# My PKM System Handbook This document is a detailed description of my own [[Personal Knowledge Management System (PKMS)]], based on the following template: [[PKM System Handbook Template]] that I have created as bonus material for my [[Knowledge Management for Beginners]] course. This serves both as a reference and as a tool that can be used when considering changes and improvements. Note I've turned a large part of my system into a product called the [[Obsidian Starter Kit]]. If you're wondering if my system works well, then take a look at those: - My Website & newsletter: https://dsebastien.net - My public notes (you're already here): https://notes.dsebastien.net - Stats about my public notes: https://stats.notes.dsebastien.net Last updated on: 2025-10-04 ## Improvement opportunities - In periodic notes, I should split sections more granularly; should simplify my reviews vs bullet point alignment woes - I want to eliminate [[Readwise]] from my system. It's not urgent, and will be costly because I have a lot of content to extract/migrate, but I will benefit from centralizing even more things in Obsidian, including my curated content and highlights - I instead want to use [[Obsidian Web Clipper]] and [[Obsidian Web Viewer]] - I should isolate type tags under a parent `type` parent tag - I can now leverage the [[Obsidian Starter Kit - System - Content Curation System]] for this - I should isolate people roles/jobs tags under a "job" parent tag - I should clean up all concepts to use the "concepts" tags in a more systematic way - I need to find ways to accelerate the transition from analog to digital and update [[How to convert notes from analog to digital]] - I should rename some templates for homogeneity. Low value (e.g., `Personal Note` to `Personal`) - In yearly notes, I should replace navigation links to all the quarterly notes by links to all the monthly notes for that year - I should add a copy of my backups on Google Drive for additional redundancy - I need to fix the issue with notes created this week in weekly notes ## Tools, platforms & hardware This section lists all the tools, platforms and hardware I use for my PKM system, including their costs, and the rationale behind the choices. The summary contains everything, while individual sections focus on different aspects and phases of the [[Personal Knowledge Management Process]]. ### Summary - Audible: €10/month (price often evolves) - Feedly: free - Social media platforms: free - [[Obsidian]]: free - Obsidian Publish: $8/month - Obsidian plugins - [[Auto note mover plugin for Obsidian]]: free - [[Dataview plugin for Obsidian|Dataview]]: free - [[Dataview Serializer plugin for Obsidian]]: free - [[Obsidian Web Viewer]]: free - [[Obsidian Web Viewer]]: free - [[Periodic notes plugin for Obsidian]] - And many more that I have included in the [[Obsidian Starter Kit]] - I write about my favorite ones here: https://www.dsebastien.net/2022-10-19-the-must-have-obsidian-plugins/ - [[Readwise]]: $10 per month, billed annually, stable price - reMarkable e-ink tablet + web, mobile, and desktop apps - eBook reader - Spotify: Family plan (price often evolves) - [[Typefully]]: $100 per year - Various other [[AI Tools I use]] - [[Voicenotes AI]]: paid one-time lifetime fee of $50 (early adopter) - [[OpenRouter]]: ~$25 per month - [[Claude]] Max: $200 per month - Google Drive: $100 per year - [[Syncthing]]: free - Home NAS - Backblaze: $40 per month - Backup scripts - Scheduled tasks: free - [[n8n]]: $5/month for a VPS on Hetzner ### Tool for Thought - [[Obsidian]] - Rationale - [[Benefits of Obsidian]] - [[Why Obsidian is All You Need - From Simple Notes to Complete Productivity (Article)]] ### PKM Process - Explore - RSS feed aggregator: Feedly - Rationale - Could import my OPML file, keeps track of what I looked at - Simple to use - Not bugging me with ads - Loads quickly - Works fine - Don't see the point of paying for it, I don't need the advanced features - Bookmarks I open daily - "Open" folder on my bookmarks bar - Rationale - Simple to open the main set of Websites I want to look at daily (e.g., Hacker News, Reddit, etc) - Social media - X, Bluesky, Mastodon, Threads.net, TikTok, Reddit, ... - Rationale - Serendipity ### PKM Process - Curate #### Articles, videos and links in general - [[Readwise]] (stable) - Rationale - Cross-platform - Integrates well with Obsidian - Browser extension for quick capture - Did not find anything better - [[Obsidian Web Clipper]] (testing) - Rationale - Integrates powerful AI features - Can save directly to Obsidian - Would reduce my costs - [[Obsidian Web Viewer]] (testing) - Rationale - Core