This week we have one more issue dedicated to the 6 skills of Personal Knowledge Management. If you lost the previous issues, read them here:

• ​6 PKM skills​
• ​Active note-taking​
• ​Active reading​
• ​Idea Management​

Hello Reader,

In the last issue, I discussed how the use of links in note-taking apps created a revolution in how we take notes.

Before, notes were isolated documents. Now notes can be linked to each other (just like in websites). So we can stop organising notes as documents and start organising them as ideas that relate to each other via links.

But in 2022, a second revolution started (and it is still ongoing).

And that is the addition of infinite Canvas to linked-based note-taking.

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Linked-based note-taking is great, but it becomes very limited when it is done only with text-based notes.

Let me explain with an analogy.

You may have already faced this situation if you are a researcher (or an avid learner) who reads things on the Web.

1. You open your browser.
2. You search for something and open it in a new tab.
3. You start reading, then open yet another tab.

Then two hours later, you have 20+ tabs open, you don’t remember what you were doing, you don’t know which tab you need to go back to, and you have no idea where the music is coming from.

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Well.. with note-taking it can be the same.

You start breaking down a document note into idea notes (i.e. one note per idea), and then each idea becomes a tab. You jump into one of these idea notes and decide it should be broken further. When you see you have 20 notes open and no clue what to do with it all and where to go back to (that is if your app even allows for tabs).

It is total chaos!

The challenge is that you lose context.

We lose the high-level overview of the connection between all ideas.

That’s why you see many people constraining themselves to a Zettelkasten (which is hierarchical, as in “one note behind the other”), even when their linked-based apps don’t force them into a hierarchical structure. The goal is to keep all ideas “in context” at all times.

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I was a happy Obsidian user until 2021 when I faced this problem over and over again.

It was easy to work with one or two idea notes at a time. Even working with 5 notes would be fine if you know how to arrange them on the screen.

But when doing research I could be working with 10..20.. even 30 notes at a time.

In that case, it was impossible to have all notes open on the screen or have an overview of their relations at a glance.

I was getting stuck and I was starting to abandon note-taking altogether.

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That’s when a small startup company invited me for a chat.

They wanted to merge an infinite Canvas (like in Miro) with linked-based note-taking (like in Obsidian) and they wanted to hear my thoughts on their prototype. It was all just a drawing, but the idea already sounded amazing to me.

• I would be able to place my notes on a blank Canvas not as a “wall of text” but as a post-it version of them.
• I would be able to see the relations between a selected set of notes at a glance
• I would be able to reorganise my notes on the screen in a way that made sense to me (no more taking a piece of paper to visually organise my ideas).

I decided to give the app a try.

That’s how I became the 2nd Scrintal user.

I started playing with Scrintal “on the side”, but I slowly noticed I was moving to Scrintal every time I got stuck with Obsidian. It happened so often that I decided to make a bold move.

In May 2022, I moved all my notes into Scrintal (and never looked back).

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So before this newsletter issue becomes way too long (as it usually does 😅), let me tell you the two main reasons why you may want to consider working on a linked-based note-taking app with an infinite Canvas.

Reason 1. Keeping the context for your ideas

When breaking down a document note into multiple idea notes, we easily lose track of the big picture or the flow of ideas we are working on.

In Scrintal, when you create a link to a new note, the app automatically places the new note in the infinite Canvas appearing behind the note you are working on.

That way you can create as many idea notes as you want, and they will all be placed in the same infinite Canvas. So you always have the ideas in context without making any extra effort.

Note: Not all apps with an infinite Canvas provide you that by default (Obsidian Canvas doesn’t).

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Reason 2. Making sense of multiple ideas simultaneously

If you have to make sense of knowledge from multiple sources (i.e. synthesise information) then you must make sense of multiple ideas at once.

We can easily be talking about 30 notes on your screen.

It is extremely hard to do that only with notes, but it suddenly becomes easy (and sometimes trivial) to do that with notes on an infinite Canvas.

We can be talking about building groups, timelines, argument lines, and all sorts of visual arrangements of ideas.

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The reason I am covering this topic as part of our series on the 6 Personal Knowledge Management skills is that the visual organisation of ideas enables us to transition into the next 3 skills in our series:

• Networked Reading
• Argumentation
• Knowledge Creation

And that’s what we will be covering in the next Playbook issues.

Talk to you soon.

Until then, take care.

Bianca

P.S.: I am visiting family in South America so I may take a bit more time to answer emails, but I read them all and answer them all. So don't feel shy if you have any questions. Just reply and let's chat.