A Way to Build a Zettelkasten

I changed the title of this article from the expected “How To Build a Zettelkasten” – to “A Way to Build a Zettelkasten” – specifically, it’s my way. It’s not the only way. I stress that because so much of the literature around Zettelkasten focuses on rules, most of which just don’t work for me. For example;

“Ideally, new notes are written with explicit reference to already existing notes…” (Sönke Ahrens, How to Take Smart Notes)

Maybe, maybe not.  

What if your Zettelkasten is new? What will you reference?

Or the insistence by almost everyone on three kinds of notes: literature notes, fleeting notes, and permanent notes, if you read Sonke Ahrens. See my rant on Zettelkasten language below – in my Zettelkasten method, a *note is a note.

Then there is this gem:

“On the matter of highlighting texts, I will say this: highlighting is not advisable. It is not a good method for focused reading of challenging and complex information. For challenging material, it’s best to invest the time required to reformulate it, and reflect on it in the form of notes. There are no shortcuts.”

Scott P. Scheper, Antinet Zettelkasten

I couldn’t disagree more. Highlighting both physically and digitally is a great way to find material we may want to review or add to our Zettlekasten. And there are definitely shortcuts! There is no virtue in spending more time and effort than necessary. As there is no virtue in turning this into a miserable experience. Use every shortcut you can think of – and share them with me if you come up with something that works for you. Many of my shortcuts are outlined in the section of this article titled Work Flow.

The bottom line is, does your Zettelkasten work for you?

I don’t do several things that practically everyone recommends. It works for me, and it might work for you. This article is about finding your way, with a few suggestions from me that might help.

The Big Questions

Why Build a Zettlekasten -Your Purpose

From David Kadavy’s – Digital Zettlekasten (worth the read), “The point of a Zettelkasten is to turn your notes into completed writing. The act of note-taking helps solidify knowledge in your mind while developing miniature rough drafts you can turn into completed writing.”

For me – It’s a point, not the point. If you’re creating a Zettelkasten, you (probably) have a reason, but you don’t need one. Perhaps you want to remember more of what you read, or you may want to think about something later but don’t want to interrupt your reading now. You might be planning an article or a book and happened upon a thought that relates. Or maybe you just want to tell someone about something you read and don’t want to lose it. But if it’s nothing more than because you want to, that is also okay.

Whatever your purpose, the notes are for you; let’s not take the joy out of it by creating unbreakable rules. We need structure so that it will be useful and perhaps some intention so that we’re glad we built it later, but let’s go easy on the hard and fast rules.

Key Reasons for Creating a Zettlekasten

Enhancing Writing and Thinking: By creating a dynamic repository of notes, you can improve your writing process. Your notes serve as a foundation for generating new ideas and producing texts, thereby optimizing the workflow of learning and knowledge production.

Managing Information Overload: In an age of information overload, the Zettelkasten method provides a structured approach to managing vast amounts of data by breaking it down into smaller, manageable notes that can be easily navigated and referenced.

Facilitating Connections: The method emphasizes linking notes to create relationships between different pieces of information. This interconnectedness helps users see patterns and develop insights that might not be apparent when information is stored in isolation.

Knowledge Organization: A Zettelkasten allows you to systematically organize your thoughts and information, making it easier to reference and build upon existing knowledge. This organization is crucial for academic work, research, and personal projects.

Overall, the Zettelkasten method is often adopted because it helps us synthesize and utilize knowledge, i.e., think more efficiently.

Analog or Digital?

While I firmly believe in the value of writing with pen and paper (sometimes!), I vote Digital all the way! If you read Scott Scheper’s Antinet Zettlekasten (and I did, all 600+ pages of it), you might walk away convinced that if you don’t do this the hard way, you’re just wasting your time or that analog (your own handwriting) is the only way to learn. Once again, I couldn’t disagree more.

When we spend more time reading, thinking, and writing, we learn—period. Note that I’m not saying don’t write by hand—do it when you want to—but ultimately, a digital Zettlekasten is the most useful and, more importantly, the most possible to build and use.

I can’t leave this topic without mentioning this little gem from Scheper-

“It’s not a tool for capturing unprocessed information and storing it for a later period of time.” (Scott P. Scheper, Antinet Zettelkasten)

YES IT IS! That’s precisely what it is! When I’m reading, I don’t want to stop to think about every idea I find interesting. I find it more efficient and more interesting to review my notes later – more on this again under workflow.

For a brief review of several digital options, see Appendix A at the end of this article.

Deciding What to Read

Again, the available literature about building a Zettelkasten emphasizes the need to read quality material. I’ll quote Scheper again. 

The first step is “careful selection of materials.” That is, carefully selecting books worth reading.

While I don’t want to suggest you read garbage all the time, I strongly suggest that you read what you want to read and what supports your interests and intentions. This is your Zettelkasten for you to use as you wish. It’s your time and your mind. If you choose to make notes from a trashy romance novel that you find compelling, that’s okay.

That said, I didn’t build my Zettlekasten to support my fiction reading.

Collecting and Selecting

I’ve highlighted over 50 excerpts from Scheper’s book – not because I find them so compelling, but rather because I disagree so strongly! Now these don’t necessarily make it into my Zettelkasten – but they do make it into my Readwise list – a key component in my Zettelkasten workflow.

“What we are looking for are facts and information that can add something and therefore enrich the slip-box.” (Sönke Ahrens, How to Take Smart Notes)

Uh, oh, I disagree again. But, I have to say both the authors I like and the ones I don’t like, so pretty universally, say that we need to always be thinking about making connections.

I disagree, at least in the beginning. If you’re reading what you want to read, as I recommend. And highlighting whatever you want to highlight, as I also recommend, your notes will naturally reflect your interests and the things you are reading about. We all tend to hover around the books that are about the things we are interested in. Our notes will obviously reflect those interests. Using indexes and categories that are specific to you and what you’re doing will allow the connections to be made when you need them.

We’re looking for thoughts and new ideas we want to remember – the slip-box connections should take care of themselves.

https://zettelkasten.de/posts/overview/#the-introduction-to-the-zettelkasten-method

*Update: Since I wrote that, my method has evolved, and I now have Book Notes, Article Notes, Blog Notes and, My Notes.