plugin of Obsidian - Can save pages in the vault - Probably won't use it long-term unless the feature set aligns with the Obsidian Web Clipper - Emails to myself - Rationale - For urgent things - Spotify & Shazam for music - IMdb and TV Show time for movies and TV Shows - Past - Bookmarks - Manually save pages (e.g., to PDF) #### Books - Obsidian - Rationale - I create book notes for every book I want to read and to store my notes, summary, key quotes, etc - I can keep track of the reading status, dates, etc using metadata - It appears on my Books dashboard - I can add references, etc - It's all part of my knowledge base - Past - Goodreads I've described my approach here: [[How I manage books and summaries in Obsidian]] #### Podcasts & audiobooks - Spotify - Rationale - Most of the content I care about is there - Audible - Rationale - Many books I want to listen to are there - Might get rid of it in favor of Spotify as I'm rarely interested in Amazon-specific titles #### On the go - Readwise - Rationale - Easy to keep in one place - Only relevant if I can freely use my phone - Emails to myself - Rationale - Useful for content I want to consume asap - ReMarkable e-ink tablet - Rationale - Better than paper - Dedicated notebook for content curation - Pen & Paper - Rationale - Last resort - Transfer to Readwise or email asap ### PKM Process - Consume #### Articles, videos and links in general - Readwise (Reader app) - Rationale - Cross-platform - Obsidian Web Viewer - Rationale - Having content and my notes side by side in different tabs or windows - Helps me capture notes in context - Avoids context switching and distractions - Web browser - Rationale - Availability of all my browser extensions - YouTube - Rationale - Laziness #### Books - e-book reader - Rationale - Can store tons of books - Doesn't take much space - Doesn't weight much - Remembers the page I'm on for each book - Paper - Rationale - Last resort - Sometimes better for technical content #### Podcasts & audiobooks - Spotify - Rationale - Easy to use on mobile - Works offline - Can download content in advance - I explore podcasts pseudo-randomly - Audible - Rationale - Easy to use on mobile - Works offline - Can download content in advance - Mainly for fiction books ### PKM Process - Capture #### Notes, book notes and ideas - Daily notes in Obsidian - Rationale - Directly capture within my Tool for Thought - No transition required apart from knowledge ingestion - ReMarkable e-ink tablet - Rationale - Easiest when I'm not in front of the computer - Easy to transition to digital using AI - Ultimately, notes transition to Obsidian - One notebook per context - Support for freeform notes and drawings - Automatically saved to the cloud - Doesn't take much space - Doesn't weight much - Battery lasts a long time compared to a tablet - Pen & paper - Rationale - Last resort when I can't use the other options - Messy and easy to lose - Hurts my hand :p - Ultimately, notes transition to Obsidian - AI Tools - Rationale - Help me in all sorts of way analyze, summarize, etc #### Highlights - Obsidian Web clipper (recent) - Rationale - Easiest when in front of the computer - Can leverage AI while capturing highlights - Directly imported in Obsidian - Easy transition to my daily notes - Readwise (previously) - Rationale - Easiest on mobile - Directly imported in Obsidian - Easy transition to my daily notes - Emails to myself - Rationale - For urgent info I want to add to Obsidian #### Podcasts & audiobooks - Voicenotes AI - Rationale - Same as for on the go #### Documents & images - Obsidian - Rationale - Centralize all resources associated with my notes - Automatically organized - Google Drive - Rationale - For reference material I don't need in my notes - For heavy documents that I don't want in my notes - Home NAS - Rationale - For sensitive documents (eg medical records, loans, etc) #### On the go - Voicenotes AI - Rationale - Easiest when I want to quickly capture something without hassle - Doesn't require much attention - Works in various contexts (driving, running, etc) - Automatically imported into Obsidian - Easy transition from transcribed text to my daily notes in Obsidian - Emails to myself - Rationale - Useful when I want to quickly capture something to look at later - Can include context - Reviewed quickly because of my inbox zero rule - WhatsApp messages to myself - Rationale - Last resort - Easy, but messy - Could automate processing in the future ### PKM Process - Distill/Organize/Connect/Develop/Create - Obsidian - Rationale - All in one place - Can connect all the dots - AI Tools - Rationale - Gain time ### PKM Process - Share - Obsidian - Rationale - All in one place - Prepare drafts and keep a copy of all published content - Obsidian Publish - Rationale - Easy to share/publish right from Obsidian - Good showcase - Reference for my own published content - Easy to reuse to crosspost elsewhere - Ghost (blog) - Rationale - Main entry point for everything I work on and share - Typefully - Rationale - Able to publish content to various social media platforms - Integrated into Obsidian using my plugin ### Backups - Scripts - Rationale - Fully customizable - Fully under my control - Scheduled/CRON tasks - Rationale - Valuable automation - Easy to setup - No need to think about it - Local disk drives - Rationale - Easy to recover - Home NAS - Rationale - Provides additional redundancy - Also backed up with the rest of the NAS content - Backblaze - Rationale - Provides additional redundancy - Remote - Protected from local catastrophe - Git - Rationale - Fine control - Versioned with comments (commit messages) - Easy to synchronize to different locations - Easy to rollback changes (accidental or not) - Google Drive - Rationale - Provides additional redundancy - Remote - Protected from local catastrophe ### Synchronization - Syncthing - Rationale - I use Syncthing to synchronize my Obsidian vault across multiple devices - I use it because it works well and also because I rely on it for other purposes ### Automation - Obsidian plugins - Rationale - I use Obsidian plugins to automate various tasks, such as moving notes to specific folders based on tags - I also use Obsidian plugins to trigger actions and workflows in other systems - [[n8n]] - Rationale - I use n8n to automate various tasks from and within my knowledge base in Obsidian - This enables me to integrate my notes with various platforms and systems, automating actions in those - n8n also enables me to integrate AI in automated workflows ### AI - [[Claude Code]]: My current AI tool of choice - Rationale - Use AI from the command-line - Usable against any files - Can customize commands - Can directly read/write notes through the filesystem or the [[Model Context Protocol (MCP)]] - [[Claude]]: My current AI tool of choice - Rationale - Leverages my notes in Obsidian through the [[Model Context Protocol (MCP)]] - [[ChatGPT]] / [[GPT4]]: My thinking sidekick - Rationale - Multi-modal - Keeps evolving - [[Gemini]] - Rationale - Free - Multi-modal: supports audio and video inputs in addition to text and images - [[Google AI Studio]] - Rationale - Free - Multi-modal: supports audio and video inputs in addition to text and images - [[NotebookLM]] - Rationale - Free - Can analyze and let me discuss with tons of source material at ease - Can generate podcasts dissecting the content in a notebook - [[ElevenLabs]] - Rationale - Handles Text to Speech for me - Can clone my voice - [[OpenRouter]] - Rationale - One API enpoint to use various LLMs - Single place where I need to pay for AI models - Supported by many tools and plugins - [[Perplexity]] - Rationale - AI search engine - [[llm CLI]] - Rationale - Sometimes useful to explore questions - [[Model Context Protocol (MCP)]] - Rationale - Integrate LLMs and AI-enabled IDEs with many other tools and platforms (including my knowledge base) - [[Ollama]] - Rationale - Install and use AI models locally - [[Code2Prompt]] and [[files-to-prompt]] - Rationale - Easily generate mega prompts that I can feed into various LLMs See [[AI Tools I use]] for more. ## Principles This section lists the core principles of my system. Those provide overarching "rules" that guide my design, implementation and evolutionary choices. - Everything that matters ends up in Obsidian, my Tool for Thought - I consider all the other tools, platforms and hardware that I use as temporary/transient, apart from a few exceptions and specific needs (e.g. big files that I prefer storing on Google Drive, home NAS, etc) - When curating content, I want to avoid relying on platform-specific features (e.g., X or Bluesky, bookmarks, YouTube save for later, etc) - Those are not reliable (change or disappear over time) - Those just create additional information silos - All my notes must be connected to time through my journal entries and roll from daily notes to yearly notes so that I can quickly see everything that I've explored in a specific time frame - My journal MUST be easy to navigate - I MUST easily be able to go from one day to the previous/next, to the previous/next week, month, etc - I MUST easily be able to create new periodic notes - Every content type I use should have specific rules, naming conventions, tags, metadata, etc - I prefer automating