Personal knowledge management is stupid

While I obviously spend a lot of time on PKM, I also think that we are making things way more complex than it really should be.

So in this video I'm talking about doing less and letting go of making it all perfect.

[three_owl_night]

I was listening to a podcast and wanted to write down some notes. I anticipate a conversation (or more like a debate) to happen I wanted to create a virtual space for writing down my position with references. I have a simple, intuitively built system on OneNote, but at some point I fell for the allure of Notion and wanted to create a Second Brain here. So I thought: Ok, lets watch a short video on how to get started with the knowledge base on Notion, so I can put my notes there....Well, within seconds I got extremely overwhelmed by the videos and the complexity of the task I created for myself. There are an hour long videos on Notion templates, and I realized I'd need to spend many hours just learning how to create the system (if you don't want to pay a $100 on a fancy template), before I could be able to do the ACTUAL TASK - preparing for the conversation. And I am so happy I stumbled across your video that brought me down to Earth and remind what is really important.

[skeovkp]

It was such a relief listening to this! I"ve just discovered Obsidian and love its flexibility, so started watching videos on personal knowledge management. As a result I started feeling more and more inadequate - there's no way I'm going to spend so much time and effort organizing information. I just know I'm eventually going to get overwhelmed by it all. Your way sounds much more doable.

[KitBetts-Masters]

Brilliant, so glad I found this channel. I agree, I always like starting a new PKM system, because it's all neat and tidy, until it's crowded and then... yep. The mountain thing!

[denisafloroaiei]

This is just plain amazing. It's 100% true. We complicate everything.

[kevinmorris]

Love the video. Being intentional about my notes is something I have done when I moved from Evernote (which I hoarded things in for years) to Obsidian. I cleaned house. My basic filter: is it something I will easily find with a Google search later (then do not keep it) or is it something that may disappear from online, something I am deeply interested in or something that I want to collect information from various sources and condense it. (then I store it) I also use it to store important things that I might want to keep notes on vs. just storing a document or an image. Another key point from your video that resonated with me was enjoying the process. I enjoy the process of writing and pondering. I need to realize this more and keep it in mind. Thanks for the counterbalance.

[LinkEX]

As an over-systemizer, I feel personally attacked.

Now if you excuse me, I'll need to get back to write down more disjointed details to my hopelessly unpolished vault.
(I call it _The stub-born.)_

[mcaro]

Context is so important! I had a lot of trouble framing this problem and solution for myself early on, I am an aspiring creative professional (I want to eventually be living off my published writing/art) and part of my skill development is studying a variety of subjects to establish foundational knowledge to use in my stories.

Figuring out how to approach note-taking and studying in general was so confusing. One day I put some real thought into what I, me-personally, needed out of the studying. What information did I want to retain and how, what form did I need to interact with it to be applicable to the things I wanted to accomplish creatively. Within the context of my life and my goals I had very different (and specific) needs than whatever generic ideas I had about what learning and studying should entail

[dato]

Thank you!!! You’ve just saved me endless hours of what I suspected was ‘busywork’. I’m glad I’ve looked into this issue but I’m also very happy to have arrived at a clear view on this topic. Thanks again for this excellent video.

[MB-brwf]

Thanks for making this video! I needed to hear this today.

[kronikpillow]

I couldn't agree more ... ever since i started following you and other content creators regarding PKM's, I haven't actually found a good PKM solution that works for me, been a year now that im trying ...

[WhatIThink]

The AI integration in Mem and Readwise have made my note-taking and book highlights more useful, especially for projects and non-fiction information I need or am interested in. It's a hassle to tag notes but tagging is one crucial way to resurface notes. Bit the biggest friction for me is not having quality time to engage in the content I've collected. I basically use most of time for work related projects. Like you said it's important to understand *why* notes are being created and collected.

[KaneDodgson]

Good advice is given here; thank you. My whole system collapsed earlier in the year, just before I went to the USA for two months to do research. I got myself into a PKM hole, so instead, I took a notebook, and that was it. What a revelation that I did not need a PKM tool at all. I used a modified bullet journal approach. Now home, I transfer only the most essential highlights to Capacities (previously Logseq), although I still like using Logseq as a personal reflective journal. I will stick to a notebook as my first input and only transfer limited essential knowledge to a longer-term app.

On a side note, I really love that shirt, it is really nice

[googoogaagaayt]

There's only so much you can fit in your head. This video does not consider that each person has different needs and some people do need this.

[WorkAccount-lg]

the thing that sucks with that intro is I love neatly organizing things and I genuinely have the time to do it without missing out on doing anything important (I'm disabled, no job) and I feel like eventually I will publish my notes to a larger audience, either directly as an obsidian vault, or in another format for people to learn from.

[rolfgkarlsson]

I agree with what you say. I even understand the title, nothing wrong with that. For me, Logseq works reasonably well due to the backlinks, so I can go back to the topics when I need them, e.g. in a meeting. But the search functionality is not good. I find journaling best in a paper notebook using a fountain pen, it’s more about reflection.

[Gareth.W]

Hi. First time I've seen your videos but i watched it through till the very end. I'm at the very beginning of my digital note taking journey - literally just bought a Boox to replace my countless paper notebooks and am trying to come up with a workflow that'll work. I think your video may help me avoid making some common mistakes. I'm sure I'll probably need to rewatch it every now and again as a reminder to myself to keep it simple.

[erinsphone]

Thanks for putting into words what has been swimming around in my head! Well said!

[adriansrfr]

How to tell me you have no pkm or a terrible pkm without telling me you have a terrible pkm or no pkm. Good rant for those stuck in the same boat.

[NirobHossain-jbso]

I always use the code method from Tiago forte it helps me be selective regarding which things I capture in my notes .And my notes are just saved as a normal page in my project file.If you are curious I use "anytype"for notetaking it's simple to work with and something that I think should get more recognition

[JymCheong]

This is so good because it really reminds me that I am dumping too much into my notes! I switched from LogSeq to Obsidian not too long ago n it was those moment I wanted to get back to that note related to some Youtube video & I was like "Man! what was the exact video title!??! I roughly remembered it as something related to scripting or outlining a video. Half & hour of searching LogSeq AND Obsidian got me no where... then it just took < than a minute in Youtube search to find it...