How do I practice hierarchy design?

The most direct way to practice hierarchy design is through a focused exercise: Open your primary knowledge system — notes app, vault, project folders, whatever you use. Find one category that has become a dumping ground: too many items, too many 'sort of fits here' entries, or subcategories that overlap. Write down three alternative ways you could split or restructure that single node. Pick the one that eliminates the most exceptions. Execute the restructure now — move the items, rename the folders, update the links. Time yourself. It will take less time than you expect.

Common pitfall: Treating your hierarchy as sacred architecture instead of working scaffolding. You'll know you've fallen into this when you spend more time debating where something 'belongs' than engaging with the content itself. The second failure mode is the opposite: restructuring compulsively, chasing the perfect taxonomy instead of letting awkwardness accumulate to the point where the right restructure becomes obvious.

This practice connects to Phase 14 (Hierarchy and Nesting) — building it as a repeatable habit compounds over time.