content organization using tools and plugins, rather than wasting time doing it manually - My most important content types should have pre-defined templates and automation rules to reduce friction and increase consistency - I prefer regrouping notes in very few generic and content-agnostic folders, unless for specific needs (e.g., quotes, book notes, meeting notes, etc - I prefer using tags than folders to associate content with topics (tags > folders) - This enables me to associate notes with multiple topics/domains - This enables me to query notes in more interesting ways - My Tool for Thought SHOULD - Be and remain highly performant and responsive, at scale (>= 10K notes) - Handle notes, tasks and different types of resources (documents, images, audio and video files, etc) - Store data locally, under my control - Use an open and portable data format - Work offline - Work across platforms and devices - Support synchronizing the data across platforms and devices - Directly or indirectly support - Links and backlinks - Tags and tag hierarchies - Custom metadata - Full-text search - Search and replace (local and global) - Creating and persisting advanced queries and their results within notes (ala Dataview + Dataview Serializer) - Editing multiple documents at once - Transclusion - Visualizations (i.e., infinite canvas) - AI - Publishing content to a static site - Installing and creating extensions, ideally with a full-blown SDK - I SHALL NOT consider migrating to a different tool or platform (including my Tool for Thought) unless if it's dead-obvious that I'm missing out on extraordinary features or if I'm stuck on a dead end road because of what I'm currently using - I SHALL AVOID all forms of vendor lock-in for my Tool for Thought, either through the tool itself or through its extensions - If my Tool for Thought disappears and I need to switch, most of my data (95+%) should be fine and "functional" - The information in my Tool for Thought MUST be highly redundant. I need multiple copies/backups - Those backups MUST provide a low recovery time (low MTTR) and the ability to recover very recent data (RTO). At worst, I can accept to lose half a day of work, not any more - i MUST be able to recover any version of any individual note or file in the system ## Content types This section lists all the types of content that exist at some point or another in my PKM system. Some transform over time or simply disappear, while others remain. I use the note types of the [[Obsidian Starter Kit]]: [[Obsidian Starter Kit - Reference - Note Types]] ## Special notes Right now, I use the following special notes in Obsidian: - Core values and personal principles - Gift ideas - Goals: History of my past goals - Kanban and/or project boards (generic + per project) - Me: Stuff about myself, my physical and mental health, progress, etc - Non-goals: What I want to avoid in the future - Routines - System maintenance: Help me notice problems with my knowledge base - Top of mind - Waiting for: Things I'm waiting for (e.g., someone owes me something, someone must take an action, etc) - Wishlists - Yearly plans (e.g., 2025 Plan) ## Conventions This section lists all specific conventions for the system and its different parts. - Whenever possible, I SHOULD use the same base/core folder structure across tools and platforms in the system - I follow my own advice regarding - Tags - [[Why and how to tag notes in your PKM]] - Note names - https://www.dsebastien.net/the-art-of-note-naming-keys-to-effective-knowledge-management/ - [[The Art of Note Naming - Keys to Effective Knowledge Management (Article)]] - [[Obsidian Starter Kit - Tutorial - Note Naming]] - All notes - SHOULD be tagged with a specific type tag to be able to easily recognize those - Generic notes - SHOULD all have a unique name (at least unique within their specific "category") - Tutorials and step-by-step: SHOULD names should start with "How to " - ALL note types should use the prefix/suffix documented here: [[Obsidian Starter Kit - Reference - Note Types]] - Quotes SHOULD all be linked to a person note - Enables listing all quotes by X in the corresponding person's note - Maps of Content (MoCs) - SHOULD use queries to list corresponding content (i.e., maintained automatically) - MAY include multiple queries - MAY include manual links - Contact notes - Name should be "Given name Family name" - People notes - Name should be "Given name Family name" - Projects - Name MUST include both the full name and the acronym in parenthesis - Example: "Obsidian Starter Kit (OSK)" - MUST have a dedicated folder in the structure - SHOULD regroup project