- Core Principles of Taking Notes 1. Write all the time 2. Everything is knowlede 3. Notes are irreducible complete thoughts 4. Knowledge is interconnected - Take fleeting notes - While reading a book for example: sticky notes - Make Permanent Notes - Obsidian Folder: - Make Bibliographic Notes - Transcribinc Fleeting Notes - Naming Notes - Forming connections - Graph View - Conclusion: Trust the system!
No joke. There was my life before this video and now my life afterwards. This video led me down a path that has transformed my study habits. I used to have to set an alarm so I could regularly take breaks from studying. Now I find it gains a momentum of its own and I continue to study well past my alloted time. Thank you so much for putting this together for me!
I am NOT an academic by any means, but I am researching ways to embark on the journey of going to university. that means I need to know how to learn, take notes and be an academic. I read the comments so I know if im getting close, so thanks!
What a great update. It's fantastic to read your post and read the positive change this video made in your life. I'm going down this road myself and I'm grateful to see how uplifting this whole "knowledge managment" community is.
As someone suffering from severe short term memory issues due to ADHD, systems like that are pure gold for self organization. Thank you for sharing your approach with us!
Honestly, we all have fallible memories! But this system has helped me so much, especially when I'm literally sitting at my computer and I can just search something in my personal system!
@@morganeua True, though I bet most people don´t get up in the morning and find their phone in the refrigerator. 😅 The search function is so super powerful, I´m writing a book right now, the fact alone you can just type the name of a character and see *all* interactions within the chapter is insane. Put a character development flow chart on it and you´ll never lose track again of who did what and why!
Me too @Mightydoggo. I think this system would be amazing for my ADHD. I hope I’d be disciplined enough to make notes! But considering I have a whole lot of disorganised notebooks - I’m curious to learn more to see if it works with the way my brain naturally functions & helps my short-term memory.
After a number of years of answering questions on Quora, I quit for reasons that aren't important, but I downloaded all the answers I had written, which amounted to thousands of pages. As I was reading some of them, I surprised myself. It was like reading something someone else had written. That happened a number of times and I realized I was losing important insights in the disorganized warehouse of my brain. Since then, I've been experimenting with different methods with some success, but I was blown away that there is actually a system that hyperlinks through the brain. It's kind of embarrassing that I've never heard of the Zettelkasten method until I saw your video. Thanks again for sharing...
Thank you so much for making this video!! I have ADHD. When writing a paper, I tend to get bogged down by the sheer number of ideas that pop into my head. I’ve tried many other note taking techniques but this is the only method that brings to light how ideas are interconnected, an important stepping stone towards achieving a coherently organised essay.
do you take Adderall ? I had the SAME issue as you, it's hard to describe what actually have bad adult adhd is like, but it can be debilitating and a detriment to your efficiency and even your direct mood & motivation. I started Adderall xr, you just take it in the morning, and it can really assist with getting back to that 'normal' level of motivation and focus. additionally if you have adhd, I found that the stimulants actually have no 'euphoric' effect and primarily integrate to change your flow and has virtually no direct affect on anything else (other than if you have pre-existing severe heart problems)
@@HiiImChris I have tried Adderall but found better results with Ritalin. As I’ve grown older (in my mid 30s now) I’ve become a lot better at managing myself and also standing up for myself. So I have been able to go med free :)
THANK YOU. I was overwhelmed with my PhD lit review and I thought I couldn't do it anymore. So I stopped studying for half a year. After watching your video, I have restarted my PhD journey today. I can't thank you enough. I feel like I can do this. Thank you thank you thank you.
That is wonderful. I've totally been there. There have been months and months where I have made no progress on my PhD because it's intimidating or I don't know how to move forward or whatever. But the zettelkasten has totally helped me, too! It does a lot of the work that our brains were never meant to be able to do alone :)
I am absolutely floored by the usefulness of this video. This is so beyond brilliant, I REALLY wish it had been advised to me earlier in my academic career. Wow.
I cannot express to what extent you have simplified my academic life just now. I have been taking handwritten and digital notes, and either find myself re-writing thoughts or just having pretty useless organization tactics. I love this. A million thanks!
"Everything is Knowledge!" That is powerful. Regardless of where you are in your brain filling journey, never stop learning and never stop wanting to be proven wrong because at that moment, you are learning something new. And it allows us to open to a conversation of understanding one another rather than wanting to just be right (Winning improperly). Love this content!
I'd like to say a massive thank you for making this video. I am a final year plant science PhD student, and I have come to the point where I can see the thesis on my horizon. I have been completely freaking out about coming to writing and the fact that most of the things I've read throughout the PhD have slid out of my brain as I've gone along... I also spend the majority of my time in a lab, so reading papers is not something I have masses of time to do. I am now coming to look deeply at the literature surrounding my project again (after my first-year literature review), and I was searching for a method to store the things I read and notes I take on the literature better. This video is the one that pointed me towards the Zettelkasten system and Obsidian, and it has been so wonderful to bring this into my workflow. It feels like my time reading is now no longer pointless because I can actually capture the knowledge and not lose it in old notebooks/paper highlights/the leaky corners of my brain. Thank you so much for taking the time to make this video; you have genuinely helped a lot of people relieve stress in their life as well as do better research and science (which is hopefully good for everyone).
Yeah, I am so grateful that information no longer slides out of my brain into nothing. Now I have somewhere for it to slide into! It's great! I always feel like the most knowledgeable person in a zoom call because I just do a quick search in my Zettelkasten for bits of information! 😂 I'm glad I've been able to introduce zettelkasten to so many people!
Hey, just wanted to say a year later this saved my studies! I've been struggling with zettelkasten for a while now and watched a ton of videos, but yours made it by far the easiest and most understandable!! Thank you so much!!
This is such a succinct and clear overview of this system - thank you! I’ve been wondering if I should try it out, the concept has been very fuzzy to me, but now it’s clear it’s not the right fit for how I think - but obviously amazing for many others! Thanks again.
Systemet kanske kan användas till att istället för att skriva låttexter, ”utveckla” texter. Tror nog däremot att jag isf skulle skapa en separat för musikrelaterade idéer (även om det går emot grundprincipen att allt ska vara på samma ställe). Kul att se dig här iaf 💛
This was the most useful introduction to the ZK method I've seen, among many many books and blog posts. Everyone else seems self-conscious about sharing their actual notes, but seeing your thought process in action makes it incredibly intuitive. Not only that, but your specific examples show you're a deep and intelligent individual. Thank you so much!
This is good stuff! Thanks for making and sharing the video. Something I’ve recently started using is “transclusion”. In the kohn-1993 where your [[grades-inhibit]] link is, just add ! before, and the content of that note will be visible in the kohn-1993 note. You can also using the caret ^ to select just a paragraph, or # to select a heading. So, ![[grades-inhibit^]] and when you type the caret, you’ll see a list of paragraphs you can transclude. This was really helpful to me, and solved the problem of needing text to be in more than one place at once, but not being different copies to maintain. Anyway, this comment is way longer than I expected. Looking forward to more videos!
@JohnJohnson thanks so much for this comment. Have been searching for awhile for this "transclusion" idea because I want to reuse a given piece of content in multiple places, but couldn't figure out how. This is tremendous. thank you.
This is amazing. I made the same connection one day when I was high with my friend. As the conversation was going I noticed that whenever she started a new top, in my head, I created a “new bubble” for that topic. Till this day I remember everything we talked about. That’s doesn’t even happen when I’m sober. I knew I should start noting taking, even having conversations in this way. I guess I just needed to see this video to tell me that that is literally the correct way to view and accept information. It’s exactly how the brain works. It makes connections.
Umberto Eco in "How to Write a Thesis" recommends starting a paper with what is usually done last, that is an outline with the names of all the chapters and subchapters as well as the paper's title. This is meant to be flexible and tentative in nature. Chapter order might change, some chapters renamed or disappear altogether, while in the paper's development the need for new chapters and subchapters become evident. Eco emphasized the importance of having a clear idea at all times of the paper's structure. I believe that using the Zettelkasten method for each subchapter rather than for the whole paper would make the whole process more efficient - cutting a steak into bite-size pieces makes eating it easier than eating it whole.
