How to Escape the PKM Trap of Sophisticated Procrastination

And start creating wonderful things with your collection of notes

Sketch by Author

Yesterday I watched and sketchnoted this 20-minute video about personal knowledge management (PKM).

Sam Matla is a business coach, writer, entrepreneur, and a very insightful fellow! Less than ten seconds into the video I could see he has a deep, personal understanding of why some of us continually work ON our systems instead of diving in and working IN the system.

Sam explains what PKM is, and what it is not. He describes the Optimisation Procrastination Trap and the Collector’s Fallacy, and outlines five clear principles that can help us focus on the relevant, and experience less distraction and less FOMO (fear of missing out) when faced with shiny new apps that promise you the universe on a plate.

My favourite of the five principles is number four:

Improve your work capacity and output BEFORE structuring your system

Only when you can work in and with your notes for a solid 2–3 hours or more, on a regular basis, should you even think about structuring them. Sam is right when he says we don’t need as much structure as we often think we do.