While I tried DEVONthink and have even written a personal document management system myself in the past, I have come to realise that no proprietary system will last forever. So I went back to files, folders, naming conventions and a good search tool + Finder replacement.
As to the conventions:
* I follow the recommendations of a German Professor named Loehn [1]. Prof. Loehn recommends to name every file with three parts and add a datestamp to the file. For example: "Programming_Node_Async-2019-03-07", a three-part taxonomy, going from more general to more detail.
* Every file goes into a folder. Every. So I need to build a good folder system.
* Every folder is in ~/Documents/FOLDERS
As to the tools:
I use Alfred (not for search, but for creating keyboard shortcuts to start my essential tools with a key combination).
Then I use HoudahSpot.app for search. It is a better interface for Spotlight search. It allows me to save searches as templates, see search results in a table, which is super important for me to narrow the results down, exclude folders etc in a very easy way. It is my personal knowledge management tool.
Finally I use "Path Finder" (PF) as a finder replacement. Whenever I am in a folder, I can hit `Shift+Cmd+F`, which will focus on a field that will let me enter keywords. PF will start to filter my folder based on my input. So I can focus on what I need. PF is a gorgeous replacement for the Finder app with many enhancements.
The combination of all this will allow me to find every file, every project, every folder from within the past 15 to 20 years in a split second.
Side note:
1) I don't keep files on the desktop either. Rather I have a temp folder named INBOX on my desktop where everything will be put in to be processed into ~/Documents/FOLDERS/(subfolders), and I have the discipline to empty ~/Desktop/INBOX regularly.
2) My programming projects go into ~/workspace/
[1] inventor of Loehn Method, which is a methodology like "Getting Things Done" (by David Allen)
Have you investigated symlinking INBOX folder so that its real location maps to a location inside your ~/Documents/FOLDERS location so that you only have one place to worry about all files?
As to the conventions:
* I follow the recommendations of a German Professor named Loehn [1]. Prof. Loehn recommends to name every file with three parts and add a datestamp to the file. For example: "Programming_Node_Async-2019-03-07", a three-part taxonomy, going from more general to more detail.
* Every file goes into a folder. Every. So I need to build a good folder system.
* Every folder is in ~/Documents/FOLDERS
As to the tools:
I use Alfred (not for search, but for creating keyboard shortcuts to start my essential tools with a key combination).
Then I use HoudahSpot.app for search. It is a better interface for Spotlight search. It allows me to save searches as templates, see search results in a table, which is super important for me to narrow the results down, exclude folders etc in a very easy way. It is my personal knowledge management tool.
Finally I use "Path Finder" (PF) as a finder replacement. Whenever I am in a folder, I can hit `Shift+Cmd+F`, which will focus on a field that will let me enter keywords. PF will start to filter my folder based on my input. So I can focus on what I need. PF is a gorgeous replacement for the Finder app with many enhancements.
The combination of all this will allow me to find every file, every project, every folder from within the past 15 to 20 years in a split second.
Side note:
1) I don't keep files on the desktop either. Rather I have a temp folder named INBOX on my desktop where everything will be put in to be processed into ~/Documents/FOLDERS/(subfolders), and I have the discipline to empty ~/Desktop/INBOX regularly.
2) My programming projects go into ~/workspace/
[1] inventor of Loehn Method, which is a methodology like "Getting Things Done" (by David Allen)