Modern PhD theses (at least in my field, biology) are composites of research papers that are already published, submitted, or almost ready to submit. The introduction or synthesis chapter that introduces the thesis would need an outline such as this, but once one has the three or four "chapters" (research papers) done, this almost writes itself. With such a thesis, you write one paper at a time, starting with the first one with good data completed. Start each chapter/paper by writing the Methods--that helps you get into a writing flow, and captures details of the Methods that must be included before you have forgotten them.
I am in my 2nd year of my 2nd bachelor degree and am full of regrets because I wish I'd found out about Obsidian and the Zettelkasten method earlier. So many books, papers and ideas that I could have efficiently pinpointed down in the past years.. but better late than never. Ever since I switched some time ago, I have been loving the mix of efficiency and creativity that comes with the process so much so that I now actually enjoy taking notes instead of experiencing it as a forceful and constrictive activity.
Thank you! I discovered it yesterday and downloaded it and this has helped me enormously to understand it. At 64 I am about to start a Psychology degree and this is going to be enormously helpful :)
I don't usually leave comments on videos, but I had to take a moment to thank you for this one. As a first-year university student, I'm faced with an overwhelming amount of information to retain and Notion isn't keeping up with that. This kind of system is precisely what I need so I'm moving all my academic notes to Obsidian!
You have renewed my hope that my writing will become an enjoyable hobby once more. I rarely subscribe to anyone's youtube feed, and almost never at the first encounter with a creator's content, but I subscribed only a few minutes into your video. Thankyou for your altruism in sharing this approach.
Thanks for your interest, I hope that zettelkasten will reinvigorate your love of writing! This is great encouragement for me to keep making content like this :) I'm so happy to be helping people in this way!
This is one of the best, most cogent videos I've ever seen on the topic of creating a Zettelkasten. I finished my MA in literature, and I'm planning on pursuing a PhD-this type of video is so invaluable. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Thanks for your replies on both of my recent videos! Exciting times - a PhD also in literature? I'd love to brainstorm more solutions to PhD specific note-taking problems!
@@morganeua Yes, that's the plan! It's my pleasure; thank you so much for creating such brilliant content. I'm always happy to contribute (or at least participate) in any discussion regarding notes in academia. I'm teaching at a university currently, and I'm surprised to find the overall lack of knowledge management in my former professors' workflows LOL.
Love this! As a physician-in-training, I juggle so many sources of knowledge flying at me from clinics, papers, books, etc, etc, that I've been trying to really build a better system for myself so I can stay on top of the latest evidence. Looking forward to more!
This video has been a real slow burn for me for about 6 months. I completely committed myself to developing my Zettelkasten about a week ago. I'm really pleased with how well it centers my thinking. I'm especially excited because I know I'm only beginning to see the results. Thanks a lot for posting this video. It's helped me a lot.
This is the single most helpful video I’ve watched on Obsidian, and I’ve watched hundreds. There is no shortage of intelligent people on RUclips trying to explain how to use Obsidian. You are at the top of the tree. I was trying to find and explanation on how to link references sources and this is the best system I have seen so far. Thank you for sharing your system, and not making it overly complicated. Much appreciated.
I am trying to find a way for my daughter (in year 9) to improve her learning process and I was thinking mind maps were the answer - she gets them. This is mind maps on steroids, mirroring the way our brain works holographically to connect ideas into a schema that we can apply to life. Great video, thanks mate and good luck with your PhD - also it looks cold outside your window there!
Just remember one thing, anything that is based on false info is useless, no matter how good it is organized. At 9 old, teach her to recognize BS and lies. That is more worthy than how to organize info.
@@spacebar9733 School is good to learn a broad base, but if you want to give her some deeper knowledge, then parent showing is invaluable. And learning what is bullocks and what is actually valuable is invaluable to learn. Like "If it looks too good to be true, it probably is just that."
Living in Bielefeld, Germany where Niklas Luhmann was the founding Professor of Sociology from 1969 to 1993 We had an exhibition of his Zettelkasten (slip boxes) at our Museum of Modern Art it was part of an exhibition entitled "Serendipity" It was interesting to see a selection of his hand written notes and the links he made with his index cards. I would call it his "external brain" We are also going to have one of our new trams named after him too.
@@v0id_d3m0n I believe that Tiago Forte wrote a book entitled "Building a Second Brain" (the correct name of which I checked on my own Zettelkasten!) which is where the modern use of the term 'second brain' is derived from.
I like that you mention this is useful beyond just writing essays. If our goal is to become lifelong learners and teachers, this can become a way to aid in that process outside of the university context. The field I work in is a sort of medium ground between the university and real-world context, and up to this point I've been using a set of increasingly messy Google Docs, so I think I'll give this a shot!
I have been dealing with zettelkasten for one and a half years now and I really like your video. It is well balanced. Just the right amount of theoretical background and straight forward and practical workflow for beginners.
I have watched so many videos regarding this note taking method, and yours is by far the easiest to understand and implement! I finally feel like this is doable. Thank you so much.
Dear Melissa, There is a moment she realizes the need is not note taking content and Apps. She realizes that it is "knowledge management" that we desperately need not note taking App, she says. She was absolutely right.
Thanks! I'm a senior developer using obsidian for my work. It's cool to see a different way of using the system. I'm using the system more to keep on top of the things that I'm doing rather than keeping track of the things I've learned which is your primary goal... I'd like to dump one tip that was invaluable to me. There's a Calendar plugin by Liam Cain which allows you to make notes for days. This compared with todo checkboxes is very useful to keep daily diaries and logs of what you're doing and what you're supposed to be doing. You can link these daily logs to notes in the rest of your system. Usually I'm juggling about 20 tasks a day if I didn't have this system I'd be completely lost.
So even though your use-case might be different, you're basically doing the same thing as her but with timestamps for all your entries into the system. Is that the idea behind your approach?
@zachem66 obsidian is a tool and like any tool the way you use it is limited to its design, so in that way yes I'm doing the same things. And things have progessed quite a bit since I posted this message 11 months ago. Right now, basically I'm keeping files that are topics I need to keep track of, this customers implementation, that overarching goal. Getting all the worked hours together. And I'm using dataview to query these files into overview pages. I create new documents with QuickAdd and maintain a log of the time I spend on things also with QuickAdd. Timestamps are a part of it, but more than that it's a list of active topics and todo checkboxes inside those topics. When all todos in a topic are done they move to another list until I archive them when they vanish. Meetings with different parties are also added in quickadd, and dataview shows a list of the previous meeting on top, so when I'm in a meeting I can quickly open the previous conversations notes, also the todo's that came from it and which I've done. Obsidian really is an awesome system. It's very flexible, I recommend growing into it, no ones system will be quite like the next persons. And my way of working certainly had about two to three very distinct iterations.
This video has given me a HUGE breakthrough in my academic writing system. I'm a first-year master's student but I want to begin using this system for my own eventual research and dissertation. Thank you SO much for making academic writing more accessible to people.
I've watched a ton of videos about Obsidian, but this one has undoubtedly been the most useful for me. I love how you walk us through your thought process and show a live example, instead of simply throwing out some random theoretical concepts and tips. Thank you!
I truly enjoy joining in all these comprehsensive curated courses out there which do so much to help us with a fun and efficient note taking system, unlocking peak creativity, optimizing our health and wellness, forgiveness and meditation, avoiding vulnerability in the workplace, getting more done in less time, even if we've haven't had enough restful sleep or a healthy nutritional breakfast because in the typical workplace these days, you're expected to get online early and start signing and returning documents, renaming all files in folders, and have them all done well in advance of COB (whatever that is anymore). Fortunately, many of these courses are brown bag lunch and learn events, which allow us to grab a sandwich while while we learn more from the life lessons learned by the host. Thank you doc, for caring and sharing and helping us to LEARN MORE.
Wow, when YT surfaced this video for me, apparently they knew exactly what I needed. Thank you so much for putting this together! I'm in a masters program right now and this method is about to change everything. Currently I'm using Notion, but I have no idea if the back linking feature works in that program. Have you tried it?
There IS a way to do it, yes. I had a friend using Notion for this, but I converted her to Obsidian :P I'm certain there's yt videos from people doing the zettelkasten system in Notion - the core principles I suggest here will still be relevant - but I don't know the ins and outs of Notion, myself!
