since 2021, i've produced a lot of work. most of it was haphazardly organized — and some of it lost — until i developed a meticulous system to archive work. this is that system:
work always starts locally, and each engagement usually lasts more than a few months. so, an engagement becomes a folder — /yy-yy_name — i.e: 26-27_itp. this allows me to later access my work chronologically.
each folder has sub-folders, usually for different projects made during the engagement. they are usually numbered — ./xx_name — i.e: ./1_vusearchbar. this, again, allows me to access my work chronologically.
sub-folders can be often messy. however, at the end of each project, i try to make time to organize files into one of two folders:
work that i wish to make publicly-viewable has to be archived on my website. each project / note / teaching-activity has a separate folder — ././yyyy/title — i.e: 2021_dear-delhi. this contains all media files (converted to webp from my local 'outputs' folder), a write-up on page.html, and any other files that must be publicly-accessible (.pdfs, .txts, etc.). if code is meant to be shared, a folder called 'code' also exists inside. however, for accessibility, i make sure to make a new github-repository for each project, and redirect people there via the contents on page.html.
all local folders (including github-repositories) are also backed up externally on password-protected portable ssds. mac-os is terrible at syncing between different volumes unless you use time-machine (and will often skip contents inside sub-folders, unless you copy-paste the whole thing again). since folders can be big in size, i use a built-in mac-os package called rsync instead.
rsync allows you to sync files and directories between two hosts or machines. it works like so:
rsync -avh /* host-directory */SPACE/* remote-directory */
using --progress will show you the progress as well. so, an actual script would look like this:
rsync -avh --progress ~/data/github/ /Volumes/arjuns_itp/github/
finally, the state of my machine is preserved with biweekly backups to a password-protected 2tb hdd that never leaves the house. for this, i use time-machine.
the passwords are stored locally, and i use an encrypted keepass-database for it. in case my machine goes corrupt, the keepass-database also has an encrypted virtual-copy.