“Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) is the practice of capturing the ideas and insights we encounter in our daily life, whether from personal experience, from books and articles, or from our work, and cultivating them over time to produce more creative, higher quality work.” — Tiago Forte
My official journey into knowledge management began when I came across Tiago Forte on Twitter. The idea of “Building a Second Brain,” a methodology for saving knowledge in an external, centralized place, intrigued me. It wasn’t before long that I became a subscriber of Tiago’s Praxis blog and dove deeper into his work on modern productivity. Each new learning I had was accompanied by increasing excitement, as well as relief, which at the time I didn’t fully understand. However, in thinking about why I had experienced a sensation of comfort, it became clear. The digital world of information abundance has left me as no stranger to disorder, information overload, and simply not knowing what to do with the ideas in my head. At times, it’s felt like a powerless position, and Tiago’s work was the beginning of a solution. Creators like Anne-Laure Le Cunff of Ness Labs and David Perell of Write of Passage have also shared ideas that have contributed to understanding and developing a Personal Knowledge Management system for myself. This has been not only game-changing, but life-changing.
Note: This piece is intended to synthesize fundamental ideas I’ve learned from Anne-Laure, Tiago, and David so far.
Get Your Mind Right
In an article on her website, Ness Labs, Anne-Laure shares a process she developed called “mindframing.” It has served as an important reference for changing my headspace to create and see things through. I’ve briefly summarized the three main frames of mindframing below.
Growth Mindset
A growth mindset views talents and abilities as not being fixed. When you believe your abilities can be developed through hard work and dedication, you’re more likely to have a level of patience with the process and persist in times of challenge. More specifically, Anne-Laure emphasizes that a growth mindset is “having the deep belief that growing happens through small, incremental steps, rather than big overnight victories.”
Metacognition
Do you ever think about thinking? If so, you’re performing metacognition. Anne-Laure describes metacognition as “your knowledge of what you do and don’t know, as well as all the strategies you use for learning and problem solving.” For example, implementing a productivity strategy that supports your ability to write more consistently is metacognition in action. The more aware you are of how you understand, retain, and reuse information, the more feedback you have for iteration.
Self-authorship
Self-authorship is grounded in personal authority. It’s accepting that although you can’t control external realities, you can control the way in which you react to them. There are three specific ways we can develop more self-authorship: 1) question our values and beliefs, 2) hang out with diverse people, and 3) take responsibility.
“You can have the best tools and strategies, but if you don’t have the right mind frame, things are not going to work.” — Anne-Laure Le Cunff
Developing Your Personal Knowledge Management System
Personal Knowledge Management depends on an active relationship with information consumption. We can facilitate this with our mindset and an “information diet.” When hearing the word diet, you may hesitate and think of deprivation, however don’t be wary. An information diet often leads to higher quality information, which like any more nutritious food source, contains a higher concentration of value for sustenance. Active information consumption not only consists of being more thoughtful about the information you intake, but also relies on a creative process to build knowledge. The combination of these two things leads to a transformation. David Perell says, “It’s a fundamental transformation of going from a pure passive consumer of the world to an active producer in it.”
A Producer’s Workflow
Tiago sequences “Building a Second Brain” into three fundamental steps, capture, connect, and create. These steps provide a high level overview of what a producer’s workflow entails.
Capture
What information is worth saving?
We are consuming raw information all the time. From books to articles to podcasts to Twitter feeds, information has a way of coming at you in all directions. But how do you determine what information is worth saving or not? Intuition, curiosity, and usefulness drive most of my information decision making. I’ve chosen to filter information this way to help keep it personal and relevant.
When it comes to consuming the information I save, I picked up an important productivity trick from Tiago. The trick: Save the information you come across for future consideration. I’ve been down plenty of information rabbit holes, which usually lead to time consuming, distracting detours. Have I experienced unique, creative inspiration from following a spark in the moment? Yes, and there are times I embrace that spontaneity, however more often than not, it’s proven to be unproductive. By saving information for a later time, you can be that much more intentional when you go back to review it.
How do you store notes?
The P.A.R.A. (Projects, Areas, Resources, Archives) method developed by Tiago can be used as the heart of your PKM system. It’s centered on organizing notes based on projects you’re actively working on. Why organize notes this way? Tiago says, “This ensures that you are consuming information with a purpose — to advance your projects and goals — and only at a time and place where you’ll be able to put it to use.” If you’re interested in learning more about P.A.R.A., Tiago explains it in more detail here.
Capturing information is the most tool heavy part of Personal Knowledge Management, and I suggest experimenting through trial and error. It’s also helpful to read about and watch how other people use note-taking tools like Evernote, Notion, Obsidian, and Roam Research. This will help you find the tools that support the most optimal, integrated system for you. The key is that you structure and systematize your note-taking in a way that creates flexibility, clarity, and less resistance. In the words of James Clear, “Systems are best for making progress.”
Connect
You now have information to take notes on, but how do you take those notes and get them into a state where they’re ready to be applied?
Tiago developed a technique he calls progressive summarization that’s designed to make notes more discoverable and presented in a way where context isn’t lost. The truth is that summarizing is hard, and that’s largely because we don’t often know what a note is going to be used for. You’re summarizing in the present for the future. Fortunately, a technique like progressive summarization is performed in layers, which leaves an obvious trail of your intellectual exploration.
“The challenge is knowing which knowledge is worth acquiring, and then building a system to forward bits of it through time, to the future situation or problem or challenge where it is most applicable, and most needed.” — Tiago Forte
Note: Looking to dive deeper into note-taking? I suggest reading Sonke Ahren’s book, How to Take Smart Notes, which explores the note-taking method of Zettelkasten.
Create
John Mayer in a clinic at Berklee College of Music told students, “Your hardest job is to convert information into your inspiration.” By unloading your thoughts and ideas into an organized space, you’re freeing your biological brain to imagine and create, all while making it easier to synthesize information. The ability to combine ideas in interesting and inspiring ways is a core goal of Personal Knowledge Management.
Sharing in Public
Sharing in public involves documenting and releasing your work for feedback before it’s finished. When discussing the benefits, Anne-Laure says, “Done properly and in a way that fits within your workflow, it will dramatically increase your productivity and creativity.” By sharing in public, you can begin to make connections between your own ideas and other people’s ideas. It’s like giving your ideas oxygen, and the chance to expand. The world is a network of ideas. Your ideas are the most powerful when they are out in it.
“The Internet rewards people who learn in public.” — David Perell
Taylor Bickell 