Ref. : @blog,
www.pileofindexcards
Dear readers,
This page had moved to new server : http://www.pileofindexcards.com
Let's meet at new server 
Hawk, 2007.01.06 15:51
This site had started at .Mac site associates with my .Mac account.
Now, as you see in the title, I registered new domain name after "Pile of Indexcards". I expect future expansion of this GTD-related indexcard community. At the new site, PHP and database are available which will gives us new possibility.
| blog : | http://www.pileofindexcards.com/ |
| selection : | http://www.pileofindexcards.com/selection/ |
| service : | http://www.pileofindexcards.com/service/ |
I will move to the new domain site soon. In future, current .Mac site will be just a redirect page to the new site. Please substitute your local and social bookmark etc. to the new address as your convenience.
# I thank Erik Luden. This won't be realized without his advises and technical direction
ref. : @ blog, Strict chronological
order
It is frequently asked "what about
introduce Noguchi Filing to your system?". Noguchi filing system
works well to keep filing sytem dynamic. It is, however, obviously
doesn't work with the PoI system, at least for me. I knew this fact
empilically. I had struggled how to explain this for people, and
even for myself.
After jeevs gave me constructive comments at flickr, I clearly realized
why it doesn't work.
In the Noguchi filing system, number of
file added in the system is, though it is largely depends on a
person, couple of files per day, or even lesser. Plus, several
piece of files are compiled in an envelope. It reduces number of
file in the system. A review is more frequent than file addition.
It can be expressed following simple equation.
Noguchi : Frequency of adding
files < Frequency of review
In the PoI system, number of cards
increase with the order of ten, much more faster than filing system
everyday. In addition, there is nothing to compile each card ;
information is naked. For review process, I do it not in constant
like "week review" but when I need or just want it. The frequency
is once per two weeks or even lesser. If I introduced Noguchi type
review rules to the PoI system, the revised cards are easily buried
by new cards (seen picture above). This situation is expressed
as,
PoI :
Frequency of adding card >> Frequency of
review
The only difference of the two equations is the sign of inequality. But it makes huge difference between the two system. Noguchi filing system works well for the sign "<" (or "=") and not for ">>".
| Company | Type* | Cut and Grid** | Grid Spacing** |
| Correct (Japan) | p, pp, r, rl, rv, q | Associated | 5 mm |
| L!fe (Japan) | p, r, c, q | Associated | 6 mm |
| Kokuyo (Japan) | p, r | - | - |
| Oxford (U.S.) | p, r, c, q | Random | 6 mm |
| Office Depot (U.S.) | p, c, q | Random | 6 mm |
| Mead (U.S.) | p, r, c | - | - |
| Ampad (U.S.) | p, r, c | - | - |
| 3M (U.S.) | rs, rs+c | - | - |
| Exacompta (France) | q+c | Random (?) | ? |
* : p : plain, pp : plain printable, r
: ruled, rl : ruled library,
rv : ruled vertical, rs : ruled sticky, q : quadrille, c :
color
** : For quadrille card
ref. : Reports by Leopard, Gregkise, John, Ayalan, and David.
and Photo @ flickr by Alina Mikadze, and by
Kaj.
Any additional information is welcome
Revised 2007.01.06 08:27 : Add grid spacing
Revised 2007.01.04 00:12 : Correction for L!fe's card after Kaj's
comments.
My work on this site is licensed under
Creative
Commons License. You can freely distribute my works, including
all text on this site as well as photo on
flickr, under the license (ver. 2.0 for flickr photo).
That is, you can cite the text and photo on your blog, use for
educational purpose, save on your HDD, and share with your friends
without permission, unless you earn money or do business using my
works. All you need is to put my name "Hawk Sugano" or
"hawkexpress" somewhere together. Please read license
condition for detail.
I wish this will help your intellectual activity. 
According to the statistics of my
system, at the beginning this year, it was only 20 cards per
month. But in March, it jumps to 400 cards, which records the
maximum through this year.
The differences in February and March are,
- hipsterPDA format (portrait) to PoI format
(landscape)
- Pigment pen ; black ink to blue ink
- implementation of four card rule
- implementation of Icon and Tag rule
- chronological
order in a card box
It followed by minimum in May (besides February) when my job had been busy. Then it gradually increased until August. In the beginning of July, I introduced Flickr, and in late August, I started start this blog. The number of cards reflects my mental state as well. Main reason of decrease in September was, according to my Record Card, I was mentally depressed. After that, the number gradually recovered.
