January 15, 2024

Johnny.Decimal 2024 update [D01.21.02.004]

A few days ago I declared organisational bankruptcy. My life is a mess, and I’m going to start again.

How did it get this way? The same way you go bankrupt for real: gradually, then suddenly.¹ Calling my life ‘a mess’ is probably an over-statement, but if I’m going to be Johnny.Decimal full-time I should be a shining beacon of organisational purity. That, I am not.

Take comfort from this. This shows you how hard it is to be organised: it’s not just you.

I realised last year that the sheer volume of stuff that we manage digitally has grown exponentially in the last decade. It used to be that you had a folder of ‘My Documents’ and an email account that got a handful of stuff a week and that was it.

As I write about in one of the linked blog posts (below), I can now count dozens of systems of information that make up my life. Each likely contains hundreds if not thousands of pieces of data or knowledge.

Organising knowledge used to be a profession; you were given training. Today, we manage orders of magnitude more information with essentially no training or tools. (I explored this idea in a series of short videos last year.²)

This is just digital life in 2024. It’s overwhelming.

So I’ve hit the reset button, as has my partner Lucy. Here’s the plan for 2024.

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Lucy’s life

Lucy has started organising her life by executing the Workbook.³

She edited the Workbook, but actually doesn’t have a lot of hands-on experience with Johnny.Decimal. Mostly she puts up with me telling her she’s filed something the wrong way.

This makes her an ideal student; the ideal subject of a training course. And so we will carefully document Lucy’s journey and release the Johnny.Decimal Workshop in the next few months.

Our hope is that Lucy can represent you: her problems are your problems, her questions yours. When we do this, we don’t discuss anything off-camera. Everything Lucy learns, she learns in the course.⁴

I’ll mail you again when this is released. It will be a paid video course that includes the Workbook. If you’ve already bought the Workbook, there’ll be a very healthy discount.

Johnny’s life

Meanwhile I’m going to be much more ad-hoc and open. I’ve started organising, and everything will be on the blog. I won’t repeat myself: check out the articles on the site.

1. Johnny.Decimal’ing Johnny.Decimal. https://johnnydecimal.com/20-29-communication/22-blog/22.00.0023-johnnydecimal-johnnydecimal/
2. Starting the JD’ing process. https://johnnydecimal.com/20-29-communication/22-blog/22.00.0024-starting-the-jd-process/
3. Systems, data, and knowledge. https://johnnydecimal.com/20-29-communication/22-blog/22.00.0025-systems-data-knowledge/

As you’re on the ‘send me everything’ list, I’ll mail you periodic updates about this project. But there won’t be much that isn’t in a blog post, so that’s your best bet if you want to follow along.⁵

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Last year was amazing. I quit my job! This is literally my life’s dream; it’s still hard to believe. This is how we make our living, and for that, Lucy and I are eternally grateful. Thank you.

We do this by selling stuff, for money, which makes me a touch uncomfortable. It’s just not in my nature to be a salesman. My hope is that the things we make are honest, useful, and reasonably priced.

I am entirely driven by your feedback. I listen to everything, and I’m here to help. So, please, if there’s ever anything that you need, tell me directly (just reply), or jump on the forum, Discord, or Mastodon. ⁶

j.

Johnny ‘Decimal’ Noble Canberra, Australia

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Footnotes