https://eugeneyan.com/writing/note-taking-zettelkasten/

[eugeneyan]

Migrated from json into utteranc.es

[eugeneyan]

How much time do you spend on your Zettelkasten notes each day/week? I love the promise of Zettelkasten and I tried practicing it a few months ago. But it required too much work. I couldn't keep up.

I've since discovered Building a Second Brain's PARA method and found it similar to Zettelkasten but designed to allow me to avoid most of the work until I was actually ready to use it

I wrote up my comparison of the two methods here if you're interested:
https://zainrizvi.io/blog/r...

Comment by Zain Rizvi on 2020-06-02T06:56:22Z

[eugeneyan]

Thanks for writing this. I came across the Zettelkasten feature in Obsidian last week and was unsure what it was all about. You might want to check out https://obsidian.md

Comment by David Teren on 2020-06-02T07:09:17Z

[eugeneyan]

This is exactly how https://tiddlywiki.com/ works. Been using that for 10+ years. Love it!

Comment by Devin on 2020-06-02T14:26:24Z

[eugeneyan]

Thanks for that great comparison Zain. I found PARA a bit too much work. Even the original Zettelkasten was too much haha, so I use a very lean approach instead.

I don't take notes every day. Sometimes, I batch them for a weekend. It takes probably a few hours each week–I think this is time well spent, especially on content I want to remember and use in future. More on my approach below.

I usually take notes of books/papers/articles anyway, so these are my lit notes. The Zettelkasten just requires the #literature note tag and source. I only do this for content somewhat related to my work and writing.

Then, for key points that I plan to use in near term work, I make them permanent notes. This takes about 2-5 mins each. Sometimes, these permanent notes are done weeks/months after the original literature note, just before they're being weaved into a piece.

Overall, of all the content I consume, probably about 10-20% of them make it to a literature note. And of that, about 50% makes it to a permanent note.

Comment by Eugene Yan on 2020-06-02T14:42:32Z

[eugeneyan]

Nice, Tiago Forte also said a similar thing: Only take notes on things related to what you want to work on.

The urge to capture everything you read is a hard thing to suppress!

Comment by Zain Rizvi on 2020-06-02T16:29:05Z

[eugeneyan]

Super interesting but it will not work for me. I need to make the connections visual. I do this by keeping a very large format unlined workbook on my kitchen counter. Several times a day I move notes into this book and sketch connections. I have tried using cards several times and I used to try all the different ways people try to do this with software but a pen, large sheets of paper, and habits work best for me. But I am old fashioned. I prefer to read books, preferably four or five at a time.

Comment by Steven Forth on 2020-06-06T13:14:50Z

[eugeneyan]

Do you self host it or how do you save changes? Any pointers on how to get started? It looks like saving changes isn't a trivial task with a modern Firefox.

Comment by Vasily Fomin on 2020-06-06T17:10:08Z

[eugeneyan]

Unfortunately, roamresearch is currently not offering the tool anymore. I guess they are developing a cost model how to finance their development. Would have loved to test it.

Comment by Anonymous on 2020-06-08T07:49:39Z

[eugeneyan]

I self-host on Google Drive. I use Tiddly Drive. It's a chrome extension. And yes, it autosaves.

Comment by Fact Droid on 2020-06-08T08:43:28Z

[eugeneyan]

Thank you for sharing this. The system is exactly what I was looking for without knowing I was looking for it!

I'd been wondering how to make connection between the books and posts I read for a while. The approach I had in mind was to publish my book notes and then cross link them. I never got to it because I never felt like they were in a state good enough to publish. The best I could do were a few posts about applying some ideas from individual books.

I started reading "How to take smarter notes" last night, and it quickly proved insightful.

I like the strategy of reading 3 books at a time. In fact, it's something I've been more or less doing already. I usually read in the lunch breaks and evenings, and sometimes I'm just too tired or not in the mood for applying myself, and I fall back to a good sci-fi.

When I checked it roamresearch wasn't taking on new users, so I ended up using this Vim workflow/plugin.

Comment by Gio on 2020-06-09T00:17:23Z

[eugeneyan]

Obisidian can be nice alternative to Roam

Comment by Anonymous on 2020-06-18T22:40:23Z

[eugeneyan]

great job bro you should really consider making best note taking app for ipad

Comment by Anonymous on 2020-08-21T12:44:11Z

[orozcoig]

Thanks for sharing this taking notes methodology. One question: why can I see the comments of the people that make them? I just see your answers.

[eugeneyan]

Hey @orozcoig, those comments above are by the original authors. For example, the first comment is by Zain Rizvi, as indicated by:

Comment by Zain Rizvi on 2020-06-02T06:56:22Z

I migrated them from a previous comment system; thus it looks like they're all by me. Let me know if you have further questions.

[Noideawhattoputhereagain]

Love the idea, didn't realize I was using that without knowing the name through Workflowy, which is an hybrid between Trello and a task manager that fits perfectly in the description.

[fral1013]

Really enjoyed your introduction to the Zettelkasten method. Since the principle is really hard to get into as a beginner we also recently posted a blog article that is a guide for newcomers to get used to the Zettelkasten method. I'm really interested what you think about it: https://zenkit.com/en/blog/a-beginners-guide-to-the-zettelkasten-method/

[sflender]

Thanks Eugene!

Some free, digital Zettelkastens include zettelkasten.de, zettlr, and roamresearch. I use Roam.

As of now, Roam is $15 a month - do you still use it, or have you switched to a free alternative?

[eugeneyan]

Heh I signed up for Roam way back and have lifetime access. Yes I'm still using it =)

[danloh]

Here is a lightweight, free, open source and more powerful one: https://mdsilo.com/, with All-in-One editor: WYSIWYG, Markdown & extensions, Mind Map.