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Personal Knowledge Management: Why It’s Essential for Your Success

In today’s fast-paced world, we are exposed to a plethora of information on a daily basis. As a result, it’s vital to have an effective system for managing knowledge that enables individuals to find information easily, recall it when necessary, and apply it to their work or life in the most effective way. This process is called personal knowledge management (PKM).

What is Personal Knowledge Management?

Personal knowledge management is the process of collecting, organizing, and analyzing information to enhance one’s understanding of a subject or topic. In simpler terms, it’s about how we store, retrieve, and use the knowledge we gain through various sources like web sites, books, articles, videos, or conversations. It allows individuals to create their own personal library of knowledge, making continuous learning and development possible.

Why is PKM important?

  1. Efficiency: Personal knowledge management enables us to access information quickly and efficiently. A well-organized system of knowledge allows us to retrieve information without wasting time, leading to better productivity.
  2. Innovation: Innovation requires a deep understanding of technology and the market it operates in. By continually organizing and reviewing our knowledge base, we can understand trends and identify new ideas and opportunities.
  3. Career Advancement: Employers want individuals who are not just knowledgeable about their field, but also show initiative to stay current and apply their knowledge effectively. PKM allows professionals to maintain a competitive edge and advance in their careers.
  4. Lifelong Learning: Personal knowledge management is an enabling factor for continuous learning. It allows individuals to acquire new knowledge, retain it, and enrich their understanding of the world around them.

How to Develop an Effective PKM Strategy

  1. Identify your goals: Determine the areas of knowledge you want to acquire or improve upon. Identify your strengths and weaknesses, and set goals accordingly.
  2. Gather information: Curate information from various sources, including books, articles, podcasts, and videos, related to the topics of interest.
  3. Organize your knowledge: Organize the information into categories or themes using tools like Evernote, OneNote, or Trello. Create tags, labels, and folders to find information quickly and easily.
  4. Review regularly: Review your knowledge base regularly and update it with new information. Reflect on your learnings, synthesize your takeaways, and apply them efficiently in your work or life.
  5. Share your knowledge: Share your knowledge with others through social media, blogs, or speaking engagements, to create new connections and gain insights from others.

Conclusion

In today’s data-heavy world, personal knowledge management is an essential skill for those who want to be better learners, innovative thinkers, and effective professionals. It is an enabling strategy that allows individuals to develop and maintain a deep level of knowledge that enhances both personal and professional growth. By following the tips shared in this post, you can create a system that works for you, leading to a lifetime of success.

There are many good and not so good PKM applications, all have their strengths and weaknesses. We welcome you to evaluate our PKM, Clibu Notes and see how well it meets your needs.

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Clibu Notes, Fast Full Text Search. v0.45.00 Released

This Clibu Notes release continues laying the foundation for our simpler, faster, private, Note capture application. It includes important new capabilities such as fast full text search, a range of user interface changes based largely on user feedback and plenty of tweaks and bug fixes.

Fast full text search

Let’s start with Search. We’ve replaced the search engine used in Clibu, which unfortunately wasn’t as good as we’d liked.

The search in Clibu Notes is lighting fast and includes fuzzy and partial matching along with word stemming. For example “camping” will find “Camper”, “Camping” etc. as will “camper”, “camp” etc. as shown below.

Search results are displayed instantly as you type, with no waiting to get data from the cloud. Search results are available in the Search Tab, so there is no need to redo a search. Results update when you select either the Search Tab or Search prompt, so they are always reflect reality.

The Clibu Notes Tree, Notes List/Grid and Editor all update to include just the search results as shown here.

Search results will be highlighted in the Note editor in a future release.

Selecting a note in the tree will show only the search results in that tree branch, letting you drill down to a subset of results. Click on the Home icon goes back to showing all search results.

In a similar way, Filters can be used along with Search to home in on specific notes. For example you could show only search results with a green title or a certain icon.

Being independant

Every combination of View Group (Notes, Archive, Trash), Sort Type (Title, My Order, Date Updated,…) and List View Tab keeps its own set of Filters and Hoisting properties. This flexibility lets you have independant and specific sets of Notes displayed for each of these combinations.

When these change a notification is displayed summarizing what’s on view.

Streamlined user interface

We’ve simplified and relabeled various user interface components in this release. Click/tap on the Filters button now toggles filters off/on and the dropdown arrow opens the filters menu. Changing any Filter setting now activates it’s filter and turns Filtering on. The New Note button is also more prominent.

The Sort Order button and menu have also been changed. The button text and icon indicates the current sort order, which can be changed using the direction button on the right. We’ve removed the sort direction buttons from the menu itself, which were confusing.

That’s all for now

This release adds important new functionality, addresses a range of issues which weren’t working quite right and improves overall usability.

Next steps include major updates and added functionality to the Note editor along with work on the server to finish the multi-device synchronization. This builds on the current multi-tab synchronization currently in place.

The About page in Clibu Notes includes a roadmap I suggest you read. About can be accessed via Help or the Settings menu in Clibu Notes

As with earlier releases send an email to info@clibu.com to get access to this release. For continued early-release access we need your comments, criticisms and suggestions, so please do get in touch.

You can add comments below and open tickets in our Help desk, accessed via. the Settings menu in Clibu Notes. Or get in touch via email if you prefer. You can also follow us on Twitter.

Stay well, stay positive and be considerate to all around you.

Neville Franks, Author of Clibu Notes, Clibu etc. ©Soft As It Gets P/L 2020