actualNoteContentPart: ## 4. Second-level should serve a contextual purpose
  Soo in the previous points we made a rule to give each tag 10 or less child tags. If ever there were a strategic opportunity to violate that advice, it's at the second level. We'll assume you picked a sensible top-level bucket. It's tempting to celebrate and create a sub-tag for every possible type of content you create. Soon, you end up with a second-level ahem [situation like the Amplenote CEO](https://images.amplenote.com/b90019ae-0b9e-11ec-b84f-9664627f7969/9ea39acb-1e4f-4acc-8f77-b1380b8cbed8.png) . 😬  If you use an app like Amplenote that allows for tag merging, you can float provisional tags and see if they compel you to create more content that follows in the trail of the original. But you need to consider a few lessons.
  
  **Suggestion:** Don't keep a second level folder that accumulates less than 5 notes per year. You can always keep track of small groups of notes using [Amplenote Help: Using Double Brackets [[ for Note Creation/Linking](/help/double-bracket-note-link-syntax) , basically creating a web that connects each note via backlinks.
  
  **Suggestion**: Consider it an opportunity to inspire yourself. Since you need to generate 5+ notes/tasks per year to warrant the existence of this tag, what type of content is most unexplored and provocative to you at the moment?
  
  ## 5. Third-level when you need to go deep (esp todo)
  If you follow the advice above to create a bucket (first-level tag) for the notes that contain tasks that need to get done, then you'll probably end up with second-level tags for the projects and hobbies/vocations in which your tasks accumulate. In these cases, it can be useful to subdivide further still if you believe that future you will be a responsible individual. For example, reasonable uses of third-level todo tags might include todo/personal/chore, todo/me/family, todo/me/hobby, etc. 
  
  Some other types of deep-knowledge three-level hierarchies might include dissertation/chapter-1/example, yourco/competitive/some-shmuck, seattle/reviews/nacho, uw/cse/143, blog/deep-topic/peter-hammon, project/videos/tutorial, project/help/help-section.
  
  **Suggestion:** Pare back third-level tags that don't accumulate 5 notes per year. 
  
  **Suggestion:** Remember that with newer note taking apps like Amplenote, you can tag a single note with many different tags, so a note can be both uw/cse/143 and todo/homework/september. 
  
  # 🚛 Evolving your tag hierarchy
  Good news: Amplenote makes it easy to change your mind about you want your hierarchy structured. We describe in detail on our [Tag Renaming & Reorganizing help](https://www.amplenote.com/help/tag_renaming_reorganizing)  page how it's possible to:
  Rename a tag hierarchy
  Merge two tag hierarchies
  Delete a tag hierarchy without deleting the notes within
  Delete a hierarchy including all the notes within it
  [Go check out that page now if you're ready to restructure your tag hierarchy](/help/tag_renaming_reorganizing) .
processedNoteContent: ---
  title: Five recommendations for choosing hierarchy/nes...
  headers: ## 4. Second-level should serve a contextual purpose
  ---
  4. Second-level should serve a contextual purpose
  Soo in the previous points we made a rule to give each tag 10 or less child tags. If ever there were a strategic opportunity to violate that advice, it's at the second level. We'll assume you picked a sensible top-level bucket. It's tempting to celebrate and create a sub-tag for every possible type of content you create. Soon, you end up with a second-level ahem [situation like the Amplenote CEO](https://images.amplenote.com)`
   . 😬  If you use an app like Amplenote that allows for tag merging, you can float provisional tags and see if they compel you to create more content that follows in the trail of the original. But you need to consider a few lessons. Suggestion:
   Don't keep a second level folder that accumulates less than 5 notes per year. You can always keep track of small groups of notes using [Amplenote Help: Using Double Brackets [ [ for Note Creation/Linking](/help/double-bracket-note-link-syntax)
   , basically creating a web that connects each note via backlinks. Suggestion
  : Consider it an opportunity to inspire yourself. Since you need to generate 5+ notes/tasks per year to warrant the existence of this tag, what type of content is most unexplored and provocative to you at the moment? 
  5. Third-level when you need to go deep (esp todo)
  If you follow the advice above to create a bucket (first-level tag) for the notes that contain tasks that need to get done, then you'll probably end up with second-level tags for the projects and hobbies/vocations in which your tasks accumulate. In these cases, it can be useful to subdivide further still if you believe that future you will be a responsible individual. For example, reasonable uses of third-level todo tags might include todo/personal/chore, todo/me/family, todo/me/hobby, etc. Some other types of deep-knowledge three-level hierarchies might include dissertation/chapter-1/example, yourco/competitive/some-shmuck, seattle/reviews/nacho, uw/cse/143, blog/deep-topic/peter-hammon, project/videos/tutorial, project/help/help-section. Suggestion:
   Pare back third-level tags that don't accumulate 5 notes per year. Suggestion:
   Remember that with newer note taking apps like Amplenote, you can tag a single note with many different tags, so a note can be both uw/cse/143 and todo/homework/september. 
  🚛 Evolving your tag hierarchy
  Good news: Amplenote makes it easy to change your mind about you want your hierarchy structured. We describe in detail on our [Tag Renaming & Reorganizing help](https://www.amplenote.com)`
    page how it's possible to:
  Rename a tag hierarchy
  Merge two tag hierarchies
  Delete a tag hierarchy without deleting the notes within
  Delete a hierarchy including all the notes within it
  [Go check out that page now if you're ready to restructure your tag hierarchy](/help/tag_renaming_reorganizing)
   .
noteTitle: Five recommendations for choosing hierarchy/nested tag names