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I've long since "given up" organizing my files. I was a long time user of one or more NAS boxes (first was a Synology DS101g+), and ran everything self hosted
by 8fingerlouie 5y ago
I've long since "given up" organizing my files.
I was a long time user of one or more NAS boxes (first was a Synology DS101g+), and ran everything self hosted up until 3-5 years ago.
These days i just throw everything in the cloud, using Cryptomator[1] for privacy where applicapable, and everything else lives on a Mac Mini at home with a couple of USB drives attached, whose main purpose is backing up the cloud data. It also acts as a local server for media files, but i don't "hoard" as many files to confuse Plex enough that it can't figure it out.
For photos, i use whatever format Apple Photos use. I keep 300k photos in there, and it serves it up happily, and allows me to search fast enough by dates/locations and to some extent content.
While i'm "too old" to buy into Spotify/Apple Music/Whatever, and still purchase all music i listen to, i do buy it from iTunes, and i let iTunes handle the organization. I simply backup the data (only music, as movies have DRM, so no point in backing it up)
For mail/calendar i also just use the standard MacOS/iOS mail client.
All of the above "works". It gives me a searchable interface to whatever i want to find, without me having to bother too much about how it's stored. Of course i organize files in folders/directories by content/purpose, but beyond that i don't do much sorting.
The only place where i still struggle to find a good workflow is for note taking. While i don't write many notes, i do take notes every day, but working from multiple locations, with different computers, and not being able to use the same cloud solutions across home and work networks, i find it difficult to find a "one true source" approach to digital note taking.
I'm currently using a RocketBook[2] for notetaking, which is essentially an erasable/reusable notebook that supports easily scanning and archiving the page thanks to a unique QR code on every page, along with a "checkbox" that specifies where the note should be filed (email, OneNote, EverNote, etc). It also does OCR, and supports sending my sometimes illegible handwriting as a PDF along with the OCR attempt.
[1] https://cryptomator.org/ https://cryptomator.org/
[2] https://getrocketbook.com/ https://getrocketbook.com/
- dSebastien 5y agoOP here. Thanks for sharing some ideas! Over time I also reduced my time investment in all this. As years pass, we realize more and more clearly that our time is limited :) Regarding note taking and your issue with having a single source of truth, you might be interested in the ideas I've shared on Reddit a few days ago [1] [1]: https://www.reddit.com/r/PersonalKnowledgeMgmt/comments/tugn7y/how_to_manage_simmilar_notes_scattered_around_on/ https://www.reddit.com/r/PersonalKnowledgeMgmt/comments/tugn...
- 8fingerlouie 5y agoThanks, i'll give it a look :) My current method is simply having multiple RocketBooks "scattered" across the places where i'm likely to use one. One at my work desk, one at my home office desk, and one in my computer bag for taking notes "on the go". I much prefer taking notes with pen and paper, and the RocketBook elegantly solves the digital filing for me. Now if only it would integrate into Apple Notes, i would be happy :) Again, like with the other tools i use, i don't need "bells and whistles", and will happily settle for a built in solution that is "good enough" as long as i can search it with ease.
- mojzu 5y agoThanks for the Cryptomator recommendation I've been looking for something that can encrypt cloud backups more easily than uploading encrypted 7z files. Not sure whether it would work for your use case since it doesn't support handwritten notes, but I've been using Notion as a cross-platform notes app and found it works well
- 8fingerlouie 5y agoI don't use Cryptomator for backups, i use it for encrypting and accessing my data in the cloud. For Cloud backups i use Arq (https://www.arqbackup.com/ https://www.arqbackup.com/). It supports A LOT of different cloud providers, and does proper versioned, deduplicated backups. Another great looking (but not yet stable!) option would be Kopia (https://kopia.io/ https://kopia.io/) which is open source, and does much of the same stuff as Arq, and even supports deduplication across multiple backup sources. Duplicacy (https://duplicacy.com/ https://duplicacy.com/) does as well, but i've not used it much.