As a web developer, entrepreneur and general Internet enthusiast, I need links to resources that I have found over the years to be able to do my job efficiently. There are so many tools I need for design, resources I need for programming, and general information I need access to on a daily basis. With so many links it’s easy for them to get cluttered and disorganized. This means I end up with a long list of links in folders that are basically useless to me because searching through them is too time-consuming and impractical.

A few months ago I hit wit’s end with how disorganized my bookmarks had become. I have made countless attempts throughout my life to try to keep them organized but circumstances that I will have to go into on another post caused me to lose them or give up working with what I had. I recently moved my bookmarks over to a tool called WebCull because it’s the only online-based bookmark tool that let me import my list without taking me away from the tree structure I know and love with traditional bookmark managers. It has since revitalized my motivation to organize the almost 2 thousand bookmarks I’ve collected over the last 8 years. So while I was at it, I figured I should document and share the formula I used to shape my bookmark structure.

No large list

Rule one is No Large Lists of links or folders (or as they call them in WebCull ‘Stacks’). They are daunting and impractical to use because it takes too much time to scan each link with your eyes. I know that bookmark tools have search features to get around this problem but what’s really the point of a tree list anyway in that case? One of the reasons I use the tree list is when I know I won’t do as good of a job entering keywords of what I’m looking for. Another is when the topic I’m looking for is covered by too many keywords for me to enter. By navigating a directory tree structure, you’re reducing your possibilities until you find every potential link that you’re looking for. This is something that is seriously useful but there’s one small problem.

As you enter new bookmarks, your lists start becoming larger and larger, and it eventually defeats the purpose of having a tree structure in the first place. When you’re trying to access something you know you’ve stored away somewhere, you should be able to intuitively drill down on what you’re looking for without needing to spend more than max a few seconds between your decisions. With each folder I open, I am potentially navigating an exponential amount of possibilities without ever needing to see them. So you need to either organize your bookmarks with constant upkeep, something that can be too hard for busy people like myself, or you tidy them up periodically, once you see your stacks of links getting too long.

When I see a list that has reached ten to twenty bookmarks in it, I’ll analyze the group of bookmarks looking for some way to further categorize them. Then I’ll create the minimum number of categories I can come up with to reduce the size of that stack. So let’s say I have a stack of websites that I find inspirational but it’s too long which means I’m probably just looking at the top ones and neglecting the ones at the bottom or middle. I’ll look at what separates them into even but opposite lists. It may be that I want to categorize them based on which ones are services, or by their appearance (which ones I like the most), or maybe even based on aesthetic like color or style. You can come up with so many ways to break down a stack of links it really ends up a creative process.

Don’t mix stacks with links

Make things as easy as possible for you to understand. Every piece of information on the screen needs to be processed by your brain. By simplifying what you decide to put there, you speed up your reaction time. One of the ways you can do this is through something similar to what we call in programming a row data gateway. You can use structure to make it simpler to understand and use something. By simply making sure you never have stacks and links mixed it automatically makes it so, when you see one link it means everything’s links, and when you see one stack (or folder) everything’s a stack. Even though this may only be a minor improvement on your comprehension speed, it’s added up each time you’re trying to navigate your bookmarks.

Use tags sparingly

Tags can be a way to provide your bookmark manager with relevant keywords that you will search for so you can find what you’re looking for. This can be useful but it can also be easy to overdo it. Think about it this way, if you overly add the same tag your links, your breaking rule one, the ‘No large lists’ rule. You’re going to search your bookmarks for that keyword and come up with way too many results to efficiently look through.

So when should you add tags? When you are depending on searching for a keyword for something but it’s not coming up. Tags are a super convenient way to override the current search algorithm to make sure it comes up with what you’re looking for. Tools like WebCull now search the entire contents of bookmarked sites, unlike traditional bookmark tools that only search the URL, title and tags. So it’s becoming a lot less important to depend on tags these days, which is a good thing because it lets you use them in this new highly practical way.

Don’t overdo structure

Lastly, it’s also possible to over structure your stacks. Having one stack that opens two stacks that open three stacks that open one link… isn’t practical. You clearly don’t have enough content to justify so many deeply nested stacks. This only makes it harder for you to get to the links you’re looking for by putting extra clicks, taps or keystrokes in your way. Try to build up a stack to at least 10 items before further categorizing them. Your eyes can easily scan 10 items. So if this methodology involves creating uselessly deep stacks, your common sense needs to kick in and simplify things. Mix things if needed, break rules if you have to, each situation can be complex and rules can be broken.

My method of organization is so simple it almost seems trivial, yet it’s highly useful at quickly reducing the possibilities until I’ve landed directly on what I’m looking for. Its ultimate goal is to speed up the way I personally access my links. Links I use and need to be able to use the Internet to it’s fullest.