I found it hard to make connections in Notion. I would have to add properties for a ‘topic’ to each page of notes in a database and it didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me. Also the fact Notion is an online platform makes navigation sluggish. Morgan’s method here has been revolutionary for me.
I'm new to Obsidian powers (haha) but I've read that Notion is better for storing structured ideas while Obsidian is better for creating them. Does it sound right?
I realise I have been slowly (and accidently) heading towards this method the closer I get to finishing my masters. I had been pasting quotes from literature into a table in a word document, and using bookmarks to sort them into ideas. This zettelkasten is of course is a much better and more intuitive system and I'm so glad I found this video - I will be using this system for my dissertation for sure.
I really like the idea of a system that instead of becoming more chaotic the more you put into it it becomes more powerful, more useful. Maybe a bit of a pain to actually put in all the connections, I think an AI powered feature to "Suggest" what you may want to connect with what would be super cool.
Definitely a very useful feature and I can see that as a future monrtization feature for Obsidian, since they will need to add more premium features to be able to keep funding development in the long run.
Thank's for this enlighten introduction of Zettelkasten system. I'm a 23 years old pregrade mexican student that was looking for better ways to organice all the information that I've achieve in a buch of notebooks. This is life changing.
Thank you for this! All the other Obsidian/zettelkasten videos I saw were for computer science/STEM PhDs and it is so helpful to hear how to use the system for arts and humanities research ❤
Ya! I honestly don't even understand how you would use it for a STEM PhD. I'm sure it's absolutely great, but so out of my wheelhouse :P And it just works so well for writing-based research!
@@morganeua that's where the live markdown preview really comes into play - mermaid for diagrams and the math and code blocks are _amazing_ . Also, the links are so useful for documenting code and when learning programming languages. Great all-round tool for notes and learning.
I really appreciate you making this video. The explanation was clear and the demonstration was to the point. Looking forward to more videos on how you apply zattelkasten in obsidian.
Please, do not delete this video, like EVER. I just love how you explain everything so well! Even tho I am doing obsidian and zettle for a few months now, I come back to your video for reference and guidance a lot. Thank you for sharing your knowledge, Morgan
WOW ! Thank you Morgan for the "world's best note taking" !!! ✌ My humble suggestion is you should offer a step by step course with a series of videos for us note taking student to practice your system. I am sure ALL OF US would be happy to pay for this because you creating something so powerful for school, work, creative thinking, writing a book etc. etc. Once again many thanks for your breakthrough about note taking !!!! 🙏
The best way I've found of organising large amounts of notes, quotes and written thoughts while reading is using qualitative data analysis software such as NVivo or RQDA. Personal wikis with multi-tagged pages such as TiddlyWiki are also very handy.
I have been searching for a video to help me feel prepared, capable, and (dare I say) excited about starting my graduate program in the fall and note taking has been a huge stressor- this video was exactly what I needed. Thank you!!
One of those times you think “universe or algorithm?” 😂 Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and experience with that process! I struggle a lot trying to reference mental connections and when I write it down, it’s easy to get lost sometimes
WOW! That's amazing. I came here after looking at a piece of software called Obsidian. I use Obsidian to look at the structure of existing database projects so I can ascertain whether something is worth normalisation, but you've opened my eyes to new possibilities now. You've absolutely sold Zettelkasten to me. Thank-you so much.
Let me know if you run into problems and maybe I can offer suggestions! Or if you find cool ways of doing things cause I'm always looking for ways to do this better! ☺️
Thank you for introducing Obsidian to me! I'm a (struggling) writer, and I've gotten to the point where I have characters appearing in multiple stories and a linear note taking app was no longer as good for keeping things consistent. Obsidian looks like the perfect solution, and is even lower-friction than the mind-mapping app I was using previously. I also really like that you introduced the tool along with a methodology that works with it, I think this really gives a new Obsidian user a jump start. Thanks!
If you're a writer, you should check out programs like Campfire. They work on the same principle of interconnected notes, but are built specifically for storys, settings and characters. They give you certain templates, e.g. character sheets and timelines, and features such as picture integration. I use obsidian for notetaking, but campfire for DMing a role-playing game and enjoy the specific advantages for each!
Hi, you've enhanced my life! For years I've been taking notes in Evernote, OneNote, my own GTD based note taking sheet, but always ran into problems. After a while it's a mess of categories, tags, books and countless pages that hinders finding information and something that definitely doesn't induce thoughts or ideas. A few days ago RUclips suggested your video. I'm so glad I watched it. I've bought and read the book How to take smart Notes by Sonke Ahrens (a must read for anyone taking notes!) and started with Obsidian. I already feel this way of working fits me, I can't wait to see my external brain grow :) And also, I love gamification and motivational drivers. So when you held up Punished by Rewards you introduced a second book I immediately bought! In short, thanks so much for your video! Informative and life changing!
I ran into a lot of the same issue on Evernote. I Started using tags as Zettelkasten styled link backs rather than organization. I used Categories in ever note as more of a "focus" point. I find Obsidian to be really great, as it saves things locally, and when I am working on a corporate machine, I do not necessarily want my personal note bucket being accessed by the machine, nor do I want corporate property in my Evernote. Obsidian can be a bit heavy handed and not as straight forwardly manageable as evernote. Obsidian also does not have as much note capture as evernote does. I ended up using both for different reasons. Knowledge management, obsidian. Note taking and personal management (on the go, I work on several computers, devices, and odd locations) I use evernote. I found that a mix of these tools really helped me capture the different stages and the note to knowledge lifecycle (I see it as a truly iterative life cycle. Knowledge and understand is a cycle. Always liquid, always moving.) Different tools work better for different domains, and different stages. /ramble
I’ve always made some attempt at this but could never find the right “sauce” at making these useful. What finally clicked here was your simple approach. I always made it too complicated, too structured. Once I started simplifying my notes not only did my process improve but so did my comprehension. Thank you for sharing.
Ah this is cool! I took a qualitiative research course a few years ago and we used the "coding" method to write a major research paper. It's essentially very similar, coming up with themes or "codes" which are recurrent, prevalent ideas in the quantitative data and then using those to start linking the ideas together for the paper. I had no idea there was a digital tool to do it! You should've seen my ridiculously complex excel spreadsheet 😭 I love your thoughts about making note taking more holistic and dynamic, rather than a redusive, task-like process. I've been struggling with note taking lately because I find it overwhelming and boring haha This got my thinking about how I want to change my process!
I have been taking notes in Obsidian for two years. I have 4000+ taken. Consider using templates and aliases. I have found them to make knowledge management even better. For example, you can use the citation name for a book but give the article an alias to the book title and reference both in your note taking.
I Love how articulate and smooth you are in conveying your thoughts but I would be much happier to see the totally ineffective idea of note-taking vanish from this world. It's painful and temporary. We need to end memory-based education rather we need to help students and professionals sharpen their attention. The brain already stores everything you read or do. Attention is what we need to bring out of the subconscious. I used to take notes a lot but never would I go back to consult them. So, I stopped piling up bundles of papers. Now, I make sure I am fully attentive while learning. Whatever I do, I pour my heart into it, whether reading a book or writing a paper. That is how I never forget what I do. Thank you for such an amazing video!
Completely on board with your thoughts about students being dismissed - to the point that they dismiss their own worth and work. As an adjunct at several unis over the years, I've seen many students struggle to take their own work seriously. I believe it's because our typical K-12 teaches them - not intentionally but through the experience - that their work is disposable and exists purely for grading. Logic would say, then, that the more meaningful and real-world we can make schoolwork, the more students will value their own work because they can see actual value in it. It's not busy work but a legitimate contribution to something larger (e.g. service learning). But mainly I'm here to learn about Obsidian! ;-)
Thank you so much for this video! It was eye-opening. I'm a fifth-year PhD student myself and I always wanted to create a Zettelkasten. A few years ago, I looked into it, but only found commercial systems and wasn't really happy with that. About 4 weeks ago your video randomly showed up in my recommendations and I was so intrigued that I downloaded Obsidian on the spot. This has changed my life! Since, I've transferred all my word documents that I used to write interesting ideas down on to obsidian and broke my manuscripts down to thoughts to feed them in. It is so satisfying to see different areas of knowledge grow and relate to one another! Initially i was unsure if it was worth the while, but I already benefited a bit from it in conversations and small presentations. I am now much more confident I will actually finish my PhD one day and I am currently preparing a presentation for my work group on the subject of knowledge management. All thanks to your video! =)
The best, most concise demonstration of how to write a note and connect it to other notes in Obsidian! Thank you so much for the video, this is exactly what I needed after so many overcomplicated explanations.
