Projects have become non-linear – not simply a sum of the time and dollars spent on them, but complex emergent phenomena we can barely understand or control. Because understanding them takes just as many units of attention as acting on them, it makes more sense to plunge in with exploratory actions, instead of trying to predict what will happen in advance.
Knowledge management is project management
The challenge of modern work is how to create systems that free up attention, instead of consuming more of it.
In other words, we need systems for managing our attention that produce value now, not eventually. We can’t be “investing” our most valuable asset today in hopes of a distant future that may never come.
Personal knowledge management (PKM) is the key capability in modern work, because it allows us to continuously make use of attention we’ve already deployed. But for it to be viable in the short term, PKM must also be integrated into how we manage day-to-day projects.