(commenting specifically in the context of a personal information collection)
Schema-on-write increases the cost (mental load, time) of finding useful things in the first place, which isn't always what you want. I happen upon an interesting HN article (like this) and (like the author) dump it in my "later" pile - often that's during a little ADHD-brain distraction, where I just browse and read for a few mins before jumping back into a piece of work. I specifically DO NOT want extra cognitive load at that point.
The balance is always a bit of both - sometimes organise, sometimes defer it. But always allocate some time for "emptying" those queues, lists, inboxes, etc - that's the critical part of staying organised and usually the hardest.
The worst temptation is to automate the process - eg. "I'll auto-import all my data into organised tables" or "I'll use ML to automatically tag stuff" - that's fine, but the purpose is to help you learn and remember, and that automation will just create even more data for your "to look at later" pile.
I'm having some joy using Obsidian - it's so quick for creating interlinked documents and notes, task lists, etc, and from a technical PoV they're all just plain Markdown documents stored in Dropbox - future-proof and device-proof.
This has exactly been my experience. Automation hasn't helped much - we're still not at the point where (as someone else here pointed out) you have a system that can mimic your mind and add the metadata for you.
Clearing out the lists make a big difference. I'm reminded of a video I watched [1] where deleting photos more often made it easier for the author to remember his life better. I've been trying it more, and he's right - it works!
Comments
(commenting specifically in the context of a personal information collection)
Schema-on-write increases the cost (mental load, time) of finding useful things in the first place, which isn't always what you want. I happen upon an interesting HN article (like this) and (like the author) dump it in my "later" pile - often that's during a little ADHD-brain distraction, where I just browse and read for a few mins before jumping back into a piece of work. I specifically DO NOT want extra cognitive load at that point.
The balance is always a bit of both - sometimes organise, sometimes defer it. But always allocate some time for "emptying" those queues, lists, inboxes, etc - that's the critical part of staying organised and usually the hardest.
The worst temptation is to automate the process - eg. "I'll auto-import all my data into organised tables" or "I'll use ML to automatically tag stuff" - that's fine, but the purpose is to help you learn and remember, and that automation will just create even more data for your "to look at later" pile.
I'm having some joy using Obsidian - it's so quick for creating interlinked documents and notes, task lists, etc, and from a technical PoV they're all just plain Markdown documents stored in Dropbox - future-proof and device-proof.
This has exactly been my experience. Automation hasn't helped much - we're still not at the point where (as someone else here pointed out) you have a system that can mimic your mind and add the metadata for you.
Clearing out the lists make a big difference. I'm reminded of a video I watched [1] where deleting photos more often made it easier for the author to remember his life better. I've been trying it more, and he's right - it works!
1 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLy4VKeYxD4
Sure, delete the cruft, but if you've got "too many" photos and videos, maybe it's not you: maybe it's your photo app.
I believe I have a novel approach to browsing your library that you might like. My users love it.
https://forum.photostructure.com/t/love-random-shuffle/790