goals, notes, plans, tasks, etc - MAY be split across different tools and platforms (eg resources) - Resources - Name MUST be unique across the entire system - SHOULD be regrouped in a single folder - SHOULD be filed automatically - Special notes - MUST all stay grouped together for ease of use - SHOULD be reviewed at least once per year - Kanban board names SHOULD end with " Tasks" - Yearly plans SHOULD be archived when a new one is created ## Folder structure ### Core structure This structure is present in all my tools and platforms. It takes inspiration from the [[PARA method]], and the [[Johnny Decimal system]] of [[Johnny Noble]]. ``` - `10 Meta/`: System configuration, personal information, processes, goals, tasks - `20 Actions/`: Productivity related with goals, plans, projects and tasks - `30 Areas/`: Areas of responsibility and knowledge domains - `40 Journal/`: Daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly notes - `50 Resources/`: Reference materials, attachments, templates, prompts - `60 Archives/`: Archived projects/notes (I never publish those) ``` There are some variations, but I use something as close to this as possible everywhere I can to maximize findability, and ease of use. ### Tool for Thought Within Obsidian, I use the following structure: [[Obsidian Starter Kit - Reference - Folder structure]]. Which is part of the [[Obsidian Starter Kit]]. ### NAS I use a more complex variant of my base structure on my home NAS because that's where I store all my family documents, pictures, video, software, and a ton of other things. I discussed this in a previous article: [[Personal Knowledge Management organization (Article)]] ## Tags I combine parent and nested tags (aka tag hierarchies). Parent tags include a mix of note types, topics, statuses, etc. My note type tags are leveraged for automation. Changing those requires adapting my automation rules (automated note filing), as well as my [[Map of Content (MoC)|Maps of Content (MoCs)]]. Note that I have not felt a need to add type tags for each and every note type. I only do it once I have an actual use case. Given that note types are most often associated with a specific folder, it's not something difficult to add later on if and when needed. My current note type tags are those of the [[Obsidian Starter Kit]]: [[Obsidian Starter Kit - Reference - Special Tags]] With those additional ones: - DeveloPassion (my company) - Courses: `#developassion/course` - Free resources: `#developassion/free_resource` - Products: `#developassion/product` - Services: `#developassion/service` In addition to type tags, I also heavily use taxonomy tags in various ways. I consider multiple sub-types for those: - Pure ones such as `psychology`, `personal_development`, `pkm`, `knowledge_management`, `knowledge_work`, ... - Concept ones such as `concept/<domain>/<sub_domain>/<concept name>` - As well as the generic `concepts` one I rarely use status tags because I generally prefer to consider my notes as [[Evergreen notes]]. I actually use type tags to recognize certain states of my note types (e.g., draft and published articles). I don't specifically use action tags, but instead rely on metadata to capture the current stage in my workflows. More on this in the next section. ## Metadata This section describes the most important metadata I use and rely on. I use the metadata properties of the [[Obsidian Starter Kit]]: - Generic: [[Obsidian Starter Kit - Reference - Note Properties]] - Specific: [[Obsidian Starter Kit - Reference - Note Types]] - Also, the [[Obsidian Starter Kit]] includes the [[Obsidian Starter Kit plugin for Obsidian]] that I rely on for note type definitions, property definitions, association with folders, templates, etc ## Templates I use the templating system of the [[Obsidian Starter Kit]]: - [[Obsidian Starter Kit - System - Templating System]] - [[Obsidian Starter Kit]]: [[Obsidian Starter Kit - Reference - Templates]] I also have a meta-template for gathering statistics about my knowledge base: `TPL Stats`. That template includes a Templater code block that gets executed when the template is invoked. It analyses the whole vault and generates two files: - `Stats.md` under 50 Resources/55 Obsidian Publish - `stats.json` at the root of the vault The `Stats.md` file is published on my notes website: https://notes.dsebastien.net/50+Resources/56+Obsidian+Publish/Stats The `stats.json` is used by a separate script that generates a HTML version of the stats, which I publish on GitHub, and which is accessible via https://stats.notes.dsebastien.net/ The process is manual, and I only plan to use this from time to time, for