Focus Folders

Folders can provide focus for a group of related notes on a certain topic because they are located together.

Maps over folders

However, it's always better to use a map for this purpose because the notes could be located anywhere and you can provide additional context and structure for the links that can't be done with folders.

The main difference is that notes within a folder can only be located there since a note file can't exist in multiple folders. On the other hand, with a map, any note can appear in many maps so there's so much more flexibility.

Kinds of focus

Currently, I have several different kinds of focus folders:

• App folders
• Topic folders
• Ad hoc folders

I'm considering whether some additional kinds of focus folders would be useful:

• Effort folders
• Project folders
• Output folders
• Package folders

More folders

Also, I have folders in many other places in my PKM environment.

• Arc browser folders: Group tabs with web links together in the Arc sidebar.
• Shortcut folders: Groups of related shortcuts for key ACE and ARC topics.
• OmniFocus folders: I use ACE folders to organize efforts, projects, lists, and perspectives (views).
• DEVONthink folders: I have a similar ACE organization in DEVONthink databases, where they are called groups.
• Finder folders: I also use the ACE framework in my macOS file system. This consistency with Obsidian structure helps with Hookmark file links.

Summary

Although this seems like I might be using folders too much, I think it's appropriate when they have a specific purpose as reflected by their adjectives.

It's interesting that while deconstructing and simplifying my existing folder structure, I discovered that there were actually specific use cases where using folders with a purpose made a lot of sense and I started creating them in context.