What this covers
Zettelkasten Method was developed by Niklas Luhmann, and is a personal knowledge management system. Doing this well can help you generate new ideas for writing and creativity with high efficiency!
In this video, we want to share with you our interpretation of using this method. It can be difficult to understand, so we will do our best to explain with examples as well as software recommendations that may be fitting for implementing this learning method. The new app Roam Research applies this idea well, so definitely check it out at Roamresearch.com
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Mike explains the Zettelkasten method as a systematic note-taking and knowledge organization technique that enables users to store, connect, and build upon ideas to generate new insights and creative output efficiently.
- Zettelkasten uses bidirectional linking to connect related notes and enable discovery of new idea combinations
- The method requires deliberate tagging and curation to maintain quality and facilitate meaningful connections across past and new knowledge
- Systematic organization allows creative professionals to generate high-volume output by building on accumulated, interconnected knowledge
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New knowledge is added to existing knowledge in a way that boosts understanding of both old and new information, which helps generate new ideas.
“new knowledge is added to your existing knowledge and this boosts your understanding of both and this helps you generate new ideas”
Step two of the Zettelkasten process involves reviewing collected notes (typically at the end of the day), importing them into a bidirectional linking program, and tagging them to relate new notes to past ideas rather than to categorize them.
“in step two and for me that's usually at the end of the day I'm gonna go back and look at all the notes I've collected and I'm going to sift through them and put tags on them and yes this is kind of like hash tagging so I'm gonna import all the notes that I wrote down for today into a bi-directional linking program, the way that I go about tagging is not to categorize the ideas but I'm more so trying to relate it to other ideas that I've had in the past”
Zettelkasten, literally meaning 'box of notes' or 'note box', was developed by Nicolaus Luhmann, a German sociologist who used this method to achieve maximum publishing efficiency, producing over 40 books and over 600 papers in his career.
“subtle Caston literally means a box of notes or a note box it was developed by Nicolaus lumen who was a german sociologist and he used this method to publish at maximum efficiency he published over 40 books and over 600 papers in his career”
There is no single right or wrong way to use the Zettelkasten method; it can be customized and applied flexibly to creative, academic, or research purposes depending on individual needs.
“I am NOT an expert on this topic so I'm gonna leave some links in the description but I just wanted to mention that there's no right or wrong way to use the zel Caston method so you can use it however and with whatever you like whether it be creative or academic or with your research”
Zettelkasten is a note-taking method where you store and organize knowledge by taking notes and tagging them to create connections between notes, enabling rapid generation of new ideas.
“settle Caston is a way that you can store and organize your knowledge it's a particular way that you take notes and then tag those notes to help you make connections between the notes and from there you can generate new ideas quickly”
Once you curate and organize notes through Zettelkasten, you develop a systematic way to generate new ideas and create content (e.g., blog posts) by analyzing patterns, connections, and interpretations emerging from your linked knowledge base.
“but now I can go and write a blog post about my interpretation of the value of money so using this little cast and method I have a systematic way to store and organize and connect information and generate a lot of new ideas quickly”
To apply the Zettelkasten method, you need two fundamental tools: a way to take notes (either pen and paper or a digital note-taking app on your mobile device) and a program with bidirectional linking that can connect ideas back and forth between each other.
“in order to become a creative machine so to do this you'll need two things and the first thing is a way to take notes and you can use pen and paper that's perfectly fine but we recommend that in a digital world you use digital note-taking so I would consider using a note-taking app on your mobile device and here are some of our favorites the second thing you'll need is a program with bidirectional linking which means it can connect to ideas back and forth between each other”
Step one of the Zettelkaston process is to make notes on the go: whenever you encounter a good idea while reading, listening to a podcast, or browsing the internet, write it down immediately and include the source of where it came from.
“new ideas and insights can come at us at any time and when this happens just write it down okay so that's step number one is to make notes on the go so I'm reading a book or listening to a podcast and I get a good idea I'm gonna write it down okay you want to think of yourself as a collector of ideas and when I write it down I want to make sure to include the source of where it came from”
The Zettelkasten method is so powerful that it enabled Nicolaus Luhmann to publish at maximum efficiency, producing over 40 books and over 600 papers throughout his career.
“he used this method to publish at maximum efficiency he published over 40 books and over 600 papers in his career so that just goes to show how powerful this method can be”
Modern information abundance from the internet, books, and news creates a challenge of making sense of and connecting information across multiple sources and time periods.
“nowadays we have access to so much information at our fingertips the internet books to the news but how do we make sense of all this information how do I link an idea that I found from a book to an insight that I got from watching a documentary months ago or years ago even”
Tagging should be personalized and customized to each individual user, as different people will have different tagging preferences and strategies that suit their thinking patterns.
“tagging is a little hard to explain because it should be customized and personalized to you not everyone's gonna be the same in the way that I go about tagging”
Tags should be long, descriptive, and relational rather than general; for example, using 'the value of money' as a tag instead of generic tags like 'finance' or 'money' creates more meaningful connections across ideas.
“I like to make my tags long and descriptive and I try to avoid too general of a tag like finance or money”
Step three involves curating your collected notes by keeping only the best ones ('pearls and gold nuggets') by comparing new notes against related past notes to evaluate whether the new note adds meaningful value to the existing collection.
“now in step 3 it's time to figure out which one of these notes I want to keep because you don't have to keep all your notes you only want to keep the best ones the pearls and the gold nuggets and the way that I decide which notes to keep is by comparing it to the ones I already have”
By understanding the context and perspective of the source of an idea (e.g., knowing a money quote came from Kanye West, a rapper who discusses social inequalities), you can make deeper interpretations that reveal nuanced meanings in the idea.
“knowing that this quote came from Kanye West's a rapper who talks about social inequalities I can see where he's coming from having money isn't everything but it is everything to those who don't have it and as a consequence those people's relationship with money is a motivator for their actions whether it be good or bad”
Including the source of notes is critically important because knowing the source (e.g., that a quote came from a rapper discussing social inequalities) allows you to understand the context and perspective behind the idea, enabling deeper interpretation and more meaningful connections.
“this is why it's so important to write down the source of where your notes came from because knowing that this quote came from Kanye West's a rapper who talks about social inequalities I can see where he's coming from having money isn't everything but it is everything to those who don't have it”
When reviewing notes at the end of the day for step two, you should look at all past ideas stored under a given tag to understand the existing ideas before deciding whether a new note adds value.
“what I'm gonna do now is go back and look at all the past ideas I have under this tag the value of money so here we have money as a root of all evil money isn't everything money is a tool so with these past ideas I was making the connection that there's more value to money than just the economic value”
Doctors use the Zettelkasten method to make connections between the latest research, and YouTubers (including Maddie and Mike) use it to produce large volumes of high-quality content efficiently.
“as doctors sometimes we use this method to make connections between the latest research and as youtubers Maddie and I use this method to crank out a lot of content at a high level”