# The Zettelkasten Method  ## Metadata - Author: [[lesswrong.com]] - Full Title: The Zettelkasten Method - Category: #📰 - Document Tags: [[pkm]] #📩 - URL: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/NfdHG6oHBJ8Qxc26s/the-zettelkasten-method-1#Note_Taking_Systems_I_Have_Known_and_Loved This article summarizes what the zettlekasten system of notetaking is, how to do it for paper notetaking, how to organize your zettlekasten for short term and long term goals, the mindset of transferring to zettlekasten from a previous notetaking system. ## Highlights Let’s say I’m writing linearly -- something which could go in a notebook. I might start with card 11, say. Then I proceed to card 11a, 11b, 11c, 11d, etc. On each card, I make a note somewhere about the previous and next cards in sequence, so that later I know for sure how to follow the chain via addresses. Later, I might have a different branch-off thought from 11c. This becomes 11c1. That’s the magic of the system, which you can’t accomplish so easily in a linear notebook: you can just come back and add things. These tangents can grow to be larger than the original. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01ge2jnwj00kj4knwbpsc5ymhq)) - Note: The magic of the zettlekasten system is it allows you to spark off into various side tangential ideas throughout a coherent set of linked notes like 11a, 11b, 11c, and 11d. But I believe digital zettlekasten are way better because they allow you to have notes linked multiple times.  ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01ge2jnxswnmvysf7g8ab5pj8x)) > During the time spanning Nov. 2007–Jan. 2010, I filled 11 note books with ideas, to-do lists, ramblings, diary entries, drawings, and worries. > Looking back, this is about the time I started to live consciously. I guess keeping a journal helped me “wake up” from some kind of teenage slumber. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01ge2k35cs72xgmsak3baqg0c4)) - Note: I don’t feel I “woke up” until I read Awareness by Anthony De Mello. Until then I was living some sort of teenage dream. When I’m writing in an idea book, I spend a lot of time trying to clearly explain ideas ... the definition of a Bayesian network is something I can assume my “audience” can look up on wikipedia. However, if I’m less than totally confident in the concept of d-separation, I have to explain it; especially if it is important to the argument I hope to make - Note: In your Obsidian system, you don’t have to define every term you link to. That’s why we have google. Only define terms you think merit some sort of rough explanation or form a large part of your argument. Your knowledge management system is for making interesting connections, not for creating a second internet. For some people, I think an *essential part* of Zettelkasten is the distinction between temporary and permanent notes. Temporary notes are the disorganized stream-of-consciousness notes which Sheffler calls engagement notes. Temporary notes can also include all sorts of other things, such as todo lists which you make at the start of the day (and which only apply to that day), shopping lists, etc. Temporary notes can be kept in a linear format, like a notebook ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01ge2khtzwm5z6s0gx956px05p)) - Note: The separation for me is with Evergreen notes and fern notes in contrast to sapling notes or notes with little connections which are essentially the floating ideas in my system. My daily notes also have a section where I can write any stream of thoughts that don’t have to be looked at again. I think transferring older stuff into Zettelkasten can be useful, but, trying to make it happen right away as one big project is most likely not worth it. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01ge2m3qgqw5deezwyky0wa0fr)) - Note: For students, transferring old paper notes or notes from another system into Obsidian is probably not worth it. I find it almost always just makes you stop taking notes because you become so caught in the organization instead of writing zettlekasten notes is they let you think about ideas your interested in at the moment and incubate ones you aren’t as interested in over time. If you copy and paste a paste system over you will likely be copying tons of notes you aren’t interested in.