Madza

Posted on Nov 3, 2020

How do you organize your projects?

#watercooler #productivity #beginners

An organized and well-thought-out folder structure is crucial to keep track of your projects and be in full control of their states.

Currently, I use a simplified version of a filesystem used by Cécile Lebleu. Here is a rough sketch of what it looks like:

PROJECTS
| - FINISHED
|   | - Finished Project 1
|   | - Finished Project 2
| - SANDBOX
|   | - Test Project 1
|   | - Test Project 2
| - Active Project 1
| - Active Project 2

First there are my 'Active projects'. I try to keep them around 5-10, so it's easier to get track of them. Those are all the projects I have a clear vision about what to build and why I need to finish them.
When an 'Active project' gets finished, I move it into the 'Finished' folder, so my root is clearer. I might sort them even more across 'Years' subfolders in the future, once I start to lose control.
Finally, there is the 'Sandbox' folder. This is my testing folder, an idea bank. I usually start my ideas there and move them outside if I see a future for them, so they become my 'Active projects'. I do regular cleanups there, by removing the ideas with lesser potential.

I would love to see your approaches on how you organize the projects.

Top comments (20)

Ben Halpern • Nov 3 '20

I have a folder called dev and it's basically one big dumping ground 😅

Takunda Madechangu • Nov 3 '20

me i have a folder called projects i used to have a folder structure like

in_prog(in progress)
done(finished)
testing
play

but you know 😂😂😂 I just started dumping stuff to a single folder

Marian • Nov 3 '20

Best method imho 🙃

Madza • Nov 3 '20

Haha, seems pretty familiar 😂😂

Chris Bongers • Nov 3 '20

Hey Mazda,

For me, it's obviously all in GIT.

But next to that my local environment is very simple:

--- www (the main folder, that's linked to my localhost)
---- git project 1 (no matter what, PHP, Angular, Ionic)
---- play (playground folder, can run simple PHP scripts)
----- script1.php

Basically it's cd www and runs whatever I need to start working on.
I do clean up this directory if I don't have to work on this project for a while.

Also, a good one to keep track if all projects are committed:
Check git commit status

Madza • Nov 3 '20

Thanks for the input 🙏❤

Takunda Madechangu • Nov 3 '20

If I wasn't lazy my projects structure would be like this:

| - Projects
|    | - webapps
|         | - done
|             | - 2020
|                  | - Merlin
|                  | - Argos
|             | - 2019
|                  | - Trinity
|         | - in_progress
|         | - testing
|         | - lab
|    | - mobileapps
|    | - deskapps
|    | - tools

😅😂😂😂 but i am lazy so I just throw my eggs in one basket

Steeve Lennmark • Nov 3 '20

I am curious to what kind of projects you have that become "finished"? I don't think I've ever come to a "this project is perfect and thus finished" state yet. Personally I don't have enough projects going that splitting them up from ~/src would make any sense :-)

Madza • Nov 3 '20

Agree with you, see my reply to Gary 😉

Jon Deavers • Nov 3 '20

I installed a new SSD prior to beginning a boot camp in order to have a completely fresh directory tree that was separate from my Windows directory tree and cloud storage. Also makes navigating the terminal easier for git and node purposes. But I honestly hadn't put much thought into the organization of that drive yet. This is a great starting point. Thanks!

Madza • Nov 3 '20

No problems, happy to help 🙏❤

Fisher • Nov 3 '20

I would love to see your approaches on how you organize the projects.

This really got me thinking...
I’ve gotta get on the organization game.

Thanks for the thought provoking article!

Madza • Nov 3 '20

Awesome to hear! 😉
Each move you take starts by setting the mind towards it 🙏❤

Fisher • Nov 12 '20

er- I wanna come back and thank you, I've organized my whole system in ways it should have been all along. I can really attribute it to this article. My computer and I surely thank you :)

Louis Low • Nov 3 '20

├── mess
│   └── (random unfinished projects)
├── play
│   └── (personal working projects)
└── work (client projects)
    ├── doc
    ├── individual
    └── organization

Gary Bell • Nov 3 '20

What's a finished project?

I throw everything under /var/www/html with its own folder, and haveva separate sandbox project for trying stuff before it hits a project

Madza • Nov 3 '20

Agree with the fact that the project is never actually finished, as theoretical, there are always more options to add and ways to improve it... 😉Let me re-phrase - these are the projects that have fulfilled the requirements (features) and the client is happy with 😉

Gary Bell • Nov 3 '20

I keep forgetting that people do freelance work and actually have multiple clients. I have my employer, and then just side projects which I tinker with for learning more than anything.

Basically, everything of mine is a folder relating to its repository within GitLab. Doesn't matter if it's web or something else. Web goes in /var/www/html anything else goes in /home/gary/Documents/code/