THIS IS WHAT I WAS LOOKING FOR!!!!!!!!!! Recently I realized that I was only reading but never remember what I have read! Thank you so much for sharing this kind of information!
I just *finished* my dissertation, and I don't yet know exactly what I'm going to do with this information, but your opening lines about how you were lost looking at note-taking solutions when what you really wanted was some method for knowledge-management really ring true for me and a lot of the ideas and framing you've provided here feel like what I've been looking for. Thanks so much for making this. Wish I'd had this vid earlier, honestly!
Your video is AMAZING. There isn't any single video like this in Spanish. I'm sure of that, I searched and failed today all day long 🤣🤣 Your process is exactly I was searching for, since I'm a user of Obsidian for 2 months. I hope my thesis for Bachelor's degree will be successful and I'll make a video about my experience and the knowledge this video brings me right now. Thanks a lot, I owe you a coffee 🙌🙌
Your video is amazing! I clicked on it out of curiosity, and my mind is blown. You did an excellent job explaining a complex subject in a concise, easy to follow, manner. I’m going to internalize the principles and dive into the rabbit hole. Thank you for sharing!
Thank you so much for providing us with so many ideas and thoughts. To be honest I accidentally jumped in your RUclips video in the aim of finding some English learning material but I have been totally amazed by how effectively you organise your words having your own ideas behind and on top of that, you are so generous to share your ideas with us. Your video gives me tremendous hints that I could never come up with by myself. Thank you. As I am currently in a practice of writing English diaries, I can definitely classify my thoughts through my own phrases more effectively to find out what I can do with the next. Thank you for your generosity.
Thanks for the overview of the Zettelkasten method, as well as pointing out Obsidian, I'm going to be looking into both. Also, I would certainly be interested in more videos on knowledge management! In today's age, where we have Google, and almost all of the knowledge of humanity is at our finger tips anyway, understanding how to best leverage that, and to not be overcome with the sheer volume of it, is perhaps the most important personal development question of our time. For instance, there is effectively an infinite amount of life changing video on RUclips, but there is a line between time where you can effectively consume that content and where you can effectively implement and integrate the knowledge found. There are risks with venturing too far to either side of that line. Too far into the information gathering side, and you don't have time to implement and/or produce anything. Too far into the integration/implementation side, and you become increasingly disconnected from the ever accelerating developments around you.
Thank you so much for this. I've studied Luhmann but was unaware of the Zettelkasten system. I had improvised my own tag and reference notebook system but it's been insufficiently referential. This will be a huge research help. It's fascinating looking at who all used variants of this approach per the Wikipedia entry. Luhmann's debate rival Friedrich Kittler, whom I studied with in his very last class, was also a practitioner of the method.
Fourth year student in psychology PhD program here. A couple thoughts. First, fantastic overview, thank you, this system looks amazing... I'm motivated to learn more! While I wish I knew of this sooner -mostly done with classes at this point- but like you said, may be very helpful for dissertation. Second, I'm wondering about pulling the notes in our own words directly out of the saved notes and connections and dropping them into the paper as you spoke about at the end of video. Love the idea of the writing already done, but I think I will run into the issue of self-plagiarism at some point, since many research topics for papers have overlap across classes. That said, I can see it working best for dissertation, since it's often a giant research paper diving into one specific area. Really appreciate you sharing this!
@@leannesampson3199 yes if it’s something you’ve published… if you’re taking it word-for-word and publishing it again, you’re plagiarizing yourself lol
I love this. Been writing my undergrad thesis for a little over a year now, and by far the most challenging part has been remembering the things I read months ago and using them where I originally planned it. Thank you so much for the video!
I love videos on note-taking systems and this video has been appearing in my YT recommendations for at least two months! Today I decided to give it a try. Good surprise I had! You speak so well and your voice is so pleasant I didn't get bored as you were showing us your way of taking notes with Obsidian. Great work! And thanks for sharing your system! 😊
Hey! Thanks for showing off your Obsidian setup. I'm mostly a Notion user, but am considering switching to Obsidian for my Zettelkasten because it seems to be built more for this purpose. Also, I'm really digging the topic you used as an example. Really helpful video!
After 12:44 I started crying. I have Adhd and when you described how obsidian works it sounded like you were describing me. And now whilst showing the technicalities on how you set it up, the content of the work you are setting up is so emotionally relevant to me. Yes, I never felt like it is me acting, but me being acted, the teacher acting through me. Like I am dehumanized in the school system to an instrument of vicious projections. And it's not on the teachers and profs, they aren't at fault. Because I met teachers that didn't want to grade, but still were forced to. It's a systemical error and it needs systemical change
You are actually who introduced me this wonderful tool called Obsidian. I've watched this video many times; as someone who struggles with organizing notes and thoughts, this has been such a game changer. Thank you so much! Can't show my appreciation enough.
I’ve seen so many videos on zettlekasten, on obsidian, and taking digital notes for paper copy books, but this one is just the best walkthrough of a easy to follow workflow! Great job!
Would love to see an adaptation of this methodology that applies text embeddings or something to help automate the process linking between notes and creating a knowledge graph.
Might attempt to make an obsidian plugin for this or a standalone program if I get the motivation to. In case anyone else wants to beat me to it I think a simple starter approach that could work decently would involve getting embeddings for every note (I’d use openai’s embeddings api), calculating cosine similarity, and then thresholding based off of the result. Any notes above some threshold would then be linked to eachother. I am not well versed in semantic search methods so there could be an obvious better answer but this is what I’m thinking. You could also automate titling these notes with gpt3 and then you only need to write notes and nothing else.
really good, very clear and straight forward explanation. I'm glad the system is working for you. I'm not an academic but i'm guilty of having scores of scraps and notebooks littering my home. So I definitely feel the need to use Zettlekasten to connect the dots... :P Good luck with your dissertation! Greetings from Northern Ireland.
This was brilliant, I am unfortunately not longer studying at Uni (had to drop out for personal reasons), but I love learning and studying and especially learning about new ways to study as I have ADHD and its hard to one stay focused and two remember everything. This sounds exciting so I am definitely going to give it a go! Also Obsidian looks amazing and it's free!?!? Did not expect that.
First, I love this content! Finally someone who doesn't recycle what we already know, yayyyy! Second: Your voice and clear pronunciation (!) make it so easy to listen to this video. Thanks a lot for the time and the effort :cheer: And --oh no! In now feel like an obsolete wanderer on earth because I have never left a thought in this brilliant way... Obsidian wasn't around back in the day and I honestly feel my academical writing indeed WAS a CHARADE... Whoopsie!
@@morganeua I'm going to want to see that! My only problem is that I take notes in three different languages so I'll have to translate everything into English (that already isn't) but that's also good practice for the brain.
This is the first note taking technique I came across that doesn't sound like torture. I actually even enjoyed creating the first two notes from the book I'm currently reading. Thank you for sharing this!
Hey First, I want to express my gratitude for you making this video, it has been extraordinarily helpful - both your brief but brilliant explanation of obsidian, and your complete note-method. This whole concept is just so cool, in every way! Do you recommend fitting all notes, being of entirely different nature, inside one vault? For example - having seen your "How I Track and Annotate my Reading" - would you keep notes connecting to a paper(/draft) and ones concerning a fiction book in the same vault? I would guess, that, if not linked together, those matters wouldn't interfere (in any way positive or negativ).
Yeah, they wouldn't interfere, but things might get cluttered. Personally, I put everything in the same vault, because the nature of my works means that I never know what connections might emerge between seemingly unrelated things. However, I have started using folders within my vault for different projects (stuff in folders can still connect to stuff outside of them in the same vault). I am considering making a video on how I connect notes on fiction and non-fiction to each other, too! Because I think there's a lot of truths found in fiction :)
Great video, thank you! I have struggled with the endless, Uni-connected note-books. My arts-related PhD demands this kind of approach: I recently stumbled on Obsidian and backtracked to this system. You have brought it to life in m6 domain and resea4ch area. Thank you! Please make more on this topic?
