PKM: Personal Knowledge Management
Messy Organization Tools turn into a system
Since beginning this series about messy organization tools, I've been introduced to the concept of PKM - personal knowledge management, born from the idea that "knowledge workers" need to be responsible for their own growth and learning.
In spite of the fact that "knowledge worker" sounds a bit back alley, I agree with the concept and resonated with this whole idea of managing more adeptly the flood of information that comes our way. So this post is recap of the tools I use … and would love to know what other tools you find helpful.
I have embarked on a large learning project which will require a lot of information gathering from a several different fields. (BTW, I don’t know where this is going but having the creative freedom to point myself in a direction to see where it will lead me is fun and a great privilege. I assume it will become a writing project of some sort, with some Substack posts along the way.)
Gradually, the tools I’ve been using and a few new ones have lined up to form what seems like a decent system … it’s the early days but it shows promise. Here’s an overview:
Beginning with a failure: Evernote
A lot of this journey has been prompted by the failure of Evernote which has been my information bucket for many years. I have been an ardent fan of Evernote since I began using it 10,766 notes ago. Somewhere along the line, for me at least, it went askew. It has grown more complex and the search engine doesn’t find notes I know are there. Sadly, I am in the process of disengaging from it and can no longer recommend it.
Briefly, here’s the system I’m using now.
Planning … Getting started
Desk calendar … explained more fully in this post.
Mind Node … mindmapping software for doing the messy thinking that new projects require. Free version and inexpensive annual/monthly subscription. More about mindmapping here.
Perplexity … a welcome reprieve from the overly “sponsored” and cluttered Google search. Even if you hate the thought of AI, you may find this useful for quick overviews of complex subjects and questions.
Gathering information
Obsidian … self-described as “the private and flexible writing app that adapts to the way you think.” It claims to sharpen your thinking as you take notes from all the sources of information you’re collecting. Because it emphasizes *your* notes and linking notes together, I think this might actually work. So far, it is easy and intuitive … and there are YouTube tutorials that are simple and helpful. Plus, it’s free for personal use.
Zotero … this has been a game changer. It bills itself as “your personal research assistant.” It is free and comes with an installable “collector” which let’s you add web pages to Zotero with a click of a button on your browser bar. Very easy to use and is my primary alternative to the information collection function of Evernote. It’s so much better than leaving websites open to “read later.”
TapForms5 … This small piece of software is one of my most valuable tools. It is a simple database manager that stores my life-time collection of quotes. I am now starting to find dozens of other uses for it. $49.99 for mac … and that’s not an annual subscription.
Drafting a piece of writing
Numbers (spreadsheets on mac) … while this can be used for data gathering also, I mainly use it to sort and find organization toward the beginning of a writing project.
Keynote (or PowerPoint) … this is turning into a drawing and modeling tool to help me find the organizing structure of whatever I’m thinking about. With it’s large store of “shapes,” it has become my go-to visual thinking tool and also the simple layout format for most of my flipbooks. The graphic above is a Keynote slide.
Scrivener (of course) … I can’t imagine a writing life without Scrivener. All new projects begin there. It can be complicated and I probably only use 10% of it but it’s where most posts begin and where all the free floating ideas are captured. The standard license for mac is $59.99.
That’s it and I’d love to hear about any tools that make your writing life better.
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Another recovering former Evernotes user here. I moved most everything into DEVONthink which covers a lot of the ground that you listed here. On the surface Obsidian is the closest comparison but a lot more under the hood. The only thing it does not do very well is sync docs and notes across devices. There is a mobile version but I have gotten along with it so well.
Thank you. Your tools and comments have got me thinking. And re-evaluating. I’m looking forward to trying out some of the tools you mention.