Personal knowledge management (PKM) is a systematic process of collecting information that a person uses to gather, classify, store, search, retrieve, and share knowledge in their daily activities. It’s a response to the idea that knowledge workers need to be responsible for their own growth and learning in an era of information overload.

My PKMS Journey

My journey with knowledge management began over a decade ago when I was overwhelmed with information from multiple sources - books, articles, work documentation, and personal research. I’ve experimented with various systems over the years, evolving from simple note-taking to sophisticated digital gardens.

Evolution of My System:

• Early Days
  • Simple text files and hierarchical folder structures
• Structured Notes
  • Using Tiddlywiki for over 10 years to organize interconnected notes
• Digital Garden
  • Building a public-facing brainfck.org using org-roam and Hugo
• Current System
  • An integrated approach combining org-roam for note-taking, Hugo for publishing, and structured workflows for processing information

Technical Implementation

My current setup leverages several powerful tools:

• Emacs and org-mode: The foundation of my system, providing a flexible environment for note creation and management
• org-roam: For managing a network of interconnected notes with bi-directional links
• ox-hugo: To convert org files to markdown for Hugo publishing
• Git: For version control and backup of my knowledge base
• Hugo: For publishing selected portions of my knowledge as a digital garden

Recommended Resources

For those interested in developing their own PKMS, here are some resources I’ve found valuable:

• Books:
  • “Building a Second Brain” by Tiago Forte
  • “How to Take Smart Notes” by Sönke Ahrens
  • “Digital Minimalism” by Cal Newport
• Online Resources:
  • Andy Matuschak’s Notes
  • Zettelkasten.de
  • LYT Kit
  • Maggie Appleton’s Digital Garden