Upcoming experiments in my PKM practice
For the first time, I try a journaling app seriously. It´s Day One for Android. I am very fresh with using it, but I have a new radical idea for my new second brain app…
Maybe I need a more traditional commonplace book instead of a fancy PKM tool?
As I tweeted yesterday I feel like I have a PKM burnout. I guess I´ve fallen into the false illusion of PKM based on my note-taking curiosity for the majority of the last few years.
As mentioned previously being a PKM nerd is a major part of my non-work identity. But this obsession has been backfiring lately, as real life got extremely busy at the same time as work.
I´ve been burning myself out during the last weeks, leading to a major mistake at work last week. The kind of mistake you can get fired for. Luckily I didn´t get fired, but it was close.
It has been scary as fuck. And eye-opening in the same way. It led me to the fundamental question: What in my private life is giving me joy and what are just “I feel like I have to do because (stupid reason)”?
At this stage, I don´t know yet. The whole story is still pretty fresh. I am expected to declutter my real life to a large extent and learn how to rest again. My boss expects visible changes in a period that is comparable to an on/off switch. And that´s not realistic. We´ll have to talk…
I have to admit that I was doing PKM and research as a hobby. I still love all these shiny new PKM apps with millions of options. But I am tired of learning how to use them. I am tired of my approach of learning using them. I am tired of the complexity of my system. I am tired of my workflows.
I have PKM burnout.
I need to develop a more minimalist approach to my Action list (to-do list), delete the majority of my plan-to-x lists, and revamp my media consumption habits… all that kind of stuff.
I need to develop an extremely minimalistic / essentialistic approach to my private commitments in order to have enough energy to stay on my first unterminated job long enough to know if want to do that for the next 10 years or not. Which will take about 1.5 till 2 additional years.
Within my PKM I have been migrating stuff from Obsidian to Capacities since May, but I ignored one very important issue: mobile performance is important to me. And that would require the out-of-budget premium plan of Capacities.
Thinking deeper and deeper I am asking myself whether I might need more like a digital version of a physical commonplace book. Maybe I need a digital journaling app with a reliable sync instead of something fancy and complicated…
What supports this hypothesis is the fact that based on my full-time desk job mobile performance has developed into a very important aspect of my PKM. For now, my phone is my tool of choice, as I am not a tablet person. I don´t want to spend all day in front of a laptop anymore and use more voice-to-text functions and photos.
As Day One is very famous for digital journaling app online, I created an account this morning and get started these days. As far as I´ve noticed, almost all of my basic requirements for a PKM would be fulfilled with the pro plan, which is within my budget. For now, I´ll experiment with this app for a month and then see how it goes.
For me Day One has a high potential as, to be honest, I´ve used note-linking most of the time more as a way to distract myself. I´ve barely mentioned why I have linked something during these years and the date of creation has always been my most important data point for categorization. Which is automatically created with such an app.
But I don´t want to make the mistake with out-of-the-blue migrations again. For now, I´ll keep experimenting with whether this famous tool could be what brings me peace… Even if linking notes isn´t as convenient as in the PKM app, but still possible.
Fun fact: You can use a lot of Markdown commands in Day One… so my 2+ years of using Obsidian are still useful at this point.
As it´s almost July I see myself facing several challenges during the upcoming month. This will be the perfect opportunity to check whether this app would find a place in my system and if I may get peace by simplicity.
Like I won´t get a single day off because I have to replace other coworkers. My partner and I have like 20–30h of DIY projects in our new apartment to do. I need to learn how to rest and force myself to do less and declutter some mental blocks…
