I think the Zettelkasten method is a good idea, but Zettelkasten.de is incredibly verbose to explain a simple note-taking approach. Here's my summary and my *process*.

2021-06-13 Zettelkasten Simplified.md

2021-06-13 Zettelkasten Simplified

I think the Zettelkasten method is a good idea, but Zettelkasten.de is incredibly verbose to explain a simple note-taking approach. Here's my summary and my process.

Two modes of organization

Be aware of this concept:

• Spend more time on organizing and less time on information retrieval. Good for notes you need to refer often to. Nothing for me actually. I write maybe 3-5 notes per day at most.
• Spend less time on organizing infos and more time on retrieval. Good when you don't need the info often (or at all). Example: Letters, tax statements, emails, whatever. Just dump them all in a folder in a chronological order and if you ever need to find something, search for it, although this might take a bit longer.

Structore of a Note

1. Adapt an ID format

Recommendation by Zettelkasten.de: A timestamp YYYYMMDDHHmmss. I don't like it for two reasons:

• 20210102102021 is unreadable, but the ID itself does provide useful information.
• I don't write that many notes per day. So time info can be discarded. The date is enough.

I go with YYYY-MM-DD. It's the only valid format (obligatory XKCD). So the filename is 2021-06-13 Zettelkasten Simplified.txt. If I cared more about linking notes by IDs, I'd use a typical URL slug format: 2021-06-13-zettelkasten-simplified.txt

2. Write that shit down

The original Zettelkasten approach:

• Write atomic notes: One idea/concept per note. Iterate on ideas/concepts by adding more notes and linking to older notes.
• Write overview notes that provide structure to all/some notes on a topic.

It's probably a good idea, but it's also easy to fall into the trap of over-organizing everything. Especially if you're just starting out. The definition of what is an atomic note is something you could probably write hundreds of notes about, ok?

Since this doesn't work for me – and if you're starting out with Zettelkasten, you probably won't need it, too. You might revisit the concept of atomic notes later. Here's my approach:

• Create a note. Give it an ID. Write all shit down in free-form (plain text or Markdown).
• Headline? If you want.
• How long? Doesn't matter.
• Reference older notes? If you want.
• Edit older notes with new info or create new note? Whatever works for you when searching for information.
• If you want, add tags at the end: tags: #notes #zettelkasten. But tags are complex in itself. Do you describe concepts or objects? Do you describe stuff that the note is about (but not mentioned)? Because if the note contains a word you can search for, you don't need a tag.
• If you want, you could adhere to more structure in your notes. Have a headline, a summary, a body. But maybe this is not worth it.
• Done. Only make it more complicated when you are often in the information retrieval phase and don't find your stuff.

Tools

• I write in Sublime Text 4 and ditched everything else. iA Writer for Mac is also good.
• One useful thing: Use a text expander tool like TextExpander or the fantastically simple cheap aText and create a keyboard shortcut that insertes the current date for your ID when you type ,,id.