Digital Zettelkasten Quotes

“Permanent notes are the ultimate destination within your Zettelkasten for the best ideas you have or come across. In fact, your permanent notes are your Zettelkasten. The permanent note is the last stop for an idea before you synthesize it into something new.”
― David Kadavy, Digital Zettelkasten: Principles, Methods, & Examples

“Zettelkasten is German for "slip box"(Plural: Zettelkästen). In analog form, a zettel is literally a box filled with slips of paper witha note on it, as well as metadata used to organise those notes. The Zettelkasten method is a way of organising paper in a non hierarchal way. Instead of being restrictedb to keeping a note in only one place,or having to make multiple copies of the same note to put in various places,notes are organised so that you can arrive at one individual note through multiple routes, and that note can lead you to various other notes-much like today's internet, but in paper form.”
― David Kadavy, Digital Zettelkasten: Principles, Methods, & Examples

“Once you've exported your highlights, review them and highlight, once again, the parts of those highlights that are the most”
― David Kadavy, Digital Zettelkasten: Principles, Methods, & Examples

“If I have a thought I want to capture, I'll leave a note”
― David Kadavy, Digital Zettelkasten: Principles, Methods, & Examples

“The metadata you include in your notes helps narrow your searches in the future, and/or speed up your writing process when you create completed work.”
― David Kadavy, Digital Zettelkasten: Principles, Methods, & Examples

“I use my tag index as a starting point. I rearrange the index according to how an article might flow, then I re-write from scratch in a separate document. In this way, I’ve eliminated any chance of writer’s block, as I can mostly copy what I’ve already written. But in the process of re-writing, I always find a more crisp way of stating my point, and I often get additional ideas that aren’t in my notes.”
― David Kadavy, Digital Zettelkasten: Principles, Methods, & Examples

“In a digital Zettelkasten, you can easily review all notes associated with a tag – either with a quick search, or through the interface of any tags-compatible text editor. But a tag index gives you even more context to the notes that cover a topic.”
― David Kadavy, Digital Zettelkasten: Principles, Methods, & Examples

“Turning your notes into completed work 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.”
― David Kadavy, Digital Zettelkasten: Principles, Methods, & Examples

“Do they wonder where to store a note or how to retrieve it? The archivist asks: Which keyword is the most fitting? A writer asks: In which circumstances will I want to stumble upon this note, even if I forget about it? It is a crucial difference.”
― David Kadavy, Digital Zettelkasten: Principles, Methods, & Examples

“What it is: You can mix phrases, unique IDs, and Folgezettel to come up with your own file-naming conventions – and/or add whatever other data you think is useful to your filenames. For example, you might start each filename with a Folgezettel code, add a useful phrase, and use a keyword or a unique character to help with other properties. For example, the note about Narcissus could be named “1a1a - Narcissus stared at his reflection - Example.” You’d have the Folgezettel code you created, a useful phrase, and the “Example” keyword could help you find various categories of notes. You could have in your filenames other categories such as Quotes, Facts, and Stories, which would help you find the right category of information to fill in the gaps as you write. Pros: The best part of mixing your own file-naming convention from a variety of techniques is you can customize it to your workflow. Cons: The worst part of mixing your own file-naming convention from a variety of techniques is there’s no end to how much time and energy you could waste tweaking it.”
― David Kadavy, Digital Zettelkasten: Principles, Methods, & Examples

“Break literature notes into permanent notes Now take only the most interesting ideas from the literature notes, and turn each into individual permanent notes. Permanent notes should have one idea per note.”
― David Kadavy, Digital Zettelkasten: Principles, Methods, & Examples

“If writing a passage makes me think of something related, I write it in parentheses.”
― David Kadavy, Digital Zettelkasten: Principles, Methods, & Examples

“By trying to think of how to describe the passage in my own words, I activate the associative machine, which often causes the current idea to collide with some other idea in my mind.”
― David Kadavy, Digital Zettelkasten: Principles, Methods, & Examples

