Thread by @monicarysavy

This post by @fortelabs is 100% why I never managed to really "get" Evernote as others in the #productivity space seemed to. Nested tag systems make my brain hurt too. Nomological networks on the other hand? 🙋‍♀️YES. 1/10 fortelabs.co/blog/tagging-i…

If the concept of a "Nomological Net" is new to you, this is a decent primer: conjointly.com/kb/nomological…. As it was explained to me by my 2nd doctoral advisor, & how I've put the use of this concept into practice in my life, can be summed up by this statement: 2/10

I capture what & how I'm thinking about the topics that interest me on everything in life my Nomological Net. I use @NotionHQ to do this. I know many would argue for the use of #RoamResearch since it builds a net. However, similar to nested tag structures, 3/10

looking at concept maps make my brain hurt & slow down my meaning-making. I spend more time following the lines & less time thinking about the topic connected at the other end of the line. Ever watch a cat chase a laser pointer? That's 100% me engaging with concept maps. 4/10

Instead, I embrace a flat structure of organization within my @NotionHQ workspace. No particular tag is more important in terms of structure than another within my Nomological Net. e.g. "Education" is at the same level as "online learning", "pedagogy", "teaching online". 5/10

Practically speaking, this makes it easy for me to manage within @notionhq. All my topics (referred to as "constructs" if thinking in nomological network terms) get tags that are stored in one master "Nomological Network" database. 6/10

Nearly all of my @NotionHQ databases connect to my Nomological Network (NN) database. Each construct (topic in the NN db) is then connected to observations - those that I make (from my Notes DB) and those that others have made (Library DB & @Readwise DB). 7/10

Whether I'm looking for inspiration, actively researching a project, or have a random topic pop into my head, I'm headed straight to my Nomological Network database within @NotionHQ to see what I've synthesized before about that topic. 8/10

Because that's what my Nomological Network database does: it synthesizes my meaning-making about the constructs (topics) that matter to me with the observations (comments/quotes/content) developed by me and others about these constructs. 9/10

This practice is very much in line with my favorite @gtdguy (@gtdtimes) quote: "There is no reason to ever have the same thought twice, unless you like having that thought". I love thinking about research topics that interest me. I detest hunting for lost gems. 10/10