Absolutely! I am overwhelmed by the support on this video and will definitely create more. Next up - how to organize things once you have lots of thought in your zettelkasten!!
Great post-very well organized and easy to follow. I’m in electrical engineering, do you know if there is a zettelkasten system that might work better for technical topics that might have equations?
This is wonderful! I’ve heard of this system before but not from someone who’s doing an arts-related PhD like me (literature). How long does it generally take you to input all your fleeting notes to Obsidian? Sorry if this question has already been asked!
Hi Morgan! I have a question: how do you make sure that you remember all the past thoughts that you want to create connections to when add a new thought? Or is just a matter of natural association - so you link it to whichever thoughts you remember to link it to? I just wondered, since there can be sooo many thoughts in a system, how to not forget clusters of them over time, which are actually relevant to something you could be doing. Thanks!
One way is to create "structure notes"/"maps of content" for different overarching ideas. So you can group ideas that way. Also, the more you revisit this notes and review them, the more you will get to know your system and remember what exists and where to find it!
- Core Principles of Taking Notes
1. Write all the time
2. Everything is knowlede
3. Notes are irreducible complete thoughts
4. Knowledge is interconnected
- Take fleeting notes
- While reading a book for example: sticky notes
- Make Permanent Notes
- Obsidian Folder:
- Make Bibliographic Notes
- Transcribinc Fleeting Notes
- Naming Notes
- Forming connections
- Graph View
- Conclusion: Trust the system!
Great note taking 😉
that sounds a lot like word salad
@@tacitus5665 it is
- save 17 minutes reading key points timestamp
Thank for a concise and informative video. your summary and links will be very useful in my note taking.
No joke. There was my life before this video and now my life afterwards. This video led me down a path that has transformed my study habits. I used to have to set an alarm so I could regularly take breaks from studying. Now I find it gains a momentum of its own and I continue to study well past my alloted time. Thank you so much for putting this together for me!
EXACT the same here!
LOL. Obsidian has a Pomodoro plug-in
I can see my grades improving a lot! Thanks for taking the stress out of note taking! 😌😊
I am NOT an academic by any means, but I am researching ways to embark on the journey of going to university. that means I need to know how to learn, take notes and be an academic. I read the comments so I know if im getting close, so thanks!
What a great update. It's fantastic to read your post and read the positive change this video made in your life. I'm going down this road myself and I'm grateful to see how uplifting this whole "knowledge managment" community is.
As someone suffering from severe short term memory issues due to ADHD, systems like that are pure gold for self organization. Thank you for sharing your approach with us!
Honestly, we all have fallible memories! But this system has helped me so much, especially when I'm literally sitting at my computer and I can just search something in my personal system!
@@morganeua True, though I bet most people don´t get up in the morning and find their phone in the refrigerator. 😅
The search function is so super powerful, I´m writing a book right now, the fact alone you can just type the name of a character and see *all* interactions within the chapter is insane. Put a character development flow chart on it and you´ll never lose track again of who did what and why!
@@Mightydoggo "get up in the morning and find their phone in the refrigerator" i've got that problem with my Coffee all day ^^
@@morganeua Your clarity is awesome and I cant wait to implement these principles
Me too @Mightydoggo. I think this system would be amazing for my ADHD. I hope I’d be disciplined enough to make notes! But considering I have a whole lot of disorganised notebooks - I’m curious to learn more to see if it works with the way my brain naturally functions & helps my short-term memory.
This is probably the most concise and effective video on how to create a zettelkasten without overcomplicating the process. Well done!
I love German. I only speak about 10 words, but the ones I know always describe aspects of human experience that no other language even touches.
After a number of years of answering questions on Quora, I quit for reasons that aren't important, but I downloaded all the answers I had written, which amounted to thousands of pages. As I was reading some of them, I surprised myself. It was like reading something someone else had written. That happened a number of times and I realized I was losing important insights in the disorganized warehouse of my brain. Since then, I've been experimenting with different methods with some success, but I was blown away that there is actually a system that hyperlinks through the brain. It's kind of embarrassing that I've never heard of the Zettelkasten method until I saw your video. Thanks again for sharing...
The same happened to me while revising some answers I gave on Stack Exchange. Apparently I was a smart fella some time ago...
Thank you so much for making this video!! I have ADHD. When writing a paper, I tend to get bogged down by the sheer number of ideas that pop into my head. I’ve tried many other note taking techniques but this is the only method that brings to light how ideas are interconnected, an important stepping stone towards achieving a coherently organised essay.
do you take Adderall ? I had the SAME issue as you, it's hard to describe what actually have bad adult adhd is like, but it can be debilitating and a detriment to your efficiency and even your direct mood & motivation. I started Adderall xr, you just take it in the morning, and it can really assist with getting back to that 'normal' level of motivation and focus. additionally if you have adhd, I found that the stimulants actually have no 'euphoric' effect and primarily integrate to change your flow and has virtually no direct affect on anything else (other than if you have pre-existing severe heart problems)
@@HiiImChris I have tried Adderall but found better results with Ritalin. As I’ve grown older (in my mid 30s now) I’ve become a lot better at managing myself and also standing up for myself. So I have been able to go med free :)
I relate with you. I have ADHD
I wasn't going to watch this video but because of this comment I will now.
OMG. I totally relate to it.
THANK YOU. I was overwhelmed with my PhD lit review and I thought I couldn't do it anymore. So I stopped studying for half a year. After watching your video, I have restarted my PhD journey today. I can't thank you enough. I feel like I can do this. Thank you thank you thank you.
That is wonderful. I've totally been there. There have been months and months where I have made no progress on my PhD because it's intimidating or I don't know how to move forward or whatever. But the zettelkasten has totally helped me, too! It does a lot of the work that our brains were never meant to be able to do alone :)
I am absolutely floored by the usefulness of this video. This is so beyond brilliant, I REALLY wish it had been advised to me earlier in my academic career. Wow.
Right? Me too! I wish I had gotten ANY advising about knowledge management prior to starting my PhD!
I cannot express to what extent you have simplified my academic life just now. I have been taking handwritten and digital notes, and either find myself re-writing thoughts or just having pretty useless organization tactics. I love this. A million thanks!
"Everything is Knowledge!"
That is powerful. Regardless of where you are in your brain filling journey, never stop learning and never stop wanting to be proven wrong because at that moment, you are learning something new. And it allows us to open to a conversation of understanding one another rather than wanting to just be right (Winning improperly). Love this content!
Your a cyber criminal
As a german, it took me half the video and the explanation of how the original worked to notice that zettelkasten is german 😂
Kein Problem, es ist nicht zu spät deinen Pass zurück zu geben ;)
I'd like to say a massive thank you for making this video. I am a final year plant science PhD student, and I have come to the point where I can see the thesis on my horizon. I have been completely freaking out about coming to writing and the fact that most of the things I've read throughout the PhD have slid out of my brain as I've gone along... I also spend the majority of my time in a lab, so reading papers is not something I have masses of time to do. I am now coming to look deeply at the literature surrounding my project again (after my first-year literature review), and I was searching for a method to store the things I read and notes I take on the literature better. This video is the one that pointed me towards the Zettelkasten system and Obsidian, and it has been so wonderful to bring this into my workflow. It feels like my time reading is now no longer pointless because I can actually capture the knowledge and not lose it in old notebooks/paper highlights/the leaky corners of my brain. Thank you so much for taking the time to make this video; you have genuinely helped a lot of people relieve stress in their life as well as do better research and science (which is hopefully good for everyone).
Yeah, I am so grateful that information no longer slides out of my brain into nothing. Now I have somewhere for it to slide into! It's great! I always feel like the most knowledgeable person in a zoom call because I just do a quick search in my Zettelkasten for bits of information! 😂 I'm glad I've been able to introduce zettelkasten to so many people!
Not if it’s intellectual property
I was hooked when you said "Knowledge Management System." Yes, and thank you for the tutorial.
This is the *best* introduction to Zettelkasten I've seen. The short practical example makes all the difference. Thanks for sharing!
