Not many people are not taught to produce useful notes, let alone ones that can be used for a lifetime
While the internet provides vast amounts of information on tap, it does not really help to create new insights beyond the keyword that is searched. The ability to curate information, turn it into knowledge and apply it effectively is what makes someone stand out as a professional in their field. In this article, a few simple methods will be looked at that will help relevant information to be easily managed and a network of related ideas to be built.
The problem with notes
Everyone has been in a position where notes have been diligently made at lectures, meetings or conferences. It is hoped that they will help to magically retain information better, and they might even be used a couple of times before eventually being forgotten about at some point later—regardless of how they have been organised. The problem is that not many people are taught how to produce useful notes, let alone ones that can be used for a lifetime—even if there are filing cabinets full of them. For example, in my own knowledge base, I have nearly 7000 notes saved in Evernote alone that have built up over the past 10 years. It contains everything from useful web pages and academic papers and proposals to meeting, book and course notes and project planning and documentation. Although Evernote been useful to search through from time to time, it has not led to any groundbreaking insights. Evernote can be searched by using a keyword, but there are no relationships between the articles beyond what notebook they are in.
A box of paper cards or notes can be used as a starting point for zettelkasten
Filing by creating even more folders and subfolders as a tree might initially help, but, eventually, it will become unmanageable. It is not just notes, the same problem occurs with the documents folder on computers, and managing the folder hierarchy becomes very hard indeed the longer that you have been in the job, and it becomes a mess. Some people will file documents by project, and others attempt to file by year or combine the two. Regardless, insights from other projects and years get lost. If you are in this position, you are not alone.
‘The poor person has successively narrowed and narrowed his or her field of interest to cope with the information overload, and soon is connected only to things of very local interest. The topology clearly does not work, because there is no path for the transfer of knowledge from one discipline and the next.’
Storing vast quantities of information and attempting to keep it in a tree—be in on a computer or in filing cabinets—always fails eventually. We need to re-define our relationship with managing information, and the objective should be to help us think better, not to just capture it.
Luhmann and the zettelkasten method
Niklas Luhmann was a German sociologist and a prolific writer. He published over 70 books and 400 academic articles in 30 years on subjects as diverse as law, economy, politics, ecology and mass media.
Early on in his career as a scholar, Luhmann decided to organise his notes into a systematic way that was free from the issues described above. His solution was boxes of A6 cards (‘zettelkasten’), a similar manner to the index cards used by libraries in the 20th century.
He understood that categories and hierarchies would keep changing, so he put a non-specific index on each card, and then wrote links on the card to each related card so that they could be traced both backward and forwards. Each card contained a summary about a single idea (not an article, document or book) and a link to the source article and any other cards. Most of them contained only a few sentences.
For example, suppose we have several notes: ‘panther’, ‘dog’, ‘lion’ and ‘tiger’. We might add a link to another card that groups them as ‘animals’, and then, later on, add another card called ‘felines’ after that category became apparent due to the research that has been done (Khan, 2020). Another card might be added later on that links ‘felines’ to ‘inspirational poster ideas’. The point is that the relationships you define between these ideas are your own.
Creating a zettelkasten
So, how can a zettelkasten be created? A box of paper cards, or something more elaborate on a computer, can be used as a starting point. If using a computer, creating bidirectional links between ideas becomes more manageable. I still use Evernote for my inbox and filing cabinet and a separate application called NotePlan for my Zettelkasten and organising my diary. Still, there are other free alternatives, such as Obsidian. If using a computer, look for an application that uses plain text files and markdown to handle formatting and links—your Zettelkasten has to last your lifetime, so do not tie it to a single product. Remember though: if not comfortable using a computer, you can always start with some index cards and a shoebox as Luhmann did.
» Keep it short and use your own words, it is important to capture the essence of the idea, look for the main premises, arguments and initial thoughts, but do not get carried away with elaborating at this point «
Capture
Start by taking notes of ideas you find useful or interesting—where possible, focus on the concept rather than the article. Keep it short and use your own words, it is important to capture the essence of the idea, look for the main premises, arguments and initial thoughts, but do not get carried away with elaborating at this point. Make a note of the source in case you want to go back to the source article, and then leave it in your inbox.
Elaborate
This is where you turn it into a zettel (card) later on. If you think the note that you made is still relevant, create a card for it. Give it a title you feel is appropriate at the time, and as if it was for a third party. Create a unique index, an elaboration and a brief description. A card on bargaining techniques looks like this:
Ackerman bargaining
Method recommended by Chris Voss for price negotiation.
- Set your target price (your goal)
- Set your first offer at 65% of your target price
- Calculate three raises of decreasing increments (to 85%, 95% and 100%) Source: (Evernote link) Additional link: (Evernote link).
Connect
This is where tags can be added if appropriate, as well as links to similar cards. If you recall a related note, link to it immediately. It there appears to be a higher level note, create another note that adds more context to it. Make a point of adding context to your links. The card above has a link to context card about negotiating, which has more information about persuading and negotiating skills. Later on, I might decide to link the parent card to another card about personality types. Do not attempt to exhaustively link cards together, do it as your mind creates those links. Adding tags can also help initially, but you will soon find out that those do not scale as well as your links and will quickly become unwieldy (Khan, 2020).
Once a few cards are set up, you will soon find yourself remembering more information about a topic and creating more abstract links. For example, the card I discussed above is from a book written by an FBI hostage negotiator who is an expert at obtaining the best possible outcome. Wouldn't it be great to remember a summary of his methods the next time that I have an appraisal?
Conclusion
Creating a linked index of ideas is an excellent way of ensuring that thoughts can be recorded, as well as gaining new insight and inspiration. This method is not just about academia—it can be applied to clinical knowledge, marketing or anything else.
Done correctly, a zettelkasten is like a personal Google, only it deeply links into insights and understanding without all the xnoise.