Good data organization isn't glamorous — but it's what makes research reproducible.

This peer-reviewed paper from the Data Science Journal provides a complete folder structure template for research projects, plus guidance READMEs and metadata templates in Markdown.
They also talk about #johnnydecimal – an approach we also like.

Built by data stewards, for researchers. CC-BY licensed.

👉 https://doi.org/10.5334/dsj-2025-035

#RDM #FolderStructure #Reproducibility #OpenScience
— bos

I find striking how much of a hype there is around concepts like "second brain", "zettelkasten", "networked note-taking", "PARA method", "Johnny Decimal", etc., and around note-taking apps such as Roam Research, Notion, Obsidian, and so on. So I found fascinating Kevin Baker's May 2024 take on them as "sandboxes for infinite varieties of avoidant labor".

Here's the relevant excerpt, shared without further comment:

"Incapacitating" is exactly how I would describe my relationship to computers, especially since the start of the pandemic. "Friction" for me looks like uncertainty, partial knowledge, ambiguity, disorder, or anxiety. The ecosystem of note taking software and influencers that has emerged since 2020 offer a great example of what I am talking about. Writing is a task which forces one to confront ambiguity, uncertainty, and one’s own limits directly, so it’s not surprising that a coterie of avoidance entrepreneurs sprung up around it. The goal of note taking systems, almost without exception, is to provide a smooth, frictionless environment for making connections between disparate topics. As your “second brain” develops, the ability—and indeed the desire—to create a dense latticework of connections increases. The problem for me, at least, is that I don’t find the work of making connections to be difficult. If anything, my “first brain” tends to overproduce these kinds of thoughts.

What it does provide, however, is a sandbox for infinite varieties of “avoidant labor.” If your writing anxiety focuses, like mine frequently does, on the possibility of “accidental plagiarism,” well, you can tend to your “zettlekasten,” and ensure that everything you ever highlighted is properly cited and tagged. If you have a more generic form of writing anxiety, why not spend a few hours linking your notes? In both cases, you have an act adjacent to writing, which relieves some of the tension of not writing but actively avoids the task itself.

Spent time in the heat working through a filing structure that isn't quite working for me.

#obsidian #johnnydecimal #johnnydecimalsystem

https://quantumgardener.info/notes/collating-my-thoughts-on-document-management

A very interesting post about #JohnnyDecimal file organisation method. Something I'm looking into for a few days and that I may start using when I finally find my way into it ! (thanks @robb !)

https://rknight.me/blog/using-the-johnny-decimal-system/

@hyde had posted about it a little while ago. Is your list of Areas, Categories, IDs visible anywhere ? I'm looking for inspiration to better adjust mine 😉

And if anybody can provide me with examples, I'd appreciate 😃 !

How do you manage your files? Do you use a #GUI? a #TUI?

I ❤️ terminals, #shells, and #fzf. Combined with #JohnnyDecimal, here's how I manage my files!

#terminals #zsh #fediverse #blog

https://lazybea.rs/hdmf

I saw JohnnyDecimal trending on Hacker News and it seems like an extension/compliment/super-set of how I organize my life but with a slightly different taxonomy and PKM integrated with GTD[1].

TLDR: I combine and remix Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs with David Allen's GTD.

[1] https://www.isaacwyatt.com/posts/2023-10-01/

#GTD #PKM #JohnnyDecimal

@vae Saying #johnnydecimal ... You can apply your numbered system in different types of stores. #obsidian is just the one with the markdown-based notes. Another could be your harddrive with your files, or a cloud provider. Another can be your mailbox. Here is how I did it:

https://kiko.io/post/Johnny-Decimal-Emerging-from-the-Abyss/

It's true. The #JohnnyDecimal system works like magic. It helped me tame my filing cabinet. I used to put off filing, but it's now almost a pleasure to file and find things. Once you get set up, it works like magic.

https://johnnydecimal.com/