Hey, just wanted to say a year later this saved my studies! I've been struggling with zettelkasten for a while now and watched a ton of videos, but yours made it by far the easiest and most understandable!! Thank you so much!!
This is such a succinct and clear overview of this system - thank you! I’ve been wondering if I should try it out, the concept has been very fuzzy to me, but now it’s clear it’s not the right fit for how I think - but obviously amazing for many others! Thanks again.
It certainly was interesting, but also not for me. I think more linearly and this felt more like a mind map style which I dont follow easily.
A channel with 7.5m subscribers, but with only 3 likes? Damn...
Systemet kanske kan användas till att istället för att skriva låttexter, ”utveckla” texter. Tror nog däremot att jag isf skulle skapa en separat för musikrelaterade idéer (även om det går emot grundprincipen att allt ska vara på samma ställe).
Kul att se dig här iaf 💛
This was the most useful introduction to the ZK method I've seen, among many many books and blog posts. Everyone else seems self-conscious about sharing their actual notes, but seeing your thought process in action makes it incredibly intuitive. Not only that, but your specific examples show you're a deep and intelligent individual. Thank you so much!
This is good stuff!
Thanks for making and sharing the video.
Something I’ve recently started using is “transclusion”.
In the kohn-1993 where your [[grades-inhibit]] link is, just add ! before, and the content of that note will be visible in the kohn-1993 note. You can also using the caret ^ to select just a paragraph, or # to select a heading. So, ![[grades-inhibit^]] and when you type the caret, you’ll see a list of paragraphs you can transclude.
This was really helpful to me, and solved the problem of needing text to be in more than one place at once, but not being different copies to maintain.
Anyway, this comment is way longer than I expected.
Looking forward to more videos!
Wonderful! I love this, thank you, I will give it a go!
@JohnJohnson thanks so much for this comment. Have been searching for awhile for this "transclusion" idea because I want to reuse a given piece of content in multiple places, but couldn't figure out how. This is tremendous. thank you.
Thank you - this immediately enhances the quality of my notes.
Thank you so much for this, complete gamechanger in the workflow of my notes
Thanks for explaining this transclusion idea clearly! I am going to make a note about this right now!
This is amazing. I made the same connection one day when I was high with my friend. As the conversation was going I noticed that whenever she started a new top, in my head, I created a “new bubble” for that topic. Till this day I remember everything we talked about. That’s doesn’t even happen when I’m sober. I knew I should start noting taking, even having conversations in this way. I guess I just needed to see this video to tell me that that is literally the correct way to view and accept information. It’s exactly how the brain works. It makes connections.
I’m a senior and believe its never too late to study. OMG I wish I had found this years ago. THANK YOU!!
Umberto Eco in "How to Write a Thesis" recommends starting a paper with what is usually done last, that is an outline with the names of all the chapters and subchapters as well as the paper's title. This is meant to be flexible and tentative in nature. Chapter order might change, some chapters renamed or disappear altogether, while in the paper's development the need for new chapters and subchapters become evident. Eco emphasized the importance of having a clear idea at all times of the paper's structure.
I believe that using the Zettelkasten method for each subchapter rather than for the whole paper would make the whole process more efficient - cutting a steak into bite-size pieces makes eating it easier than eating it whole.
I love this idea!
How to eat an elephant, one bite at a time. Totally agree
Modern PhD theses (at least in my field, biology) are composites of research papers that are already published, submitted, or almost ready to submit. The introduction or synthesis chapter that introduces the thesis would need an outline such as this, but once one has the three or four "chapters" (research papers) done, this almost writes itself. With such a thesis, you write one paper at a time, starting with the first one with good data completed. Start each chapter/paper by writing the Methods--that helps you get into a writing flow, and captures details of the Methods that must be included before you have forgotten them.
I am in my 2nd year of my 2nd bachelor degree and am full of regrets because I wish I'd found out about Obsidian and the Zettelkasten method earlier. So many books, papers and ideas that I could have efficiently pinpointed down in the past years.. but better late than never. Ever since I switched some time ago, I have been loving the mix of efficiency and creativity that comes with the process so much so that I now actually enjoy taking notes instead of experiencing it as a forceful and constrictive activity.
4:33 "Your knowledge is just a network of interconnected thoughts."
Nice.
Thank you! I discovered it yesterday and downloaded it and this has helped me enormously to understand it. At 64 I am about to start a Psychology degree and this is going to be enormously helpful :)
That's awesome! Congrats on getting into the program and I'm sure you'll do wonderful work!
I don't usually leave comments on videos, but I had to take a moment to thank you for this one. As a first-year university student, I'm faced with an overwhelming amount of information to retain and Notion isn't keeping up with that. This kind of system is precisely what I need so I'm moving all my academic notes to Obsidian!
Wonderful. Thanks for commenting! And best of luck on your notetaking journey, I hope Obsidian is everything you need it to be!
You have renewed my hope that my writing will become an enjoyable hobby once more. I rarely subscribe to anyone's youtube feed, and almost never at the first encounter with a creator's content, but I subscribed only a few minutes into your video. Thankyou for your altruism in sharing this approach.
Thanks for your interest, I hope that zettelkasten will reinvigorate your love of writing! This is great encouragement for me to keep making content like this :) I'm so happy to be helping people in this way!
This is one of the best, most cogent videos I've ever seen on the topic of creating a Zettelkasten. I finished my MA in literature, and I'm planning on pursuing a PhD-this type of video is so invaluable. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Thanks for your replies on both of my recent videos! Exciting times - a PhD also in literature? I'd love to brainstorm more solutions to PhD specific note-taking problems!
@@morganeua Yes, that's the plan! It's my pleasure; thank you so much for creating such brilliant content. I'm always happy to contribute (or at least participate) in any discussion regarding notes in academia. I'm teaching at a university currently, and I'm surprised to find the overall lack of knowledge management in my former professors' workflows LOL.
Love this! As a physician-in-training, I juggle so many sources of knowledge flying at me from clinics, papers, books, etc, etc, that I've been trying to really build a better system for myself so I can stay on top of the latest evidence. Looking forward to more!
This video has been a real slow burn for me for about 6 months. I completely committed myself to developing my Zettelkasten about a week ago. I'm really pleased with how well it centers my thinking. I'm especially excited because I know I'm only beginning to see the results.
Thanks a lot for posting this video. It's helped me a lot.
I'm glad to hear you're starting to see results! It definitely takes a long time. A lifetime, really!
This is the single most helpful video I’ve watched on Obsidian, and I’ve watched hundreds. There is no shortage of intelligent people on RUclips trying to explain how to use Obsidian. You are at the top of the tree. I was trying to find and explanation on how to link references sources and this is the best system I have seen so far. Thank you for sharing your system, and not making it overly complicated. Much appreciated.
I am trying to find a way for my daughter (in year 9) to improve her learning process and I was thinking mind maps were the answer - she gets them. This is mind maps on steroids, mirroring the way our brain works holographically to connect ideas into a schema that we can apply to life. Great video, thanks mate and good luck with your PhD - also it looks cold outside your window there!
Ikr? Holy shit lol, this will make Law school so much easier.
Just remember one thing, anything that is based on false info is useless, no matter how good it is organized. At 9 old, teach her to recognize BS and lies. That is more worthy than how to organize info.
@@ngrey5092 she still has to go to school...
@@spacebar9733 School is good to learn a broad base, but if you want to give her some deeper knowledge, then parent showing is invaluable.
And learning what is bullocks and what is actually valuable is invaluable to learn. Like "If it looks too good to be true, it probably is just that."
@@spacebar9733 school teaches you to recognize bs? That's news to me 😊
A decent chunk of what school taught me was, in fact, bs.
Living in Bielefeld, Germany
where Niklas Luhmann was the founding Professor of Sociology
from 1969 to 1993
We had an exhibition of his Zettelkasten (slip boxes)
at our Museum of Modern Art
it was part of an exhibition entitled "Serendipity"
It was interesting to see a selection of his hand written notes
and the links he made with his index cards.
I would call it his "external brain"
We are also going to have one of our new trams named after him too.
Bielefeld? huh i thought that wasn't real
@@zedbody
So perhaps the Zettelkasten method
is just a psy-op by them LOL
Cool! Yeah I've heard "second brain" a lot!
