In this edition of Practical PKM:

Avoiding the Systems Commitment Trap How to identify resonating ideas The role of ideas in your PKM Stack A cool Obsidian plugin for referencing help sites Some neat features added in Obsidian version 1.5.2 My book notes from The Creative Act by Rick Rubin

Over the past several years, I’ve read almost 200 self-help books for the Bookworm podcast.

When I started reading, I believed if I replicated the author’s detailed system, I would get the same results they got.

But that never happened.

And when the system didn’t deliver the results I expected, I thought I was the problem.

Until finally, it hit me: This is the wrong approach.

Things really started to click for me when I stopped putting pressure on myself to do exactly what the authors were telling me to do.

I started choosing the pieces and the ideas I wanted to implement for myself instead of trying to copy the whole system.

And I saw that creating got a whole lot easier.

This "Systems Commitment Trap" is the same one we fall into when the PKM universe starts fawning over a new app. We believe because some app has a new technical feature that it will unlock our hidden creativity and allow us to achieve superhuman levels of productivity.

We just need to drop everything we've been doing and go all in with this shiny new tool.

But the perfect PKM app doesn’t exist. Instead of an app, you need a way of facilitating the flow of information in a way that allows you to be productive and creative.

In other words, you need to pick the pieces that work for you and craft your own PKM workflow.

One size definitely does NOT fit all.

The solution is a PKM Stack comprised of multiple tools with clearly defined roles. Just as your stack will be uniquely yours, so will the ideas you capture inside your PKM (though they will be fueled by the Information you collect, as we talked about last week).

But before we can make the most of our ideas, many of us need to break a wrong mindset that has inadvertently drilled into our subconscious since kindergarten: Learning is about memorizing facts that someone else told us we needed to know.

The problem is that by doing this we train ourselves to block out information that sparks our curiosity. We lose the ability to cultivate and develop our ideas, and we end up feeling like we just aren't creative.

But if we can develop the ability to stay curious, we can make more of our notes and ideas and rediscover our ability to be creative.

Ideas are as unique as your DNA

How do we know the difference between the automated message in our brain telling us, “Be sure you learn this because someone else says it’s important?” and what is actually useful?

The things that are valuable are the things that resonate.

In an interview I did with Building a Second Brain author Tiago Forte for the Focused podcast, he defines resonance as “an echo in your soul.”

When something resonates, it hits differently. It feels more substantial. It piques your interest and causes us to want to explore it further. There something that goes off inside you that says, "this is important, pay attention!"

Collect enough of these things that resonate, and they start to bounce off of one another. And when these ideas start to bounce off one another, you feel the urge to make sense of it. This is when you pull out your notebook or note-taking app (i.e. Obsidian) and start to write out your thoughts. And as you do, the clarity magically comes.

There's an old saying that thoughts disentangle themselves through lips and pencil tips. I would add, "and also clicky keyboards."

And that is the creative process in a nutshell. But it all starts with noticing what resonates and curating ideas into your PKM system.

Resonance happens when your mindset shifts from, “I need to process these book notes,” to “I wonder what this author thinks about topic x.”

Great ideas can pop up anywhere. On a run. In the shower. Reading a book. You never know where and when inspiration will come, but you do need to make sure you’re ready when the muse shows up.

Your PKM stack, then, must have a tool that allows you to capture these inspirations. These ideas are the foundation for a collection of atomic ideas you can piece together to make something new. Just make sure your capture system isn’t so complicated that you can’t grab that idea immediately. If you miss it, the idea is often gone forever.

Rule number one for capturing ideas is minimizing friction, which is why I use Drafts. I like Drafts because it takes me straight to a blank note when I open it, allowing me to immediately write my note.

There’s even an Apple Watch app that I can use to dictate an idea when I’m out for a run (I notice I get a lot of ideas when I’m exercising). I just open Drafts, hit the Siri dictation button, and say something like “IDEA: write first creativity flywheel email on capture and resonance.”

