OS X tip: Use file comments

This is my first real contribution to the GTD world, hope it helps some people out. I frequently work with directories containing hundreds of files. For example, I might have a directory with ten consecutive versions of the same doc file, all with very similar names, as well as ten consecutive versions of ten different spreadsheets. Sometimes it can be difficult to keep all the files straight — which one is the current one? Which has that one piece of critical information?

To make matters worse, I often leave a big project for a month or more before coming back to work on it again. While I may have had an accurate mental map of all of the files when I was working with them actively, after a long break, it can be almost impossible to find a particular version of a particular document without opening each version and scanning it. And that is exactly the kind of mind-numbing work that leads me to procrastinate.

Enter file comments. On OS X, every file in the finder can have comments appended to it by accessing File > Get info, or by hitting command+i. This is what the dialog looks like:

Notes written in the Comments field can be viewed from within Finder by:

1. Setting the Finder to View as list (shortcut: command+2)
2. Selecting View > Show view options (shortcut: command+j) and checking the Comments box

Once the view is set properly, you will see something like this:

The comments are in the far-right column. They can be used to quickly identify the contents or status of a particular file or folder (or for a million other things, I’m sure).

Of course, you have to remember to keep the comments current, but I can’t help you (or myself) with that.