You click on a folder, and nothing's there. You try another. And another. The document you need - the repair receipt, the insurance policy, the contact information - is hiding somewhere in files. And the more you search, the more frustrated you become.

That’s what happens when you try to manage files across devices using a system that wasn’t built for how you think. 

Why can’t I find my files when I need them?

Because the whole system was built for drawers and paper, not brains.

Folders were directly copied from filing cabinets. One item, one place. But in digital life, the same invoice shows up in mail, chat, downloads, photos, cloud shares, your partner's phone. Folders can’t keep up with that. They force you to pick one place for each file, even if it belongs to five. So you either copy it everywhere or lose track completely.

And your brain? It doesn’t think in folders. You remember by association. Lasagna recipe. Aunt Maria. Summer cookout. Not Documents then Recipes then Dinner then Italian then Pasta. If the cue you remember doesn’t match the path you built last year, you fail the search test you gave yourself.

The more you bury something, the harder your brain has to work to find it. As Daniel Kahneman explained, deliberate thinking is mentally expensive. Every extra step to find something uses up the brain power you need for your actual tasks.

Folders also hide relationships. The insurance policy PDF you need when your car gets sideswiped is stored three levels deep in Insurance, but the photos of the damage are in Photos, then iPhone Imports, then July, and the repair invoice is lost in your Gmail. 

How much time do people really waste looking for digital files?

The time you spend searching for digital files has a real and measurable cost. As a Gartner survey found, nearly half of digital workers, specifically 47%, struggle just to find the information they need for their jobs.

Worse still, 45% say they receive irrelevant notifications, 36% miss or overlook important updates due to too many apps or information overload, and 32% make wrong decisions because they lack the right information.

Key struggles caused by too many apps and scattered information. Source: Gartner

At the same time, knowledge workers use around 11 different apps daily, nearly double the number from 2019. And that’s just the average. 40% use more than that and 5% bounce between 26 or more. That means 25 or more separate places where files, messages, links, and updates can hide. 

Every system has its own logic, its own rules, its own 'smart' features. And none of it matches how you think.

A smarter approach: Context over structure

What's the answer when the old ways no longer work?

You need to switch from structure to context. Instead of guessing where something is, you should be able to simply ask for it. This is the core principle of MyVault.

Like:

• Find the photos of the storm damage and the policy that covers it.

• Show me receipts from last summer

• Find notes from my Zoom call with Dana

The solution is a system that understands the information inside your files and automatically connects related documents. This frees you from remembering a file's name or its location. You just ask, and the answer appears.

What’s standing in the way of smarter file systems?

The technology to do this already exists, but it's not easy to build. Most companies either promise too much or make tools that are overly complicated.

Then there's the challenge of habits. People often keep hold of folders because they are used to them, even when they are not really helpful. Changing how we manage files means changing how we think about digital work, and that's a slow, stubborn process.

The pressure to solve it is only going to get worse as the number of files, apps, and devices keeps growing. If you ignore it, you'll lose more time, focus and opportunities every day.

If smarter systems are so hard to build, what solutions do we actually have?

One approach comes from the Zettelkasten, a powerful method for connecting ideas. Its core principle is that individual notes, each containing a single idea, are linked to one another based on context, not fixed location. 

This way, you can quickly switch from one idea to related ones.

A visual example of the Zettelkasten (slip box) method. Source: Wikipedia

In the 1980s and 90s, this card file idea inspired early digital note systems. Fast forward to now, and the idea of the Zettelkasten has evolved into something called personal knowledge graphs. These digital maps connect everything you have - files, emails, photos, notes - based on context.

The tricky part is making this work across all your apps and devices without you having to add all the tags and links yourself. This is where AI can help. It can read your files, find connections and organise everything automatically. And it does this while keeping your data private and secure.

MyVault: Your digital life, connected

MyVault is the solution that is doing this right. It builds a smart, connected digital environment that lets you stop searching and start asking for answers from the information you already have.

Instead of wasting time looking for a file, you just ask:

• "When does my car registration expire?"

• "Show me all home improvement receipts from 2022."

• "What insurance covers my camera equipment?"

MyVault will give you the exact documents you need in seconds.

Let AI connect your digital life

Folders aren’t the problem, it's a lack of a system that keeps up with how we actually live and work. The digital tools we've been given were built for a world where everything had a fixed place. That world is gone.

It’s time to stop forcing files into the “right” folder and start letting them work for you. Let meaning do the sorting. Let AI handle the mess, while you stay in control. 

It's time to finally understand your files without ever having to clean them up first.