Then about once per week I go through all the things that I captured and move the ones I want to do something with over to Obsidian.

These notes and ideas that end up in Obsidian are the fundamental building blocks for everything that I end up creating.

But don’t use Drafts just because I do.

Learning a new app may present even more friction than the tool you’re most familiar with.

A pocket notebook that you carry everywhere is a perfectly fine capture tool. You can create an audio memo or use Apple Notes. Whatever you know will be available to you whenever inspiration strikes. That’s the right tool for you.

Make your PKM uniquely yours

Building a PKM that suits your needs begins with capturing information and ideas, allowing you to think more deeply about how ideas and experiences connect as you take the pieces and make something new with them.

Your journey in building a PKM isn’t about the tools you use or the information you gather. It is deeply personal because you are transforming how you interact with knowledge — from a static collection process to an active, creative practice of idea cultivation.

Your PKM doesn’t actually reside “in” any digital repository. The content of your PKM resides in your mind. Whether you realize it or not, you’ve had an analog PKM system for a long time. Your PKM Stack should be the external visualization of your inherent creative process. It’s the digital (or analog) workshop where you make sense of things and gain meaning and insight from your experiences.

Next time, we'll dive into how these cultivated ideas can be translated into actions, taking your PKM from a repository of thoughts to a catalyst for personal growth and creativity.

Something Cool: HelpMate

TfTHacker has a new Community plugin available called HelpMate that embeds the Obsidian help page in the sidebar for easy reference. This makes it easy to find the help you need without having to leave the app. For example, here’s the Callout Reference note from my Obsidian University Starter Vault with the Obsidian Help page on how to use Callouts open beside it:

What I like about HelpMate is that it eliminates the need to go back and forth between Obsidian and a web browser. You can even add a custom list of URLs you want available as help resources in the plugin settings, which is perfect for some of the technical writing I do in Obsidian.

What's New in Obsidian

Version 1.5.2 was released this week, adding several quality-of-life improvements. It continues to expand on the work done in 1.5 which added significant improvements to Markdown tables:

• Triple-clicking in a table cell now selects the whole table.
• Clicking on the drag indicators now selects the entire row or column.
• You can now insert templates inside of table cells.
• Dragging rows and columns in the table will now move the row/column instead of swapping it.

There are also some new features in the Editor:

• Commands like “Toggle Bold” can now be run with multiple cursors, and work across lines and within table selections.
• There is now a Format sub-menu when you right-click in a Markdown document, making it MUCH easier to format text for those who are new to Markdown.

Version 1.5.2 is worth an upgrade and is available as an Insider build for Catalyst supporters. You can become a Catalyst supporter and receive Insider builds for a one-time cost of $25 here.

Book Notes: The Creative Act by Rick Rubin

If you want to dive even deeper into the mechanics of the creative process, you’ll enjoy The Creative Act by Rick Rubin. It's a great book that talks at length about where ideas come from and how to make the most of them. One of my favorites I've read this year.

And if you want to download my notes, click this link.

Coming Soon

Want to go even deeper with crafting an Obsidian-centric PKM Stack that can actually help you be more productive and creative? Then you should check out my 4-week cohort where we tackle how to use Obsidian at all four levels.

I'm going to reopen my Obsidian cohort shortly after New Year's. This time around, I’m creating some custom Obsidian resources to help you apply the PKM Stack concept easily in your own Obsidian vault (think PKM Stack setup done for you 😉).

These resources will only be available to cohort members at launch, but I’m really excited to share them with you! 🙂

If you want to be the first to know when the cohort opens up, click here.

—Mike

P.S. I continue the quest to take my newsletter game up a notch, so if there's anything you particularly like (or dislike) about this newsletter format, please let me know by replying to this email. I'm going to be working hard on dialing this in over the next several weeks, so I'd love to hear your feedback! Just be nice please 🙂