instance during yearly reviews, in order to notice trends and have cool stats to share. ## Data and information flows This section describes how information flows through all the parts my system (tools, platforms, hardware, etc). My Tool for Thought (Obsidian) is the final destination. Most of what I discover, either through Web browsing, RSS feeds, or social media currently ends up in [[Readwise]], where I consume and capture highlights. I sometimes consume directly through my Web browser or Obsidian and capture raw information directly in Obsidian daily notes. Readwise highlights are automatically imported into Obsidian. I review those during weekly reviews, and add relevant pieces to my daily notes and/or add to Kanban boards. I then delete those. Paper notes and notes taken on my ReMarkable e-ink tablet are converted to digital using AI (cfr [[How to convert notes from analog to digital]]) and added to my daily notes. I then get rid of those. Voice notes that I take using [[Voicenotes AI]] are automatically transcribed and imported into Obsidian. I review those during weekly reviews, and add relevant pieces to my daily notes and/or add to Kanban boards. I then delete those. I rarely used fleeting notes nowadays and prefer to write raw notes directly in my daily notes. I review and process those once a week, similar to the way I do it for highlights and voice notes. I create new maps of content whenever I feel the need to find notes for specific topics or combinations of topics. I create meeting notes for important meetings for which I want to capture information. I review those during my weekly reviews, integrate whatever I need into my daily note and tasks, but I never delete the meeting notes themselves. Once created, they're considered read-only. I capture valuable prompts in my daily notes. Same for quotes, expressions, poems, etc. So, basically, everything enters my knowledge base through daily notes. Then, during my weekly reviews, I go through all the daily notes of the week and use my knowledge ingestion process to extract and connect new notes (literature, permanent, etc). As part of that process, I replace notes in daily notes with links to the newly created notes. Major elements of my daily notes are copied to weekly notes, then to monthly notes, etc as part of the corresponding periodic reviews. I generally do this once a week, once a month, and once a year. I rarely do formal quarterly reviews. My articles and newsletters are directly written in dedicated notes. Once created, I add a link to my daily note. Then those follow the same path as other notes through periodic reviews, which summarize everything. My book notes are also directly added to dedicated notes. Once created, I also add a link to my daily note. Then those follow the same path as other notes through periodic reviews. During weekly reviews, I also created contact and people notes so that I can link quotes, book notes, etc to the corresponding persons. I also directly create YouTube video notes when I prepare a video. Same for projects, etc. Resources are always added to my dedicated attachments folder, and directly named correctly (clear name instead of timestamps void of meaning). Tasks enter my system at various points. I generally add those directly to the relevant Kanban boards. Personal and special notes are long-standing, and I review/update those mostly at random, but also during periodic reviews. More details about all this here: - [[Overview of my PKM System]] - Visualization: [[Personal Knowledge Management System (PKMS).canvas|Personal Knowledge Management System]] ## Workflows This section lists the main workflows I rely on. ### Journaling - Importance: High - Frequency: Daily Journaling is at the very core of my PKM practice. I always have my daily note opened somewhere. Whenever I open Obsidian, my daily note is created (if not there already) and opened. I use it all day long to capture ideas, new knowledge, interesting links, keep track of what I've done, etc. As described before, everything enters my knowledge base through daily notes. I avoid creating new notes in the moment, to minimize context switching and go back to whatever I'm busy doing. My workflow around journaling consists in using the [[Periodic notes plugin for Obsidian]] to create today's note, which applies the right template, then to write in it whenever I need. The plugin names the note correctly, and automatically places it in the right folder. One shortcoming is that if I missed some days and manually create their note after the fact, they're not automatically filed and remain at the root of my vault. I need to manually