Personal Knowledge Management And The Learning Process

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Today is September seventh. Our lunch menu today, based on the holiday list from National Today dot com, includes Beer, Salami, and Acorn Squash. It might need to be National Tumms Day after that lunch. The book, The Lifelong Learner By Peter Hollins, was written to help you Develop Yourself, Continually Grow, Expand Your Horizons, and Pursue Anything. To that end, this episode takes a look at how to create your very own personal knowledge management system. Personal knowledge management and lifelong learning have become essential for success in this ever-evolving world. Now more than ever, it is important to develop an understanding of lifelong learning principles and the skills needed for effective personal information management. Developing strategies for curating, organizing, storing, and retrieving content can help us stay ahead of change and take proactive steps toward our educational and career goals. Knowledge management gives us a solid foundation from which we can thrive on our journey toward developing our lifelong passions. Let’s learn how to create your very own personal knowledge management system. Did you know that Babylonian astronomers were using geometry to calculate planetary orbits more than three thousand years ago? Or that medieval scholars were compiling encyclopedias long before the invention of the printing press?

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and share knowledge (Efimova,: 2005

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ential in the first place. In: 1885

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Personal knowledge management is truly your knight in shining armor here! It enables you to delegate the task of remembering. Instead of remembering all the facts, you simply need to remember that you know it and that you know where to find it. Think of it as a system that will allow you to organize and store ideas and references as building blocks. Then, whenever you need to start a project, you just select and assemble the necessary building components to create a finished artwork. Therefore, the less time and energy you spend on the building blocks, the more time you have to actually create something beautiful. There’s really no doubt about it: We live in an age of complete information overload. It seems like every day you wake up and are faced with a chiming laptop signaling to us that there’s ten more articles on the “benefits of guided meditation” that you need to look at right now! I mean, you probably only wanted to look at a few for your seminar next week but now are suddenly feeling anxious and overwhelmed at the thought of missing something super important!

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d insightful (Simperl et al.,: 2010

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With so much information out there, it’s no wonder people are having panic attacks before routine presentations (I’ve had many). Most of us are getting lost in the internet's rabbit hole of information in the guise of “research." We are saving, staring, and bookmarking posts, notes, and random links that we need to go back through and organize. Having a system in place is going to help us get rid of whatever is inconsequential and keep only what is necessary for future reference. One of the great things about knowledge is that it builds on itself. The more you know, the easier it is to learn new things. This is because you can connect new information to existing knowledge, making it easier to remember and understand. This process is known as compounding, and it's one of the most efficient ways to learn.

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nformation (Hailikari et al.,: 2007

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Now that we have established how important it is to have a personal knowledge management system, it’s time to unravel the three main steps to creating the best PKM system that will assist in your learning. Gather and Capture Meet Kevin, a man with varied tastes. Passionate about work but just as equally passionate about life. He loves immersing himself in the fascinating and often fantastical world of literature, video games, movies, clandestine encounters, vague memories of tantalizing conversations, and lessons learned. He wants to incorporate the knowledge he has gathered over the years into something practical, something meaningful. He is intelligent and compassionate, but he feels like he hasn’t made any discernible progress in his life. He often wonders why. You see, Kevin, like me, is very lazy.

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He thinks that he does not need to write anything down or take notes because he relies solely on his brain to save information. You remember the forgetting curve, right? Well, Kevin is not immune to it; nobody is (unless you’re a superhero—then maybe you are). Making it a habit to save any information or ideas you believe to be helpful or inspiring when you come across them is the first step in personal knowledge management. This is known as creating a "capture habit" in the context of David Allen's Getting Things Done system for organizing and managing tasks. The ultimate capture goal is to be able to quickly save these items wherever you find them. Don't be concerned with including details. They can later be filtered and organized. For instance, a few "capture" inboxes that can help you in creating your own are as follows: •My tiny research notebook (that I only use for class), jam-packed with notes •My fluffy pink notebook that I keep close by when I work •An iOS note that I can add to using Siri and access from the home screen of my iPhone •The same note app on my laptop •Planners that I have personalized on Canva Anything I believe I might wish to use as a source for my work goes into these inboxes.

