New Goal: Improving My PKM Game
Focusing on and rethinking my personal knowledge management
Just a few weeks ago, I was not aware that I had any “PKM game” at all. If you asked me what PKM stands for, I would not have had a clue. Fast forward three weeks and …
I know that PKM stands for Personal Knowledge Management
I realize that I have been trying (hard!) to be good, or even great, at PKM for an impressive/scary number of years.
Learning about and soaking in the latest thinking about PKM is a big new goal, or borderline obsession, for me
It’s interesting to feel that although I’ve been at this for years, I’ve got so much to learn, so much room to step up my game. In an effort to express where I am in thinking/rethinking this area, I’m going to go from right now to past history, and back to the present and looking forward.
Right Now
Right now I’m thinking of myself as being at a new student stage with PKM, despite past efforts. Eager to learn, trying new things out, and seeking out the wisdom and approaches of others who have been doing some deep thinking in this area. Luckily, there are quite a few great resources for this.
Past History
I have never thought of myself as a personal knowledge manager, but I have always known myself as a copious note taker - at work, and in my personal life. Within the first couple weeks at my first job in IT - doing tech support for Windows and Microsoft Office in a call center - I created a Word document with an ever-expanding table of questions and issues from customers, and the solutions to them. I did that because I didn’t want to have to ask a more senior person the same question twice, didn’t want to have my bosses thinking I couldn’t cut it in this job. Said differently, I wanted to be continually building up my personal knowledge. And organizing my growing set of little bits of knowledge in a way that was easy - and fast - for me to access in the heat of all the tech support calls I handled every day.
I soon moved on from Word documents with tables - at least in part because in that era of MS Office tables in Word became famous for often being the cause of documents becoming corrupted and unusable. The approach never went away though. Noting things down so I can find them and make good use of them has been a constant for me. I know that it has made me far more effective in my job roles, and it has been an essential tool in my personal life as well.
Right Now - My PKM v1.1 and Why this is important to me
I am optimistically considering my right now, three weeks into an exciting new rethinking of PKM journey, as a sort of v1.1 stage for me. I’m not close to a full version 2.0 level up yet, but I’ve got the big ambition to get there soon-ish.
At this v1.1 stage I’m still fleshing out and tweaking what I think are the most useful takeaways, the key points that will help me get better at PKM. Here’s a few of these:
The core of this still feels the same - I want to always be building my personal knowledge, always be learning
And I want the things that I learn that are the most important and useful to me, to be permanently accessible to me
Even more so, easily accessible to me
In order to be … better at my work, and better at life and getting the most out of it
My note taking game needs an overhaul, it’s underway, and I hope to write more on its progress soon
Shoulders I am Standing On, Brains I am Stealing From
I first started down this learning path thanks to Ernie Hayden. I’ve been stealing ideas from him and putting them to work ever since I read his excellent book - Critical Infrastructure Risk Assessment. I’ve been fortunate enough to become friends with Ernie and he turned me on to my gateway book into PKM - Building a Second Brain, by Tiago Forte.
That book, and Tiago’s YouTube videos on building a second brain, have lead to discovering the following great resources in this area and surrounding neighborhoods:
One More Thing - Obsidian
I now have two note taking apps that I use daily. Nimbus Note and - the newcomer - Obsidian. The screenshots in this post are from Obsidian - which has let me explore and appreciate the ways to link notes and thoughts and ideas in powerful ways.
Are any of you diving into PKM? Or are you already PKM deep divers? Please share any of your favorite resources if you are.
Hi, Patrick! Thanks for the shout out for me and my book! You are very kind!
Yes, PKM has been on my radar for about a year and a half. I, like you, didn't know what it meant until I saw some Tiago Forte interviews on Ali Aballa's YouTube videos. I then went to Tiago's web site (https://fortelabs.com) and started digging into everything he wrote and published videos. I then read his book, Building a Second Brain, and I was hooked.
Just like you, I've historically been a "hoarder and filer" -- probably the beginnings of a PKM system -- but Tiago's BASB book and processes have really helped me organize and manage my knowledge. Additionally, Tiago's system has allowed me "permission" to ignore things that aren't insightful or important as well as process and file those things that are. For me, it has been a game-changer -- and I don't mean that lightly.
Patrick, I look forward to us journeying together on this PKM path.
Cheers! Ernie Hayden