As such, a knowledge system is essential—it refines raw data and develops a method to apply them for practical use. The problem is that not everyone can build such a complex system. Fortunately, that’s what this guide is for, which is to provide you with the steps on how you can build a personal knowledge system from scratch. These include: Take note that when building your own knowledge system, you’ll have to store information and curate them. And, as you might expect, tools are crucial for this type of task, although it’s more accurate to say that they make things a lot easier. So, for the first step, you have to decide on which tools you’re going to use. There should be a tool for note-taking, one for file storing, and, perhaps, another one for communicating. Regardless, make sure you install these tools before starting with the actual development of the system. After deciding which tools to use, you can proceed with the next step. Since you have to decide on reliable tools, you should also look for reliable sources of information. After all, not every website or book contains credible data. Moreover, you want a source that gets straight to the point. If you’re planning on relying mostly on websites, you may want to look for authority sites like Medium or Forbes. Authority sites are high-quality websites popular in their own industries, and which countless people often visit. Most of their audience even come back for more content. This is mainly because they wrote and published high-quality content. However, being popular doesn’t mean it’ll be helpful for all kinds of people. Just because a website is popular to health enthusiasts doesn’t mean you’ll find a use for it as a manager. In other words, look for high-quality, relevant sources. Although it’s not the first step to developing a knowledge system, gathering information is the first step that involves actual data. When gathering data, most people face issues regarding which information they should consider necessary. It’s not like a knowledge system is limitless, so you have to minimize the amount of data going in, especially since not much of it will go out at the end of the process. Browsing at a fast speed is okay, as long as the articles and the information you get are relevant to the topic that you’re trying to master. Spending an hour a day looking for relevant articles is ideal for approaching this step, but it can take longer than that. After spending a lot of time browsing the Internet, or any other sources for that matter, you’ll have a long list of links. It will look overwhelming at first, but that’s why the next step is to sort out the information. Although it’s harder than gathering information, it’s not yet the most challenging part since all you have to do is organize the data according to their categories. For example, if you’re studying digital marketing, you can classify the data to SEO, link building, social media, etc. Now that you have an organized list, visit articles one by one, then quickly organize the information from the most useful to the least important. Don’t be afraid to remove certain information, especially if they’re irrelevant to your studies. By doing so, you’ll know where to focus your attention. No one can tell if the information you have so far is practical or useful, so the only way is to test them out. Although there may be some disappointments, it’s only natural. At the very least, after going through these tests countless of times, you’ll develop a decent knowledge system, and, by then, it’s only a matter of time before you can be knowledgeable of any topic that catches your eyes.
Wrapping Up
Building a knowledge system isn’t always a business venture. It can also be a stepping stone for your breakthrough. You may not have much experience in developing knowledge management systems, but you’ll get used to the process sooner or later.
