On Tagging

Does anyone remember when the concept of "tagging" first hit the scene?

No, I am not talking about spray paint on a dumpster. I am talking about the list of comma separated words, hash tags, or whatever to signify what the thing that you are working on is about.

This post so far may be tagged: tagging, graffiti, pontification, etc. IIRC, it was hyped that tags were going to completely replace the folder metaphor.

Instead of locking an item away in one category e.g. "Bills" like you would in a physical filing cabinet. You would classify them with more granularity e.g. "Bills", "Power", "Georgia Power".

In actuality, they never replaced folders but, depending on the on the context, they can complement them. They can be used to great affect or, of course, be abused.

My worst abuse of tagging, by far, is within Evernote. At present I have 464 tags. It is as if they don't have a search feature and that I am trying to index it all myself. Now, there are several quirks (read peeves or bugs) that contribute to my trouble within Evernote. For example, if you begin to type a tag and misspell it, both the corrected and misspelled words become tags because it creates the tag before you click save on the note.

Within the last year or so, I have developed what I consider to be a productivity ninja habit of "Super Tags". I have a set of tags that I use everywhere. They are the collections of apps on my iPhone, folders for my web browser bookmarks, and becoming (hopefully) the main tags within Evernote as I wade through all of the detritus.

I don't plan to use these exclusively but, primarily and I will use as few sub-tags as possible.

At present, my "Super Tags" are: Health, Food, Travel, Productivity, Hobbies, Finance, Reference, Social, and Entertainment. I admit it, I have a tagging addiction.

Keep me honest on this blog to help keep them to a minimum.