Here is what January is about for me:

  • Usually I get sick in early January, coming off of holiday activities (this year I was sick for over a week so that sucked)
  • Getting a haircut (nothing to do with it being start of the year, it just falls on this month)
  • Planning for spring/summer/fall camping with the family (we plan and book way ahead of time so we don't have to think about it)
  • Reading a LOT (I finished FIVE books last month)
  • Listening to fun podcasts (not just the news)
  • Hoping and praying for snow (this year we got a lot, I was inside the USA east coast bomb cyclone)
  • Writing a LOT (I've written many post drafts that I decided not to post, but it's the writing that counts)
  • Updating my personal knowledge management system (PKMS) for the year (this usually just involves creating seasonal pages and updating analytics logic, but this year it was different)
  • Getting inspired and drafting or sketching things for websites that rarely ever get created
  • Intentional (phyiscal) solitude, reflection, and long walks
  • My yearly winter social media break

Here is what January 2026 brought:

  • All of the above
  • Visited my niece and grand-niece in Rochster, NY. I'm childfree but I love hanging out with kids. It was a great start to the year.
  • Major transitions at work (a reorganization where my work bestie of 13 years is getting MOVED)
  • More TV than movies (more interest in episodic storytelling, I guess)
  • Lots of Animal Crossing after the update!
  • I've been using a "Bulk Delete Reddit Posts & Comments" plugin to get rid of my Reddit presence before deleting my account. It only deletes 50 posts/comments per day unless you pay so it'll take a bit of time, since I was on Reddit for a few years.
  • Doctor check-ups with health improving!
  • I watched all of the Lord of the Rings offerings: movies and shows and cartoons over winter break

View of Washington, DC, from an airplane showing the Washington Monument
View of Washington, DC, from the airplane on the way to Rochester, NY.

Rochester, NY, airport drop-off area with colorful lights showing on the underside of the roof
Rochester airport

A snowy neighborhood at night
The neighborhood where we stayed in Rochester.
Steep vaulted ceiling over a refrigerator and trash can
From Rochester - I took a photo to commemorate everyone hitting their heads on the ceiling EVERY time they used the trashcan.

Aside: Join my Letterclub newsletter!

I created the Halfway Club newsletter for learning, trivia, and other fun facts! If you join, you'll be prompted to ask what you've learned lately. Write about it as much or as little as you'd like each month. On the 15th of every month, all participants will get an email with what everyone learned.

There is a limit of 6 total participants (based on the site's limitations, not mine), so get it while it's hot! The first issue is going out Feb 15.

Slightly new month-in-review format

Instead of doing full monthly reviews this year, which fell off towards the end of 2025 because it was too much effort, I'll simply make a post list like the one above and explore at least one bullet point.

Today we're going to explore personal knowledge management (PKM) - why I do it, what I do, and how it's evolved over the month.

Personal Knowledge Management

What is PKM? For may it's about being more productive or producing a "second brain" to help them stay organized. As a certified knowledge manager, for me it's more like a hobby. I nerd out on knowledge workflows and my personal system is where I get to experiment, play, and fill the gaps where my memory lets me down.

Why I do it

Instead of my "second brain," my PKMS is my supplemental brain.

  • I want to understand how we organize, tag, and retrieve information. Testing workflows in my own life helps me professionally.
  • My memory is shitty. Really shitty. My system helps me bridge the gaps so I can explore interests over months/years without losing the thread.
  • My PKMS assists often with connecting complex thoughts. I can do it on my own in my own head, but if I don't write it down or store it anywhere I will forget.
  • Honestly? It's just fun. I love to have a complex project and I love building the processes as much as I love following them. I'm certified in KM, but I'm truly an operations person.

What I'm doing

It changes frequently, I'll be honest. Or maybe while I was building it it changed frequently, but may not in the future. Either way, my ecosystem is focused on:

  1. Learning in public by documenting evolving thoughts and moving past perfectionism. I've taken down my Obsidian site so I'm not doing this right now (except #4), but once I figure out everything I'll be sharing with Anytype I'm sure I'll link it in various places.
  2. I dip into my professional skillz and write myself documentation/guidance for tools and technologies in my life. Sometimes you can find a really good database of docs, but other times you need to make your own.
  3. My system isn't a library or a blog, it's a pile of topics, thoughts, and snippets. It's not very well organized for others and follows a "digital garden" mindset. I draft, explore, nurture, and update often. I use at least 4 platforms and things link to each other without a table of contents.
  4. I keep a repository of book notes that serves as material for future connections. I take notes/quotes while I'm reading then explore those topics when I'm done. When I get a page "finished enough" (not always completely done), I'll publish it so others can join in and read and learn, if they want. I just started this year and my hope is that I'll start building a bunch of connections between books I read over the years.
  5. My drafting processes for writing I share online runs through my PKM first. Instead of drafting in Notepad or directly in an HTML file, I write things there first. It's where most of my ideas live and it's easy to search and find things.

January 2026 evolution

This January, my PKMS underwent a migration! For over a year, I used Obsidian as my primary platform, but I hit a breaking point. Obsidian is a great tool, but it's difficult to find documentation or help for non-developers. I spent more time troubleshooting "simple" features than actually managing knowledge and that was annoying. Your tools should serve you and make it easier for you to do your task, not create roadblocks due to lack of technical knowledge or "user friendly" documentation.

I did some research, tested a few things, then landed on Anytype.io. It hasn't just changed my platform, but my entire strategy in a way that "fits" my personal workflows better. Publishing my Obsidian work - you ended up with a long list of files in a sidebar so you could navigate to them easily. Not what i wanted. Anytype's object-based approach inspires a more disjointed and organic collection of thoughts, which I prefer.

What's improved?

  • I'm focusing more on creating "content types" and filling them out than I am worrying about my outline/contents table or how things should be organized.
  • Anytype's limitations actually inspire me to move in new directions, whereas Obsidian's limitations were frustrating to my flow.
  • Moving away from "Table of Contents" makes me feel like it has an "early web" vibe. As it grows, you discover things by clicking links, not by using search or navigation. There's going to be some joy in getting lost in the garden once it grows more.
  • I'm trying to get away from paying for literally every tool I use. I had to pay separately for syncing across devises and online publishing for Obsidian.

What do I miss?

  • Detailed analytics and stats that I got from Obsidian plugins.
  • Linking between notes smoothly. In Obsidian, you just [[add a link to another file]] and it goes there whether you're on the web or in the tool. In Anytype, you have to publish the file, then add a link to the published location, so your experience in the tool and on the web is the same and doesn't go to the editable version of the page. Also all links on a published page open in a new tab, and you can't get around that.

Anytype is not "better" than Obsidian - it really depends on what you need and what works for you. January was a perfect mix of transition in other parts of life that made me restless to improve my own workflows. Obsidian was a great starter tool for exploring the opportunities that a digital garden might allow, but Anytype helps me realize my desire for flexibility and discovery. Despite its limitations and annoyances, I've already done more to "branch out" my PKMS in Anytype within 1 month, than I had done in Obsidian in the last 6 months.

Links & Things

Here are some links I collected throughout the month to share with you.

On current events:

Many zine things:

Web accessibility:

Cool stuff:

My January activity online: