What books, tools, or workflows are there to help you persist your knowledge in a way that can last 5+ years?

For example, some people talk to mind mapping or org-mode. Some people use Instapaper or Pocket to highlight notes. Others use Evernote / OneNote to document personal knowledge or team knowledge. I guess others email themselves notes, or journal.

Nothing seems to work for me, and it’s either because I don’t have the right strategy, I don’t have good self-discipline, the tools I’ve tried aren’t good, or some combination of the above.

So what’s the genius pattern for filing, storing, organizing and retrieving knowledge for access when you need it?