Awesome
Hamster system
Boost productivity and reduce stress by organizing your documents, workflow and personal budget with an ultra-simple system loosely inspired in GTD, Todo.txt, OBTF (One Big Text File), Bullet journal (notes on paper), spreadsheets, index cards, inbox zero and desktop zero.
So, how can you start?
- hamster folder: organize your (digital) documents
- hamster flow: organize your workflow
- hamster budget: organize your money
- TLDR - what does this stuff solve?
Hamster folder - organize your documents
'Every document belongs to a project'.
Container
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root folder: YOUR NAME
First of all create a folder in a partition of your disk. ALL your stuff will be stored here.
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main folders: PROJECT STATUS
Inside your root folder there are 2 folders: INBOX (folder to store your active projects) ARCHIVE (folder to store your inactive projects - often organized in collections)
Project folders
[collection] #project @subproject -folders
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collection: [ ]
Inside ARCHIVE folder you put [collection] folders: e.g: [large investor]
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project (derived from twitter hashtag): #
Inside INBOX, ARCHIVE or [collection] folders you put #project folders: e.g: #house in portugal
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subproject (derived from twitter mention): @
Inside #project folders you put @subproject folders: e.g: @building permit
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storage folder 1: -
Inside @subprojects you put -storage folders: e.g: -drawings
And be pragmatic:
When reasonable reduce unnecessary nesting by merging folders:
Prefer: #project@onlyOneSubproject
Instead of: #project / @onlyOneSubproject
Prefix for temporary folders: _
e.g: _standby
Folders to keep old versions of files: +
e.g: -plans / +
File naming
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use a system that fits your needs2. Some hints:
Prefix for template / boilerplate files: $ e.g: $curriculum
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version files by using a modification date suffix3: Calendar Versioning
e.g: yourfile+20211018
Navigation
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you only need one permanent desktop shortcut to navigate through your documents:
Shortcut to INBOX folder A shortcut to ARCHIVE is optional - only inactive projects are there.
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and/or a launcher-file finder4.
Hamster flow - organize your workflow
'Manage a collection of inputs'.
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One text file5 and a paper notebook collect all inputs:
- actionable inputs (Tasks) are managed in the paper notebook. Non-urgent tasks eventually move to the Calendar section of the text file6.
- non-actionable inputs are managed in the (markdown) text file. Hints:
- One long file is easier to manage than many short files.7 See it as a flat wiki and use built-in search for navigation.
- This file is not write-only: progressively summarize and tree-shake it each time you iterate your notes. You'll leverage your excitement instead of forcing discipline.
- Ideally, notes are organized by project, not by category. It can be a catalyst for action and reviews.
- Only store things that surprise you, not stuff you already know.
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Tasks listed in the Calendar section of the text file have a due date: [ ]
Dates are inserted before the task description (allowing chronological sorting): e.g. inserting a scheduled date: [year-month-day=hour] [2021-11-29=9h] Doctor appointment e.g. inserting a trigger/fuzzy date: [date >>] [2021-10-10 >>] Waiting for client feedback after this date e.g. inserting a deadline date: [date <<] [2021-10-22 <<] Pay electricity bill until this date e.g. without knowing the due date: [soon] or [someday] [soon] Call Mom [someday] Bungee jumping with friends
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Resuming (check also screenshots):
on a paper notebook: Tasks (collection of tasks to be done ASAP) on a text file with 2 sections: Calendar (collection of tasks that can/must wait) Notes (collection of thoughts and bookmarks)
Screenshots
- Calendar section on Sublime text editor.8
- Easy text-editor navigation with markdown (adaptable to YAML for data serialization).
Hamster budget - organize your money
'You may not need a personal budget'.
Does it worth to spend cognitive bandwidth to know that last month I spent €321,83 on groceries? I already know that I spend around €300. What I crave is to feel in control of my finances.
How to do it in a practical way? Track your net worth in a spreadsheet:
- List all your assets (cash, stocks, bonds, crypto, real estate, whatever) and sum them. List and sum your liabilities (if relevant). Every case is a case so you must build your own spreadsheet.
- When your net worth is too risky for your personality get more tight.
- When you feel confortable with your number you can loosen up a bit.
- I used to track it every month. I've loosen up to every quarter and eventually to semiannual.9
TLDR:
What does this stuff solve?
Complicated systems always fail on the long-term. Hamster-system aims to be simple and practical.
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Hamster folder (organize your documents)
- Transmission of projects with a predictable structure.
- Prediction (with acceptable accuracy) of filenames and their location. A file finder is great when you remember the filename but less useful when you don't.
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Hamster flow (organize your workflow)
- Mix the good parts of many workflow management approaches using your favorite text editor, cloud and a paper notebook. Markdown - if necessary - can be adapted into formats like YAML to facilitate data exchange and serialization.
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Hamster budget (organize your money)
- Feel in control of your finances spending a couple of hours every quarter. Minimum overhead.
Possible painpoint?
This system doesn't have specialized apps nor I plan to add any. However, it is platform agnostic so you can easily adapt it to meet your needs.
Is this the truth?
Probably not but I test new options and tree shake existent ones agressively.10
<a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/"><img alt="Creative Commons License" style="border-width:0" src="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-sa/4.0/88x31.png" /></a><br /><span xmlns:dct="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" property="dct:title">Hamster-System</span> by Enio Ferreira is licensed under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License</a>.
Footnotes
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This is the deepest level you'll get. It's enough and keeps it simple. ↩
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e.g: relevant naming system for architects. I use a great free tool for batch renaming. ↩
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After a long trial, Semver and then "builds" were deprecated. "Modification dates", aka Calendar versioning (CalVer) are simpler. ↩
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After having tried most options for Windows (win+type, Keypirinha, Everything, Cerebro, Wox, Zazu, Launchy, FARR), I'm using Listary. Pros: Launch and file search without external software, low memory usage (less than 40Mb on win7), fast and configurable. Cons: No calculator function. ↩
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Hosted in a cloud (Google Drive, Dropbox, etc) if possible. ↩
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A full featured calendar (Google calendar, Apple calendar, etc) may pay off in "busy" lifestyles. ↩
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Try to keep it under 2K lines. If you can't, it may mean some excerpts should live independently or even in a more suitable format (e.g. spreadsheet or public notes). ↩
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Hint: on Sublime press F9 (or F5 on Mac) to sort dates. ↩
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I will stop here. Longer timeframes imply too delayed signals. ↩
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Org-mode, «wiki notes» (Roam, Foam, Obsidian), Johnny-decimal, (...) ↩