Uniform filing is boring and a too rigid system causes too many ambiguities; filing by date or subject is OK on a micro scale but that’s about it. Instead have a series of boxes and bags that are of varying importance to you. In the key bag you put everything you’d take if you had 30 seconds to leave, the next is if you have 30 minutes, then a day, then seven days, a month, a year, three years.
Things you use everyday in one box, things you use once a week in another, things you use once in a blue moon in another.
The boxes should all have character. Maybe like pirate sea chests or finely made cabinets; or maybe varying kinds of ammo box. The latest research into brain plasticity suggests the more senses we engage in any one action the more connections we grow in our brains. And if the brain isn't growing it's dying.
Being efficient doesn’t mean turning yourself into a bad robot. Being a good pirate is better.