# My PKM workflow Created On: 06-19-2023 04:27 pm Up:: [[My Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) (MOC)]] Tags:: #note/evergreen🌲 Topics:: Related:: --- > [!note]- [[Your mileage may vary, YYMV]] > Up top, it is important to recognize that *this is how **I** use [[Obsidian]] as a tool to enable my Digital Garden workflow*, so please take it or leave it. > > The methodology that you'll find below is a *mix* of the following concepts: > - Traditional [[Zettelkasten]] > - [[Second Brain]] > - Interpretations of [[Sönke Ahrens]]'s [[How To Take Smart Notes (Book)]] > - Linking Your Thinking (LYT) ## Note Workflow This section visualizes and describes my personal [[Digital garden (DG)]] workflow. > [!tldr] TL;DR > Every new note starts as a [[Fleeting note]] (even a [[Literature note]]) and will eventually either become or propagate [[Permanent note|Permanent notes]]. Therefore, the concept of fleeting notes as a "note concept" isn't entirely accurate in my workflow - it is more of a bucket to hold the following: > > - Fleeting and [[Emergence (MOC)|emergent]] ideas from my head and existing Permanent notes. For example, if I'm working on a permanent note and discover a relevant concept for a new note, this becomes a fleeting note. > > - A [[Literature note]] that will eventually become mined or interpreted for [[Principle of Atomicity|atomic]] Permanent notes. Beyond this mining action, these literature notes remain and act as reference notes for your Permanent notes. > > From here, a [[Map of Content (MOC)]] is used as “higher order notes” to give a sense of vertical structure and meaning to other notes - it is “a note of many notes”. ### Note Flow With Descriptions *If you're viewing this in Obsidian, you can view [[My note workflow walkthrough.canvas|this Obsidian Canvas]].* ![[Note workflow descriptions.png]] ### Workflow Diagram ![[PKM note workflow.png]] *(This image can be managed [here](https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVPzCJKKI=/))* --- ### **Seeds** - 1.a. and 1.b. These are the states at which new ideas enter, which is primarily dependent on the source - whether the idea is internal or external to me. **1.a.** will be ideas generated by yourself/internally. This is a very direct interpretation of [[Zettel]] concept of a [[Fleeting note]] usage, which is for capturing fleeting thoughts before losing them. On the other side, **1.b.** represents all other information that you come across externally: quotes, articles, notes for videos, book highlights, book notes, course material, etc. - these are all criteria for a literature-based fleeting note, which will eventually become a mined/interpreted [[Literature note]]. This is influenced by [[Sönke Ahrens]]'s [[How To Take Smart Notes (Book)]]. ### **Planting** - 2 The seeds from **1.a. and 1.b** are planted into the Fleeting note folder. This becomes an "inbox" to process seedling notes to mature them to the point where they either: in the case of an internal Fleeting note, become a single [[Permanent note]], or in the case of Literature notes, spawn many [[Permanent note]]s. These notes are tagged with the "#note/seed🌱" tag. For a Literature note, **2.a.**, this typically occurs by "processing" or taking interpretive notes within those fleeting literature notes (see the [[10 Template - Literature Note#Notes|Literature note template]]). Those interpretive notes remain with the literature note forever as they're very "contextually bound" to that source’s content (as opposed to [[Principle of Atomicity|atomic]]). Yet, they act as "jumping" off points for Permanent notes. This [[Accepting what is|note]] is a good example of this in action. Beyond the use of "#note/seed🌱" tag, these notes additionally utilize the "#note/literature📖" tag. ### **Evergreen** - 3 Once a [[Fleeting note]] has been drafted in full initial form, or a [[Literature note|Literature note]] has been mined/interpreted for new [[Permanent note|Permanent Notes]], they’re moved to the Permanent folder and tagged with the "#note/evergreen🌲" tag. These notes, which embody the [[Principle of Atomicity]], are the succinct ideas written in your own words. Beyond the initial draft of a permanent note, I leverage the [[Evergreen note concept]]. If you're unsure of how that differs from the concept of a [[Permanent note]], see the [[Difference between permanent and evergreen notes]]. ### **Emergence** - 4 This is where the beauty of [[Zettel]] and [[Obsidian]] come together: [[Emergence (MOC)]]. It is at this stage that existing ideas often times propagate new ideas during [[Emergent writing session]]s! 🎉 This kicks off the cycle again with the creation of [[#**Seeds** - 1.a. And 1.b.|new seeds]]! --- ## Giving Notes Structure - [[Map of Content (MOC)]] Now that we have a firm understanding of the [[#Note Workflow]], where does this leave us? Well, it is just three folders for thousands of notes... 😵 This basic file structure leaves notes looking very “flat”, meaning that they don’t have any structure associated with them to organize them and to ideally derive the most value possible from them. This is where Maps of Content (MOCs) enter the picture. Utilizing the “linking” concept of [[Zettel]] and implementation of [[Obsidian]], a Map of Content is a “higher-order note” whose purpose is to give structure and meaning to other notes - it is “a note of many notes”. In the case of our flat file structure, MOCs are used to create a vertical hierarchy through relational note links that enables the owner to more easily group, traverse, and give broader meaning to the network of linked [[Permanent note]]s. For more information on MOCs, such as MOC formation, see the note above. To see MOCs in action, you’ll find a list of all of my top level MOCs in [[Garden Home]]. --- ## External Content Workflow As we live in the information age, we run across a lot of information: articles, podcasts, books, and more. The challenge is the toil that it takes to move information from those original locations to this [[Digital garden (DG)]], even just as [[Fleeting note]]s. Therefore, to assist with this, I utilize Readwise to synchronize various types of information sources automatically and directly into Obsidian. That flow looks like this: ![[PKM external content workflow.png]] *(This image can be managed [here](https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVPzCJKKI=/))*