Noguchi Filing System (Chou Seiri Hou) - abandon all classification except chronological

Filing is a never-ending task with paper documents. Here is a novel approach. From Linking Chan/Seon/Zen Figures and Their Texts: Problems and Developments in the Construction of a Relational Database by Michel Mohr in the Journal of Digital Information v3n2.

3.4 Classify or Not? Parallel Treatment of Analog and Digital Information

Researchers often spend far more time collecting and storing information than they do analyzing it and using it to formulate new hypotheses. In the humanities, figures indicate that as much as 80 percent of our time is dedicated to mechanical tasks, among these the classification of documents. Noguchi Yukio 野口悠紀雄 argues that for the individual researcher, classification is an endless and fruitless task (1993, 1995, 1999, 2000), and proposes that library-type classification by subject be discarded in favor of chronological ordering (that is, ordering on the basis of what document has last been used). His method basically involves putting all material into A4 envelopes and placing the most recently used envelope at the end of the row. Having applied it to my own work for the past two years I am completely free of the "lost child syndrome" ("Now where did I put that piece of paper!").

Noguchi's ideas are largely inspired by discoveries related to the use of computers. He argues that although we have entered the age of digital information, our thinking is still largely conditioned by habits inherited from our long dependence on paper. We have been led by force of habit to believe that if information is not properly labeled or classified then it will be impossible to find when needed. Noguchi shows, however, that this is not necessarily the case.

Nevertheless, when building a database there seems to be no way to avoid using fields, which amounts to classifying. Similarly, the entire process of tagging, be it in SGML or XML formats, involves labeling items of knowledge, often for commercial purposes. The digitization of data in itself does not necessitate classifying, but the use of database applications compels it to a certain extent. Categories, even the most sophisticated ones, once used necessarily reflect the limits of our vocabulary and conceptual horizon.

Studying the history of religions implies the willingness to take on the viewpoint of the object of study. When the objects of study are Chan/Seon/Zen figures, this may sometimes demand that we, like Zen monks, impose silence upon our discursive minds and employ our more holistic abilities in order to grasp relationships which are difficult to codify. This should not be misconstrued as a negation of rational ways of thinking, but as an augmentation of them. In Buddhism, after all, the logic of equality precedes the logic of differentiation without invalidating it.

This mimics many people's email filing techniques of just using an inbox to keep documents sorted - Google's GMAIL famously dispenses with any need to file things directly if you don't want to.

European Patent EP 1001354 references this technique and Noguchi's book "Chou Seiri Hou (Ultra Management Technique)".

Thanks to Lindsay Marshall for pushing me down this particular path, which can also be seen in the much-cited Noguchi Filing System paper by translator William Lise.

For comic relief, my new filing technique is unstoppable.

For more on a Noguchi approach to filing for electronic documents, see Jeff Porten's "Getting Things Done with your Macintosh" series on TidBits (issue 840).

One of the Noguchi books is available (in Japanese) from Amazon.co.jp. Thanks to Eric Sinclair for helping me track this one down.

Technorati Tags: filing, findability, gtd, lifehacks, noguchi, search, seiri

Comments

[JoshD]

Huh.

I just finished taking notes on the Noguchi filing system, like 20 minutes ago, and this shows up in my feedreader. Hooray, synchronicity.

[Edward Vielmetti]

hardly synchronicity Josh - this is a finely crafted plan.

I have been clipping notes for a new blog "electronic paper" at http://vielmetti.typepad.com/electronicpaper - it's mostly clips with a few comments (vs. the mostly original opinion here). The Noguchi system fits perfectly in that mindset.

[dan cooney]

This Noguchi Filing System is cool.

I heard of similar, digital work when I was in school. I first read about it in the Card, Mackinlay, Shneiderman book: Readings in Information Visualization (a great book, now a little outdated, but the essentials are well explored). the book mentions this paper:

Lifestreams: Organizing your Electronic Life (1995)
Eric Freeman, Scott Fertig
http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/freeman95lifestreams.html

The Lifestreams homepage: http://www.cs.yale.edu/homes/freeman/lifestreams.html

also google image search "lifestreams" for examples: http://images.google.com/images?q=lifestreams

Though the origins of the lifestreams idea is stated as: "Lifestreams had its beginnings in David Gelernter's "chronicle streams" (in his book Mirror Worlds) and was first described as a structure for managing personal electronic information in his Washington Post article 'The cyber-road not taken' "

...I wonder where Gelernter got the idea from... looks like his Mirror Worlds book was first published in 1991...
Wow. Then he has a run in with the unabomber, and writes this book, Drawing Lifehttp://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0684839121/102-1630407-5532155?v=glance&n=283155&v=glance

Huh. Maybe enough surfing for today.

[paulr]

Brings new meaning to the phrase "my new filing technique is unstoppable." http://www.mnftiu.cc

[Edward Vielmetti]

Well, so far so good.

I'm not ripping out all my existing alphabetical files just yet, but I have moved some of my active files from being sorted as a big heap into this most-recently-used cache in a bookshelf near my desk.

It would help to have end tab folders instead of top tab folders, but I really want folders with both tabs, I don't think anyone makes those.

I'm planning a 30-day purge cycle, so that anything that sits on the shelf unloved for a month gets pitched or moved to storage.

[Mick]

Interesting, thanks. I already have an informal *vertical* implementation of this system, albeit without the envelopes, on the floor of my office ...

[jonny goldstein]

I am impementing the system and have made a video about my inititial efforts:

http://www.jonnygoldstein.com/2005/10/20/noguchi_filing_system_episode_1.php

[Edward Vielmetti]

I gave up on Noguchi for my paper files. Stuff was getting shoved onto the shelf without being looked at or sorted, and it didn't have the requisite level of tidiness to be manageable.

[Edward Vielmetti]

Translator William Lise has taken down his Noguchi filing system pages. See
http://www.lise.jp/a/index.html

"Some of my website content was recently noticed users of social networking services, and a significant amount of the content of a number of pages was unlawfully copied onto such pages. I have no tolerance for such criminal behavior; the fact that people feel free to steal things in this manner is a good demonstration of what the Internet has brought us."

[George Wade]

I make that name to be Noguchi Yuukio: the Yuu is lengthened, rhythmically. But that is just a comment, NOT a red herring.

I see some of my world in pictures; other parts of it are heard; yet other regions are felt and acted upon. Text is something that I do not see until I succeed in translating it into those senses or modes of understanding.

MindMaps; diagrams; videos do a lot for me: so putting enough text in the Mind Map to be able to search for it and to be able to remember what to search for is my game.

This is to suggest that we could all refine our understanding of how we see and understand the world, individually; then design the contents of our filing system to suit both the person and the computer.

Having said which, I'll try Noguchi Filing practically: after getting a matching Mind Map started, tomorrow.

[Edward Vielmetti]

Flickr user "hawkexpress" has some good photo sets on the topic - I'll post something new about them when I'm back online.

[RickL]

Sorry for being petty, but you might want to correct your title. The correct name is Chou Seiri Hou, as you have in the body, not "Choi" as in the title (which sounds positively Cantonese).