PKM

Don’t Go Crazy with Your Tagging. I Already Did. This Is How I Made it Work!

2 min read

Trying to replicate the physical part of your brain in the digital one is not easy. But that’s been my goal all my life. Tagging is an essential step.

I’m one of those who saw the birth of tags. A miracle.

Compared to folders, now I could have the same item in two different places.

Magic!

Every pleasant situation in life has its downsides. That’s life.

Soon, I found myself with 130.000 items tagged as “productivity”.

Sound familiar?

Bad stuff…

I learned 2 big concepts:

  1. Tag by status (type, status, action).
  2. Tag by context (topic).

Tag by Status

Tags should show you this info related to an item:

  1. What TYPE of item you’re seeing.
  2. What the STATUS of that item is, referring to your workflow of processing items.
  3. If you have to do any ACTION with that item.

Tag by Context

Ask yourself these questions before tagging an item:

  • When will my future self need this info?
  • What search will he make to find this info?

That’s context.

Based on that, tag.

Today, this is my tagging setup:

1. Type

  • Fleeting. Items that pop up in my mind.
  • Permanent. Items already processed.
  • Literature. Items from any source of content. Examples: article, book, podcast…
  • Reference. Items from any reference. Examples: person, meeting, call…
  • TTH. Things That Happened. Examples: event, feeling, win, loss…
  • Project. Items related to any of my projects.

2. Status

  • Critical. Items that have to be processed asap.
  • Incubated. Items that don’t need to be processed.
  • To be processed. An item that needs to be processed.
  • Idea. An item already processed.
  • AK. Area of Knowledge. Items that I need to give them structure because of their complexity.

3. Action

Actions I need to perform with that item: to do, to read, to process, to schedule…

4. Topic

I use these tags inside blocks, always based on context.

A block equals a sentence or paragraph.

I tag just in case I consider my future self would like to find this info and that “search string” isn’t in the line or paragraph.

Examples: sales, PKM, strategy, joke…

Takeaways

  • Tagging by TOPIC goes further than just a category.
  • It equals “the context that will allow your future self to find that item”.
  • Expanding your tags to TYPE, STATUS, and ACTION takes the digital part of your brain closer to the physical one.
  • They have to be just one brain as you are.

 

Photo by Hugo Rocha on Unsplash.