Last updated Unknown

status: tags: links: IMF START, IMF MOC

Benefits of IMF

Folks relying solely on direct links, tags, and folders are missing out on a bevy of benefits. Below is a list of benefits derived from having your notes equipped with an Index, Maps of Content, and other fluid Frameworks.

Provides Reliability

The IMF structures act as reliable homebases to re-ground your thoughts whenever they begin to waver. Like a parent to a five-year old, IMF structures are a consistent and comforting safety net. Disregard this at your own peril! ¹

Provides Flexibility

Fluid Frameworks like the Index and Maps of Content don’t limit access; they curate it. They are like a top-notch concierge that direct you to where you want to be. (See Why Categories for Your Note Archive are a Good Idea).

Launches the Brain

The IMF framework is filled with your personalized reminders of important categories of knowledge and their key terms. It helps kickstart the brain—reducing the activation energy needed to start thinking and connecting ideas.

Enhances Note Retrieval

Note retrieval becomes easier when you’re staring at many possible access points: your main categories, contexts, maps, and tags.

Allievates Overwhelm

Maps of Content (MOCs) are your key to adding structure to the chaos, especially as your digital library grows. The ability to sense the tickle of anxiety and build an MOC is oftentimes the difference between a finished project and an abandoned one.

Encourages Relational, Positional Thinking

Making a Map of Content forces a rich, engaging relational battle between notes. Notes jockey for position in your brain, and each placement by you embeds them with additional meaning.

Aids in Linking with Pre-built Contexts

Your 10 or so main categories provide a prebuilt latticework upon which to hang your new notes. It’s a personalized Dewey Decimal System for your digital library. Tethering to these vastly enhance long-term storage and retrieval.

Future-Proofs for your Future Self

There are months that go by where I don’t open my digital library. Before adopting plain text and adding structure, I would get anxiety when I would finally re-open it. Now, however, I don’t get that anxiety because I have my trusty Index, Maps of Content and other fluid ways of categorizing and retrieving info. In no time, I’m back up to speed and off to the races.

Improves Memory

Because of the well-traveled structural pathways that the Index and Maps of Content encourage, my recall has improved. This makes sense because of three important factors that working with IMF structures encourages:

1. Repetitions - I’m constantly returning to a home view and then re-launching into new directions in my digital library.
2. Conceptual Thinking - Making Content Maps forces you to really consider the unique qualities of the thought you’re holding and how it relates to other thoughts. This type of deep, conceptual thinking strengthens neural connections—making cobwebs into cables.
3. Spatial Context - Your main MOCs are numbered and always at the top of the sidebar (when sorted A to Z). This way, they act as a spatial map. We remember things much better when we have a spatial constellation of related things.

Increases Satisfaction

We spend too much time with our notes not to experience joy with them. IMF structures allow you to fly around your digital library with the deftness of a surgeon and the joy of a chimpanzee swinging from branch to branch.

The benefits are exhaustive. But you may still be asking: Is IMF for me?

tags: #pkm #IMF links: IMF MOC