Link to original video by Zsolt's Visual Personal Knowledge Management

Rethinking MY PKM: How I Organize Everything In Obsidian

Short Summary:

This video explores the speaker's personal knowledge management (PKM) system in Obsidian, built upon six principles and 14 components. The system emphasizes simplicity, minimal friction, and maximizing findability through the LATCH method (Location, Alphabet, Time, Category, Hierarchy). It utilizes various tools like folders, tags, links, templates, daily notes, and data views to organize information effectively. The speaker also highlights the importance of atomic nodes, transclusion, and consistent naming conventions for efficient knowledge management.

Detailed Summary:

Introduction:

The video starts with a brief overview of the speaker's PKM journey, mentioning previous videos and the evolution of their system.
The speaker introduces the six principles and 14 components of their current PKM system in Obsidian.
They emphasize the importance of visual thinking and offer a link to their "Excalidraw" drawing for further exploration.

Six Principles of PKM:

Keep it Simple: Each component has a clear and single purpose to avoid confusion.
Minimize Friction: Utilizing tools like Templater and Data View to automate workflows.
Brownfield Reality: Accepting the messy reality of existing data from previous systems and tools.
Avoid Moving Files: Sticking to file locations to prevent broken links.
Apply LATCH: Using Location, Alphabet, Time, Category, and Hierarchy to maximize findability.
Always Link: Linking files to the graph to avoid orphan files and improve discoverability.

Components of the System:

Folders: Used as namespaces rather than physical storage locations. The speaker demonstrates how they use folders to organize authors, people, and projects.
Tags: Used to define the type of a page, with one tag per page. The speaker uses tags to customize the appearance of pages in Excalidraw.
Links: Used to create connections between notes, with an ontology system to define the relationship between them. The speaker uses data view fields to implement the ontology and Excalidraw to visualize it.
Atomic Nodes & Transclusion: Reusing components like images and sections to create links and embed content across different notes.
File Names: Using consistent naming conventions for files, including type, keywords, and source.
Templates: Utilizing templates to automate the creation of new files, folders, and workflows.
Map of Contents (MOCs): Creating summaries of topics using links and ontologies.
Daily Notes: Creating a time hierarchy based on LATCH, with geotags for location-based organization.
Tasks: Placing tasks in the context of the person, project, or topic they are related to, using data view queries.
Dynamic Lists: Using data views and embedded Obsidian queries to create dynamic lists of information.
Diagnostics & Maintenance: Regularly checking for orphan notes, pasted images, and other maintenance tasks.

Conclusion:

The speaker emphasizes the importance of the LATCH method for maximizing findability.
They reiterate the benefits of their PKM system for organizing information effectively.
The speaker promotes their "Visual Thinking Workshop" cohort for those interested in learning more about visual thinking and Obsidian.
They provide a link to their Excalidraw drawing for further exploration of their PKM system.

Notable Quotes:

"I try to keep these separate from one another so I don't get confused about it." (Regarding the principle of keeping it simple)
"I live in the Brownfield reality and I bet most of you also." (Acknowledging the reality of existing data)
"I think of folders not as physical storage locations but as name spaces." (Explaining the speaker's approach to folders)
"Everything in the world can be organized by these five means and by these five means only." (Quoting Richard Warman on the LATCH method)
"I want to be reminded so in this case I'm also using tags but here I'm not using it to define the type of the page but I'm using it just as a stylistic component to remind me of the type of action that I'm talking about." (Explaining the speaker's use of tags for tasks)