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and freedom (Bernacer et al.,: 2015

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One good strategy to keep yourself on track is developing a system for gathering information. This might include setting up Google Alerts for topics you're interested in, subscribing to relevant RSS feeds, or following certain social media accounts. The key is to make it as easy as possible for you to find interesting articles, blog posts, and other pieces of information while also helping you sustain this habit. Otherwise, you'll quickly become overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information out there and will want to give up. Whether you’re reading a book, a blog, or an article, it’s always a good idea to come up with a system for taking notes that works for you—bullet points, highlighting key phrases, using a traditional journal, or making edits on soft copies. For example, when I read articles online, I like to look for a PDF that I can download. This allows me to quickly highlight the main points as well as add comments. I can then easily go back and access the key information without wasting any time skimming the article once again.

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Similarly, if I am reading a book, I prefer to keep a hefty stack of vibrant sticky notes on hand so that I can make my book look like a Piñata (it helps make the most boring of textbooks appealing). Oh, and it helps me add my own ideas to the key points I want to highlight. Once you have a system for gathering information and a preferred method for note taking, you need a way to organize it so that you can easily find what you're looking for later on. If your desk is anything like mine, it's covered in Post-It Notes, half-finished to-do lists, and crumpled up pieces of paper with ideas, dreams, and passions that just won't fit anywhere else. In other words, it's a hot mess. You've probably tried every organization system out there, from the bullet journal to good old-fashioned pen and paper. But somehow, nothing ever seems to stick. One effective way to organize knowledge is by tagging your information with keywords.

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For example, if you come across an article about the benefits of meditation, you might tag it with "meditation," "mindfulness," and "wellness." You can also organize your information using folders. For example, you might create a folder for health-related articles, another folder for articles about productivity, and so on. You can use physical or digital journals. (Canva has some pretty great options! Plus, you can customize your own. It truly is journal heaven!) Organize What You’ve Captured In an age when we're constantly bombarded with information, it's more important than ever to know how to label, tag, and organize it.

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After all, if you can't find the information you need when you need it, what good is it? Here are a few tips to help you get started. First, think about how you want to access the information. Do you want to be able to search for it by keyword, or do you want to be able to browse through it? That will dictate how you label it. For example, if you're labeling a file on your computer, you might want to use a system of keywords so that you can easily find it when you do a search. On the other hand, if you're putting together a binder of information, you might want to use a more organizational system, such as dividing it into sections. Whether you're organizing your home computer files or adding labels to a client’s presentation, it's important to know how to tag information correctly.

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The process of tagging information is simple: You just need to choose a system that makes sense for the task at hand and then label each piece of information accordingly. For example, if you're organizing a music collection, you might want to tag each song by its genre, artist, and release date. On the other hand, if you're looking to organize your research for your final-year thesis, you might want to tag and label studies and information in accordance with the variables you are studying. For instance, you are exploring empathy and attitudes toward mental illness in young adults. Tagging everything you find in relevance to “empathy,” “empathy in young adults,” “attitudes toward mental illness,” and “attitudes toward mental illness in young adults” will greatly benefit you in streamlining your thoughts. Once you've chosen a system, simply label each piece of information accordingly and then use the tags to help you find what you're looking for later on. With a little practice, tagging can be an invaluable way to keep your thoughts and materials neatly organized. Secondly, make sure your labels are clear and concise. This isn't the time to be clever or cutesy—you want to be able to understand your labels at a glance.

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Use language that is straightforward and easy to grasp. Finally, don't be afraid to change your system if it's not working for you. Reviewing, rewriting, and repurposing should be your most important PKM practice. As your needs change, so, too, should the way you label and organize your information, as well as the information itself. Any new information added to the system should be revisited after a couple days. It will help you in getting rid of the fluff and expose the juiciest of details. The goal is to make your life easier, not harder—so don't hesitate to experiment until you find a system and the precise information that works for you. You should do the following while organizing the information you have gathered: 1. Start by identifying the key points of the material you're trying to learn.

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What are the most important concepts? What are the main takeaways? Once you've identified the key points, try to find real-life examples that illustrate those concepts. This step will help you better understand the concept and its relevance to what you’re learning. For example, you recently came across an article on emotion regulation. You know that regulating emotions is essential for maintaining healthy relationships, managing stress effectively, and achieving success in both personal and professional realms, but what exactly is it? Can you think of some real-life examples? Let's say you're at a party and you see your ex with someone new.

