A desire path is "an unplanned route or path (such as one worn into a grassy surface by repeated foot traffic) that is used by pedestrians in preference to or in the absence of a designated alternative."
They appear often across large open spaces as the shortest path between two points. You'll find them on almost every college campus, much to the chagrin of campus planners.
In this post, I want to share about the origin of desire paths and how you can use this concept to build a custom PKM system.
The Origin of Desire Paths
In the early 1890s, some of the first buildings were starting to be constructed on the Ohio State University campus. As more buildings popped up, a master plan for the campus was created in 1893 that featured a layout for a “central open space around which buildings could be arranged and which would not be crossed by any roads.” By 1901, this 11-acre space had evolved into the rough shape of what is known today as "The Oval."
But one thing was noticeably missing at the beginning: dedicated walking paths between the buildings.
As more buildings were built around The Oval, students ended up walking across the large grassy area to get where they needed to go. Over time (and before official paths could be constructed), makeshift walking paths began to appear between the buildings.
These paths connected the buildings and made visible the ways that students preferred to move between them.
The paths were eventually paved, resulting in the pattern of walkways that currently exist (including the infamous "Long Walk").
But Ohio State isn't the only college or university to take the approach of paving these “desire paths.” Michigan State, Stanford University, and many others have their own accounts of letting students create walking paths first and then paving them afterwards.
You can find these desire paths at just about any school. Which leads to an expensive lesson many schools have learned the hard way:
You can't force people to go a certain direction simply by providing a path for them to use.
This is more than just an interesting story, though. You see, much like the college students at Ohio State University in the early 1890s, our brains tend to take the shortest (and easiest) path to get where they want to go.
Here's why the concept of "desire paths" is so important when crafting your PKM system.
The Role of Desire Paths in PKM
PKM is much more than a bunch of connected notes.
It's about organizing information in a way that allows you to make sense of things and take consistent action on the things that really matter.
But because that requires alignment with your vision and values, your PKM system usually ends up being very, well, personal.
Which is why I do not believe in prescribed organizational structures (PARA, ACE, PPV, etc.).
Frameworks can be useful for inspiration, but adhering to them too strictly is the equivalent of paving the walkways before the students get to campus.
It's easy to think that implementing a prescribed system is helping you get more organized (and will help you get more out of your notes & ideas).
But in my experience as a productivity coach, it's often just a form of procrastination.
Until you start embracing the chaos and working with your notes, all the organization in the world won't actually help you.
The bottom line: Your organizational system needs to naturally evolve as you work with your notes and ideas.
As you do, you'll start to see the natural ways your brain takes in order to connect things.
Then (and only then!) should you look to add more structure.
These intentional connections that fit your brain are much more effective than any prescribed system will ever be.
Connecting Things in Your PKM System
There are three fundamental tools you can use to make connections (create pathways) between the notes & ideas in your PKM system.
- Folders
- Tags
- Links
Here's how I use them:
I use folder to group related types of notes together. For example, I keep all of my book notes together in a Book Notes folder. I also have folders for different types of writing projects (i.e., Articles, Newsletters, and Video Scripts) that I manage using the Projects plugin (a detailed walthrough of how I manage my creative projects is available here.)
Many of my folders have multiple levels of sub-folders. For example, all my creative projects have an Archived sub-folder where the finished projects go. I also use folders to group my Daily Notes, Weekly Notes, Personal Retreats, Project notes, and People notes. Some go multiple levels deep, like my Topical Bible folder which breaks things down into general categories (i.e., Your Attitude) and then topic (Ambition).
I use tags to group notes together by topic. I have themes I use for tags to group related Bible verses together (i.e., all the verses on Faith). I also use tags to at the note level to denote the type of note (for example, the #sco tag gets applied to every article I write for ScreenCastsOnline). I also use tags at the note level for notes related to a particular project and for linking tasks to an individual, as I wrote about here.
I also use line-level tags for all of my journaling workflows. I use sub-tags for logging the scores of my Daily Questions (more details here) and for all of my journal entries (#win, #entry, and #gratitude). I then have queries in my Obsidian vault linked to my Personal Retreat process, where I review all these entries together every 90 days.
I use bidirectional links ,when I want to tie two ideas together. I use these links specifically when I want to link things together across different contexts. For example, I link to the individual Bible verses in my vault that speak to the topic of habits on my Habits MOC note.
The trick with these bidirectional links is to be selective about when and how you use them. You don't want to link everything you possibly can. You want each link to mean something. If you're intentional about how and when you add these links, it makes gleaning new insight from navigating your notes much easier.
Create Your Own Desire Paths
The trick with using these tools to connect your notes is to create intentional connections that work the way your brain does.
That's the PKM equivalent of creating your own desire paths.
This approach takes more work, but has a much higher payoff if you really want to use your notes & ideas to help you be more productive and creative.
Here's how to get started:
- As you work with your notes & ideas, look for natural ways things seem to group together.
- Choose one of the tools described above (folders, links, or tags).
- Create intentional links between the things that belong in that group.
As you develop your own system, remember: let your system evolve slowly! Don't force it by trying to create too much structure at once. Keep it simple.
After all, the shortest path between two points is a straight line.