# Howcome Johnny is disorganised?

> I'm the guy telling you how to be organised. And yesterday I confessed that I wasn't organised. What's going on?

> 13/31 daily posts as part of [WeblogPoMo2024](https://weblog.anniegreens.lol/weblog-posting-month-2024). Expect (and forgive) more words and less editing.

[Yesterday](/22.00.0043/) I repeated something that I [first said](/22.00.0023/) at the start of the year: **some of my own systems are disorganised.**

So here I am, this guy with a site and a blog, and my stuff's a mess. Seems odd. Why should you trust anything I say?

## I didn't take my own advice

The simplest explanation is that, in this instance, I didn't take my own advice.

I quit my job [a year ago](/22.00.0036/) and that's when this system, `D85 Johnny.Decimal business`, started.

I didn't really know what I was doing; there was no plan for the business. I just quit one day! So I knocked something together out of necessity, as I went. The system just evolved.

And, to be clear, it's not a _bad_ system. It works. We're here, working, and we can find things. I just know that it can be a lot better.

## I hadn't _written_ my own advice

It would have been hard to follow the step-by-step procedures that I outline in the [workbook](/jdu/workbook) because I hadn't written it yet!

So that's not a bad excuse.

## Also, working it out is instructive

I don't pretend to have a perfect solution to all of this. My thoughts are evolving; the Johnny.Decimal system evolves; and the very nature of the work that we do evolves.

I'm just listening to [Cal Newport's latest podcast](https://pod.link/1515786216/episode/635a72aae3bc3da46db0b23cf13196f5). He's giving a rundown of the state of productivity advice since the '90s.

There's the 'sage advice and optimism' era of [Stephen Covey](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_7_Habits_of_Highly_Effective_People), then the 'productivity [pr0n](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leet#Pr0n)' era, defined by David Allen's _[Getting Things Done](https://gettingthingsdone.com/what-is-gtd/)®_ and Merlin Mann's site _[43 Folders](http://www.43folders.com)_.

Then in the late 2000s we got sick of working so much and we move in to the era of 'lifestyle design', defined by Tim Ferris' _[The 4-hour Workweek](https://fourhourworkweek.com)._

And that's where I'm up to. The point is, this stuff shifts. Whether it needs to or not, who knows. Is it all a fad? To some extent. Is it generational? Probably a bit of that.

So I'm trying to think about the _type of system_ that I want Johnny.Decimal to be. I don't actually see myself as a 'PKM' nerd. I'd like to help normal people – who have no idea what that acronym means and don't care – to be more organised.

Because we have no option these days. In the late 2000s you could plausibly get by without using a computer all day. Then they invented the iPhone and everything changed.

So now you _have to_ use a computer, for essentially everything, whether you want to or not. I'd like to find a way to navigate that fact without burdening the world with yet more procedures; without it having to be your hobby.

Most people don't have a deep passion for knowledge management. They just want to know where they saved that receipt when the thing breaks.

Anyway. A work in progress.