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You feel a twinge of jealousy, but instead of letting it spiral out of control, you take a deep breath and remember that you're happy in your own life. That's an example of emotion regulation in action. Or let's say you get passed over for a big promotion at work. You're feeling frustrated and disappointed, but instead of throwing a temper tantrum or quitting on the spot, you decide to put your head down and work even harder. Again, that's emotion regulation. Examples like these stemming from your own lived experiences can help you with learning and implementing mindfulness techniques in life as well as tell you whether or not you need to keep this information for future reference. 2. Make sure you deeply understand the material. It's not enough just to be able to regurgitate information; you need to be able to explain how and why certain things work.

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ard others (Gillespie, Beech,: 2017

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(Why did you save this? Does this inspire you? If yes, in what way? Are there any parts that you'd like to use in the future? How is this going to help me achieve my goals? Remove everything you feel is no longer useful.) To make finding and filtering in your management system easier, include metadata such as tags. You should then move the sifted data to a more permanent location where you can easily access it whenever you need to.

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Items from my own notes, for example, are frequently relocated to different folders for reference articles or project planning (Inspiration for My Book, Travel Ideas, Books Ideas, Art Inspo, etc.). Therefore, whenever I’m in need of something, I go to that specific folder and find everything I need in there. This way, I can actually use my knowledge instead of it being lost in sticky notes and random scribblings that don’t make any sense. Process Your Information and Compound Your Knowledge The Zettelkasten method is a notetaking system that was developed by German sociologist and economist Niklas Luhmann. The system is based on the principle of "the larger the net, the more fish you will catch." The aim is to capture ideas and connect them with one another. It is composed of three essential elements: slips of paper, a filing system, and a mind map. The slips of paper are used to record ideas, thoughts, and information. These slips are then sorted into different categories and filed accordingly.

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The mind map is used to visualize the relationships between different ideas. It beautifully showcases all the three essential elements of a PKM system: The slips of paper signify the gathering and the capturing stage, the filing system signifies the organizing, and the final is the mind map or the compounding of knowledge. This stage consists of rigorously studying and analyzing the information to find patterns that either align with what we already know, or deviate from it. This is the true essence of learning—combining different ideas to give birth to something new. For, my friend, the time has come to actually make some magic happen! All your notes up until now should strictly center around specific themes that are tagged and labeled as such. This will allow you to quickly connect and reframe your notes because each one only contains a single theme or a concept. Don’t let the word “connect” scare you.

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You just need to critically review and analyze the information to establish links between different concepts. Let's go back to that example of organizing your research for your final-year thesis, where you tagged and labeled studies in relevance to “empathy,” “empathy in young adults,” “attitudes toward mental illness,” and “attitudes toward mental illness in young adults." Anyone who has ever undertaken research is aware that a good chunk of it involves establishing a correlation between all the variables being studied. A correlation simply means a relationship or an association between two or more concepts or variables. Here, for example, you will try to see if “empathy” connects to “attitudes toward mental illness." Is there a link between “empathy” and “attitudes” in general? Does one make you think of the other? When you refer to your “empathy” notes, are there any other notes that you wish to see?

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Feel a connection brewing? These are important questions to ponder during this stage, as this is where you will establish all links. Following are some special strategies that can help you in this endeavor. •Make bridge notes to connect ideas that are only noticeably connected in the second view. Simply explain why there is a relationship or an association so that your future self does not have to figure it out on their own again. Let’s say you come across an article on the relationship between “perspective-taking” and “attitudes toward mental health." At first glance, you might think that this might not be relevant to the research you are conducting because it does not show an obvious link. When it comes to research, sometimes we will not find exactly what we are looking for; thus, it becomes important to establish links where there aren’t any.

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•Looking at perspective-taking closely, you will see that we can bridge the gap between our two variables by looking at perspective-taking as an essential component of empathy, for it is our ability to take on someone’s else’s perspective that shows how empathetic we truly are (you can later find research to support this). You can then take this and connect it to “attitudes toward mental illness." Congratulations! You have essentially created a bridge note! You have bridged the gap between “perspective-taking” and “attitudes toward mental illness." You have discovered that these two ideas are noticeably connected in the second view, and you have made notes to explain exactly why. Your future self is going to thank you for this! •Develop index notes to organize ideas by topic.

