So this title might be misleading, but I think that it’s important we address the pandemic of overly-complicated PKM systems.
Every time I log into Medium, I see something new along the lines of…
“I ditched my folder-based note-taking system for a synaptic, symbiotic combination of the latest two research papers on how we can attach notes 2.2x more effectively.”
And this just seems like a waste of time, content for new pieces of work.
For PARAZETTEL, I’ve run out of novel things to talk about on a system and tool basis because I simply use the same things every single day.
When I write about something new, it’s contextual, use-case-based, or talking about note-taking theory.
That’s because what I use for taking notes has been explained to exhaustion in what I’ve written in the past. Every now and again, I might write an update with new ideas, but I’m not changing my system every two minutes and writing about new apps for clicks.
This means that my views have reduced a little since that time, but I’m attracting people who want to hear about note-taking effectively.
And that’s likely you! So first of all, thanks for being here. Second of all, I’m going to run through some more thoughts about this idea…
Cross-country skiing
If you ski across country, so I’ve heard, you take turns to be the person at the front of everyone else, ploughing a path into the fresh snow.
It’s easier to follow in someone’s tracks than to make a path for yourself.
And for something like note-taking, where it’s really a means for achieving something else outside of the actual process itself, why wouldn’t you save yourself a bit of energy?
It’s the same with birds, flying in their ‘V’ formation when they’re migrating — they rotate so that it’s not always the same bird at the front, flying headlong into the wind.
And so the best thing to do with your notes?
Don’t reinvent the wheel. Use what’s already proven.
PARAZETTEL isn’t something I invented from scratch. It’s PARA Method (Tiago Forte) fused with Zettelkasten (Niklas Luhmann). Even PARA comes from Getting Things Done (David Allen). Everything good has been built on something before it.
You don’t have more experience than the people who came before you. So start there. Use a template. Follow the path that’s already been walked.
Once you’re comfortable, add your own tweaks. But don’t start by trying to build something unique because that’s just wasting energy on the wrong problem.
This is what I teach in Minimal Note-Taking. You start with a template, or the simplest possible configuration you can feasibly use, and optimise from there. Don’t try and build something unique right off the rip. You’re only going to frustrate and distract yourself.
Ask me how I know! I thought that the apps were wrong, when in fact it was me, not taking responsibility for the things that matter in note-taking. I thought that magic features would make me productive, when really it was having a stable and simple system that made the difference…
Wasted effort
I preach sustainability in note-taking.
Rather than focusing on what seems the best in the moment, you have to focus on the system that’s going to give you the most stability going forward.
If you focus on features rather than stability, you’ll regret it in a couple of years when all of your features are redundant, and the AI workflows you set up in the new VC-backed, cloud-based note-taking app become redundant when the platform runs out of funding.
I’ve taken sustainability to the next level by using Obsidian. We’re editing a raw set of notes in a local environment, which means if the app ever shuts down, all I’ve got to do is find another platform that edits markdown, and I’m off to the races again. Maximum a day’s work in setup is all that I’ve lost.
And so this is why you may have noticed all of my content trending towards being more about these kinds of general theory ideas, rather than talking you through 20 new plugins added to the Obsidian community store in the last month.
Occasionally, I still cover some new utilities, features and functions, but they’re only going to apply to a smaller audience. These theory ideas, though, even in the context of using Obsidian, are going to make the real difference in knowledge management for most.
Take Notion, for example. With these ideas, you don’t have to build 100 new databases and agents — you start with a few pages and build from there.
You don’t have to add colours and icons and other visual changes, you have to write down your new ideas and use them to create something unique.
And this gets easier the simpler your system is, and the longer you use it for.
You become accustomed to all the normal keystrokes, shortcuts and other habits that you build, and writing in your system just becomes an extension of your mind.
That’s what I’m trying to help you build here — rather than leading you down the wrong path of building something new every week, I want your results and outcomes to be your highest priority.
This is when you can start making some real impact in your work, rather than sitting there and wondering whether the next app will magically put you into a productive state of mind.
Always think twice before making big changes to how you take notes. Habits and stability matter 100 times more than features and hype.
After all, it’s just words. Picking the right ones is the difficult thing, not choosing the themes and add-ons.
Thanks for reading!