Comment by emacsen
1 day ago
I'm in my mid-40s and have severe ADHD and I've tried many many techniques and systems over the years. Over the last ~15 years I've come to evolve a set of systems that work for me.
I'm starting (in my "ample free time") to document them and in a series blog posts help people find systems that will work for them. My experience is that the best systems are the ones that have five characteristics:
1. They're simple
No complex patterns, no "we'll solve everything"
2. They require little or no task switching in the middle
This breaks my ADHD concentration.
3. They're forgiving if you fall off the wagon
You will always have bad days and need to restart. The system must make it easy.
4. The system must be very general, maybe even "too simple" but easy to customize.
There is a natural desire, especially in ADHD people, to over complicate, so the system must allow you to be as simple as possible, but then let you customize later.
5. They don't require any specialized tool (especially not an online tool). No system should be invariably tied to a specific piece of software or hardware. These may be excellent augmentations, but they should never be requirements.
Am I an "organized" person? No, but I'm far better organized than I was. Tasks rarely get missed now. I'm far more productive than I was (and I have stats to back up my assertion). I can almost always retrieve documents I need relatively quickly.
These systems won't change who you are, but they will assist you in being better at being who you are.
Your principles mirror my own, which have been developed and refined over the last ten years (I'm 34 now). There have been periods of overcomplicating things, but they've mostly reached a natural state that works for me.
Maybe interesting is the evolution of my system:
• 2015 and prior: Sticky notes, calendars, notebooks, sheets of paper, chaos
• 2016-2019: I found the bullet journal method and implemented the most basic form found here: https://bulletjournal.com/blogs/faq (collections, future log, monthly log, daily log) and never really evolved from that utilitarian mode.
• 2019-2025: I signed up for Notion and ported my bullet journal system there. I miss the physical version, but prefer the easy access and easy editing in the online version. In addition to Notion, I heavily use Google Calendar, and also Google Keep as a quicker-access and catch-all of smaller notes. I use Notion for life admin and Obsidian for work notes and files.
OP's Johnny.Decimal system caught my attention since I've been interested in a consistent and proven way to organize the files on my laptop, SSDs, Drive, as well as all my physical docs. I could also see it being a nice way to organize my Notion and Obsidian, but I also tend to rely on search and backlinking as others have commented about for their own systems.
I think these systems like Obsidian are great for notes.
PARA also (and for me primarily) helps with things like documents I get from other places which I then scan in.
Yes, I could probably use a specialized program for this, but this way it's all just files.
This is centered around PARA and free for now. Would love your feedback!
https://thoughtscape.app/
1 reply →
I just wrote a sibling comment echoing essentially the same philosophy, although you've elucidated the principles in more detail. As I wrote, my system is basically use a paper filing system (don't overthink it, just alphabetically ordered, labeled manila files), Google Calendar, Google Drive, and Obsidian on my phone for miscellaneous note-taking.
I'm eager to learn more about your systems. Where's your blog?
My blog is at https://blog.emacsen.net but I haven't written much.
The problem I have is that writing the why is harder than the what.
For example, I use a modified Cycle System, but some of my modifications are around how many tasks I do a day, and how I categorize which tasks I do.
As an example, understanding task limits and why you should use them is important. As I write out my thoughts about them, it feels boring.
Then I put the blog down and don't pick it up again. Maybe I should do it anyway.
I would love to read a continuation of this blog. I don't have an ADHD diagnose or even a suspicion of one but these problems of organizing everyone has. It's just easier or harder to get to grips with them. We need more different views of how minds work so we can find the one that resonates. Short posts that solve one problem is perfect so one can get one step in the right direction at a time.
I implemented Johnny Decimal about 5 years ago in Google Drive. The cool thing about it is it's just always there. It's pretty much set and forget it.
I'll forget about it (because ADHD?) and when I open up drive, there it is! :). And I'll use it.
It's a small investment upfront.
May I ask your blog URL ? Or add it in your profile :)
https://blog.emacsen.net
> They're forgiving if you fall off the wagon
Some (not all) of my personal systems are unforgiving in this regard.
Thank you for pointing out this "Best Practice" explicitly!