What would be the best PKM for a sysadmin?

[KinoCineaste]

Hello! Hope you are all well.

I am a systems administrator by day, and a homelabber and self-hoster by night. I have a lot of hobbies that I pick up and drop halfway through the process and I have a family on the way. I’ve made plenty of notes for everything in my life, with the sole separation being my main job having its own dedicated Obsidian vault (as to prevent accidental issues with potentially sensitive data). I’ve read plenty on the Zettelkasten and PARA method and even used some of them while I was a student, but I feel unsure about what system would currently work best.

The topics I want to mush together are:

• Hobbies
• Programming study
• Work (including meeting notes and troubleshooting notes for various issues)
• Self-hosted infrastructure (passwords, noteworthy quirks, interesting ideas or solutions I’d like to try)
• Home notes (car, house management, et cetera)

My initial instinct is to separate everything, but I’d like to try and keep everything in the same box, just in case.

I feel like I could just “use PARA” or “use Zettelkasten”, but I genuinely wouldn’t know what would work best, or if there’s an interesting system that would fit perfectly. I would also just “make my own system”, but I’ve been burned by my ADHD brain before, and I’d like some sort of system that I can strictly follow to keep my vault disciplined.

I’ve searched around this forum for a bit, but I haven’t found any recommendations from people in the IT field of work, and I’d like to see if there’s any special nuances that I’m missing.

Thank you in advance!

[DiCaver]

I am not sure what exactly you are looking for, as in the title, you search for “the best PKM for sysadmins”, and later on, you mention “want to mush together” different areas … but - this is my current folder structure (don’t want to show too much) …

When putting it together, I had PARA and CODE in my mind. I hope I can describe it with those words:

PARA Method:

1. 000 Index:

   • Role: This is my Capture folder in the CODE method and an “Inbox” for PARA. It’s a place for temporary notes or ideas before sorting them into appropriate folders.

2. 100 Projects:

   • Role: Clearly corresponds to the Projects category in PARA. I’ve subdivided it into actionable areas like Family, Personal, and Other, which is great for keeping projects organized and focused.

3. 200 Knowledge Library:

   • Role: This is my Resources repository in PARA. Subfolders like Personal Growth (ToDo) and Harvested Knowledge organize non-actionable reference material, while Obsidian Help focuses on a specific topic.

4. 400 Journal:

   • Role: Part of Areas in PARA, mostly using for running journal.

5. 500 Life Areas:

   • Role: These align directly with the Areas category in PARA. Subfolders like Personal and Workspace represent ongoing areas of responsibility or focus.

6. 900 Archive:

   • Role: This folder is my Archive in PARA, where inactive or completed items are stored.

7. 999 Assets:

   • Role: This is a specialized resources folder, likely supporting all other PARA categories by providing templates, images, or other reusable assets.

---

CODE Method:

1. Capture:

   • The 000 Index is my capture point, where ideas, notes, or inputs are temporarily stored before sorting.

2. Organize:

   • The clear subdivision of folders into actionable (e.g., Projects), referential (e.g., Knowledge Library), and ongoing (e.g., Life Areas) categories aligns well with this step.

3. Distill:

   • Folders like 200 Knowledge Library and 400 Journal support the distillation of ideas into actionable insights or references.

4. Express:

   • Notes under 400 Journal (e.g., Running) and 100 Projects represent outputs, where distilled information is used to create content or track progress.

---

Observations:

• Structure is robust and logical (for me!), blending elements of PARA and CODE effectively.
• The only potential overlap is between Knowledge Library and Life Areas, as both could contain ongoing or passive resources. I might want to clarify their distinction further (e.g., Life Areas is actionable, Knowledge Library is purely referential).
• The 999 Assets folder is a nice addition for shared resources, templates, and files that complement all categories.

---

Further ideas:

1. Ensure notes in Knowledge Library and Life Areas don’t overlap in purpose. Use Knowledge Library strictly for static references.
2. Regularly clear the 000 Index folder to avoid clutter.
3. To maintain consistency, consider creating templates for project notes, journal entries, and resource organization.

