Instead, link to new notes that explain what’s wrong with the old ones. An outline note is a note that simply contains a sequence of links to other notes, putting those other notes into a particular order to create a story, narrative, or argument. As Schmidt put it, in a Zettelkasten “there are no privileged positions” and “there is no top and no bottom.” The organization develops organically.Īdd connection notes: As you begin to see connections among seemingly random notes, create connection notes, that is, specific notes whose purpose is to link together other notes and explain their relationship.Īdd outline notes: As ideas begin to coalesce into themes, create outline notes. This prevents plagiarism and makes it easy for you to revisit the original source later on.Īdd your own thoughts to the Zettelkasten: If you have thoughts of your own, add them to the Zettelkasten as notes while keeping in mind the principle of atomicity, autonomy, and the need for linking.ĭon’t worry about structure: Don’t worry about putting notes in neat folders or into unique preconceived categories. Keep references: Always add references to your notes so that you know where you got an idea from. Don’t turn your Zettelkasten into a dump of copy-and-pasted information. If you come across an interesting idea and want to add it to your Zettelkasten, you must express that idea with your own words, in a way that you’ll be sure to understand years later. Use your own words: Don’t copy and paste. Otherwise, years down the road when you revisit your notes, you may have no idea why you connected them. A note that is not connected to the network will be lost, will be forgotten by the Zettelkasten” (original in German).Įxplain why you’re linking notes: Whenever you are connecting two notes by a link, make sure to briefly explain why you are linking them. As Luhmann himself put it, “each note is just an element that derives its quality from the network of links in the system. Avoid notes that are disconnected from other notes. It also ensures that notes remain useful even if the original source of information disappears.Īlways link your notes: Whenever you add a note, make sure to link it to already existing notes. This allows notes to be moved, processed, separated, and concatenated independently of its neighbors. The principle of autonomy: Each note should be autonomous, meaning it should be self-contained and comprehensible on its own. This makes it possible to link ideas with a laser focus. It means that each note should contain one idea and one idea only. The principle of atomicity: The term was coined by Christian Tietze. TL DR: Notebooks bad, tags good! Create many notes, link them together and write memos to yourself.
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