@@v0id_d3m0n
I believe that Tiago Forte wrote a book entitled
"Building a Second Brain"
(the correct name of which I checked on my own Zettelkasten!)
which is where the modern use of the term 'second brain' is derived from.
I like that you mention this is useful beyond just writing essays. If our goal is to become lifelong learners and teachers, this can become a way to aid in that process outside of the university context. The field I work in is a sort of medium ground between the university and real-world context, and up to this point I've been using a set of increasingly messy Google Docs, so I think I'll give this a shot!
I haven't even finished watching this video. I'm just amazed by your communication skills. You're awesome
I have been dealing with zettelkasten for one and a half years now and I really like your video.
It is well balanced. Just the right amount of theoretical background and straight forward and practical workflow for beginners.
I have watched so many videos regarding this note taking method, and yours is by far the easiest to understand and implement! I finally feel like this is doable. Thank you so much.
Dear Melissa, There is a moment she realizes the need is not note taking content and Apps. She realizes that it is "knowledge management" that we desperately need not note taking App, she says. She was absolutely right.
Thanks!
I'm a senior developer using obsidian for my work. It's cool to see a different way of using the system.
I'm using the system more to keep on top of the things that I'm doing rather than keeping track of the things I've learned which is your primary goal...
I'd like to dump one tip that was invaluable to me. There's a Calendar plugin by Liam Cain which allows you to make notes for days. This compared with todo checkboxes is very useful to keep daily diaries and logs of what you're doing and what you're supposed to be doing. You can link these daily logs to notes in the rest of your system. Usually I'm juggling about 20 tasks a day if I didn't have this system I'd be completely lost.
So even though your use-case might be different, you're basically doing the same thing as her but with timestamps for all your entries into the system. Is that the idea behind your approach?
@zachem66 obsidian is a tool and like any tool the way you use it is limited to its design, so in that way yes I'm doing the same things. And things have progessed quite a bit since I posted this message 11 months ago.
Right now, basically I'm keeping files that are topics I need to keep track of, this customers implementation, that overarching goal. Getting all the worked hours together. And I'm using dataview to query these files into overview pages.
I create new documents with QuickAdd and maintain a log of the time I spend on things also with QuickAdd.
Timestamps are a part of it, but more than that it's a list of active topics and todo checkboxes inside those topics. When all todos in a topic are done they move to another list until I archive them when they vanish.
Meetings with different parties are also added in quickadd, and dataview shows a list of the previous meeting on top, so when I'm in a meeting I can quickly open the previous conversations notes, also the todo's that came from it and which I've done.
Obsidian really is an awesome system. It's very flexible, I recommend growing into it, no ones system will be quite like the next persons. And my way of working certainly had about two to three very distinct iterations.
This video has given me a HUGE breakthrough in my academic writing system. I'm a first-year master's student but I want to begin using this system for my own eventual research and dissertation. Thank you SO much for making academic writing more accessible to people.
I've watched a ton of videos about Obsidian, but this one has undoubtedly been the most useful for me. I love how you walk us through your thought process and show a live example, instead of simply throwing out some random theoretical concepts and tips. Thank you!
I truly enjoy joining in all these comprehsensive curated courses out there which do so much to help us with a fun and efficient note taking system, unlocking peak creativity, optimizing our health and wellness, forgiveness and meditation, avoiding vulnerability in the workplace, getting more done in less time, even if we've haven't had enough restful sleep or a healthy nutritional breakfast because in the typical workplace these days, you're expected to get online early and start signing and returning documents, renaming all files in folders, and have them all done well in advance of COB (whatever that is anymore). Fortunately, many of these courses are brown bag lunch and learn events, which allow us to grab a sandwich while while we learn more from the life lessons learned by the host. Thank you doc, for caring and sharing and helping us to LEARN MORE.
Wow, when YT surfaced this video for me, apparently they knew exactly what I needed. Thank you so much for putting this together! I'm in a masters program right now and this method is about to change everything. Currently I'm using Notion, but I have no idea if the back linking feature works in that program. Have you tried it?
There IS a way to do it, yes. I had a friend using Notion for this, but I converted her to Obsidian :P I'm certain there's yt videos from people doing the zettelkasten system in Notion - the core principles I suggest here will still be relevant - but I don't know the ins and outs of Notion, myself!
I found it hard to make connections in Notion. I would have to add properties for a ‘topic’ to each page of notes in a database and it didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me. Also the fact Notion is an online platform makes navigation sluggish. Morgan’s method here has been revolutionary for me.
OMG HI HEIMLER
Elizabeth Filips has a video called My Second Brain in Notion - Full Setup , from about a year ago that might help?
I'm new to Obsidian powers (haha) but I've read that Notion is better for storing structured ideas while Obsidian is better for creating them. Does it sound right?
I realise I have been slowly (and accidently) heading towards this method the closer I get to finishing my masters. I had been pasting quotes from literature into a table in a word document, and using bookmarks to sort them into ideas. This zettelkasten is of course is a much better and more intuitive system and I'm so glad I found this video - I will be using this system for my dissertation for sure.
I really like the idea of a system that instead of becoming more chaotic the more you put into it it becomes more powerful, more useful.
Maybe a bit of a pain to actually put in all the connections, I think an AI powered feature to "Suggest" what you may want to connect with what would be super cool.
That would be suuuper cool!
Definitely a very useful feature and I can see that as a future monrtization feature for Obsidian, since they will need to add more premium features to be able to keep funding development in the long run.
The Mac program DevonThink does exactly this - it was an awesome feature when I completed my dissertation.
@@johnmickey5017 that looks really interesting, thanks!
This is the most simplified and easiest-to-follow tutorial on zettelkasten and obsidian I can find on the internet. Thank you so much!
Thank's for this enlighten introduction of Zettelkasten system. I'm a 23 years old pregrade mexican student that was looking for better ways to organice all the information that I've achieve in a buch of notebooks. This is life changing.
My favorite part of this video is the "Core Principles of Taking Notes." Love it. I also liked seeing how you marked up your books.
Thank you for this! All the other Obsidian/zettelkasten videos I saw were for computer science/STEM PhDs and it is so helpful to hear how to use the system for arts and humanities research ❤
Ya! I honestly don't even understand how you would use it for a STEM PhD. I'm sure it's absolutely great, but so out of my wheelhouse :P And it just works so well for writing-based research!
@@morganeua that's where the live markdown preview really comes into play - mermaid for diagrams and the math and code blocks are _amazing_ . Also, the links are so useful for documenting code and when learning programming languages. Great all-round tool for notes and learning.
I really appreciate you making this video. The explanation was clear and the demonstration was to the point. Looking forward to more videos on how you apply zattelkasten in obsidian.
Please, do not delete this video, like EVER. I just love how you explain everything so well! Even tho I am doing obsidian and zettle for a few months now, I come back to your video for reference and guidance a lot. Thank you for sharing your knowledge, Morgan
Aw, that's awesome, thanks for commenting :) I don't plan on deleting it! Even if it gets more embarrassing the more time that passes as I change! :P
WOW ! Thank you Morgan for the "world's best note taking" !!! ✌ My humble suggestion is you should offer a step by step course with a series of videos for us note taking student to practice your system. I am sure ALL OF US would be happy to pay for this because you creating something so powerful for school, work, creative thinking, writing a book etc. etc. Once again many thanks for your breakthrough about note taking !!!! 🙏
The best way I've found of organising large amounts of notes, quotes and written thoughts while reading is using qualitative data analysis software such as NVivo or RQDA. Personal wikis with multi-tagged pages such as TiddlyWiki are also very handy.
I have been searching for a video to help me feel prepared, capable, and (dare I say) excited about starting my graduate program in the fall and note taking has been a huge stressor- this video was exactly what I needed. Thank you!!
Wonderful! Best of luck! There's also so much RUclips content about using obsidian and zettelkasten well, so I'm excited for you!!
One of those times you think “universe or algorithm?” 😂 Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and experience with that process! I struggle a lot trying to reference mental connections and when I write it down, it’s easy to get lost sometimes
This is the best video on RUclips. I watched this three times on my tv and then looked it up on my phone to type this. Unbefreakinglievable
WOW! That's amazing. I came here after looking at a piece of software called Obsidian. I use Obsidian to look at the structure of existing database projects so I can ascertain whether something is worth normalisation, but you've opened my eyes to new possibilities now. You've absolutely sold Zettelkasten to me. Thank-you so much.
