I was in the process of trying to organize my hard drive materials when this challenge arrived in my inbox so I eagerly joined. My biggest issues is that I have a ton of pdf materials from drivethru rpg and dms guild that defaults its organizing by company name which isn't helpful in finding specific things. So I have started dumping it into piles like you suggested but I was hoping to go further and create a database like adventure lookup where I could do queries to find specific things. However, after hearing your story at the start of the day 1 video I am wondering if that is too much. I know it would be a lot of work but just wondering if the time sink would be worth it to actually have a sense of what I truly have to work with. Thoughts?
Hey Christian,
Yeah, the DTRPG app provides a challenge in organization, especially if you have a lot of stuff with them.
Pile and File works for me with this, as I have more sources than DTRPG that delivers files. So I have space on a cloud drive for it all, and I use piles to quickly slot stuff into.
Then I use search to find anything specific if filename skimming doesn't work.
On Windows, I use Total Commander for additional search options. The dual panes make it much easier to manage files on my hard drive as well.
https://www.ghisler.com
I would think about a couple of things for this project:
- How much effort and time will it take to reach the point you describe?
- What will the experience of your future self be like when you need to add more files? Quick and done? Or cumbersome and left undone?
- What value do you get with that level of organization? What are your wins?
Sometimes it's worth going through every piece and part to reacquaint ye ol' noggin of what you've got. You might also be culling. So there are times when a meticulous sorting is worth the time.
A great concern though, is always Cthulhu. Will entropy degrade the system over time resulting in the need for maintenance or periodic rebuilds?