The title really says it all, but I can say it again.
This program utilizes different levels of organization. At the present time I observe:
- Account
- Stack
- Notebook
- Note
- Text
There can be various items within each level and in hierarchal relationships. (Cf. tags).
- Within each level, how many items in how many hierarchies, and what is their content?
For most items, the content is also their name.
This problem is raised within a range of history, which I can describe to describe some context:
Within a single account, based on my primary email, I have experienced a few periods of my life wherein I have made some sort of continuous use of Evernote. Each time I have created a new stack to hold my content, and have never actively used more than the single stack. As I write now, there exist three stacks, two of which are from previous uses of Evernote. Both of those exist effectively as archives, insofar as their content has remained unchanged for an extended period, and to which I have no plans at present to edit.
There is no rule that there should be a single item at any level. Not even a single account. But there are practical arguments for limiting myself to a single account.
Instead of looking top-down, there are benefits to looking bottom-up in trying to decide on the quantity and nature of hierarchies. I need to consider what text I want to delineate by notes. What notes delineated by notebooks. What notebooks delineated by stacks. I can also choose whether there is any need to think about having more than a single stack. That particular question is inspired by the observation that I have never actively made use of more than one stack.
Looking at the problem from the top and from the bottom:
I know that both views are valuable. I know that right now as I think about it. My mind bounces back and forth between these two views, and there is some intention that I might eventually unify these oscillations.
Looking from the bottom feels to favour perception of content. While looking from the top feels to favour organization.
Making a choice like, “I should have a single stack,” is ultimately very restrictive. It is easy to imagine that a single notebook could be expanded into a stack, and that I add a lot of flexibility in doing so. Thus I form a principle, which is that I do not want to inherently limit myself. From the other end of things, and based on the piecemeal manner of content creation, I know that use of Endnote is an organic process, and that is a fact that can be respected as I consider organization. I can use these two principles to generate a two-pronged solution.
- I will use Endnote as I need to at every moment.
- I will allow content to grow up and spread as it needs to at every moment.
Thus I am left without any hard numbers. But I have an ethos which after consideration, is much better.
I even know what to do with the related issue of pre-existing content within this account: Leave it in its archival form because right now that is what it is best served as being. In addition, I know that this status might change in the future, if a change is a preferable solution.
