Thread by @sentient_cell

Cleaning up your knowledge work systems

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One of my very few evergreen notes, as a thread.

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#roamcult might like this

In today's world, we are bombarded with information coming left and right, competing for our attention, and distracting us from the work that really matters.

Our biological instincts, urges and cognitive biases are leveraged by these virtual machines.

They're taking control of our willpower and shaping our behavior to fulfill their interests (ad revenue for social media)

Productive/fulfilling knowledge work cannot happen with a brain full of scattered thoughts, led by impulses, notifications, and algorithms.

That cognitive abuse from your environment results in a lack of output and apathy.

That environment is your system of knowledge work.

Everyone has a system for knowledge work, even if you've never "built" one.

Your social media feeds (made up by algorithm and who you're following), your newsletters, your paper notes or notes app, your writing editor, all of them combined make up your knowledge work system.

Cleaning up your knowledge work system allows you to take a step back and sculpt your environment, decisions, and routines into a system that lets you heal, nurture, and grow your second brain.

You'll need to have metacognition, which is an awareness of one's own thinking, behavior, and habits.
(follow @anthilemoon for more reading on that)

To better clarify things you can use journaling or visual tools of thought (mindmaps, flowcharts).

List out every source of information you use
- Email Inbox
- Conversations
- Twitter feed
- Google search/Reddit
- Youtube recommendations
etc etc

Then list all the places where you work on or store information, if you do
- Google drive/docs
- Computer Hard drive
- Paper notebook
- Roam Research
- Book marginalia
etc etc

Then when you really know your environnment, start re-designing it however your want, depending on your purpose.

Possible avenues:
- Filter sources for higher quality input
- Move to a centralized system with few apps (mine: notebook, roam, readwise, instapaper)
- Move to digital or paper only
- Slow down consumption to increase output
- Reduce overall friction with simplicity + automation