After reading David Cole's 'Getting Things Done'

Actually, it's by David Allen.

Getting Things Done is one of the best systems out there for getting - and staying - organized. I've struggled with this issue for years, and this is the first system I've found that helps. For the first time in 10 years I have free time!

Oh, and getting back to the original topic:

MACHINE 1:
~/.procmail - I HATE SPAM
~/.projects - textfile list of all my projects
~/coding - hopefully self-explanatory
~/documents - OpenOffice type documents, with subdirectories for templates, old school papers, packing lists, etc.
/archives - stuff that has been burned to cd/dvd but that I want fast access to
/incoming - I moved all my to be sorted directories here, and little by little have whittled down the contents
/tmp - downloads, limewire, etc. - Anything I want to save will be moved into the appropriate place.

MACHINE 2:
D:\iTunes - all of my mp3s are now handled by the wonderful program iTunes
D:\VIDEOS - backups of old home videos, anything downloaded worth keeping, dvd editing projects
D:\GAMES - Games and their patches

I have gotten in the habit of sticking everything important in CVS. Not only does this mean I can access everything I need from the various machines on my lan, but I have one and only one thing to back up each week. Makes life much simpler, although it is tough to stay disciplined and not just save everywhere.