Start messy and let your AI restructure later

You don't need to plan a structure before you start. Save memos as they come, even unfiled, and once a pattern shows, ask your AI to propose collections, notebooks and properties that fit what's actually there. You approve the plan before anything moves. When the structure stops fitting, do it again.

Why it works

• Structure fits better after the content. A structure designed up front is a guess. One drawn from real memos matches how the work actually goes.

• Your AI does the sorting. Reading every memo and filing it is slow by hand and quick for your AI, so reorganising is something you can do often, not once.

• Nothing has one right home. A memo can sit in several collections at once, so you're never forced to pick. See Organise memos into collections.

• You see things you missed. How your AI groups your memos often shows connections you hadn't spotted. Even when you disagree with it, you learn something about your content.

• It's all reversible. Edits are kept in each memo's history. See See and restore earlier versions of a memo.

How to do it

1. Save as you go. Memos don't need a collection. If you'd rather everything landed in one collection for now, set a Default collection in Personal settings.

2. Wait for a pattern. Once you notice the same kinds of memos turning up, it's time.

3. Ask for a plan. Have your AI propose a structure and show you exactly what would move where.

4. Write the rules down. Ask your AI to turn the structure into standing instructions, so new memos follow it. See Give a collection standing instructions.

The building blocks are explained in Group memos inside a collection with notebooks, Track work with properties and See a collection as a list, board, table, calendar or timeline.

On Free, organising (filing, properties, views and tags) never counts towards the daily limit on AI changes. See Choose a plan and manage billing.

Ask your AI to propose a structure

In Fieldwerk, look through my memos, including ones that aren't in any collection, and suggest a structure for them: which collections, notebooks and properties you'd use, and where each memo would go. Show me the plan first and change nothing until I agree. Then make only the changes I approve and tell me what you did.

Later, when it no longer fits:

In Fieldwerk, show me my collections and ask which one has outgrown its structure. Read its memos and standing instructions, tell me where the current structure isn't working, and suggest a better one. Show me what would move before you change anything, and update the instructions to match once I agree.