On Knowledge Management Method: BASB a.k.a. Building a Second Brain

I shared briefly about BASB in the last post. I started my note-taking with the straightforward method, Zettelkasten, and used a simple note-taking, Obsidian. As my life went on, my job role expanded, various sources of information were unlocked, the long-term effect was real, I got information-overloaded, and I had difficulties managing my notes with a bunch of links and tags. I stumbled upon this book on Amazon and tried the PARA method, and it has been life-changing.

Note that I switched my note-taking tools to the notion, and implementing the PARA Method is quite a breeze with it. I know that PARA and Zettlekasten are not apple-to-apple comparisons, and they can actually implement each other; I may incidentally add Zettlekasten elements to the note-taking as well, with the tags & reference link still intact.

Here is how I have implemented PARA so far :

• Categorized information into four groups
  • Projects : short-term tasks that can conclude within three months
  • Areas : Long-term responsibilities that are longer than the project timeline
  • Resources : References (preferably rewritten by yourself) that may be useful in the future
  • Archive : Inactive items from the other categories; there are three folders within an archive that correspondent to projects, areas, and resources
• Capture everything, but ensure to have bite-sized notes with clear highlight/action item
• Never have an inbox or temporary folder; always move everything within the PARA category

References:

• https://maggieappleton.com/basb
• https://fortelabs.com/blog/basboverview/