PKM in the Wild Newsletter #7

Happy New Year all!

I hope the end of 2023 was good to you, and thank you for joining me in 2024. It’s going to be a fun year!

I had a massive influx of emails in the new year that I found quite overwhelming and I didn’t want to add to that, so I’m starting the fortnightly newsletters from today, 8th Jan. This is uncharacteristically long given it’s been a while!

Content Roundup

Videos

Just one for now (though I’m filming a day on the life of my digital system this week now I’m back to a more standard looking week!)

My Note-taking Process- talking about why it’s a hobby over everything and how I work with notes in that context in Capacities.

Articles

Multimedia Notes in Capacities - expanding/writing up the video about House Inspiration in Capacities

My Note-taking Process (2023)- write up of my most recent video

Books I bought this year because they made my PKM heart sing - I found the coolest book ever in a second-hand bookshop and it inspired this post.

8 lessons I learned about life in 2023- some of that good old, EOY self-reflection

One Year of PKM Beth, and looking ahead to 2024- I just had my one year anniversary of publishing online! Also talked about my plans for this year and my ethos as a creator.

The 2024 App Audit- A quick update on what apps I’m using this year as of right now!

Everything I do with my digital systems- what does it mean to run your life with digital tools?

Why I use 4 different note-taking apps- the all-in-one app life is not for me, and I explain exactly why that is

Content I’ve been enjoying- New Year Edition

There’s so much content about planning and yearly reviews in December that you have to pick carefully what you read otherwise it can become so overwhelming, and not empowering like intended.

Here’s a selection of content I’ve really enjoyed:

Kara and Renée walked through their planning routines in Obsidian and Tana respectively and they were amazing pieces.

It’s fascinating to see how things translate into different apps and what other people’s processes are. Both really enjoyable reads with lots of things to think about and implement.

Réka also published a piece that gave me lots of food for thought, all about intentionality. Centring intentionality in the last few months changed the game for me, and reading Réka’s perspective on it helped even more. She is one of the best writers I follow, and I found this piece so motivating.

PKM Puzzles - Watchlists

This section is in response to this tweet!

I have mentioned before that most of my notes start with having read a book or watched something that’s piqued my interest in a topic/person. Therefore it’s probably not surprising I have a watchlist. From my other content, you’d expect this to be in Twos (with the other lists).

But it’s not, it’s actually spread between Capacities, Notion and Raindrop and it’s honestly not working.

Why?

So what does all this tell me?

Firstly, I’m reminded that workflows are best practices, rather than rules to live and die by. Raindrop works for nearly all the links I save but not for the watch list because I don’t want things on the same devices I go through Raindrop on.

Secondly, do I even need a watchlist? Unless I stuck a little piece of paper on top of the TV that said “remember you have a watch list”, I’m honestly not sure how I’d remember it exists, wherever I put it. A lot of the time, what I want to watch is based on what subscription services we’re signed up to at the time, and what is available on them, and that always changes. So a static watchlist perhaps isn’t very practical.

Thirdly, if I want to watch a tv show about Georgian England after taking some notes about it, I feel like a google/chatGPT/reddit search would give me plenty of options. I don’t desperately need them in an app, even in Capacities? I guess the timeline I wish to create would be more meaningful if I understand/have watched everything on it.

Finally, if I am not remembering to use the watchlist in whatever app it’s in, I lose nothing by transferring all items to be watched into one app.

Now by the logic of what I said above, I could probably delete all the watchlist items and start from scratch.

But I don’t like deleting things, so I think I’ll just move everything to Twos, where my lists live. I’d guess there’s a slightly higher chance of remembering where it is if it’s in my self-designated app list.

Disclaimer

For those reading this that believe I’m looking way too deeply into this, you are correct. I put a lot of thought into what I’m doing before I take any action but it’s always, always a case of trial and error. I think it’s part of the fun!!

Some Real Life PKM

Imagine the glee I felt reading Stian’s tweet.. I had been looking for something to really spark a wave of note-taking fun and this was it. I’ve been thinking about timelines and tying fragments together in eras for months.

I went straight to Capacities and started planning this out.

I think exploring this would be best done in a video if there is enough interest.

I’d be exploring why I am choosing certain Capacities workflows/practices, rather than telling you about the Vikings… is this of any interest? Let me know below!

But anyway, the screenshot…

My aim is at the top to keep me focused on this mammoth task, and there are collapsible sections beneath for me to brainstorm ideas and sources while I start this project.

Then, because I like things to look nice, I made a pretty looking contents to keep me motivated. In doing so I remembered you can’t really look at centuries without an understanding of the era they’re in, which is an idea I’ve been mulling over in history notes and my personal life for months. So I made an eras section too.

This is just from a couple of hours of work, so lots to do and evolve here.

I am SO excited about this project and everything I’ll learn, in terms of history but also note-taking. Think there will be lots to share.

So there’s the first, enormously long newsletter edition for the year. So excited to keep writing and learning together.

Speak soon,

Beth