Demystify Zettelkasten
Motivation
Have you heard of the term Zettelkasten method? I was scared the first time I heard it. But you shouldn't be. That's why I'm writing this today. First things first, Zettelkasten is a German word. "Zettel" means note and "kasten" means box. So, to interpret, you take notes and put them in a box. Niklas Luhmann, the godfather of this method, wrote more than 70 books and 400 scholarly articles with this simple(?) method in his lifetime, and he achieved all of it without a digital garden. Unlike him, I was lucky(?) so I have an access to vast amount of information and knowledge, and I have Obsidian/Emacs for organizing them better. Therefore, I was determined to learn more about Zettelkasten and found a few nice articles, but it still seemed difficult to learn from a beginner's perspective. Since I now know a bit more about it, I will share how I understand this method and potentially incorporate it into your workflow.
Disclaimer: I'm not expert at all. However, I follow what Henry Longfellow said,
Give what you have. To someone, it may be better than you dare to think.
Key ideas
I was overwhelmed by Zettelkasten because there are many things to consider for a good Zettelkasten. Over time, I believe these two elements are key in Zettelkasten. Even if you don't adopt the method, it's still worth exploring for your digital garden.
Atomic notes
Niklas Luhmann wrote notes on little cards, which forced him to reflect on the concept of knowledge and make the notes concise. With a digital garden, there are no limitations on words, so it's easy to be more verbose. Try to capture a single but complete idea and be concise. What are the best one or two sentences that describe it best? If you have more concepts, you can create additional notes.
Connections
Niklas Luhmann also emphasized the interconnections of notes. He said,
"Every note is just an element in the network of references and back references, from which it gains its quality."
You will see the true power of this method only after you start making connections with other notes and assembling and disassembling your ideas, thoughts, and arguments.
Types of notes
Types of notes There are a few types of notes in Zettelkasten, each with its own objective. Today, I will share what each type is, and in the future, I will revisit how to take notes for different types.
Fleeting notes
These are quick captures of anything you come across on the go, such as quotes, ideas, book highlights, tweets, and thoughts. How many times have you forgotten about a great idea for your next project? With fleeting notes, you don't have to worry about losing them if you invest a moment to capture them.
Literature notes
These are summaries of what you consume, such as books. You may have comments on the ideas or be inspired by them. Include the context that led to your experience in addition to the content summary. When you review them later, you can engage in constructive discussions with both the author and your past self. The more, the merrier!
Permanent notes:
Unlike fleeting or literature notes, permanent notes are your own gems. Here's how you can differentiate them. If an author explained something and you summarized it, it's a literature note. If you re-interpret facts or theories, it's a permanent note. Creating permanent notes requires going through your fleeting and literature notes and exploring further to find your own ideas, thoughts, or arguments. It can be challenging, but the more permanent notes you have, the greater chance you have to produce unique and valuable information for your craft. Andy Matuschak said,
"If you had to set one metric to use as a leading indicator for yourself as a knowledge worker, the best I know might be the number of Evergreen notes written per day."
Note: If you feel scared of types of notes, forget about it. You don't have to worry about this especially if you just started.
Anatomy of zettel
We see the category of notes. Now, we can see what consists of a each note, zettel.
Identifier
A zettel includes identifiers that allow us to easily retrieve our notes. In a digital garden, you have convenient options. You can format your note with a date-{title} format. For example, org-roam will generate the date in ISO8601 format for you, so there will never be identical notes. Obsidian will not allow you to use identical titles, so titles should be unique in the entire vault. Regardless of which approach you choose, make sure to keep it consistent. You will try to find the note based on this identifier.
Body
This is where your content goes. Depending on the type of note, the content can vary - quotes, summaries of articles, or your ideas. However, the important thing is to write in your own words within a paragraph. This forces you to rethink the concept and comprehend what you consume, or else you can't make it concise. Also, try to add context and relevance to the information. The following questions were useful for me to give more flesh to notes:
- What is similar or opposite to this note?
- What is my experience of this note?
- What are good examples I can use to explain to others?
- What is the proper length?
A zettel is the base entity that will form your web of knowledge.
References
Unless these are your own ideas or thoughts, this is where you save the source of information. It can be a URL for a video, pages excerpted from books, or quotes. The important thing is to give credit to the source. If you use other people's ideas or thoughts, you should not claim them as your own. You can avoid any future troubles by putting references in this section. Remember, ~credit is always due.~
Everything together
A picture is worth a thousand words, sometimes. This picture will give you the idea of the blueprint of a zettle.
Quick explanation: I use a format of "date - the title of content" to make this note unique in searching system. And I give tags to categorize this note. In body, I describe about the structure of zettel. To note, I use this note as an index note. So it includes links for other notes that describe each part of zettel. Finally, you can see the example references in the bottom of the zettel. Like I said, you can have different orders. Yet, once you decided, I highly recommend to keep it consistent across other notes.
What should you focus?
Making notes with Zettelkasten method actually touches all the steps that Tiago mentioned in his book - the C.O.D.E (capture, organize, distill, and express). People may highlight the different parts of the process. Some people may argue about how to structure your notes whether you should use unique identifier for titles. Some people may argue about how to categorize your notes. A good idea to stop being distracted by those questions is to remind why you start following this practice. For me, it was to add value to existing ideas, thoughts, and arguments so that I can produce a better quality of works. Like I wrote in "Embrace imperfect system" (see the link below), don't target for having a perfect system. Simply start, you will see what you need over time.
Conclusion
The reason why I prefer the term digital garden to a PKM is the former one gives the sense of growth. Like a real garden, your digital garden will grow organically if you keep learning, taking notes, review, and work on them. And the nature of Zettelkasten method, the focus on the web of small notes, will pay off your effort. So keep it!