There is art in doing as much as possible, as easily as possible and that’s what I call being productive lazy. It’s the term I use to describe my approach of doing as much as possible with as little effort as possible and applies particularly to repetitive tasks where I want them done quickly and without having to think too much. There is too much going on in my world to allow thinking where I don’t need to.
Productive Laziness
17 views in this landscape.
Personal Knowledge Management
Personal Knowledge Management or PKM is the art of taking personal responsibility for the knowledge that you need to refer to in going about your daily life. It is a skill and discipline similar to what a librarian or museum curator may perform in their role, but differs because personal knowledge management has to reflect your personal view of the world.
Tags Are Not Knowledge
Tags, or other similar metadata, added to resources in a Personal Knowledge Management system are not content. They are best used to help you curate resources and can answer questions such as: What was written in July 2023? (add a date) Where are all the references to books? (add #book) What am I currently working on? (add to-develop) When used as markers for the content of a resource - exactly like keywords - an issue arises where one tag can mean multiple things.
Personal Knowledge Management Systems Must Be Flexible
Any Personal Knowledge Management system must be flexible. It needs to accommodate: changes in taxonomy - knowledge is not fixed, and certainly our interpretation of knowledge is open to change. That comes from Being a Learner. changes in document format - knowledge comes in many forms and it’s frequently a low-value activity to convert from one format to another, unless converting into a searchable format from one that is not searchable.
Discovering Johnny.Decimal
This evening I’ve been reading through the documentation on the Johnny.Decimal system. It’s a method for organising documentation across multiple areas and categories and so falls within the realm of Personal Knowledge Management. It’s not the only system of this type. I’ve looked at, and tried quite a few.
Getting Things Done with Obsidian
This article is about how I have implemented the Getting Things Done Methodology (GTD) within the Obsidian note taking application. It is not commentary on how to follow the GTD methodology, nor will it necessarily reflect the methodology in its pure form^[Those familiar with GTD no there is no such thing as a pure implementation.].
Generation Effect
This reminds me of the common theme I’ve heard from Personal Knowledge Management over the last 2 years. That is, make notes in your own words. Research has shown you remember better your own notes. I’ve experienced that this week in how I’ve slowly approached Ontology of the Human Observer and created my own definitions.
Scripting Templates in Obsidian
Here be some dragons. This is a quick post to explain how Javascript can be used eliminate the need to update multiple pages if the structure of your metadata changes. Using Javascript comes with risks. Enter at your own peril. dd Within Obsidian, the combination of the Dataview and Templater plugins can make for a powerful way to access and organise your notes using metadata.
Sure Doesn't Feel Like a Year Off
Monday will be the first King’s Birthday public holiday. It’s not feeling like a typical long weekend for me. Maybe I’ve had too many public holidays and they are all the same. That got me thinking… From the start of my professional working career up until 2013, I had 10 public holidays a year. From 2014, that increased to 11.
My Fight With Metadata
For the last 2 weeks I’ve been working with metadata and the information that I want to track in Obsidian. As my Digital Garden, keeping information about the books I read, the movies I watch and the games I play, creates a full picture of my life (hey, maybe one day someone will be interested). Two factors triggered this latest dive into an all to familiar rabbit hole.
My Document Toolkit
I curate a lot of digital documentation for myself and my family. Within this Personal Knowledge Management it is important to remove as much friction from the system. There are so many demands on our time, that the smallest resistance can easily provide an excuse to switch on Australian Idol or Survivor and do nothing.
Alternative Day Names to Save Time
My proposed list of alternative day names to help us organise time easier and avoid confusion across the week.
RSS Remains an Important Technology
I’ve written several times over the past 20 years that RSS feeds are important yet can be a hinderance as much as a help. RSS Gathers News and Audio to Me I use them extensively in my news reader (currently News Explorer) to go out to websites that offer a RSS feed and pull the news to me. I don’t have the time to visit every site and see if there is something new to read.
Workflow for Importing my Old Blog Entries
Since discovering my old blog entries I’ve been developing a workflow to import them into my current Wordpress blog. Spanning 2002–2012 there is value in bringing it all together, even if it takes some time. There are a lot of ideas in there which were valuable at the time, and are still valuable now.
Ideas are Better in Bed
Conversations such as blog posts that I write in my head lying in bed or when walking are always better than they end up when I type them. I wonder if it’s because typing is simply physical and there is less emotion accessible in the moment.
Do you over-aside?
I’ve noticed recently a tendency in myself and others to add layer upon layer of explanation when we are talking. Once I saw it, I realised how counter-productive it is. We think we are helping, but we’re not. Piling up information faster than the recipient can process it. I park my car a few hundred meters from where I work.
Interrupting the Flow of Work has a Tax
Nobody likes interruptions (unless they are good news) but regardless, each interruption that occurs takes not only the time of the interruption itself but a little longer as you strive to get back to where you were beforehand. If you are in a flow state, this can take a long time and there is a risk you may not regain your previous level of thinking.
Backlinks are Important
Backlinks are links on a web page/note that list other web pages/notes which refer to it. Within my Digital Garden, backlinks are critical in making connections between ideas. They are important because content does not always flow in one direction and knowing what links to a particular page can create a more informative context or open up new avenues of learning.