As I said, this answer could not benefit you at all. But a not long time ago I was also searching for ideas for the “2nd brain” and from all those videos, articles, and books, … I came to the conclusion - no brain is the same, so also 2nd brand can’t be and the rule “one fit them all” doesn’t apply here

I hope you find some great solutions for you, but keep in mind that this is an ongoing project which you’re adaption all the time.

Cheers, Marko

[KinoCineaste]

My apologies! I have a particular “bend” towards sysadmin work, but I would want to have everything together. The main reason I bring it up is because I have a lot of raw data that feels too unwieldly to somehow make into a Zettelkasten, and yet I want a system that can both accommodate my sysadmin work but would also need little or no changes to work for everything else. Consistency is what I’m aiming for (and sorely lack).

I really like your hierarchy structure. I’ve already naturally had something like that, but it wasn’t nearly as neat. Never thought of it like that.

As for the Knowledge Library and Life Areas folders, I think I could make some interesting linkages between the two without too much work.

Your system seems pretty close to what I currently have going, but with a great deal of maturity built in. I appreciate your comment, and I’m glad I was able to write something that didn’t come off like I was asking for a ZIP file to replace my vault with.

Thanks for the verbose response! I’ll be looking into this more and slowly tugging my folder structure towards something like that.

[davidlandry]

@KinoCineaste

My initial instinct is to separate everything, but I’d like to try and keep everything in the same box, just in case.

Personally, creating walls or partitions never did me too much good. I always try to have a system that’s general enough so that I can put my hobbies side by side with my work stuff. To do that I have two main types of notes, the more “encyclopedia-like” things and journal/mini-reports.

The encyclopedia-like notes are my personnal wikipedia, but connected to my own perspective and experiences. So I could have a note about “Apache Kafka” that lists the tutorials I liked, the projects where I used it in the past, etc. All of the ways my experience connects with Kafka.

The journal/mini-reports talk about activities rather than things. If I spend 2-3 days integrating Kafka into a new setup, for instance, I would make a note called “Installing Kafka inside project -----” and keep track of things there, the bugs I solved, the stack overflow posts I used, etc.

The two are very complementary: I could link to the Apache Kafka note in my journal, and my Apache Kafka note could have a list of all the relevant journal entries.

What’s nice about this system is that it is pretty general and I’ve been able to make my notes about hobbies and work in the same vault.

@KinoCineaste

I’ve searched around this forum for a bit, but I haven’t found any recommendations from people in the IT field of work, and I’d like to see if there’s any special nuances that I’m missing.

I find that there is one important nuance that is not obvious when working with more technical fields like IT. It’s about seeing the difference between propositional notes and technical/factual notes.

A propositional note could be something like “Unbridled capitalism unavoidably leads to oligarchies”. It invites discussions, conversation. Maybe you want to link it to opposing propositions, or supporting propositions. Zettelkasten is extremely good at this.

For technical stuff I find that propositional note-taking is not that useful. The types of informations I want to recall is more like this: “How did I solve that bug last time I played with Kafka during project ------?”. To do that, I put more time to archive information under the right tags so that I can retrieve it later. This is how I came up with the “encyclopedia notes” and “journal notes” that I talked about above. The encyclopedia notes are the tags, the journal notes are the meat, and I use both to recall information later.

Cheers

[PaulDickson]

Hi Kino,

I work in IT and wear the SysAdmin role on a weekly basis.

My Journey started with Notion (August Bradleys Pipes, Pillars and Vaults System) https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAl0gPKnL3V8s7dPXoo07mYnuErhWVk8b&si=7J1GHj3EUD4vxuME

This served me well for about a year.

When I eventually moved to Obsidian I thought really hard about how to achieve the same Second Brain in Obsidian. That inspired me to create;

How I Migrated My Knowledge Wiki from Notion to Obsidian

How I Migrated My Knowledge Wiki from Notion to Obsidian