In this article, I'm going to dissect the core piece of my Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) system. I'll explain which tools I'm using, but most importantly how I organize my knowledge.
Update 2022-05-06: Since publishing this article, I've perfected my approach and created the Obsidian Starter Kit to make it available for you all. It includes everything you need to get started with Obsidian as well as my recommendations for how to improve your workflow.
Most people I know don't pay much attention to their knowledge. They focus on reading, and learning, but never consider the fact that their memory is fundamentally flawed. My goal with this article is not to question your beliefs about knowledge management (I'll give that a try another day 😂), but simply to explain how I manage my own.
Alright, let's dive in!
Goals of my PKM system
One of the goals for my PKM system is to stay out of my way as much as possible. Also, I never consider anything to be set in stone. I regularly revisit the structure, and never hesitate to run experiments. I consider that my PKM system needs to adapt to me as I evolve through life.
Tools I use for PKM
I currently use Obsidian to store my PKM system, but the structure I describe here can be used with most of the other tools out there.
I use a single Obsidian vault to store all of my knowledge. I really don't want to use multiple ones as that would hinder my ability to link elements with one another.
Overview of my PKM tool's top level structure
Here is an overview of my current top-level structure:
The base structure is quite simple. In the rest of the article, I'll describe the purpose of each of those folders, one at a time.
Root
At the very top, I have a "_ROOT" folder, in which I store a few notes:
Top of mind: whatever is on my mind "right now", and probably the very next things I want to look at. This is my scratchpad. Whenever I want to dump ideas, or save context, the information goes there
This note is absolutely essential for me. I keep going back to it many times throughout the week. You can learn more about it here
The "Journal" folder is where I keep my daily notes as well as my weekly/monthly/quarterly/yearly reviews:
I move daily notes to folders corresponding to the year and week to avoid ending up with 365 items in the list at the end of the year.
I use the daily notes all day long. As part of my daily notes, I track things such as:
The progress towards my goals for the day
My achievements
My discoveries
What I've learned
What I'm grateful for
...
I don't necessarily write it all directly in Obsidian, but I make sure to transfer whatever I wrote elsewhere during the day, or the next day at the latest.
At the end of each week, I review those notes to extract knowledge, ideas, quotes, etc. This serves two purposes. First and foremost, it gives me a clear understanding of where my time & energy have gone, and whether I was focused or not. Second, it gives me the momentum to organize my personal knowledge regularly. If there's interest, I'll write another article to explain how I go about doing this.
You can find more information about my journaling approach and the tools I use in my two-part series on the subject:
I use the PARA method of Tiago Forte to structure the rest of my personal knowledge management system. Actually, I also use the PARA method to organize my data in various systems; not only for PKM.
Inside the "Projects" folder, I have one sub-folder for each ongoing project. This includes my main projects (e.g., Dev Concepts), but also secondary ones that I have on the back burner such as launching my Youtube channel or learning more about Web 3:
How I organize Resources
Inside the "Resources" folder, I store reference materials, screenshots, diagrams, templates, scripts, and more:
How I organize Archives
My "Archives" folder contains past projects and resources I don't need anymore, but could want to find back later. I probably hoard too much content, but it has helped me a few times already.
How I organize my notes within Areas
Last but not least, my "Areas" folder contains the key elements of my Personal Knowledge Management system:
How I organize my Contacts
The first area is the "Contacts" folder, which is my professional and personal CRM. Inside of it, I have notes for different organizations and people I have had contact with. Everything is in there: friends, family, acquaintances, ex-colleagues, business partners, etc. I use my personal CRM to keep track of useful information such as birthdays, e-mails, phone numbers, key information I care about.
How I organize Meeting notes
In the "Meeting Notes" folder, I record my meeting notes, and make links with CRM entries. By tagging the relevant persons/organizations. This allows me to keep track of who said what/when, decisions made, etc. No fancy tools required!
I generally use the following tags for my meetings: #meeting #decision #task. Thanks to those, I can quickly query relevant information.
How I store temporary (fleeting) notes
Next to that, I have a folder for "Fleeting Notes". Anything I scribble to think about later goes in there. Fleeting notes include rough ideas, questions that pop into my mind (e.g., while reading), etc.
By definition, fleeting notes are temporary. Whatever ends up there is destined to transform or disappear at some point. To learn more about this, check out my article about the Zettelkasten method.
