I wrote about my starting a Knowledge Management System (KMS) 10 months ago. What changed so far?

A Quick Recap

A KMS collects and organizes information to make it easier to retrieve and access at any time. It’s not just notetaking; it’s curating the notes you’ve taken into a personal library to pursue your best self.

Some call it “PKM” or “Personal Knowledge Management,” but it is the same.

My Previous KMS Structure (as of August 2024)

From my last update, I shifted my focus around and optimized to lessen analysis paralysis:

• Dynalist for my brain dump, general to-dos, waiting-for lists, quick references
• Workflowy for my “workspace” in clarifying info, a container for projects and journals
• Google Calendar for scheduled tasks and events
• Obsidian for references, Someday Projects, and discrete ideas (“zettels”)
• Notion for trackers and databases

My Problems with this Current Setup

Workflowy was used as my primary workspace. However, I ran into a point where I put too much data into it, which became unwieldy.

Workflowy is a great outliner. You can use it to make outlines and lists, but to bring it to the next level, you need metadata and the ability to gain insight into my notes.

Working with this app was great initially, but it became harder to search when needed after my notes got bigger. You could use tags and links to organize, but it became harder to keep up.

Another dealbreaker for me was when Workflowy recently increased its monthly subscription to USD 9 from USD 5. With that price, I needed more features to make it worthwhile.

I had a problem with data that aged. Data rots if you don’t review it regularly, just like in real life. Using three different tools, I couldn’t review my data regularly.

In contrast, I found Google Calendar and Notion reliable as they have singular purposes in my KMS.

What Has Changed Now?

After some soul-searching, I realized I needed to destroy my setup and rebuild. This is necessary as you go through your journey with your KMS. We grow into new idiosyncrasies as we take in more knowledge. There is no right or wrong; there is only what you need.

I realized that I needed to combine the three (Dynalist, Workflowy, and Obsidian) into a single tool that would fit my requirements, and then I saw Capacities.io.

This notetaking tool has a distinctive organizational style—it uses objects. These objects can be anything you need them to be, and you can set properties that augment them.

For example, in my KMS, I have a lot of lists, which are in itself a collection of info with a specific theme or category. In Capacities, I created an object called “List” with a Description property so that I can describe what it is for.

Another example is when I created a “Post” object containing post ideas I’ve gathered. Each Post object corresponds to a planned post, and each has a Date Posted property, so I know when I posted that particular post on Medium or in my blog.

With Capacities, the main difference this time is that all of my data is first-class citizens through objects, which makes linking data easier. It even has a graph view, similar to Obsidian, which shows all tags and links related to a particular object.

Replacing My Tools One by One

As a replacement for Dynalist, my quick references, general to-dos, and waiting-for lists can be pinned to my sidebar in Capacities, making referring to them more manageable.

To replace my Workflowy workspace, Capacities, by default, has a built-in calendar with a daily note object, which includes my brain dumps for that particular day. Using this daily note object as a springboard, I can create any other object using the brain dump item as a reference.

This has also made it easier for me to start journal entries (with the “Journal” object I created, of course).

Another remarkable thing is that my “Zettels,” or discrete ideas, became their own objects, and I could link them to other objects easily. I could also add a Date Created property to the object so that I wouldn’t need to reference it using its name or tag as I did in Obsidian.

I was also able to revamp my old Obsidian workflow into Capacities. For Someday Projects, I created an object called “Plans,” and for references, unoriginally, I made “References.” I fleshed my References out to categorize them further into books, podcasts, and my recent fascination — Fabric AI summaries of YouTube videos.

I created “Projects” for my current projects, adding a property that can be linked to Plans. Plans can eventually become Projects given time and opportunity. And Projects can eventually be archived once finished. Again, it is pretty intuitive and relatable to the PARA method of organizing data.

I could easily fit everything from my old setup to this new one, which is pleasantly surprising.

My Google Calendar and Notion workflows remain unchanged. Moreover, I noticed the potential to link them to and from Capacities via automation (as all three have webhook functionalities).

Other Capacities Related Notes

Capacities.io has no vendor lockdown, and you can use it via the web, Android, and IOS. The free plan is perfectly usable as it doesn’t limit you in terms of space or object size.

The paid plan at USD 11 is a bargain, as this allows you to:
1. Use queries that allow refined search for objects using properties.
2. Use the AI assistant to help with writing and other tasks.
3. Create task actions to enable webhooks and send to-dos to other apps via integrations.
4. Use their API if you need to.

New features also trickle into the paid plan, with a big list of updates planned.

Takeaways

The fewer tools you use in your KMS/PKM, the better. You won’t get into a rut thinking about where to put particular info. Tools with only one primary function in your system are the most reliable.

Your goal is to not worry about the system constantly and focus on your notetaking.

It is okay to blow your KMS apart and to start again. I know some people who rebuild their systems every year. This is fine as long as you don’t lose the data and always have a migration plan.

Unreviewed data always rots. Even old journal entries must be reviewed to understand why you wrote that during that time.