Johnny Decimal for the files, Zettelkasten for the thoughts

Every organisation system dies the same death: you stop trusting it, so you stop filing into it, so it rots, which proves you were right not to trust it. Mine has survived a few years now, and the reason is that it is actually two systems with a clear division of labour. Johnny Decimal answers “where does this file go?” and Zettelkasten answers “where does this thought go?”. Neither is asked to do the other’s job.