Twin boys. Toddler daughter. Hospital Tech Support. Writer. Runner. Gamer. Creating in public again.*

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Organizing

Rose and Her Backpack

I guess my packing skills have rubbed off on Rose. At three years old, she loves packing her backpack, for pretend or when going somewhere. She spent the last two days prepping her backpack for today’s visit to her cousin’s house. Her bag was ready before she knew for sure she was even going there. The anticipation was unmatched.

I had to pull seven of the ten books out to help her, because she told me that bringing a second backpack would solve the problem. And even though it was too heavy for her, she said I could carry it in to help. That’s when I started recommending things she might not need.

A few other things she has: a water bottle on one side, and a cup on the other. A second pair of shoes, a few stuffed animals. Her glasses, and her Switch. Packed all by herself.

Proud dad moment.

A Simple Folder Structure

I spent some time cleaning up folders during this rare snow day we had today. To organize these folders, I’m using the PARA Method.

PARA has four main folders:

  • Projects
  • Areas
  • Resources
  • Archive

I made a folder today named “1.21.25 - Archive” and dragged any loose files I saw lying around into that dated archive folder. After, I moved “1.21.25 - Archive” into the main Archive folder. From there, I started grabbing anything related to my album and moved into the Nomad folder in Projects.

Here’s a glimpse of the folder structure for my new album. While organizing, I learned that I had 116 drafts/ideas already recorded.

Get in touch if you want to hear a few drafts. I’m open to feedback as I build out this album’s story.

Don’t Use Bookmarks

I was recently asked about how I manage bookmarks. My answer was simple: I don’t. My only bookmarks are the four that I visit throughout the week (my site, my newsletter, check-in at church for the kids, and my work schedule). I don’t believe bookmarks are very useful. It’s a place that can easily get filled up with outdated links.

Instead of using bookmarks, I make decisions on each link that I might need later. If it’s something actionable (to purchase or write about), I send it to Things (you might use Reminders), knowing that I’ll be checking off that task soon. If it’s something I plan on reading later, I send it to Safari’s Reading List.

If it’s something I want to reference in the future, I add it to Apple Journal with a quick note about why it’s important. I’ll find it again by searching for one of the words in that quick note.

If it’s a Youtube video, I add it to YouTube’s Watch Later feature. Not as a list to complete, but just a filter to get back to interesting videos.

For each day’s headlines, I use Reeder, an upcoming app from Silvio Rizzi. I scroll through the latest feeds and send the ones that I want to find again into the “Later” bucket. This gives me a filtered list of all the links I found interesting.

Mela is another app from Silvio Rizzi, that my wife Olivia uses throughout the week, for recipes. Find a recipe, add it to Mela, uncheck the groceries you already have, and then add the rest to your Apple Reminder’s Grocery List. When it’s time to cook, press “Cook” and get simple step-by-step instructions.

The Writing Process

The Writing Process is where all of my writing starts. It’s a single folder with three filters inside of it.

  • Ideas
  • Drafts
  • Review

Ideas follows two simple conditions: modified in the last month, doesn’t have headers. Ideas are usually just a bunch of thoughts without any structure.

Drafts follows two simple conditions: modified in the last month, has headers. Ideas become drafts when they start having headers and gaining structure.

Review follows one simple condition: hasn’t been touched in over a month. This allows me to see what’s fallen through the cracks. If I haven’t edited a note in over a month, it’ll end up here for me to decide on (make more edits, or just delete it).

My Ulysses Setup

I’ve spent the last few weeks restructuring my Ulysses setup. I needed something that was clean and simple, but also has the power for each project that I have planned for the new year. This is where I landed.

“Projects” is the first section to focus on. This is where I separate all the big areas. “Blogs” is an archive of all my old blogs that I’ll reference in the future. Book is where write my new book. Learning is where I type church notes, book notes, and add quotes. Poetry is for my lyrics. It’s where I build out new albums and reference old ones for upcoming poetry books.

Next is the main section. This is where I spend most of my time. At the top, The Writing Process is where my ideas start. Each idea goes through three filters (Ideas, Drafts, Review) until being ready for the world. At the bottom is the Resources folder. It’s where the photos, systems, and templates live. I consider it the engine for Morning Coffee.

In the middle is Morning Coffee. This is where I build out my newsletters. I bring over a template from the Resources folder, and then fill in the holes until I get to the word count. The word count has a little circle on the right side of the folder title that slowly fills up and turns green when complete.

The last section is the external folder, where my actual website lives. Thanks to Blot and Dropbox, I can drag the newsletter down into the nashp.com folder and it’s instantly published.

One App, One Job

I’m constantly studying new apps and systems. I keep thinking there’s a perfect app that can handle every single area of my life. I’m slowly learning that that’s the wrong way of thinking, and I should embrace the power of multiple apps.

Instead of each area of my life separated by folders in the same app, that separation is now in a completely different app. This is allowing me to be more nimble with my thinking and organizing. Now, when I notice that one app is handling multiple jobs, I’m brainstorming on what different app, that doesn’t have a job yet, could handle that workload.

I’m still early in my thinking with this, and I’ll probably expand on this better down the road, but I figured I’d share what I have now anyway.

  • Ulysses: Blog/Newsletter
  • Apple Notes: Family notes
  • Blog code: GitHub
  • Sofa: Consumption lists
  • Notion: Bills/Subscriptions
  • Fantastical: Personal, family, and work calendar
  • Up Ahead: Release dates/events
  • Matter: Reading list
  • Things: Task manager
  • Roam Research: New studio albums

Notion

Another week, another update on organizing data. I’ve been studying Notion, learning how to build databases, and I’ve went to the extreme and started adding every aspect of my life in here. This is allowing me to learn how to build a database for a variety of situations. Everything from clients, bills, shows I’m watching, progress on games, writing queue, and even the things I own. I’m learning that there’s not much that doesn’t fit in a table.

Workflow Problems

From making this video, to running out of storage on the MacBook Air, the ugly side of this new photography business, is the admin side. The management of all these RAW and 4K files. I had the best devices for writing, but writing doesn’t deal with large files. It’s been an interesting challenge to squeeze into every ounce of space on these computers. I’m now brainstorming on what Macs or workflows to use to fix these problems going forward.

Organizing Photos

My photos app is getting out of hand. I’m taking more pictures than ever, but I rarely get around to cleaning up the ones I don’t want. This constantly leaves me with thousands of junk photos.

I have a new two-step plan to change this:

  1. This is your month — My photos date back many years now, so the plan is to focus on the month at hand. In the photos app, there’s a search button: type in the current month, and every photo ever taken in that specific month will show up. That’s the focus. That way, even if I happen to not get around to it during a busy month, eventually, that month will come back around, and I’ll clean it up next time around. 12 months, 12 jobs: clean up your month.
  2. Favorite, delete, unfavorite — Once I search for the current month, I’ll go through every photo that was taken in the month and favorite any photo that I don’t want to disappear after this process. After favoriting everything, I’ll delete anything that doesn’t have a heart next to it. Afterwards, unfavorite everything.

This two step process seems like a good workflow that’s sustainable for the long run.