Key Takeaways
Obsidian and Notion offer valuable PKM features for free, while Evernote requires a paid subscription for full access. Capacities and Reflect Notes provide unique AI capabilities and graph views as newer PKM tools in the market. Consider workflow, budget, and note-taking style when choosing between these popular PKM tools for optimal organization.
Do you frequently have trouble locating key information in your endless notes? It can be frustrating and overwhelming when valuable ideas, insights, thoughts, and knowledge get lost. This is where a Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) system proves invaluable. A well-crafted PKM system acts as your second brain and allows you to capture and connect your ideas seamlessly. Here are the top five PKM tools to transform the way you manage your knowledge.
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5 Notion
Notion is one of the popular tools in the productivity space. It offers an innovative block editor, flexibility, integration with third-party apps, a feature-rich slash (/) command, and more. As for using Notion for a PKM system, you can organize your thoughts on different pages and connect relevant ones for a better understanding.
Notion boasts a fantastic template library, and you can also access third-party templates from other Notion users. Whether you need an expense tracker, subscription tracker, Kanban board, daily dashboard, life planner, or bullet journal, there's a template available for every purpose.
A common practice among Notion users is to set up a Home page that links to various subpages, making navigation smoother and more intuitive. Additionally, the company has introduced calendar integration, allowing you to view your Gmail or Outlook meeting events quickly. Another intriguing feature is Notion AI, which helps to broaden your thoughts and ideas with assistance from artificial intelligence.
The only problem with Notion is the learning curve. You need to spend some time familiarizing yourself with the sheer number of features and options. As for the paid plans, they start at $10 per month.
Notion
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4 Capacities
Source: Capacities
Capacities is another effective PKM tool with a unique approach. The company refers to itself as 'A studio for your mind'. It comes with several objects by default, such as projects, quotes, write down customer details, or track your favorite books or recipes. and you can create custom ones based on your preferences. These allow you to keep track of different kinds of materials easily.
Capacities uses a block editor and offers different page layouts, split views, and even backlinks. The latter is an interesting add-on where you can connect your relevant notes and check their relationship under a dedicated graph view.
The company offers a robust free plan where you can create unlimited spaces, objects, and blocks. The Pro plan starts at $10 per month.
Capacities
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3 Reflect Notes
Right off the bat, Reflect Notes offers Daily notes to jot down your daily thoughts and ideas. You can even pin it and share it with a private link. It's the perfect combination of Notion and Roam Research. Reflect Notes offers the flexibility of Notion and detailed graph views like the one you find in Roam Research.
With its long feature list, including backlinks, instant capture, calendar integration, and web publishing, you won't have a hard time capturing and managing your thoughts. There is also a GPT-4-powered AI assistant to create outlines, fix grammar, and enhance your writing with a single click.
After creating the necessary notes, you can use backlinks and tags to keep things organized and tidy. After your free trial is over, be prepared to shell out $10 per month to keep using Reflect Notes.
Reflect
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2 Evernote
Evernote has experienced a significant amount of changes lately. The Green Elephant brand has notably reduced its free plan offerings, encouraging users to opt for paid subscriptions. Nevertheless, following its acquisition by Bending Spoons, Evernote has been rapidly introducing new features.
Evernote features an effective tagging system for record-keeping and organizing ideas. The firm has launched a new Home page that displays recent notes, a scratch pad, calendar events, and tasks. Indeed, Evernote has added calendar integration with Gmail and Outlook, along with the ability to create and track tasks directly in your notes.
Other features include a powerful web clipper, an infinite whiteboard, a capable document scanner, templates, an AI add-on to help you brainstorm ideas, and more. Pricing starts at $15 per month.
Evernote
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1 Obsidian
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If we're talking about the best PKM tools, we couldn't leave Obsidian out of the list. The Markdown-based versatile tool tops our recommendation list for several reasons. You can simply create vaults and start adding notes to it. While Obsidian might seem simple at first glance, diving into its plugin menu can reveal its true capabilities.
You can create multiple vaults for different topics and use cases, as well as folders, subfolders, and pages for effective organization. There is also support for tags to filter your relevant thoughts and ideas in no time.
As for other add-ons, Obsidian supports backlinks, graph views, canvas to map out your thoughts on a blank whiteboard, split view, and a robust theme menu to change the software's look and feel. All Obsidian features are completely free to use. You only need to pay for Sync ($4 per month) and Publish ($8 per month) plugins to extend its functionality.
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Picking up an ideal PKM tool can be challenging at times. Allow us to simplify the equation here. Notion and Obsidian are two of the popular tools out there with a capable free plan to get started. Evernote has a familiar tag system and toolbar, and with recent improvements, it's better than ever.
That brings us to Capacities and Reflect Notes - both relatively new but quite capable on their own with AI features, graphs, and more. You can pick one based on your workflow, budget, note-taking style, and device preferences. If you have a Microsoft 365 subscription, you might want to try Microsoft's productivity apps to create a PKM system.