At the beginning of the year I started working on improving my note taking setup in Obsidian. I dove (again) into personal knowledge management systems, Zettlekasten, atomic notes, etc. I’m not too dogmatic about any of these topics but enjoy learning about them and incorporating what resonates in my note taking.

I haven’t posted on my blog in a bit. So, I decided to dip into my Zettlekasten-ish cards and lower the barrier for posting by sharing what I’ve already written.

🗃️ Easy entry points to a PKMS are key to engagement

Engaging with a Personal Knowledge Management System (PKMS), e.g. one based on Zettlekasten, could be overwhelming. Once a PKMS grows it can be challenging to decide how to work on it, as it may feel like a giant unorganized mess. The creator of Zettlekasten used index cards with potential entry points to his system. The index cards were not excessive, as once you enter the system you could quickly traverse it in unexpected and expanding directions via links.

Thus the main idea here is that easy entry points to the PKMS are key to engaging with it. Having many threads to grab and enter the system removes a huge point of friction and potential procrastination.

In my personal system, potential entry points include:

• 🏠 Home note which aggregates a lot of the following entry points
• 📔 Daily notes in Journal
• 🌐 Maps of Content (MoCs)
• ⛵ Boat notes - floating notes of unshaped thoughts, ideas, questions, etc.
• 🗂️ Unreviewed sources, such as articles, podcasts, etc.
• 🌱 Sprout cards in need of more fleshing out to become evergreen notes