Digital Zettelkasten: Principles, Methods, & Examples

by David Kadavy

Sometimes ignorance is more comfortable than learning, because learning means we have to go through the work of changing.

the proper way to take notes is not to copy things word-for-word (except in the case of exact quotes). Instead, you re-write it in your own words, which is even more powerful. Second, you don't write down everything you read. You only write down the important things: Things that are interesting, relevant to your work, or that you otherwise want to retain.

The traditional Zettelkasten consists of three main types of notes (I'll break these down, with examples, in a bit). Fleeting Notes: Notes you take "on the fly." Literature Notes: Condensed notes of an entire article, book, etc. Permanent Notes: Notes summarizing a single idea. These are assigned keywords and linked to other notes.

Literature notes and permanent notes are organized into their own respective folders in your Zettelkasten. Fleeting notes are casual, so can be in many places, such as on scraps of paper or in a notes app on your phone.

Aside from your "Literature Notes" and "Permanent Notes" (or “Slip Box”), I suggest three other fol...