Alright, so I’ve been meaning to share this little adventure I had, a hands-on thing I tried, all thanks to this name that kept popping up: John Peck. Figured I’d walk you through what I did, how it went, you know, the whole nine yards.
Getting into it with John Peck’s Method
So, I wanted to get better at, let’s just say, organizing my digital files. It’s a mess, always has been. I was poking around online, looking for systems, and I stumbled across a bunch of people talking about the “John Peck method” for digital decluttering. Sounded kinda promising, not too complicated from what they said. So, I thought, “Okay, let’s give this John Peck approach a real shot.”
First thing I did was try to find the core principles of this method. It wasn’t like there was one official website, more like bits and pieces on different forums and old blog posts. Seemed like John Peck, whoever he is or was, had a philosophy about ruthless deletion and a super specific folder structure. Simple, right? That’s what I thought.
The Actual Process: My Saturday with “Peck”
I dedicated a whole Saturday to this. Started by backing everything up, ’cause, you know, “ruthless deletion” sounds scary. Smart move, that was.
Then, I tried to follow what I understood of his folder structure. It was something like:
- Active Projects
- Archive – Personal
- Archive – Work
- Resources
- Temporary Downloads
That part, creating the folders, was easy peasy. The trouble began when I actually started moving files around, trying to decide what went where, and what to just nuke according to Peck’s supposed “if you haven’t touched it in six months, it’s gone” rule.
Man, that was tough. I spent hours just staring at files. Is this old photo “Archive – Personal” or just sentimental junk I should delete? This “John Peck” idea of being super decisive? Easier said than done. I found myself making a new folder called “Maybe Later Pile,” which I’m pretty sure wasn’t in his original plan. My desk, physically, started getting covered in sticky notes trying to map out my digital life according to this guy.
The “ruthless deletion” part? I chickened out on a lot of it. I just couldn’t bring myself to delete years of stuff, even if I hadn’t looked at it. Instead, I ended up making more sub-folders within the “Archive” than Peck probably ever dreamed of. So much for simplification.
What I Ended Up With
By the end of the day, my main drive was… different. Not necessarily better, just different. I had the John Peck main folders, sure. But inside them? It was still a bit of my old chaos, just wearing a new hat. I felt like I’d just shifted the mess around rather than conquering it.
Honestly, I think this John Peck method, or my interpretation of it, might work for folks who are naturally super organized or don’t have a ton of digital baggage. For a digital hoarder like me? It was a struggle. I realized that maybe a one-size-fits-all system isn’t the way to go, especially when the instructions are a bit vague and pieced together from hearsay.
So, yeah, that was my practical attempt at the John Peck way. I learned a bit about my own habits, that’s for sure. And I did delete some stuff, so that’s a small win, I guess. But am I a full John Peck convert? Nah, not really. Still looking for that magic bullet for my digital life, but this round, Peck didn’t quite hit the bullseye for me. Maybe I’ll try just tackling one folder at a time next, my own way.
