WHILE TRYING TO follow a workflow that incorporates smart note-taking linked to a viable system of Personal Knowledge Management, I shared some thoughts with business advisor Greg Dickson in Canada.
Listen to "About Bear and Roam and Notion E584 #pkm" on Spreaker.
Fond Thoughts of Bear Writer
Greg Dickson connected me to Bear Writer several years ago and I used Bear to toggle information between my iPad Mini 4 and my iPhone 5C. I kept that workflow intact until I gave the iPhone to my wife and the iPad became a daily driver for my son Dylan.
I liked Bear because it efficiently synced content between iOS devices. Within three years, Microsoft gave me the same synchronicity between mobile operating systems and my laptop and I stay inside the Office365 environment because it served me well.
I told Greg that it's important to be able to export and share core elements of Bear Notes. It should be straightforward to use curated part of note from Bear since you can export Bear content via Markdown or plain text.
Like several of my colleagues, Greg has tried Roam Research, one of my paid services. Roam can be cryptic and hard to get your head around because it starts with a plain screen and it's up to the user to decide how to organise its very capable architecture. I think it's quick and clean--if used by someone who likes to move around quickly with keystrokes and code snippets. More than any other program, Roam Research has very powerful block-related chunks of actionable data. It's because of the powerful block-based structure and the way the blocks dynamically create back links that I stay enamored with Roam Research.
Juggling Roam and Notion Currently
At the moment, I am toggling between Roam Research and Notion. Having two PKM systems drains my time. I'm starting to pivot towards Notion as my primary PKM because I believe my 14yo daughter would adopt it faster than Roam Research. Two of my best students recommended Notion. I believe Notions UI will appeal to the mid-career professionals who have signed up to take an MA to improve their creative leadership skills. One of those essential skills involves the development of skills of digital transformation. As we get closer to starting the academic part of this MA, I'm trying hard not to obsess with simply hoovering everything that passes near my screen to setting aside time to chat with people like Greg Dickson because I want to feel like I'm maintaining a digital garden more than I'm just trying to throw gigs of clips into a digital stash.
Bernie's Pro Tips for Effective PKM
- Start important things inside your PKM system.
- Create a page for every interesting idea.
- Use hashtags or actionable properties for important content.
- Use the PKM's search tool frequently so you know you can find the things you save.
- Export or share your PKM content with collaborators at least once a week.
Bonus Clip: Cultivating a Digital Knowledge Garden
[Follow Bernie Goldbach's audio clips to learn more about PKM as a core driver of digital transformation.]
