Welcome to the PKM weekly newsletter. My goal is to round up good resources in the PKM space so you don’t have to.
I released two new courses in the last week. First, a course on running a YouTube Channel from an iPad. Second, Stay Organized with Things 3. The least expensive way to get them is to become a member and get all my courses. Members also get my weekly research notes.
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Bigger Ideas
Platform agnostic ideas that may help your PKM process. They may feature a software, but I think they apply to more than a single platform.
READ THIS – I very much enjoyed the process outlined here for reading and researching so that you can to a written conclusion on a topic. I’ll have a member post next Saturday on my disagreement with one part of this article. Yup, I’ll make that one free and link it here as well.
Bryan Jenks shows off quick capture with the Hints application.
Overcoming fear of academic writing.
A neat pen trick for reading and some discussion about a standing desk for reading.
Ryder Caroll did a guided journalling video for World Mental Health Day.
How do address continuing cards in an analogue Zettelkasten.
There really isn’t a “right” way to Zettelkasten. Read some books, and watch some videos. Keep the parts that work for you and don’t use the parts that don’t work for you.
A minimal Bullet Journal. I like the less-designed journals because they seem useful. The heavily designed ones seem more about showing off our art skills.
The OP asks if they’re underlining and linking properly.
Pen vs Mechanical pencil for the durability of handwriting. I go with a fountain pen and ink that has graphite in it, which doesn’t fade.
Why Apple Notes is the best note-taking system for Apple users.
What are the problems PKM users struggle with?
Part 4 of a series on building a colourful second brain.
How to build an effective content production schedule. Just like the writer, I have a very consistent production schedule. Monday is for YouTube. Friday is for Member Newsletter and then planning writing for Monday. Saturday morning is for this newsletter. With releasing two courses recently I simply took the Monday block and made it for those courses, hence no YouTube videos for two weeks.
How to avoid scattering all your information across to many formats.
Help the OP decide between OneNote and Obsidian, as they keep changing between the tools when frustrations mount.
Using creative techniques in the Zettelkasten framework.
Improve your academic writing by saying less.
And here is the compass technique referred to in the article above. Similar to my Questions Connectors Ask idea.
You can use your PKM tool for journalling and memory aids to help remember that play you went to…or the name of that excellent dessert you had.
Here’s a list of why a physical system is excellent, though the comments point out that all the features describe Obsidian and Logseq.
Something Interesting
Because we’re all lookin to expand our minds a bit.
Consume less create more. If you’re consuming more than you’re creating…do you have the energy to create?
The trades are dying. This video has me thinking about what we can do to encourage the trades as a viable career path.
I found this discussion of growing a newsletter without Twitter interesting. Of particular interest was the comment about growing fast if you pick a public fight with someone.
Software
Looking for a tag-focused notes app.
Santi took a look at Tana and talked about why he thinks it’s a “game changer”. I’m not convinced. Tana sounds like an “everything” tool and it seems to me that we go from favouring everything tools to focused single tools and back again.
Craft
Even with Craft having a Windows version, these notes are not accessible from all devices. One reason I like Obsidian and .md files. I can work on them anywhere and sync them in so many ways I can’t even describe them all.
Although, there is also some discussion on using both Obsidian and Craft at the same time.
Obsidian
Nicole did a video on the new tabs feature in Obsidian.
Here is an example of using Obsidian to research and get a new job.
Danny did a video on Zotero and Obsidian.
1 hour on taking D&D notes in Obsidian.
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