Personal information management (PIM), in contrast with PKM, is the system for managing information and informational items to support day-to-day tasks or to fulfill roles.
“Management” is a big word for such a personal system, but the foundation is simple: stay on top of your personal information so it’s right where you need it when you need it.
Components
- the collection of personal information and personal information sources (emails, documents, photos, contacts, appointments)
- storage in a safe, secure accessible way. This would vary per system, be it physical organization (as in a binder and/or shelf), digital location (hard disk storage or cloud), or a hybrid setup which would be more realistic what with the computer age.
- organization of these bits of information, which may include ontology, folder structures, file naming conventions, passwords and password management, labeling, and so on.
- retrieval, which is basically being able to quickly and easily find the information you need, when you need it.
- system maintenance and upkeep, which may involve retention policies (at what conditions an information byte can be archived or discarded) and update policies (how often information will be reviewed to ensure it is up-to-date and accurate).
Applications
The best example of PIM in practice is when I joined the multinational company I’m in now. They had the strictest process I’ve ever gone through for a job, even after I had already accepted the offer. I needed to scramble through past employers — some of whom were already out of business — in order to acquire proof I worked for them before.
I partially learned my lesson through that ordeal, and now try to maintain my documents in a central place. Still, it’s nowhere near as maintained as my PKM base.
Currently my PIM base includes:
- past employer documents
- insurance documents
- government documents
- bare-bones contact management
- latest medical documents: consultation summaries, prescription notes, lab test results
I once looked into personal document management software like Paperless-ngx, but eventually dismissed the search so as not to add another tool to my State of the stack|app stack.
Related ideas
- DIKW pyramid shows one approach in disambiguating information and knowledge
- Exploring ontology
Adjacent systems
- personal knowledge management (PKM), which is relates to knowledge for personal use;
- organizational knowledge management (OKM), which organizes knowledge for organizations (like businesses), not individuals;
- organizational information management, which organizes information for organizations, not individuals.