When it comes to organizing (whether physically or mentally), I’ve always relied on The Heap. The way it works is, when you’re looking for something, you just think back to the last time that you remember it, and it’s about that far deep in the pile.
It sounds like it’s the opposite of organization, but it’s really just an informal temporal storage method. My digital notes are almost always sorted by the last modified date. Items for projects are put into a staging area (a fancy term for a heap of somewhat loosely-related items) for later retrieval.
I’m well along into middle age and the ol’ thinker isn’t thunking like it once did, hence my need for a way to record, store, and retrieve ideas and project notes, as well as noting down ideas that flick through my head, like worldbuilding for stories or — these days — blog posts. I lost one the other day because I was cooking dinner (our first dinner on the grill this season) and didn’t have the time to jot down the thought. I tried to pull on the thread of the memory of having the idea, but it just didn’t come to me. Sad trombone.
Lately, as I’ve been jumping from project to project (it’s hard having many interests), I’ve started running into physical space issues. Not that I have no place to put them, but it’s too much for The Heap. So, I started chucking some things in a box, labeling the box with a major-minor category (like “CRAFT – clay & tools” for example) to create sub-Heaps. Lately, I’ve also found that there are a larger number of individual items or tools that I like to have near to hand that get used in a majority of projects, and that heap has gotten unwieldy.
One solution has been facial tissue boxes. If I cut out the middle, I’m left with the ends – two small boxes about 3×5 inches and a couple of inches deep. Smallish tools get sorted by use and then get a labeled box. So far, I’ve found this profoundly helpful, to the point where I have sub-sub-Heaps.
This is my “model” 3×5 box. I use this to mark and cut off the ends of tissue boxes so I can get a consistent size and then use them to keep frequently-used items together. At least living with an allergy-sufferer has side benefit.
I recently came across a woodworking YouTuber project for a simple tool organizer that I’ll probably adapt to my desk-turned-occasional-electronics-lab-turned-sometimes-craft-area to keep pens, instruments, and consumables close to hand.
None of this is ground-breaking organizational strategy. For instance, a tool organizer can be had at any hardware store. Desk organizers are easily found. In this case, I’m doing a mash-up of both concepts adapted to my needs, instead of buying a one-size-fits-all desk organizer that is meant for a business office from the 80’s. My limited set of woodworking tools have been in deep storage for a while, so reviving that is in progress.
I have no idea why these tools are in the same box. I guess I must reach for them frequently enough that it makes sense to keep them together. The “school glue” is mainly used for sticking labels onto boxes, the others are for electronics (and my earbud case may have been included by accident).
It’s admittedly been a little fun to pay close attention to the way I do things. To be conscious of my unconscious habits so that I can learn what it is I need to do to adapt to a new method.
But relying on my memory is no longer sufficient, and it’s taking time to figure out how to sort things. The good news is that the new changes are helping. I guess the point is that I’m resigned to the idea that the old way doesn’t work, so long live the New Way!