It seems the number converge and approaches to equilibrium now. The equilibrium point is about 10 cards/day (300 cards/month). If I include cards for "work", then the number is doubled, 20 cards/day. Perhaps it is comfort number for me.
As a summary of this year, as well as a sample of introducing the PoI system/method
From a curiosity, I wonder how many
cards I wrote this year. Here I use indexcards in the "life" dock as a sample for simplicity. The card system
for "work" is extended PoI and more complicated than "life".
Since it takes some time to count them one by one, I used trick to
count easily.
- Measure a weight of the cards of each month, by using a
scale.
- Divide the weight by 1.5, that is a weight of single card in
gram (150g for 100 papers).
I measured a weight of cards of each month. The figure above is a number of card per month, since February 2006. It was when I start using 5x3 quadrille card. Total and mean are summarized in a table below.
| Total (life dock) [cards] | Mean [cards/month] | Mean [cards/day] |
| 1,923 | 175 | 5.8 |
ref. : The Indexcarding PoI Starter Kit
I have been preparing to provide the
starter kit, and just finished. Now I'm ready to take your order.
You can order Correct's indexcard, dock, and Kokuyo's fieldnote via
the Service page. I accept a credit card and PayPal
account for payment . For a moment, the postal fee is 10 % off.
Please let me know if you have question. Please use comments below,
or send me an
email.
I wish your merry X'mas and happy new year!
Revised 2006.12.30 00:22 : Add photo of the packs.
ref. : Divergence, convergence,
a discussion related to indexcard @ Flickr
I call a state of my Dock like this title. I
have never think my Dock as gem box. There are gems, but not all.
And it's totally o.k.
See a Pyramid in Egypt. It is constructed by pile of stones. The
stones is useless if it is divided one by one. But if a stone is
uniform block and well organized, even though single block is
useless, it is possible to become such a great construction.
Even group of several stones, it is possible to metamorphose into a
gem. As Josh and Jamie wrote before (here and here), we are trying to find pattern between our
individual thoughts, events around us. If we could find a pattern
from several "stone" cards, the knowledge generate new "gem"
card.
Conversely, if my Dock is full bunch of gems, it means I try to
write and select only gem all time. It will be stressful. And the
system doesn't succeed to function as capturing "any" idea.
There are tons of stone card, tiny and apparently useless ideas, in
my Dock. But I don't know their true worth at the time I write
them. As Steve Jobs
said, all we can do is to connect dots (cards) backward. So I
don't trash any single card. Rather, I keep all of them for future
use.
Division of an indexcard and fieldnote
can be easily understood through a metaphor on computer.
brain = CPU / Fieldnote =
Virtual Memory (HDD) / indexcards+Dock = HDD
Main use of the fieldnote in the PoI
system is temporal idea capturer. Almost all topics on the
fieldnote will be copied to indexcard and stored in the dock later.
Simple to-dos, buying toilet paper for example, are processed on
fieldnote without copying to indexcard.
The fieldnote reduce an effort to remember/remind stuffs. It helps
to increase one's brain usage as Central Processing Unit (CPU). Our
brain could work as vaporous, if we have reliable virtual memory
and HDD behind.
| Dock | A box which store indexcards. |
| KM2P | Kaizo (= modified) Moleskine Memo Pocket. |
| Quadcard | Quadrille Indexcard, 5 inch x 3 inch size. I'm getting lazy to say "Quadrille" and "Indexcard". |
| PoI | Pile of Indexcards. Name of this web site, as well as the indexcard system and method itself. |
| PAA | Personal Analog Assistant. Analog version of PDA. |
Revised : 2006.12.23 15:13 Delete SIS and add PoI instead. I replaced "indexcarding system" to "PoI system" through entire blog.
ref. : Cunfucius,
The Analects, Translation by Hawk
ref. : Shibusawa Eiichi, Commentary on the Analects, 2004.
ref. : Beautiful calligraphy by flickr user Kanko*
Cunfucius (in Japanese, Koushi) is great chinese philosopher in 2,500 years ago. This quote is one of his famous superb in "The Analects". There are many interpritation for the original golden words seen in the picture. For example, worship own ancestors, warm up old friendship, learn from history, etc. (Shibusawa, 2004). Here, I interpret and translate it according to my experience on indexcard.