OneNote is hands-down one of the most useful productivity applications I’ve ever encountered. Over the past seven years I’ve developed a fairly logical hierarchy for where I store my notes in OneNote’s system of notebooks, sections and section groups.

When I talk about my personal storage, I’m referring

to the 10 GB of files I like to have access to wherever I go. These include programs, media and other files. Many people use popular cloud storage services, such as Dropbox, Google Drive and OneDrive, to sync their personal files. I prefer to keep my data out of the cloud which is why I use BitTorrent’s Sync app to synchronize my files across all my devices.

My personal goal for today is to align my OneNote directories with the directory structure used in my personal storage.

Top Level

Separating work items from your personal files. I actually already completed stage one a few years back. I have two notebooks in OneNote, as well as two main folders in my Sync folder, named Personal and Professional. Everything I need is moved into sub-folders (sections in OneNote) in either of these directory categories (notebooks in OneNote).

Second Level

My sub-folders in my storage system are somewhat logical but certainly needs some improvement. For example, I have three folders in my Personal folder, Mobile, Security Tools and Software, which I can consolidate under a second-level category, such as “Tech” or “Utilities.” In OneNote I have similar notebook sections and section groups that can be consolidated under a “Tech” section.

Hopefully this alignment helps increase my organization and overall productivity.