file those. ### Periodic reviews - Importance: High - Frequency: Weekly/Monthly/Yearly I perform weekly, monthly and yearly reviews. Those have multiple goals: - Feel grateful about my journey - Look back objectively - Plan ahead - Review notes - Ingest new knowledge So there are multiple dimensions to those: - Personal development and health - Productivity - Planning - PKM system maintenance I also review/update my task lists. Last but not least, during my weekly reviews, I execute my knowledge ingestion process (see below). Additional details: [[Weekly review process]] ### Knowledge ingestion/extraction - Importance: High - Frequency: Weekly My knowledge ingestion/extraction process is simple: - Go through all daily notes - Extract relevant ideas to new notes - Apply the relevant template - Move the content from the daily note to the new note - Add a link to the new note in the daily note - Add metadata, tags and links - If time allows, improve the content In addition, I also look at recent voice notes, highlights, etc that might also need to be processed. I then remove those. ### Knowledge capture - Importance: Medium - Frequency: Ad-hoc Whenever I stumble on interesting/valuable ideas, I capture those in some way. The means don't matter. Ultimately, everything goes into my daily notes. ### Analog to digital - Importance: Medium - Frequency: Ad-hoc Once in a while (no fixed planning), I convert analog notes to digital. For voice notes, it's fully automated. For paper and e-ink tablet notes, I use the approach I've documented here: [[How to convert notes from analog to digital]]. Once converted, I add the content to my daily note. ### Publishing notes - Importance: Medium - Frequency: ~3 times a week Every few days, I publish new or updated notes to my notes website over at https://notes.dsebastien.net To do this, I use my publish template. The full lists are here: - Recently added: https://notes.dsebastien.net/50+Resources/56+Obsidian+Publish/Recently+added - Recently modified: https://notes.dsebastien.net/50+Resources/56+Obsidian+Publish/Recently+modified ### Publishing articles and newsletters - Importance: High - Frequency: ad-hoc When I prepare an article or newsletter, I write it in Obsidian, publish it on my notes website, then crosspost it from there to different platforms. That process is documented in detail in my business processes list, and is also (partly) covered by [[My communications plan]]. ### Publishing stats - Importance: Low - Frequency: ad-hoc I sometimes update the stats about my knowledge base. When I decide to do so, I: - Run my stats template - Publish the updated stats note - Execute the script that generates the html version - Upload the html version on Github, which is then reflected on https://stats.notes.dsebastien.net ### Serendipity - Importance: Low - Frequency: ad-hoc When I feel uninspired, I open notes at random using the Random note built-in plugin and/or the "Open Random Note from Search" to find some inspiration. When I do so, I often update/fix the notes I stumble upon, and scribble down ideas and links in my daily note, that I then use as input for creating new things. ## Personal Identity System I maintain a constellation of 29 personal identity notes in `10 Meta/11 Personal/`. These serve as both personal life documentation and rich context for AI-assisted workflows. The notes are organized by category: - **Identity & Values**: About Me (hub), Core Needs, Core Values, Key Beliefs, Personal Manifesto, Personal Principles, Non-goals - **Narrative & History**: My Life Story, My Career, My Education - **Self-Knowledge**: My Strengths, My Weaknesses, My Fears, My Darkness, My Enduring Insights, My Communication Style, My Health Profile - **Relationships**: My Relationships - **Interests & Leisure**: My Interests, My Hobbies & Leisure - **Direction & Current State**: My Life Vision, My Current Life Priorities, Top of mind, My Time Structure, My Challenges - **Achievements & Failures**: My Life Achievements, My Career Achievements, My Life Failures & Lessons, My Career Failures & Lessons The achievement/failure hub notes aggregate [[Obsidian Starter Kit - System - Dot System|Dot]] notes (wins, fails, challenges) and link to completed goals/projects from the [[Obsidian Starter Kit - System - Action System|Action System]]. All personal notes use `type/personal` + `zone/meta` tags and include `last_reviewed` for staleness tracking. ### Routines I document my routines in `10 Meta/12 Routines/`: - Morning Routine - Exercise Routine - Health Routine - Reading Routine - Content Creation Routine - Shut Down Routine ### Processes I maintain 30 process