“Look at the highlights of your highlights and re-write the interesting ones in your own words. You're now turning your fleeting notes into a literature note. It's okay not to summarize every highlight. Only worry about the information you most want to learn or that you can foresee wanting to use in the future.”
― David Kadavy, Digital Zettelkasten: Principles, Methods, & Examples

“Once you've exported your highlights, review them and highlight, once again, the parts of those highlights that are the most interesting. This is a mental energy management technique: When you were reading the book, you were more focused on reading it, not on thinking deeply about whether or not a passage was useful. Now as a separate task you're asking yourself which parts are interesting enough that you want to re-write them in your own words later.”
― David Kadavy, Digital Zettelkasten: Principles, Methods, & Examples

“Export the highlights When you're finished with the book, export the highlights.”
― David Kadavy, Digital Zettelkasten: Principles, Methods, & Examples

“Read As you read, make fleeting notes. The "best" way to do this is to physically take notes while you're reading: Highlight things and write in the margins or in a separate notebook. I personally don't find this a comfortable way to read, so I just highlight on my e-reader.”
― David Kadavy, Digital Zettelkasten: Principles, Methods, & Examples

“When you take the extra time to re-write, only the clearest and most compelling elements survive – not to mention that you further internalize the knowledge.”
― David Kadavy, Digital Zettelkasten: Principles, Methods, & Examples

“But I go ahead and do it and usually I'm presented with something I didn't expect: I get hung up on a word and realize I didn't understand the idea as well as I thought I had, I come up with a more clear way to explain the concept, or the way the note relates to another note pops into my mind. Bit by bit, I'm learning to trust the process, quit whining, and re-write.”
― David Kadavy, Digital Zettelkasten: Principles, Methods, & Examples

“Permanent Notes Permanent notes are explanations of a single idea, annotated with metadata about the subject of the note, other notes that note is related to, and the source of the note. You usually write permanent notes using literature notes as your source. You take only the most important ideas from your literature notes, and turn them into singular notes you can connect with other notes. Once you have many permanent notes, you can construct a rough draft for an entire article or book.”
― David Kadavy, Digital Zettelkasten: Principles, Methods, & Examples

“the act of writing literature notes also ensures you understand the material. Aside from direct quotes, literature notes are in your own words. To write literature notes, you have to think about what you learned, and how you might explain it to a friend (or your future self). This helps you remember the material better than you would otherwise.”
― David Kadavy, Digital Zettelkasten: Principles, Methods, & Examples

“The purpose of a fleeting note is to say, "here's something interesting I might want to remember or refer to some day." You need to record just enough information to later decide whether you want to turn your fleeting note into a literature note, permanent note, or someday/maybe.”
― David Kadavy, Digital Zettelkasten: Principles, Methods, & Examples

“Raw is for storing the "raw," exported highlights from books or articles.”
― David Kadavy, Digital Zettelkasten: Principles, Methods, & Examples

“The "someday/maybe" designation helps reduce worries that the idea might fall through the cracks, without obligating you to follow up on the idea right now.”
― David Kadavy, Digital Zettelkasten: Principles, Methods, & Examples

“Processing the contents of the inbox will be a regular ritual in managing your Zettelkasten.”
― David Kadavy, Digital Zettelkasten: Principles, Methods, & Examples

“Inbox is where I put fleeting notes that need to be processed.”
― David Kadavy, Digital Zettelkasten: Principles, Methods, & Examples

“I suggest three other folders: Inbox Someday/Maybe Raw”
― David Kadavy, Digital Zettelkasten: Principles, Methods, & Examples

“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”
― David Kadavy, Digital Zettelkasten: Principles, Methods, & Examples

“Your notes contain more than just simple facts, managing your notes builds your memory, and your notes help you store and develop ideas in-progress.”
― David Kadavy, Digital Zettelkasten: Principles, Methods, & Examples

“But your Zettelkasten doesn't just help jog your memory. The activities involved in managing it also help solidify your memory, so it needs less jogging in the first place. Your Zettelkasten also lets you store incomplete thoughts and connections.”
― David Kadavy, Digital Zettelkasten: Principles, Methods, & Examples