I'm preparing for an upcoming workshop on Personal Knowledge Management. Both of my desktops, digital and physical, are covered with stacks of papers on various topics. I have digital versions of most of the printed papers, too. If I don't, I scan them in as searchable PDFs. All of these, I organize in a computer folder hierarchy according to an ever-evolving taxonomy.

Over the years, I have used and experimented with a variety of software applications to manage my stuff. I've explore applications from Adobe Acrobat to Zotero (a useful FireFox plug-in) and many in between, including two of my favorites: Lotus Notes and Personal Brain. I've also worked with a number of home-grown systems. Some of these I have scrapped, while others are still around. Every so often, usually when I am doing research or preparing to give a talk, I like to see what new or proven tools and methods are out there for self organization.

At the enterprise level, there are a multitude of content management systems competing for market share. At the personal level there are many tools that solve specific problems but few that appear to approach the problem of personal content management from a wholistic perspective of the knowledge worker. Perhaps one of the closest I've seen is The Brain.

I'm curious to know what tools or methods you use personally to organize your files, specifically, your documents on your computer so that you can organize and retrieve your information quickly.

Do you have a favorite information organization tool or system, or is your file system more organic?

Discussion/Comments (2):

Peter Monbailleu (http://www.shakalaka.be): 11/10/2008 12:15:40 PM
What Are Your Favorite Personal Content Management Tools?

Hi,

I agree that Personal Brain is probably the best 'life project management tool' around. I'm combining it with vertical archiving, but I try to limit the number of files on archive. It's working really well. Apart from Dave Allen's tools, there is also (a


Peter Monbailleu (http://www.shakalaka.be): 11/10/2008 12:43:30 PM
What Are Your Favorite Personal Content Management Tools?

did I hit the ENTER button there??? Sorry... I was saying... There is also (especially for the Belgian and Dutch users) Aries Filing System at a fraction of Dave's prices...


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