Pretty Minds V5 - Watering The Garden Of Your Mind

***A newsletter for people who like thinking about thinking. Scaling better thinking and thought processes one email at a time to help you design a beautiful thought life.

Dear Pretty Minded,

Welcome back to Pretty Minds Collective, your favorite newsletter for exploring the beautiful thought lives of cognition and creativity. For this Labor Day Edition, we're diving into the art of mind gardening, also known as Personal Knowledge Management (PKM). Let's cultivate a beautiful thought life together!

Top of Mind

In our digital age, we're constantly bombarded and overstimulated with information (a lot of time junk information and fake news). Our minds, like fertile gardens, can quickly become overgrown and overwhelmed with weeds ( or bad ideas and ad thinking) without proper care. In the book Mental Immunity, by Andy Norman, he calls this a mental parasite. Information or ideas that can poison our thinking and leave us more susceptible to wild conspiracies, lead us to reject scientific evidence, and convince us to double down on unfounded beliefs. Leave our minds open and super vulnerable.

This is where the art of mind gardening, personal knowledge managemet or PKM, comes in.

As a polymath or multi-hyphenate creative, I've come to understand and value the importance of structured personal knowledge management and how critical it is to my creative process. It's not just about organizing information – it's about nurturing creativity, fostering innovation, and supporting personal growth.

The question is: How can we cultivate our brains to not only manage knowledge effectively but also to enhance our creative potential and maintain a healthy mindset?

I spent the morning on a labor of love. Organizing my analog ideas before turning them digital in Notion ( I'll talk more about how I farm and cultivate my ideas in my upcoming workshop)

On Labor Day, no new ideas, just organizing oldies but goodies.

Food For Thought

Personal knowledge management (PKM) is a powerful tool for enhancing creativity, improving thinking processes, and maintaining a healthy mindset. By curating a daily system to capture, organize, and synthesize information, PKM scan significantly boost innovation and cognitive performance.

I've been doing a ton of research into coginitive psychology and neuroscience and recently studied the amazing brain health benefits of personal knowledge management, for example, enhanced memory and recall, better decision making, enhanced creativity, reduced cognitive overload and mental fatigue, increase mindfullness and self-reflection and so much more.

How does this work? I'm glad you asked.

PKM helps you quick ideas in your mind quicker. PKM systems allow you to capture and link diverse pieces of information, facilitating what psychologists call "combinatorial creativity". By organizing and connecting disparate ideas, PKM creates fertile ground for innovative thinking and novel insights. This interconnected network of ideas can spark unexpected associations and creative solutions. (Source)

AND....

PKM helps you iterate quickly. It creates space for gradual evolution and refinement of ideas over time. You can capture initial thoughts, revisit them later, and build upon them iteratively. This process can lead to more developed and creative outcomes. (Source -https://www.cultivatedmanagement.com/personal-knowledge-management-system/)

Some things to think about in Personal Knowledge Management when cultivating your mental garden.

Here's some quick tips on how to do it:

• The Idea Capture System: Ideas can strike at any moment. Stay ready so you don't have to get ready! Always have a tool ready to capture thoughts. This could be a note-taking app on your phone, a voice recorder, or even a waterproof notepad for those shower moments ( I have a bunch of these saved in my Amazon cart).
• The Knowledge Hause Your PKM system is where ideas grow. Explore tools like Roam Research, Obsidian, or Notion. The key is finding a system and tech that works for you and that you'll consistently use (Personally, I'm on a Notion girlie)
• The Creativity Workout: PKM isn't just about storage – it's a thinking tool. Regularly engage and re-read your notes to spark new ideas and to get clarity on old ideas. This process, known as "combinatorial creativity," can significantly enhance your problem-solving abilities.
• The Brain Oasis: A well-tended knowledge garden can be a sanctuary for your mind. By externalizing information, you reduce cognitive overload, leading to improved focus and mental clarity. And of course less mental strain and fatigue. One of my favorite ways to do this is morning pages and regular brain dumps.

Learning + Unlearning

Learning:

• The Science of PKM: Research shows that writing down information improves memory retention and recall, even if we never revisit those notes. PKM systems serve as external memory stores, freeing up mental resources for more complex thinking tasks. It's like RAM for your brain. More storage for faster processing. Instant upgrade for your mental operating system.
• Distributed Cognition: Our thinking processes go far beyond our brains and include external tools and resources. A well-structured PKM system can support more informed and efficient decision-making.

Unlearning:

• Information Hoarding: More isn't always better. Unlearn the habit of mindlessly accumulating information. Focus on curating and connecting the knowledge you already have. Focus on intentional consumption and storage of information. I talked about that more in Pretty Minds V4.
• Passive Consumption: Don't just collect information – actively engage with it. Summarize key points, extract meaningful quotes, and create connections between different pieces of information.

Thought Experiment Of The Week

Welcome to the "PKM Garden Design" experiment!

Curate and design your own PKM garden that represents your ideal PKM system. For one week, consider the following:

1. Define your PKM goals. What areas of knowledge do you want to cultivate?
2. Identify your information inputs. What sources nourish your mind? What sparks your curiousity?
3. How will you organize your knowledge? Think about pathways (connections between ideas) and different information sections (categories or tags).
4. How often will you tend to your garden? Plan regular review sessions to process new information and prune outdated content. What's your idea carer routine to help take care of your knoweldge. Brains need self-care too!
5. Create Spaces for Reflection. Where will you go to think deeply and generate new ideas? Can you carve time in your day for intentional reflection and processing?

At the end of the week, sketch out your ideal PKM design. What have you learned about your ideal knowledge management system?

Stay curious and keep that big brain energy!

Jeneba

But Wait There's More

Are you ready to take ownership of your idea management? Ready to take your creative process to the next level? I'm thrilled to announce that I'm planning a workshop on Personal Knowledge Management that blends design thinking, systems thinking, and innovation management.

To help me tailor the content to your needs, I've created a short waitlist form. By filling it out, you'll not only secure your spot on the waitlist but also help shape the workshop content.

Click here to fill out the PKM Workshop Waitlist Form https://tally.so/r/nrLyvM

I can't wait to craft an experience that will truly help take your thinking to the next level!