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Creating index notes is a great way to organize your ideas and keep track of the information you need for a project or paper. Create an index note for each topic that you are studying. For example, you can create one for “empathy” and another for “attitudes toward mental illness." •As you come across relevant information in your reading, add it to the appropriate card. When you're ready to start writing, you can quickly find the information you need by consulting your index notes. When connecting concepts, you can just link it back to the index note. For example, rather than noting ten connections on ten notes of “empathy” and “attitudes toward mental illness,” each note that connects the two concepts can just refer to the index notes. Way less messy!

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•Develop topic notes that take a broader view to group relevant notes together. These can help you lay bare all the connections between your ideas. You can add your own spin to them and make them really unique. Taking from the research example I mentioned above, here we can create a category called, “empathy and attitudes toward mental illness." Or we can have separate categories for baking (kringles and Danishes), gaming (shooters and narratives), or books (fantasy and adventure), or whatever project you are working on. As crucial as it is to establish connections, it is also beneficial to frequently review your analyses and lessons learned so that they can embed themselves in your long-term memory, where they will be most helpful. Another helpful strategy for processing information is progressive summarization. It is a reading comprehension strategy that involves readers making increasingly detailed summaries of what they have read as they progress through a text.

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This strategy can be particularly helpful when reading long or complex texts, as it allows readers to keep track of the main ideas and keep their understanding of the text focused. This is an excellent technique for establishing a successful PKM system. Enter Martha. She has to review a paper for her history class, but she hasn’t the slightest clue how she is going to get through this giant piece of text in two days! Well, we have some good news for Martha. All she needs to do is progressively summarize. She has already captured and gathered the information, even organized all the concepts into key learnings, but then why is she having so much trouble starting? What most of us forget is that we need to constantly revisit, rewrite, and repurpose the knowledge we have gathered if we ever hope to actually learn something new.

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With progressive summarization, Martha starts by making a brief overview of the text as a whole with the help of the key points she has already extracted. She adds more points, eliminates some. Then, she moves on to making more detailed summaries of each section or chapter. Finally, she summarizes the newly repurposed key points of the entire text in a single paragraph. By taking the time to progressively summarize a text, she ensures that she has a clear and concise understanding of its main ideas and can readily link them now. One of the great things about linking concepts is that it gives you a chance to combine different ideas and see what happens. For example, you could take two completely disparate concepts and see how they interact with each other. Maybe you've always been interested in ancient history, but you've also been curious about quantum mechanics.

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Why not try to write a paper that explores the connection between the two? Or maybe you're a big fan of both romance novels and crime thrillers. Could you write a novel that combines elements of both genres? The possibilities are endless. So don't be afraid to experiment and see what happens when you mix different ideas together. You might just come up with something great! In essence, it’s crucial to invest in your thoughts; invest in your ideas and thinking; engage in your curiosity; and pull out that notebook full of little tidbits on how to bake, how to sew, how to paint, how to design, how to write, how to literally become anything that you have ever wanted to be. Start giving meaning to the knowledge you have gathered.

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When you give your knowledge context and meaning, you begin to see compound interest. It's the same as a lot of good behaviors. It can take some time at first to get into it and make it part of your routine. But once you've done that, you usually feel more content, as if you know more, and you're glad you started in the first place. Go grab that notebook, open that folder, and start right now. Walk this path with me as I guide you like Gandalf guided Frodo through the treacherous landscape of Middle-earth. We shall embark on our very own journey of challenged productivity, capture and gather knowledge, process and organize it, and let inspiration be our compass to avoid the fires of Mount Doom. Chapter Takeaways •Personal knowledge management (PKM) is a set of processes that a person uses in their daily activities to collect, categorize, store, search for, retrieve, and share knowledge.

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•Creating a "capture habit" is the first step in personal knowledge management, which is important for lifelong learning and freedom. A capture habit involves quickly saving any helpful or inspiring information or ideas that are come across. This can be done by setting up Google Alerts, subscribing to RSS feeds, following social media accounts, etc. •Once information is gathered, it needs to be properly labeled and organized using a system that makes sense for the task at hand. This will make it easier to find later on when needed. The goal is to make your life easier by understanding and implementing the techniques learned from gathering this information. •The Zettelkasten method is a notetaking system developed by German sociologist Niklas Luhmann that helps you capture ideas and connect them with one another. It has three essential elements: slips of paper, a filing system, and a mind map.

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ircumnavigation of the globe (: 1522