> the numerical value for letters (A=1, B=2, C=3, etc) which I think will give me greater powers of lexical sorting. We'll see.
Another way of doing it could be generating a deck with questions like:
"Q or P. Which comes first?"
I suppose that which technique will be superior depends on whether you usually sort things relative to each other, or relative to their container. If you have a fixed container of files, you could think, "ah, 'T', that's 20 (out of 26), I should look down 3/4 of the length of the container". But if the container wasn't evenly divided - for instance, your 'I' for 'Insurance' was a much thicker file than your 'T' for 'Taxes' or whatever - you'd no longer be able to use those numbers directly. What do you think?
I think I'll go with the numbers. It's a smaller set of things to memorize and it's kinda like a fun game that I can quiz myself on when seeing license plates when driving (I find driving horribly boring). My dad used to factorize numbers on license plates when I was a kid :P
Another way of doing it could be generating a deck with questions like:
"Q or P. Which comes first?"
I suppose that which technique will be superior depends on whether you usually sort things relative to each other, or relative to their container. If you have a fixed container of files, you could think, "ah, 'T', that's 20 (out of 26), I should look down 3/4 of the length of the container". But if the container wasn't evenly divided - for instance, your 'I' for 'Insurance' was a much thicker file than your 'T' for 'Taxes' or whatever - you'd no longer be able to use those numbers directly. What do you think?