Personal Knowledge Management
Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) is the practice of taking notes on, organizing, and cataloging one’s personal knowledge and thoughts in a systematic way. This happens through the process of writing notes about what one knows, thinks, or is actively learning, and organizing those notes into some kind of a system allowing for easy retrieval later. This can mean physically taking notes with pen and paper on index cards and filing them away for later, or by leveraging digital tools. A common and age-old practice in academia, recently the practice has spread to non-academics interested in pursuing PKM for the purposes of facilitating thinking, knowledge retention, learning, and writing, among other reasons.
PKM has become something of a trend in recent years, with its own social media influencers and countless books and articles about notetaking. While some people are reviving the tradition of commonplace books, others devise elaborate systems based on zettelkasten, and some watch endless Youtube videos on the latest techniques for managing their knowledgebase. Whatever methods serve as inspiration, anyone who journeys down the PKM path creates their own system and methods for recording, organizing, and acting on their knowledgebase, often incorporating elements of these and other techniques.
Problems with PKM
See Personal Knowledge Management Pitfalls.