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Old 11-09-2012, 12:29 PM
schferk schferk is online now
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f)

Hence my short description what I do here, or better, what I've done here, lately, in order to get these things straight. It was two long working days hard labour, but it was well worth the effort, and I'm positive to have found the definite answer to this problem, independently of your choice of a big-file system as UR is, or of a distributed system as I'm using at this very moment.

1. Have a global inbox, but without any try of structure, just an inbox from which you export things as soon as possible.

2. Don't export, from there, by scripting, to hundreds of target files of hundreds of sub-structures - technically, UR would allow for this, but you would get response time problems. Have intermediate sub-structures (which in my case are intermediate files that are always loaded and open, and which in your case (UR) would be LIGHT first-level subtrees, within the very first positions of your global tree, and that "only" serve for holding intermediate structures that double the highest levels of your "real", fine-grained structure.

3. Have macros / scripts in order to access the respective "other" item / tree heading (i.e. from your intermediate structure to the "real" sub-tree and vice versa) by just ONE F-key (or by shift-enter or whatever suits you).

4. Do your thinking and actual conceptual work within this "unnecessary", super-imposed intermediate structure. Access your "real", fine-grained structure only if you must look up details, or for real editing work, etc. - Try to "EXTRACT / DIGEST" any intermediate result / thought / aspect / whatever from your "bunch of material" into this doubled intermediate structure - which also means have the least possible direct access means = links, clones, etc., from your intermediate = working space into those "depths" of your material: Except in special cases, don't clone detailed items from there here, but write a sentence or two here, summarizing those details from there.

Of course, what I'm trying to convey here, is a means of avoiding / minimizing the "lost in hyperspace" phenomenon which will quickly get you even within your own parallel system (which is no hyperspace in the scrict sense of the term, but just a tree grown much too big - and the same applies to distributed systems like mine, the technical details of the possible cutting up of the too big a tree doesn't mean anything on the conceptual described level).

5. In fact, what I'm also trying to establish here, is not only "a better view", "a better point of view" in order to not get lost within the details (but only access them for what they are for: referencing, usually, and only in exceptional situations, development WITHIN those details), but especially and in the very first place, AN INTERMEDIATE LEVEL OF RESULTS - FROM WHICH TO WORK FURTHER ON. (People who will have followed my writings in the askSam, MyInfo, outlinersoftware, and UltraRecall fori, know that I'm after both aspects, the organizational, AND the thinking-enhancement one.)

6. Now coming back to our external files (be they self-produced or imported stuff): Synch your folder structure by the applyable (!) main items within your intermediate = working structure. There is another aspect: Since for working on your stuff, and for adapting stuff to YOUR way of organizing, of thinking, of doing things, you split external things into different context as they are presented by those above-mentioned external "authors", just have external things grouped into the "common denominator", which are hopefully represented by your main headings within this intermediate structure.

For important things, even go so far, if needed, to adapt your main headings to enclose such material, i.e. don't be too "original" here, but follow the ways "your" material is commonly being presented by third parties, in order to have a viable main structure; this advice coming from somebody like me, be sure this is good advice - I'm perfectly conscious of the outrage of this coming from me.

7. Also, don't be afraid of some "comment" items there: Why not have an otherwise empty item but which title says, "for this aspect of the subject, also see item xyz" - this will bring an immediate solution to all these problems "car insurance under car or under insurance?" - in all my system with over 100k of items, I only get perhaps about 200 such "SEE items", all sub-structures together (and I spoke about the exportability problem, set up by technical cloning which hence I avoid).

8. As said before, you do NOT need a corresponding sub-folder (i.e. for external files) for ANY main entry in YOUR system, BUT vice versa it's not: For any external folder, create such an item, even if it doesn't contain much - if there is nothing for you to have about it, in your "internal" system, you will have badly created your external-stuff folder in the first place.

9. So, what IS your intermediate, and your external folder structure? In my case, it's about 10 files (business 1, business 2, private stuff, law, tax, social security, "general stuff" including organizational things with scope over several of my prime groups, and more), with each about 6 to 25 sub-files (which in the "private" group, would be spouse, girlfriend 1, girlfriend 2 (yes, that was a joke), health, sports, literature, music, other pastimes, recipies, drinks, our pet (see the following!) - so, in my "big folder", I got 10 corresponding sub-folders, with each about 5 to 22 sub-folders on that further level: As said before, I do NOT create empty sub-folders, just for the "pleasure" of there being a 1:1 synchronicity even when there will never be any external file within the corresponding sub-folder: I just create those file-system sub-folders whenever the very first file to be stuffed into there comes up, or whenever I think there might be files to be put into there some day.

10. As for the "pet" example, I'll have a folder "allmystuff/private/pet" - but, you see, I will NOT go so far as to have sub-folders there, for pet's health, pet's rise, pet's vaccinations, and so on, no sir, I'm perfectly happy with "pet", and then, there are some perhaps 15 external files, pdf's, invoices as pdf's, whatever, and whenever I want to access some of those files, I do NOT do an "enter" within my "private" file when the selected line there is ".Pet" - this "enter" there would immediately open my AO file (= your UR sub-tree) "pet" (by scripting - any "enter" when a line beginning with a dot is selected, opens the according file, would "open" - why not automatically in a new tab? - your corresponding UR sub-tree), BUT I do a SHIFT-"enter" (i.e. on such a line beginning with a dot), and my system "knows" I want to open, in my preferred file manager, the "pet" subfolder - and it does it for me (I even have got a rather elaborate script that's able to just OPEN that folder / tab in my file manager whenever it's already on a tab there, or to create a NEW tab there in order to show the contents of that "pet" sub-folder, if up to now I did not yet open that sub-folder on any tab there - all's fully automatized. And yes, lately I got a second, identical screen, and thus, I get my AO stuff in front of me, and the respective "external", additional files listed on my secondary screen, and while I'm writing this, it comes to my mind that of course, a simple ENTER on a line with a dot should do BOTH, open the corresponding AO file, AND open the corresponding sub-folder for any additional stuff. (Or do it by control-enter in order to not automatically replace any such additional stuff on your second screen when you don't need it.)

11. So you see, the fact that my "pet" sub-folder does contain some 15 perhaps rather disparate external files, doesn't bother me in the slightest, and this way, by doing the synching on that intermediate level (i.e. my AO file level only, i.e. NOT WITHIN my further sub-grouping within these separate AO files), I don't have any such problems by external files spanning several of my subjects there, since I do NOT have the ambition to fine-grain external files beyond reason. In your (UR) case, you would deliberately refrain from creating sub-folders BEYOND your SECOND-LEVEL MAIN HEADINGS: d:\allmystufforwhatever\private\pet, and not beyond this.

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