The Overload Syndrome: Drowning in Saved Information
It’s a mistake almost everyone makes when they get their first linking notes app, such as Obsidian, Craft, or NotePlan.
When people are first exposed to PKM, or personal knowledge management, they tend to go overboard. They save almost everything they encounter, thinking it might be useful sometime in the future. If they have obtained a linking notes app, they feel they need to link everything.
Since, for many, the capability to link documents is new, it especially tends to be overused. Everything doesn’t need to link to everything else. Over-linking results in a linked mess of little value for thinking or creating.
Frankly, much of the value of linking is oversold. Listening to those who sell courses on linking, one might conclude that linking will automatically lead to many new thoughts, concepts, and a whole new creative life. I haven’t found that to be the case. I’ve seen almost no examples where breakthrough thinking has resulted primarily because someone has linked files in a notes app.
As a result of saving and linking everything you encounter, your database soon becomes bloated, unwieldy, and of little value. Having too much in your database is almost worse than having too little. It’s a genuine case of “less is more.”
“If you’re trying to save everything, you’ll end up drowning in a sea of information.”
Tiago Forte, Forte Labs Newsletter, December 17, 2024
Mike Schmitz wrote, “One mistake that is easy to make at the beginning is to try and connect everything. But not every idea you have or new piece of information you come across is worth a note in your PKM.” PKM Primer: An Introduction to Personal Knowledge Management for Creatives.
A mass of random information is not helpful. We want a carefully curated collection that will be useful in our thinking and work.
How To Decide What to Keep
So, how do we decide what to keep and what to discard?
1. What resonates with you? Is it something that grabs your attention or says something in a way that moves you somehow? Do you have a positive emotional response to it?
It’s not helpful to collect bits of information that confirm what we already believe, but if something is stated in a way that it resonates with you, then it’s worth keeping.
2. What’s interesting, counterintuitive? If you find your curiosity piqued by something, that’s a sign it’s interesting to you. Counterintuitive statements can also be worth keeping; they help us to think about things differently.
3. Is it relevant to a problem or a project you’re working on? Collecting information to amass a huge database is a waste of time. Saving information because it helps us answer a question or furthers a project we’re working on is worth saving. It’s practical, helpful, and begs to be implemented.
4. Is it readily available on Google to look up?You don’t want to include material that you’re reasonably sure you can look up on Google. On the other hand, not everything stays on the internet forever, so if it’s a great find and you want to be sure you have access to it in the future, save it as a PDF file.
If you do this often, you might want a notes app that handles PDFs well. Some note apps do a great job of storing PDF files (DEVONthink), while others do not (Obsidian).
5. Is it going to be useful to link A to B? Too much linking is done just for the sake of linking. There’s often an abstract hope that somehow, by linking everything, some wonderful new process will emerge that will usher mankind into a new level of intelligence and creative thought. It doesn’t work that way in reality.
It can be helpful to link material, but it often only makes it easier to find related material. You must still absorb and process the linked material in your brain to see practical applications and relationships. Linking will not automatically do the mental work for you.
Knowledge Into Action: Make it Useful
Whatever you collect, it should be to create things and share those with others.
“The real power of knowledge lies in creating things and sharing it with others to propel humanity forward.”
Braeden Petruk, How to escape the PKM knowledge trap
How you create depends on your personality and skills. Some people teach and write, others write screenplays for movies, and some compose music. Find a way to use the knowledge you collect to benefit others.
Less Capturing, More Creating: The Shift That Matters
Escaping the PKM knowledge trap requires a shift in mindset: focus less on capturing information and more on engaging with it.
“Be far pickier about what you save. When you focus on quality over quantity,
Tiago Forte, Forte Labs Newsletter, December 17, 2024
you’ll end up with better notes that actually serve you over time.“
PKM should empower you to think, create, and act—not bury you under digital clutter. By prioritizing quality over quantity and purpose over collection, you can turn your notes into tools for insight, creativity, and growth.
Start today by reviewing your system, discarding what doesn’t serve you, and redefining your approach to knowledge. The real power of PKM lies not in what you save but in what you do with what you know.