Knowledge Management for Beginners

The why and the how of Personal Knowledge Management, from first principles. This is the course that explains the decisions baked into the Starter Kit.

What it is

My complete course on Personal Knowledge Management. Nine modules: the problems we face, information management vs knowledge management, getting started, the PKM process, the core concepts, my recommendations, building your own system, going further. Ten hours plus.

Don’t let “for Beginners” fool you. Beginners in PKM, not beginners in life. Plenty of people with 20 years of note-taking behind them told me module 4 reorganized how they think about the whole thing.

Where to find it

Bought on Gumroad or the store: your Gumroad library. The course videos and materials are in the library; knowledge-management-for-beginners.com is only the sales page.

Everyone who owns it, whichever way: you’re invited to Knowii, and the course space under Courses has the same videos with progress tracking. Knowledge Master has it unlocked already.

Questions about the course: the Courses Support & Discussions space. Knowii members get their invites from me personally, within 24 to 48 hours of subscribing. Nothing yet? Write to sebastien@developassion.be.

Do this first

Module 1 and 2 in one sitting. About an hour. You’ll leave with the distinction between information and knowledge, and that distinction alone changes what you decide to write down.

Then

One module per week. Not because they’re long, but because each one asks you to change something in your practice, and that takes days, not minutes.
Module 4 (the PKM process) and module 7 (building your system): do the exercises with your actual vault. If you have the Starter Kit, you’ll recognize every concept as something that already exists in it. That’s the point. Now you know why it’s there.
Keep a running note titled “KMfB: what I’m changing”. One line per module. Review it at the end.

Skip it if

You’ve read the classics (Ahrens, Forte, Matuschak), you’ve been journaling for years, and your system already works. Then skim modules 6 and 8 for my specific recommendations and move on.

What it leads to