# Personal Knowledge Lifecycle Map

A worksheet for building a small capture-to-retrieval system around real, recurring anchors.
Companion to
[A personal knowledge system that helps you retrieve, not hoard](/articles/personal-knowledge-retrieval-not-hoarding).

## Step 1: Pick three anchors

An anchor is a decision or output you have needed at least three times in the past year. Do not
design for hypothetical future needs.

| Anchor | Decision or output? | Last three times I needed it |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 1. | | |
| 2. | | |
| 3. | | |

## Step 2: Capture criteria per anchor

For each anchor, define what is worth keeping and what fields every note must have.

**Anchor 1: ______________________**

- Worth capturing if: ______________________
- Required fields: Source / Date / Why it mattered / Status (settled, evolving, exception)
- Where it lives (one tool, not scattered): ______________________

**Anchor 2: ______________________**

- Worth capturing if: ______________________
- Required fields: Source / Date / Why it mattered / Status
- Where it lives: ______________________

**Anchor 3: ______________________**

- Worth capturing if: ______________________
- Required fields: Source / Date / Why it mattered / Status
- Where it lives: ______________________

## Step 3: The two-minute retrieval test

For each anchor, right now, try to find and use your most relevant existing note.

| Anchor | Time to find it | Found on first try? (Y/N) | What would make this faster |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1. | | | |
| 2. | | | |
| 3. | | | |

If any anchor takes longer than two minutes, fix the capture structure before adding more notes.

## Step 4: Review schedule

| Anchor | Review frequency | Next review date | What gets checked |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1. | | | Accuracy, duplicates, delete unused |
| 2. | | | Accuracy, duplicates, delete unused |
| 3. | | | Accuracy, duplicates, delete unused |

## Step 5: Deletion rule

Check the boxes that apply to your system, and add your own:

- [ ] Delete anything whose value was momentary (a passing fact, a link likely stale within a month).
- [ ] Delete or heavily redact anything containing another person's private information.
- [ ] Delete "just in case" notes older than one year that have never been retrieved.
- [ ] Other rule: ______________________

## Sensitive-notes checklist

- [ ] I have identified which of my three anchors could involve sensitive material (health,
      financial, relationship, disputes, another person's information).
- [ ] For sensitive anchors, I know the actual retention and deletion policy of the tool I use —
      not just assumed it is private because the account is personal.
- [ ] For notes about another person, I asked myself whether they would be comfortable knowing
      I kept this record, at this level of detail.

## Prompt to review a batch of notes

```text
Here are my notes tagged for the anchor "[name it]":
[paste notes]

1. Flag anything that looks outdated, contradicted by a later note, or
   a one-off exception that should not be treated as a general rule.
2. Group near-duplicate notes and suggest which single version to keep.
3. For each note, ask me: would losing this change a future decision?
   If I say no, mark it for deletion.

Do not summarize the notes into new claims I have not made. Only
organize and flag what is already there.
```