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Projects as temporal structure notes

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Project structure notes

Temporary organizational hubs that coordinate knowledge and tasks for specific, time-bound endeavors. Unlike permanent structure notes that organize evergreen knowledge domains, project notes have a defined lifecycle and are designed to be archived or deleted upon completion.

Characteristics

Temporal Nature

  • Fixed Timeline: Have clear start and end dates
  • Outcome-Focused: Organized around achieving specific deliverables
  • Progressive Evolution: Content changes dramatically as project phases advance
  • Finite Lifespan: Cease to be useful once the project concludes (this is not set in stone!)

Organizational Function

  • Central Command: Serves as mission control for all project-related information (MOC)
  • Context Switching: Helps you rapidly re-enter project context after breaks
  • Resource Coordination: Links to relevant permanent notes, external resources, and task lists
  • Progress Tracking: Documents decisions, blockers, and milestone achievements

Implementation Examples

Software Development Project

---
status: In Progress
Last Updated: 2025-04-15
---
# Mobile App Redesign Project - Q2 2025
 
## Project Overview
- **Timeline**: March 15 - June 30, 2025
- **Team**: Sarah (Design), Mike (Frontend), Alex (Backend)
- **Goal**: Improve user engagement by 25%
 
## Key Resources
- [[User Experience Design Principles]] - permanent knowledge
- [[React Native Best Practices]] - technical reference
- [[Project Management Methodology]] - process guidance
 
## Current Sprint (Week 8)
- **Focus**: Payment integration testing
- **Blockers**: [[API Rate Limiting Issue]] - needs backend fix
- **Decisions**: Using Stripe over PayPal (see [[Payment Provider Analysis]])
 
## Living Documentation
- [[User Interview Insights March 2025]]
- [[Technical Architecture Decisions]]
- [[Design System Components]]
 
## Next Actions
- [ ] Finalize payment flow UX
- [ ] Code review for checkout module
- [ ] Prepare demo for stakeholder meeting

Research Paper Project

# Climate Change Adaptation Strategies Paper
 
## Project Scope
- **Deadline**: September 15, 2024
- **Target**: Environmental Policy Journal
- **Word Count**: 8,000 words
- **Thesis**: Local governance structures are more effective than federal mandates
 
## Research Foundation
- [[Climate Science Fundamentals]] - background knowledge
- [[Policy Implementation Theory]] - analytical framework
- [[Case Study Methodology]] - research approach
 
## Argument Development
- [[Federal vs Local Climate Policies]] - comparative analysis
- [[Copenhagen Case Study]] - success story
- [[Miami Adaptation Failures]] - counterexample
 
## Writing Progress
- [x] Literature review complete
- [x] Methodology section drafted
- [ ] Case study analysis (60% complete)
- [ ] Discussion section
- [ ] Conclusion and recommendations
 
## Submission Pipeline
- [[Peer Review Feedback Integration]]
- [[Journal Formatting Requirements]]
- [[Author Guidelines Checklist]]

Lifecycle Management

Active Phase Patterns

  • Daily Standup: Quick reference for current priorities and blockers
  • Weekly Review: Update progress, identify risks, plan next steps
  • Resource Accumulation: Continuously link to relevant permanent notes and external sources
  • Decision Documentation: Capture key choices and rationale for future reference

Completion Strategies

Archive Approach

# ARCHIVED: Mobile App Redesign - Completed June 2024
 
## Final Outcomes
- **Result**: 32% increase in user engagement (exceeded goal)
- **Lessons Learned**: [[Mobile UX Lessons from Q2 Project]]
- **Reusable Assets**: [[Design System Components]] (moved to permanent notes)
 
## Knowledge Extraction
- [[Payment Integration Patterns]] - technical insights
- [[Cross-Platform Testing Strategy]] - process improvements
- [[User Research Methodology Refinements]] - method updates
 
## Project Artifacts
- Final designs archived in company drive
- Code repository: github.com/company/mobile-redesign
- Metrics dashboard: [internal link]
 
---
**Status**: COMPLETED ✅ | **Archived**: 2024-07-01

Decomposition Approach

  • Extract Valuable Insights: Move reusable knowledge to permanent notes
  • Preserve Key Decisions: Document important choices that might inform future projects
  • Archive Reference Materials: Store project-specific documents externally
  • Delete Temporary Content: Remove task lists, meeting notes, and transient information

Integration with Permanent Knowledge

Bidirectional Value Flow

Project → Permanent: Insights from specific projects enrich your permanent knowledge base

 
- [[Lessons from Failed Product Launch]] → [[Product Management Principles]]
- [[Client Communication Breakthrough]] → [[Stakeholder Management Strategies]]
 
**Permanent → Project**: Existing knowledge accelerates new projects
 
- [[Negotiation Techniques]] → Current contract discussion
- [[Database Design Patterns]] → New application architecture

Knowledge Distillation Process

  • During Project: Identify insights that transcend the specific context
  • At Completion: Systematically extract and formalize learnings
  • Post-Project: Reference extracted knowledge in future similar endeavors

Tools and Techniques

Obsidian Implementation

  • Folder Structure: Separate Projects and Archive folders
  • Template Usage: Standardized project note templates for consistency
  • Tag System: #project-active, #project-completed, #project-archived
  • Dataview Queries: Automatically list active projects and track completion rates

Maintenance Workflow

  • Monthly Cleanup: Archive completed projects, update active ones
  • Quarterly Review: Extract patterns across multiple completed projects
  • Annual Analysis: Identify systemic improvements in project management approach

Benefits of Temporal Structure

  • Cognitive Load Management: Separates active project complexity from permanent knowledge
  • Context Preservation: Maintains project-specific context while it’s needed
  • Knowledge Evolution: Allows insights to mature and generalize beyond specific projects
  • System Hygiene: Prevents knowledge base from being cluttered with obsolete project details

Project structure notes serve as temporary scaffolding for complex endeavors, providing organization and context while active, then gracefully dissolving to leave behind distilled wisdom integrated into your permanent knowledge system.

A project is anything we want to do that requires more than one action step. It’s therefore a mechanism to remember that, when we finish that first action step, there will still be something more to do.

Some projects have a concrete goal, and thus a finishing point, others might be long-term or even open-ended (learn French), keep updating the MOCs to avoid having stale content in your ZK.

See also

Getting Things Done

Transclude of ahrens_2022#^hsproj01
>– How to Take Smart Notes - Sönke Ahrens

Graph View

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