Sourced from https://johnnydecimal.com/

TL:DR Make 10 Categories Make 10 Subcategories Number everything Nothing is more than two clicks away

Detailed Guide¶

Step 1: Divide everything in to ten things¶

1. Take everything you need to organize and sort it in to, at most, ten large buckets.
2. Make sure the buckets are unambiguously different.
3. Put a label on each bucket.

This forces you to group things quite broadly, but that’s the point. We call these buckets your areas. An area might be Finance.

Step 2: In each area, divide in ten again¶

Go through each bucket and repeat the process. This creates your categories. A category within the Finance area might be Tax Returns. Now we have ten areas which contain ten categories each. That’s a hundred categories at the very most. It’s very unlikely you will end up with a hundred categories.

Step 3: Organize your files¶

Finally, start to place files that you need to organize into these folders. Try to fit files into already existing categories. The more files you add, the more likely you are to encounter files that do not fit into your categories. Each time this happens consider if you have a lot of files without a home and create a new category to try to encompass as many of them as you can.

Examples¶

These are examples of the Johnny.Decimal System in use

Synology NAS Setup¶

Source: https://stefanzweifel.io/posts/2020/08/04/synology-nas-setup-2020#folder-structure--synology-drive

.
├── 00-00 INBOX
├── 10-19 Finances (Pesonal)
│  ├── 11 Banking
│  │  ├── 11.01 Bank A
│  │  │  ├── 11.01.01 Correspondence
│  │  │  ├── 11.01.02 Account A Statements
│  │  │  │  ├── 2019
│  │  │  │  ├── 2020
│  │  ├── 11.02 Bank B
│  ├── 12 Credit Cards
│  │  ├── 12.01 Card A
│  │  │  ├── 12.01.01 Card A Correspondence
│  │  │  ├── 12.01.02 Card A Statements
│  │  │    ├── 2019
│  │  │    ├── 2020
│  ├── 13 Investments
│  │  ├── 13.01 Account A
│  ├── 14 Donations (by year)
│  │  ├── 2019
│  │  ├── 2020
│  ├── 15 Taxes
│  │  ├── 15.01 Zurich 2019
│  ├── 16 Bills (by year)
│  │  ├── 2019
│  │  ├── 2020
│  ├── 17 Receipts (by year)
│  │  ├── 2019
│  │  ├── 2020
│  ├── 18 Purchases (by year)
│  │  ├── 2019
│  │  ├── 2020
├── 20-29 Documents (Personal)
│  ├── 21 Homes
│  │  ├── 21.01 Location A
│  │  │  ├── 21.01.01 Correspondence
│  │  │  ├── 21.01.02 City
│  │  │  ├── 21.01.03 Apartment
│  │  │    ├── Documents
│  │  │    ├── Plans
│  ├── 22 Insurances
│  │  ├── 22.01 Health Insurance
│  │  │  ├── 22.01.01 Policies
│  │  │  ├── 22.01.02 Bills (by year)
│  │  │    ├── 2020
│  │  ├── 22.02 Pension
│  │  ├── 22.03 Household Insurance
│  │  │  ├── 22.03.01 Policies
│  │  │  ├── 22.03.02 Bills (by year)
│  │  ├── 22.04 Car Insurance
│  │  │  ├── 22.04.01 Policies
│  │  │  ├── 22.04.02 Bills (by year)
│  │  ├── 22.05 Travel Insurance
│  │  │  ├── 22.05.01 Policies
│  │  │  ├── 22.05.02 Bills (by year)
│  ├── 23 Contracts
│  │  ├── 23.01 Hosting
│  │  ├── 23.02 Salt
│  │  ├── 23.04 Swisscom
│  ├── 24 Medical History
│  ├── 25 Vehicles
│  │  ├── 25.01 Aston Martin DB9
│  ├── 26 Travels
│  │  ├── 26.01 Location 20xx
│  ├── 27 Recipes
│  ├── 28 Correspondence (by year)
│  ├── 29 Personal
│    ├── 29.01 Birth Certificate
│    ├── 29.02 Civil Defense
├── 50-59 Work and Career
│  ├── 51 Resumé
│  │  ├── 50.01 Archive
│  │  ├── 50.02 Examples
│  ├── 52 Workplace A
│  │  ├── 52.01 Contracts
│  │  ├── 52.02 Pay Slips
│  │  ├── 52.03 Documents
│  ├── 53 Workplace B
│     ├── 53.01 Contracts
│     ├── 53.02 Pay Slips
│     │  ├── 2020
│     ├── 53.03 Documents
├── 60-69 Personal
    ├── 61 Projects
    │  ├── 61.01 stefanzweifel.io
    │  ├── 61.02 screeenly.com
    ├── 62 Fitness
        ├── 62.01 Training Plans

Finances Folder Setup¶

20 - 29 Finances (Personal) -> 21 Debit Accounts -> 21.01 Debit Account Name -> Statements -> Year Folder -> 01 January Statement 20 - 29 Finances (Personal) -> 22 Credit Accounts -> 21.01 Credit Card Name -> Statements -> Year Folder -> 01 January Statement