The problem with keeping fleeting notes floating too long around is that they accumulate quickly and make less and less sense as the context in which they were taken fades away.
Ideally, I would like to be able to create fleeting notes from anywhere (mail, phone, Slack, Discord, IM, etc), but I don't have tools that can do that yet (I want to create those!).
How I store my inspiration (literature) notes
Inside my "Literature Notes", I store everything that I find inspiring throughout my days: expressions, quotes, book highlights, book summaries, interesting tweets, etc. Literature notes are always inspired by content produced by others that pique my interest.
Anytime I read non-fiction, I try to take notes and store those in there:
As you can see on the screenshot above, I have a literature inbox. I use that as a temporary space for rough literature notes that I need to review and split up. I review those notes once a week during my weekly reviews. As part of my review, I complete the drafts, add tags, etc.
Most importantly, whenever I add literature notes, I think about the subject for a few minutes and create fleeting/permanent notes that I link with the newly added literature notes. This step is crucial as it helps me surface the ideas, thoughts and questions I have about that subject.
As I mentioned above, I systematically tag my literature notes. Here's a simple example for a quote:
Tags allow me to quickly find content back. The difficulty with tagging is to be consistent.
How I store my own (permanent) notes
The most important piece of the puzzle are my "Permanent notes". Those are my own thoughts, ideas and ramblings. Those notes are the core piece of my PKM system.
I split those into two parts:
Again there's an inbox so that I give myself a chance to review notes before adding them to the main content (usually when I'm in a rush, don't have time to pause or don't want to lose my current focus). As with my literature notes, I review those regularly to ensure that the context of those notes is still fresh in my mind.
While reviewing the notes in my inbox, I focus on the subject (just like with literature notes) to see if it triggers some additional thoughts/ideas that I can add to my fleeting or permanent notes. I also tag those properly and link those with relevant content (e.g., literature notes and other permanent notes). Finally, I also add important permanent notes to my Maps of Content (MoCs). I'll tell you about MoCs another day!
And yes, you've guessed it: it's also a concept of the Zettelkasten method that I have included in my Obsidian Starter Kit.
As you probably know if you follow my blog/newsletter, I really enjoy writing a lot. The "Writing" area of my PKM system is where I write my initial drafts and keep a copy of my main pieces.
My "Writing" area is one that I really want to improve in the coming months/years. Currently, only a fraction of what I write is available in my PKM, and it is a growing pain that I feel. It is frustrating because it means that I have a sort of split brain, and I'm unable to link all my ideas together. The thing is that it is difficult for me to accept duplicating my content. Ideally, I'd prefer to have a single tool where I can host my content, but also share it with the world and keep it up to date everywhere. I haven't found a solution yet, which is why I'd actually like to build it myself.
Another area that I'm keen to explore is the productivity aspect. So far, I use another information silo for my tasks: Trello. But I'm not using any of the advanced features it provides. My PKM could actually host my tasks, as long as I can create Kanban boards. One reason for which I'm interested in merging my productivity system with my PKM system is that I would be able to archive past tasks, tag those, and keep notes of the context and related discoveries. Oftentimes, I archive Trello tasks that contain a lot of useful information and lose it forever.
Finally, a key aspect that I'm currently missing in my PKM system is keeping track of content I'm interested in consuming/exploring (e.g., articles, books, Tweets, Twitter threads, etc). Currently, I use other information silos for that (e.g., IMdb, Goodreads, TV Time, etc). And silos are never great for integration. I intend to take care of this curation issue myself.
Conclusion
Those are the core parts of my current PKM system. Hopefully, this will give you a few ideas about how to better organize your own. ✨
To be honest this is actually only a fraction of my entire knowledge management system. As you saw, I've mentioned a few others systems that I use such as Trello, Goodreads, IMdb, TV Time, and more. But I'll tell you more about the rest in a future article!
As I said at the beginning of the article, nothing is set in stone. If you ask me in a few months, I'll probably have changed quite a few things 😂. But that's the cool thing about PKM; it can evolve together with you. 🎉
If I can leave you with one piece of advice, it is to experiment. To different things, and don't hesitate to revisit your choices.
Expect more articles about PKM on my blog in the future!
Sebastien Dubois
