The Zettelkasten method is a systematic technique to collect and organize thoughts, ideas, and information using notes taken from different sources in a structured way. One note, one zettel, one idea. Notes taken are numbered and stored in an organized manner.


Notes on notes:

1) Note-taking—a central aspect of a complex human behavior—is the central aspecct of the Zettelkasten method. It involves a range of underlying mental processes and interactions with other cognitive functions.

2) The person taking notes must acquire and filter the incoming sources, organize and restructure existing knowledge structures, comprehend and write down their own explanation of the information, and ultimately store and integrate (connect) the freshly processed material. The results are a permanent and better knowledge representation and storage in the Zettelkasten and in the brain.



Types of notes

Niklas Luhmann used different kinds of notes, such as:

  1. 1. Fleeting notes - unstructured and unorganized notes, usually ideas, concepts, and thoughts. They are merely temporary holders of information for later use.
  2. 2. Literature notes - unprocessed notes containing concepts and thoughts extracted from texts and other sources of information.
  3. 3. Permanent notes - declarative statements, processed ideas and thoughts, reasoned from other notes. A permanent note contains knowledge that is ready to be used.
  4. 4. Hub notes - index or entry points to a group of related notes.
  5. 5. Reference notes - notes organized into categories or collections through the use of tags.

Zettelkasten typical activities:

  1. I - Reading sources of information (books, white-papers, web pages, documents, etc.) and taking notes on zettels;
  2. II - Rewriting notes (for Zettelkasten) — zettels must be atomic (one idea), concise and clear;
  3. III - Adding and structuring more zettels — zettels must be connected and organized. New zettels may appear, other zettels may disappear;
  4. IV - Asking questions against existing zettels.
  5. V - Writing using the knowledge contained in the Zettelkasten. → outcome.

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