Okay, so folks have been asking me what this ‘daniel mumm’ thing I mentioned was all about. It wasn’t really a big secret project or anything, more like a personal experiment that kinda stuck with me. I figured I’d share how it went down from my side.
It all started a few months back. My computer’s hard drive was just a complete disaster zone. Seriously, finding anything was like digging for treasure without a map. Folders inside folders inside other folders, files named things like ‘document_final_final_really_final_v2’. You know the drill. It was getting stressful, honestly. I wasted so much time just looking for stuff.
Then, I stumbled across some discussion, maybe it was an old forum thread or something, mentioning a guy named Daniel Mumm, or perhaps it was a method named after him? The details were fuzzy, but the core idea was about a really structured way to handle digital files. Didn’t sound like rocket science, but my current ‘system’ – which was basically chaos – wasn’t working. So, I thought, why not give it a shot?
Getting Started – The Cleanup Attempt
First thing I did was just look at the mess. Really look. Desktop cluttered, Downloads folder overflowing, project files scattered everywhere. It was bad. I decided to tackle just one area first: my main ‘Documents’ folder.
Based on what I pieced together about this Mumm idea, it seemed to involve clear, consistent naming and maybe using dates or project codes. I didn’t have a perfect guide, so I had to wing it a bit.
My initial steps were pretty basic:
- I created a few top-level folders: Work, Personal, Archive, and a _Inbox. That last one was key – a dumping ground for new stuff before I filed it properly.
- Inside ‘Work’, I started making folders for each major project, using a simple format like ‘YYYY-MM Project Name’.
- Inside ‘Personal’, I tried grouping by topic: ‘Finances’, ‘Hobbies’, ‘Photos’, etc.
The Actual Process and The Struggle
Okay, making the folders was easy. The hard part? Going through everything else. Man, this took ages. I spent a whole weekend just sorting files from the last year or so. Dragging, dropping, renaming. It felt super tedious. There were moments I nearly gave up, thinking, “This is crazy, who has time for this?”
Renaming was the biggest hurdle. Trying to stick to a consistent format like ‘YYYY-MM-DD_BriefDescription_v1’. Some files, I had no clue what they even were anymore! Those mostly got shoved into the ‘Archive’ under a generic ‘ToSortLater’ folder, which I knew was cheating, but hey, progress not perfection, right?
For the first couple of weeks, it felt unnatural. I’d save something quickly to the desktop ‘just for now’, forgetting the ‘_Inbox’ folder. Or I’d struggle to remember the naming convention. It wasn’t an overnight fix, that’s for sure. It required actual effort to change my habits.
What Happened in the End
But I stuck with it. Mostly. After about a month, something clicked. Finding that specific report from three months ago? Easy. It was right there in ‘Work/YYYY-MM Project Name/’. Looking for that vacation photo? Found it under ‘Personal/Photos/YYYY Trip Name/’.
The ‘_Inbox’ folder became my best friend. Everything landed there first. Then, maybe once a day or every couple of days, I’d spend 10 minutes sorting it properly. It stopped things getting out of control again.
So, this whole ‘daniel mumm’ experiment, for me, wasn’t about discovering some magical technique. It was about the discipline. Just deciding on a simple structure, any structure really, and then actually using it consistently. It forced me to be more mindful about my digital stuff. My hard drive isn’t perfect now, but it’s a thousand times better. Finding things is faster, and honestly, there’s just less mental clutter knowing things are generally where they should be. It was a simple practice, took some effort upfront, but definitely worth it in my book.
