywords so I can decide if it&#x27;s actually relevant.<p>I&#x27;m doing a similar thing with texts, snippets, photos, PDFs, etc. I put everything in a wiki, migrate things freely, but retain with everything a reference number, and in an index file, a list of reference numbers with their keywords. To start with it felt like an effort, but it has paid off time and time again. Things tend to migrate to meet up with their friends, but the index means things are easy to find.<p>Search is fast, but having things migrate and cluster creates the opportunity for coincidences and serendipity to play a role.<p>Embrace, adapt, enhance, and do what works for you.<p>And have backups. Multiple backups. And test your restore process regularly.

Everything is added to &#x27;the system&#x27; as one of the following entity types:<p>- Area (area of focus &#x2F;context)<p>- Contact<p>- Group (e.g. an organisation or group of people)<p>- Message<p>- Target (a &#x27;task&#x27;)<p>- Event (something that was undertaken, to move a target towards completion)<p>- Item (tangible or intangible)<p>- Reference (a piece of information)<p>- Location<p>- Template (something repeatable to provide repeatable structure or considerations to another entity type)<p>- Argument (an argument, reasoning, statement, claim etc).<p>- Resolution (a resolution to be made &#x2F; an agreement that is met &#x2F; a contract, committment or promise)<p>- Statistic<p>- Rule (triggers and automation for the above entities - e.g. &#x27;apply template x to create target y every thurs @ 9am&#x27;)<p>All of the entity types can have many-many relationships with any other entity.<p>Therefore, for example: I could look up a target in my system called &#x27;Deploy helpdesk module&#x27; - I can see when the due date is, what the hold date is (&quot;hide this entity until X&quot;), what the notes are, what the status is etc.<p>- I can see all of the &#x27;sub-targets&#x27; - I.e. there is an unlimited nesting of tasks.<p>- I can see that it is linked to my &#x27;Service Delivery&#x27; area, which is a child of my &#x27;Business&#x27; area.<p>- I can see that I have added 2 completed events to it (showing what I have done so far)<p>- I can see what relevant locations are linked to it (and why).<p>- I can see what groups are linked to it (in this case, the primary &#x27;Group&#x27; is the client that I am developing the module for)<p>- I can see what relevant items (e.g. tools) are linked to the target. For example, relevant online platforms (and credentials) are an example of an item.<p>- I can see all references attached to the target (For example, my personal considerations list &#x2F; best practices for helpdesk modules, or perhaps ITIL reference information pertinent to Service Operations.)<p>- I can see all relevant Resolutions (in this case, it is the agreement I have made with my client to develop and deploy the helpdesk module)<p>- etc.<p>I believe that the above is more accurately representative of &#x27;correct&#x27; entity theory than any software currently provides. I am currently using a complex spreadsheet. I have courted most productivity&#x2F;task&#x2F;project&#x2F;time platforms.<p>The closest application ever available (that I am aware of) to this functionality was IQTELL (defunct) - And only as it was heavily customizable.<p>I have therefore resorted to developing my own application - I hired a remote team to assist me. It&#x27;s for my own personal use, but I am considering opening up to other users in the future.<p>In my opinion, Todoist and other productivity platforms (either corporate or personal) are vastly immature, and tend to completely miss most functionality&#x2F;scope&#x2F;correct entity theory - We simply have so far to go here. I wish this space was 10 years more advanced than it is.