Combining knowledge management and task management

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Fedja_b

Registered
Hey guys,

With the advent of the newer generation PKMS apps such as Obsidian, Roam, Logseq, UpNote, etc. it has become possible to combine our notes (and knowledge) with task management. What is your opinion on this? Should this be avoided or are there benefits? I am particularity interested in experiences from people who have tried doing this; what are your conclusion? Were there tangible benefits or did you find it too confusing and messy?

Alternatively, is it even possible to combine the full GTD methodology with a personal knowledge management system?

Looking forward to a fruitful discussion.
 
I use Obsidian to manage a lot of my digital GTD.

I find it convenient to create project notes right from my projects list.

I like having it all synced to my phone with no effort from myself.

I like having my lists and notes as plain text files that I can access even without the Obsidian app.

That's about it from me. It's not revolutionary but I enjoy using it.
 
No reason it can't work in theory, its just that in practice, I find specialist task managers tend do the job better. They're more tuned in to the little details that make handling my tasks easier.
 
My experience is that as the ratio of total notes to embedded actions becomes larger, it often becomes harder for me to manage the project. This may be me, or a reflection of the nature of my larger projects, or both.
 
mcogilvie said:
My experience is that as the ratio of total notes to embedded actions becomes larger, it often becomes harder for me to manage the project. This may be me, or a reflection of the nature of my larger projects, or both.
Click to expand...

Oh, have I misunderstood the question? I completely agree with you. I have notes and next actions in the same app, but in different parts of it. I have a "note" for my next actions. All my next actions go there and only there. I have other "notes" for project support. They might have project plans but I don't go there to see my current list of next actions.
 
Does mixing your knowledge notes and tasks create any kind of friction? Is it better to keep clean hard edges by using separate apps (better features of dedicated Todo apps notwithstanding)?
 
Fedja_b said:
I am particularity interested in experiences from people who have tried doing this; what are your conclusion? Were there tangible benefits or did you find it too confusing and messy?

Alternatively, is it even possible to combine the full GTD methodology with a personal knowledge management system?
Click to expand...
I've moved from several specialized apps to do pieces of both PKM and GTD/Task management into a single app. I use Obsidian.

Benefits: one place for ground truth on all my endeavors, learning to use one general purpose tool very well reduces the mental clutter of remembering specialized toolsets and operating procedures, simple easy to use on all systems I use, no worries about whether it will work on my Linux box, my Android tablets, my ipad, macs or iPhone. It works everywhere pretty much the same.

Drawbacks: It takes a fair amount of time to fine tune it and decide on whether to use extra plug-ins and if the answer is yes to decide which ones and what you will do if they become deprecated.

It's totally possible to combine a full GTD system integrated with a full PKM system.
 
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