Summary
There is no official emoji standard for PKM or digital gardens, but a few plant, book, brain, and workflow glyphs have become useful conventions. I don’t know if I will ever use this but I am going to leave it here to see what happens.
Plant Lifecycle
These are useful for showing how developed a garden note is.
- 🌱 Seedling - newly planted, rough, or unedited thought
- 🌿 Budding - developing note with some shape, but still evolving
- 🌳 Evergreen - mature, well-linked, high-confidence note
- 🌲 Evergreen - alternate evergreen marker, often used for permanent notes
- 🪴 Potted plant - curated garden index or cultivated hub
- 🍃 Leaf - small atomic note
- 🌾 Grain or wheat - harvested/distilled output
- 🌷 Bloom - polished or published piece
- 🌻 Bloom - public-facing or high-energy polished piece
- 🌸 Bloom - lighter polished piece or aesthetic marker
- 🌹 Bloom - finished, refined, or especially prominent piece
Books and Writing
These work well for Zettelkasten, commonplace, reading, and draft workflows.
- 📓 Notebook - fleeting notes or daily notes
- 📔 Decorated notebook - journal
- 📕📗📘📙 Colored books - categorized libraries or MOCs
- 📚 Books - reading list or literature notes
- 📖 Open book - currently reading
- 🔖 Bookmark - saved-for-later item or highlight
- 📝 Memo - draft
- ✍️ Writing hand - in-progress writing
- 🗒️ Spiral pad - quick capture
Knowledge Structure
These are useful for second-brain, graph, index, and archive concepts.
- 🧠 Brain - second brain or personal knowledge management
- 💡 Lightbulb - idea, insight, or permanent note
- 🕸️ Spider web - knowledge graph or interconnected notes
- 🔗 Link - reference, backlink, or connection
- 🌐 Globe - public garden or published site
- 🗂️ Card index dividers - MOC or index note
- 🗃️ Card file box - Zettelkasten or slip box
- 🗄️ File cabinet - archive
- 📇 Card index - atomic notes
Workflow and PARA
These are useful for capture, routing, review, and maintenance flows.
- 📥 Inbox - capture or triage
- 📤 Outbox - processed or archived
- 📂 Folder - project or area
- 🏷️ Tag - taxonomy
- 🔍 Magnifier - review or search
- ♻️ Recycle - refactor or relink