notes in `10 Meta/13 Processes/` covering everything from newsletter publishing to financial reviews. ### AI Skills for Personal Identity 10 dedicated skills maintain the personal identity system: - `osk-personal-review` reviews and updates personal notes conversationally - `osk-life-event` captures significant events across multiple notes and systems - `osk-personal-harvest` scans daily notes for signals that should update personal notes - `osk-routine-create` and `osk-process-create` for creating new routines/processes - `osk-routine-review`, `osk-process-review` for guided updates - `osk-routine-audit`, `osk-process-audit` for health checks - `osk-retire` for archiving outdated routines/processes These integrate with the daily check-in (loads personal context), weekly planning (surfaces stale notes), and close-day (prompts achievement/failure capture). ## Habits and routines In this section, I summarize the habits and routines associated with my PKM system. Most are actually realized by the workflows that I've described before. Here are the core ones: - Journaling: capture everything meaningful relevant - Periodic reviews: look back, plan ahead, ingest new knowledge - Creation: leverage my knowledge base - Review and maintenance: take opportunities to improve over time (continuous improvement) ## Automation This section describes the automation I've put in place and rely on in your system. First of all, I use the [[Auto note mover plugin for Obsidian]] to automatically file all my notes where they belong based on type tags that my templates add automatically. I never want to file something manually. I also rely on configuration to automatically add new attachments to the dedicated folder. I also have automation in place (through Obsidian plugins) to automatically import voice notes and highlights. My backups are also fully automated. In the future, I plan to automate more tasks using [[n8n]]. ## Synchronization I've documented how I synchronize and backup my notes here: [[How I synchronize and backup my Obsidian notes]]. I'll update this section if anything major changes. ## Maintenance I evaluate the state of my PKM system once in a while, often when I feel too much friction or realize some parts are becoming messy or when I feel too much friction. At this point though, the most important parts are very stable (cfr [[Obsidian Starter Kit]]), and I don't need to make major changes. When I do this, I take a look at different things: - My maintenance note listing duplicate notes - My maintenance note listing orphaned notes - My maintenance note listing unpublished notes I also look at the list of installed Obsidian plugins, to see if there are some I could disable or remove. I also use that opportunity to install/test new plugins to see if they could help me automate more tedious tasks or improve some aspects of my system. Last but not least, I also take a look at my ideas list for improvements and see if some are worth investing time into. I also take a step back and think about ways to further simplify, automate or eliminate parts of the system. I have a few recurring tasks in my calendar to remind me about performing system maintenance. ## Backups I've documented how I synchronize and backup my notes here: [[How I synchronize and backup my Obsidian notes]]. I'll update this section if anything major changes. Since I wrote that article, I've added one more backup script (PowerShell) to backup all of my notes locally. I've created a scheduled task to execute that script once a day, and every time my desktop computer is locked. I've also increased the frequency at which I archive backups to my home NAS. ## Related - Template: [[PKM System Handbook Template]] - [[Overview of my PKM System]] - Visualization: [[Personal Knowledge Management System (PKMS).canvas|Personal Knowledge Management System]] - [[Personal Knowledge Management System (PKMS)]] - [[Personal Knowledge Management Process]] - [[Benefits of Obsidian]] - [[Why Obsidian is All You Need - From Simple Notes to Complete Productivity (Article)]] - [[Weekly review process]] - [[How to convert notes from analog to digital]] - [[How I manage books and summaries in Obsidian]] - [[PARA method]] - [[Johnny Decimal system]] - [[Zettelkasten method]] - [[Obsidian Starter Kit]] - [[Personal Knowledge Management organization (Article)]] - [[Map of Content (MoC)]] - [[Evergreen notes]] - [[How I synchronize and backup my Obsidian notes]] - https://www.dsebastien.net/the-art-of-note-naming-keys-to-effective-knowledge-management/ - #todo link to final note[[The Art of Note Naming - Keys to Effective Knowledge Management (Article)]]