LATCH (Location, Alphabet, Time, Category, Hierarchy) was proposed by Wurman in “Information Anxiety”, 1989 as the minimum necessary and sufficient organizational technique of data/information (although his term for hierarchy was continuum, related more to ranking-on-a-scale vs. parent, children and relations). I thought I could make use of a necessary and sufficient mechanism so I started thinking about how to embed this in my note templates properties.

I found I was already using these ideas, although not with those specific terms, and not consistently.

  • LOCATION is used in my people/organizations/events notes.
  • ALPHABET is the basis for my virtual File Cabinet: fc-divider (which I will retire), fc-pendaflex, fc-folder
  • TIME is covered by a number of entries: created, completed, due, reminders, released
  • CATEGORY is used in my FIle Cabinet (fc-catefory) and randomly elsewhere
  • HIERARCHY is captured in “up”, “related” and “rank”

Turns out I’m off to good start. I need to be more mindful in application, consolidate inconsistencies and work to enhance my discovery, recovery and colliding tools.