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How to Tame a Hydra

applying PKM concepts for work life

Our Common Struggles

  • Drowning in emails, docs, and shifting requirements
  • Feedback and changes scattered across channels
  • Wasting time searching instead of writing
  • Rewriting docs you know exist — or worse, updating the wrong ones

I’m Xavier

Technical Writer — I turn complexity into clarity.

PKM Practitioner — Building a personal knowledge garden in Obsidian.

Voracious Reader — Every book leaves a trail in my vault.

Storyteller — Weaving ideas through TTRPGs and narratives.

Experimenter — Applying lessons from design and AI to everyday knowledge work.

What is PKM?

The process of organizing, managing, and using information to learn, solve problems, and achieve your goals

Disclaimer

Highly opinionated information. Not universal truth.

What works for me may or may not work for you. And that’s okay.

Steal the good bits. Adapt them to your context.

Obsidian

https://obsidian.md

A free note-taking tool that works with Markdown syntax

Easily extensible with plugins

Data stays on your computer only

How I use it

  • note-taking
  • task management
  • people management
  • ideation

  • tool for thought
  • journaling
  • knowledge garden
  • playing games

The Daily Note

Your Command Center

The Daily Note

  • A central place to capture all of your thoughts, ideas, and learnings for the day.

  • One note per day.

  • Inputs could be emails, meeting notes, project notes, research notes, and more.

  • I use YYYY-MM-DD for file names.

Start of Day

Start with intention, not reaction.

Add Meetings

  • Add the day's planned meetings to the daily note.

  • I sometimes add a duration for the meeting.

    • Either as HH:MM-HH:MM or as (40m)

Timebox work

Deep Work by Cal Newport

  • Decide what to work on and when today.
    • These are the tasks worth your deepest focus.
  • Add projects you want to work on to the planner.
  • Add any planned breaks also.

Benefit: Timeboxing prevents reactive task management and ensures focus on high-priority tasks.

Through the day

You’re not just logging time. You’re noticing your attention.

Practice Interstitial Journalling

  • Add tasks or next actions.

    • I use #task to indicate tasks (via the Tasks plugin).
    • I use an Outlook macros to convert mails as tasks.

  • Capture notes whenever you start something or at random intervals.

    • I add a timestamp + a short note on what I was working on.

  • Every 11 mins, there is an interruption and it takes 23 mins to refocus after each interruption.

    • Add a note on the current task (for easier refocus).

Anne-Laure Le Cunff calls this Field Notes in her book, Tiny Experiments. There are a lot of applications for these interstitial logs such as capturing ideas/thoughts, time-tracking etc.

Shutdown

This clears your mind and closes your day with intention.

Before you log off

  • Change task dates as needed.

  • Review notes for tasks/ideas.

  • Send out mails / update Jira tickets.

  • Add notes/tasks for next day.

A shutdown ritual is also from Deep Work by Cal Newport.

Structured Notes

Beyond the Daily Note

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Meetings

A record that future-you (and teammates) will thank you for.

Meeting notes

  • One note per meeting

  • Capture notes in the meeting

  • Add action items as tasks

  • Link to other notes (meetings, projects, people...)

People

A mini CRM for your work relationships.

People notes

  • One note per person
  • Capture information like meetings/conversations/tasks/requests
    • list of tickets assigned to person (pulled in from Jira via a plugin)
    • connected notes that reference this person. Useful in non 1:1 meetings

The Hydra, Tamed

What You Gain

  • Stay in Control. Stay on top of projects with an organized system.
  • Focus better. Minimize wasted time and unnecessary distraction.
  • Become the go-to expert. Share work more easily.
  • Deliver on time. Always know what you are doing.
  • Reach your goals. Build a repeatable process that is based on your needs.

Go beyond the basics

  • Templates and reusable snippets
  • Extend functionalities with plugins (e.g., Jira, Confluence, Calendar)
  • Use notes as a database and build dashboards
  • Visualise thoughts and ideas as a mind-mapping tool
  • Connect with AI tools for writing
  • and lots more with community plugins and advanced workflows

Key Takeaways

  • Start small. Start by using a daily note or a note per meeting.
  • Practice interstitial journalling. It works wonders.
  • Experiment. Find a system that works for you.
  • This is a journey, not a destination.

What do you think?

Thanks for listening

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Join the Constellate Waitlist

https://paperarrow.com/pkm-course/waitlist

  • Start with a free Obsidian vault — curated for clarity and flow.

  • Develop a practice to work with your own notes, ideas, and questions.

  • Join a limited beta cohort — early access and the chance to shape the course.

Thoughtful systems. Quiet growth.

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