- Do NOT migrate to new tools, even if they are really shiny and popular - this may end up being a big hurdle you'll regret down the line (looking at you, Notion, Todoist, Google Keep, the list goes on). Just stick to your tools for at least a couple of years before exploring alternatives.
- Try search instead of organisation. I used to have elaborate folder structures for everything... but have since given up, still keep some basic structure, but I find most things via search anyway.
- Help your non-technical friends and family. You may have discovered the best clouds, NAS solutions, software, methodology... but they still use post its for passwords and keep family recipes in that one notebook in the cupboard. Guide them, share your subscriptions with them, give them pointers.
- Use fewer services, even if they are not the best tools for the job. I find it much easier to reason about a handful of storage media (and their backups, pricing etc.) than having an app for every single activity in my life (e.g. I stopped using apps for recipes, I use my synchronised note taking app instead. Same for shopping lists, use my todo app. Etc.)
I've been taking notes for 2 years, zettelkasten-style, and 90% of them are just dumped in the same directory, without links or tags. If I'm looking for something and remember that I might have that in my notes, I just search for it.
That also implies that, when writing a note, I sometimes add a line with a few related keywords and synonyms.
I spent some time to build my own web-based markdown editor, and was using minisearch[0] to index and do fuzzy search on my notes. I've recently switched to Obsidian and plan to make a similar extension in the next weeks.
If you're on a Linux system and the notes are just text files a
grep -rn . -e 'search term'
is probably sufficient. Use
-rnw
If you're looking for whole words.
Maybe leave your friends and family alone - sure, it's fine to mention a product if the topic comes up but I find one of the things humans tend to want help with the least it's organization - everyone has their own system.
I agree. I rarely ever use new tools, but I switched to Notion a few years ago and even recommended it to many friends and colleagues.
Big mistake. Lessons learned. It's been slow and buggy all this time but I still kept using it. The final nail in the coffin was it started using 15-20% of a CPU core on IDLE, and has been doing so for 5+ months. Tried everything and gave up. Going back to simple text files.
Completely agree here. For better or worse (well, definitely worse), I've noticed that some part of my brain that loves list-making and re-organizing. This leads me to an impulse to be in a never-ending process of migrating from one tool to another, wind at my back with a new motivated epiphany about how to re-organize everything.
Of course, when I say it out loud, it's nonsense, but moment to moment it doesn't feel like that's what I'm doing.
I really love the wiki-style organization but I don't want to depend on a tool with features stuck to that tool. I want something universal, like text.
Right now I'm using Simplenote and its killer linked notes feature, but I fear perhaps I've got a bit of lock-in there too. I at least believe in the ability to easily backup and migrate out of Simplenote, I think it's kinda portable.
But I really think simple principles, like search don't sort, may cut through the unnecessary complexity that my brain loves to produce and administer.
If you want to stick with text, I can wholeheartedly recommend Obsidian. It's a bunch of Markdown files on disk and Obsidian does a great job of layering organization features on top of that. (I personally also pay for their Sync service, but you can sync to other devices using other cloud services — they're just Markdown files on disk, after all!)
I guess in truth I have a handful of "requirements" - text based, able to avoid lock-in, able to sync, and cross-platform availability. Looks like it checks all the boxes.
Your last point is a big one for me. Although I did not personally code the tools I use for 'PKM', they don't depend on any service provider remaining in existence in order to function. Not even my ISP.
> ... even if they are not the best tools for the job
