At present I use Notion the basis for my personal knowledge management system. But I this setup should work about as well in other knowledge management tools like Obsidian or even Apple Notes now that it supports back linking. The requirements that a knowledge management tool needs to meet for me are:

I start the week by making a page from my weekly template. The template contains a toggle list for Focus Areas and associated priority levels (more on that later), a toggle list for each of the week, and, optional a toggle list for Next Week. Days of the week are pre-populated with recurring activities.

I then scan through the last week’s page and migrate, either by moving, duplicating, or syncing or backlinking, any work that rolls over to the current page. This exercise presents an opportunity to explicitly think about what should and should not roll over. It’s the difference between dropping a ball, which is bad, vs. putting a ball down and walking away, which can be right thing to do. More on this in the section on Eisenhower Matrix. For instance, if I see that putting something off week over week, that’s a signal that I either need to drop it, delegate it, or be disciplined in setting up time to do it.

Once I’ve determined what ought to carry over from the previous week, I think through what should or needs to be the focus areas for the current week and the priority level of each. This system is relative to me and what I’m trying to accomplish. Meaning, for instance, that a task need not be P0 to anyone else in order to be P0 to me. This exercise supports clarity on saying the right yes’s and right no’s. Meaning that there is no expectation that the initial list is exhaustive and final. Having it in place allows me to weigh emergent commitments against existing ones.

Lastly, based on the focus areas and rollover items, I take a moment to distribute tasks throughout the days of the week. This exercise is an opportunity to set reasonable expectations with myself and others on what I might be able to accomplish. For instance, too many items stacked up on any one day (especially Mondays for me) should prompt the question of what is realistic, ambitious, and necessary to expect from yourself on a given day and is there’s a better sequence/distribution to accomplish my objectives? Too many tasks not related to the focus areas means I might be misstating my priorities or I need to get more ruthless/realistic about protecting them.

At the end of the present week or beginning of the next, I try to update the project pages that I've tagged in my Focus Areas.

I was introduced to the Eisenhower Matrix by my then-manager back in 2016. It felt almost criminal that I’d lived my life up to that point without having come across such a powerful framework. You may scoff, but I’m not alone in that feeling. Invariably, I end up sharing the matrix as a tool with my mentees and reports and they usually have a similar reaction. This framework could easily be a topic unto itself.

The act of making a list, like writing in general, allows you to martial your cognitive resources into thinking through: what are you goals and what do you need to or want to do in order to accomplish them? If those things can’t be done at once, what is the right / a right sequence to do them.

A common pattern I encounter being tasked with Activity A, which I don’t mind or actively enjoy doing and is due in X days and Activity B, which I don’t particularly want to do and is due in Y days where Y < X. Without stopping to prioritize, I’m more susceptible to doing Activity A first with that rationale that I’m getting something valuable done. Which is true. But that incorrect sequence may needlessly put Activity B at risk of being late. The appropriate sequence can lead to both things getting done on time, and listing things out and labeling the priorities is one may to tease out that sequence.

Different approaches work for different people. If sticky notes or pen and paper are the best tools for you, keep on jamming.

The main point of calling out iterations I've made over time is that copying another person’s system wholesale may not provide utility consummate to the level of effort to set up and maintain. Start simple, add components as you discover the need or benefit and remove components if they don’t serve you well. The process that I followed a few years ago would likely not hold up well to the strain of the volume of information that I manage today, but I hesitate to say that I should have adopted my current earlier because I simply didn’t need it back then.

What I like about tools like Notion, besides the rich content formatting options like toggles and check boxes, is the ability to define ad hoc taxonomies. For example, the Projects page is something I didn’t have in 2020 → added in 2021 as part of my experiment with PARA → removed in 2022 → have found both a utility and an implementation that has been working for me in 2023.

And if I decide that I want to introduce the concept of “task” and tasks should be associated with a project, a due date, and mood score with predefined for how I feel about it, then I can add it. And if I change my mind, I can change the fields or remove the concept entirely. This allows users to find the ergonomic flow that works for them.

Remembering is good and important. But memory, unaided, is fallible. So I don’t go to great paints to remember things. Rather, I optimize for ways to recall important things.

It’s akin to the difference between memorizing coordinates and making and annotating a map. If you get bombarded with information, are exhausted, hungry, or otherwise under duress, you may forget those coordinates. But chances are high that you aren’t going to forget how to read the map under those same conditions.

A corollary here is that the less things you have to remember, the more likely it is that will be able to successful retain the things that you do have to remember.

Delegation enables scaling. Relying on tools is a highly effective form of delegation.