![]() iA WriterĬhristian and Sascha, the peeps running, have a page outlining all software the Zettelkasten method has been tried and shown to work well with. Mine is, as readers of this very young blog might know, iA Writer. It’s just a framework for you to then figure out how to do it yourself in the software of your choice. One thing I like about the premise of this method compared to, say, people telling you to just use Evernote is that it’s completely software-agnostic. I have written more about organizing a Zettelkasten here. Sounds like something I needed! However you can see how without a software with fast interlinking support this can be a real chore. In general, users should try to keep a note limited to one topic only, and if necessary, to go even smaller than that, to then link them together to form a sort of latticework. 3 Zettelkasten-ers are also encouraged to use tags in #this form, so that searching for that tag in the database will pull up all related information. No matter what software you use to manage your zettels, you can always refer to other notes through their IDs, thus ensuring everything you write is “ed.” When you want to actually access the linked note, if your software does not allow for interlinking, you can always just run a search for that ID number. ![]() 2 Linking between notes is not only possible but encouraged, through use of these unique IDs. Each note equals one file, and the filename always contains an “unique identifier,” which is usually the date and time of creation squished together. What separates the Zettelkasten from the “everything bin,” though, is the level of organization and interconnectedness between notes. A Zettelkasten is a collection of such notes, so a folder. Its fundamental unit is the Zettel, which is a single note. Longer explanations exist, but I can give a short overview.įirst of all, Zettelkasten 1 is a note-taking and knowledge management system. This is where Zettelkasten came into play for me, and it felt like a rather elegant development over my own haphazard method. Still, it didn’t look like there was any semblance of organization, it looked and felt more like an “everything bin.” Over time, I started using #tags, and that was a band-aid. ![]() That was actually an improvement, even though it might not sound like it. ![]() Apparently, a more holistic approach was necessary, so I just threw everything into the same folder. But what if a note fit into more than one category? What if one category itself belonged to more than one parent category? I quickly figured out that this stuff is not hierarchical, it’s instead a mesh, a latticework so to speak. Realising the error of my ways, I created a folder structure, trying to fit my notes into neat categories and sub-categories. I’d just place files wherever it seemed fit, without rule or method. As such, my pile of files quickly started growing.Īt first, I didn’t really care much for organization. I’m for taking notes while reading, and in general I jot down whatever piece of info I believe warrants doing so. Backgroundįinding a stable, reliable, and pleasing way to digitally organize personal knowledge has been a pet peeve of mine since I first got a computer. In this post I will talk about my personal knowledge management system, how it developed into a Zettelkasten, what Zettelkasten is, and why I think iA Writer is pretty much perfect for it.
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