Organization, filing systems, archiving and retrieving information

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around creating effective filing systems for organizing academic materials, including course notes, textbook notes, and homework archives. Participants share their current methods and seek advice on improving their organization to enhance retrieval and review of information.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Technical explanation
  • Conceptual clarification
  • Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • One participant expresses a need for a robust filing system to manage various types of academic paperwork, indicating current disorganization and loss of materials.
  • Another participant suggests a software solution, referencing FileMaker as a potential tool for organization.
  • A different participant mentions using binders for each course and lab section, noting a personal system that works despite appearing disorganized to others.
  • Another contributor shares their improvement in organization, utilizing binders, separators, and file folders, but considers further enhancements.
  • One participant proposes creating a system plan with numbered pages, contents, and an index, suggesting a dual set of files for better organization.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants share various personal organization methods, but no consensus on a single effective system emerges. Multiple competing views on filing strategies remain present.

Contextual Notes

Some participants express uncertainty about the effectiveness of their current systems and the need for improvement, highlighting the subjective nature of organization methods.

Who May Find This Useful

Students and individuals seeking to enhance their organizational skills for academic materials may find the shared experiences and suggestions relevant.

subodei
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I'm trying to build myself a very robust and effective filing system so that I can process all the paperwork I generate and not lose it.

This would include:

- Course notes
- Textbook notes
- Generalized notes about subjects
- Various subjects such as E&M, QM, etc, and also "hybrid" topics which may be hard to place
- Test archive
- Homework archive

Basically I want to file everything effectively so I can retrieve it and review it and not lose it, and also so I can get junk papers out of the way quickly to work on something new. I'm looking for a system that would basically be a foundation for a life-long filing system.

Currently I just use a filing cabinet with sections for different subjects that is very disorganized and poorly implemented. Most of the stuff I write gets lost or wrecked, or is buried so deep it's not worth it to even dig it out. I go through a LOT of paper.

I'm wondering if anyone here has some kind of cool system that they'd like to share, or could refer me to a place that might have information on this kind of thing. I'm looking for something targetted at people in school specifically and working with academic disciplines.

I'd really be interested to hear about how you guys all organize your paper, to get ideas. :) So please share!
 
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I usually just stick everything in binders, one for each course. One for each lab section. I'm not that organized to an outside observer, but I know where everything is somehow. I have to start using notebooks for notes so they don't end up everywhere. As for homework... that ends up everywhere in between. haha wait, don't take any advice from me... :p
 
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I'm doing pretty good with my organizing.

I use to be crap, but now I can easily find everything.

I was thinking of going further and having a file cabinet, etc..., but no need for that.

I use, binders, separators for the binders, and file folders.
 
just make up a system plan ,and then do it...diffirent files, numbered pages and contents and index ,2 sets 1 away from ur work and 1 attached to it.
 

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