Doing my masters and i found this video really inspiring. I may very well try to set up obsidian. Thank you so much!
Let me know if you run into problems and maybe I can offer suggestions! Or if you find cool ways of doing things cause I'm always looking for ways to do this better! ☺️
Thank you for introducing Obsidian to me! I'm a (struggling) writer, and I've gotten to the point where I have characters appearing in multiple stories and a linear note taking app was no longer as good for keeping things consistent. Obsidian looks like the perfect solution, and is even lower-friction than the mind-mapping app I was using previously. I also really like that you introduced the tool along with a methodology that works with it, I think this really gives a new Obsidian user a jump start. Thanks!
If you're a writer, you should check out programs like Campfire. They work on the same principle of interconnected notes, but are built specifically for storys, settings and characters. They give you certain templates, e.g. character sheets and timelines, and features such as picture integration. I use obsidian for notetaking, but campfire for DMing a role-playing game and enjoy the specific advantages for each!
@@ScarJeyjeyShine Campfire looks pretty interesting - any thoughts on how it compares to Scrivener?
Hi, you've enhanced my life! For years I've been taking notes in Evernote, OneNote, my own GTD based note taking sheet, but always ran into problems. After a while it's a mess of categories, tags, books and countless pages that hinders finding information and something that definitely doesn't induce thoughts or ideas. A few days ago RUclips suggested your video. I'm so glad I watched it. I've bought and read the book How to take smart Notes by Sonke Ahrens (a must read for anyone taking notes!) and started with Obsidian. I already feel this way of working fits me, I can't wait to see my external brain grow :) And also, I love gamification and motivational drivers. So when you held up Punished by Rewards you introduced a second book I immediately bought!
In short, thanks so much for your video! Informative and life changing!
I ran into a lot of the same issue on Evernote. I Started using tags as Zettelkasten styled link backs rather than organization. I used Categories in ever note as more of a "focus" point.
I find Obsidian to be really great, as it saves things locally, and when I am working on a corporate machine, I do not necessarily want my personal note bucket being accessed by the machine, nor do I want corporate property in my Evernote. Obsidian can be a bit heavy handed and not as straight forwardly manageable as evernote. Obsidian also does not have as much note capture as evernote does.
I ended up using both for different reasons. Knowledge management, obsidian. Note taking and personal management (on the go, I work on several computers, devices, and odd locations) I use evernote. I found that a mix of these tools really helped me capture the different stages and the note to knowledge lifecycle (I see it as a truly iterative life cycle. Knowledge and understand is a cycle. Always liquid, always moving.) Different tools work better for different domains, and different stages.
/ramble
I’ve always made some attempt at this but could never find the right “sauce” at making these useful. What finally clicked here was your simple approach. I always made it too complicated, too structured. Once I started simplifying my notes not only did my process improve but so did my comprehension. Thank you for sharing.
Thanks a lot. You have been saying what I have said all my life. That professors and teachers direct the students as they want. God bless you.
Ah this is cool! I took a qualitiative research course a few years ago and we used the "coding" method to write a major research paper. It's essentially very similar, coming up with themes or "codes" which are recurrent, prevalent ideas in the quantitative data and then using those to start linking the ideas together for the paper. I had no idea there was a digital tool to do it! You should've seen my ridiculously complex excel spreadsheet 😭
I love your thoughts about making note taking more holistic and dynamic, rather than a redusive, task-like process. I've been struggling with note taking lately because I find it overwhelming and boring haha This got my thinking about how I want to change my process!
Mate. LOVED it. Simply explained in a practical context. I recommended this to my past and present students.
I have been taking notes in Obsidian for two years. I have 4000+ taken. Consider using templates and aliases. I have found them to make knowledge management even better. For example, you can use the citation name for a book but give the article an alias to the book title and reference both in your note taking.
This is literally the most useful video I've ever found on RUclips. THANK YOU
I Love how articulate and smooth you are in conveying your thoughts but I would be much happier to see the totally ineffective idea of note-taking vanish from this world. It's painful and temporary. We need to end memory-based education rather we need to help students and professionals sharpen their attention. The brain already stores everything you read or do. Attention is what we need to bring out of the subconscious. I used to take notes a lot but never would I go back to consult them. So, I stopped piling up bundles of papers. Now, I make sure I am fully attentive while learning. Whatever I do, I pour my heart into it, whether reading a book or writing a paper. That is how I never forget what I do.
Thank you for such an amazing video!
Completely on board with your thoughts about students being dismissed - to the point that they dismiss their own worth and work. As an adjunct at several unis over the years, I've seen many students struggle to take their own work seriously. I believe it's because our typical K-12 teaches them - not intentionally but through the experience - that their work is disposable and exists purely for grading. Logic would say, then, that the more meaningful and real-world we can make schoolwork, the more students will value their own work because they can see actual value in it. It's not busy work but a legitimate contribution to something larger (e.g. service learning).
But mainly I'm here to learn about Obsidian! ;-)
Glad to know I wasn't the only one who took a deep dive into note-taking systems during my PhD. Great video!
Thank you so much for this video! It was eye-opening. I'm a fifth-year PhD student myself and I always wanted to create a Zettelkasten. A few years ago, I looked into it, but only found commercial systems and wasn't really happy with that. About 4 weeks ago your video randomly showed up in my recommendations and I was so intrigued that I downloaded Obsidian on the spot. This has changed my life! Since, I've transferred all my word documents that I used to write interesting ideas down on to obsidian and broke my manuscripts down to thoughts to feed them in. It is so satisfying to see different areas of knowledge grow and relate to one another! Initially i was unsure if it was worth the while, but I already benefited a bit from it in conversations and small presentations. I am now much more confident I will actually finish my PhD one day and I am currently preparing a presentation for my work group on the subject of knowledge management. All thanks to your video! =)
Wow, that is awesome!! Yeah, I love breaking down my thoughts into these bite-sized ideas, I find it so useful!
The best, most concise demonstration of how to write a note and connect it to other notes in Obsidian! Thank you so much for the video, this is exactly what I needed after so many overcomplicated explanations.
You're welcome, glad I could help!
THIS IS WHAT I WAS LOOKING FOR!!!!!!!!!! Recently I realized that I was only reading but never remember what I have read!
Thank you so much for sharing this kind of information!
I just *finished* my dissertation, and I don't yet know exactly what I'm going to do with this information, but your opening lines about how you were lost looking at note-taking solutions when what you really wanted was some method for knowledge-management really ring true for me and a lot of the ideas and framing you've provided here feel like what I've been looking for. Thanks so much for making this. Wish I'd had this vid earlier, honestly!
Your video is AMAZING. There isn't any single video like this in Spanish. I'm sure of that, I searched and failed today all day long 🤣🤣
Your process is exactly I was searching for, since I'm a user of Obsidian for 2 months.
I hope my thesis for Bachelor's degree will be successful and I'll make a video about my experience and the knowledge this video brings me right now.
Thanks a lot, I owe you a coffee 🙌🙌
Your video is amazing! I clicked on it out of curiosity, and my mind is blown. You did an excellent job explaining a complex subject in a concise, easy to follow, manner. I’m going to internalize the principles and dive into the rabbit hole. Thank you for sharing!
Thank you so much for providing us with so many ideas and thoughts. To be honest I accidentally jumped in your RUclips video in the aim of finding some English learning material but I have been totally amazed by how effectively you organise your words having your own ideas behind and on top of that, you are so generous to share your ideas with us. Your video gives me tremendous hints that I could never come up with by myself. Thank you. As I am currently in a practice of writing English diaries, I can definitely classify my thoughts through my own phrases more effectively to find out what I can do with the next. Thank you for your generosity.
Thanks for the overview of the Zettelkasten method, as well as pointing out Obsidian, I'm going to be looking into both. Also, I would certainly be interested in more videos on knowledge management! In today's age, where we have Google, and almost all of the knowledge of humanity is at our finger tips anyway, understanding how to best leverage that, and to not be overcome with the sheer volume of it, is perhaps the most important personal development question of our time.
For instance, there is effectively an infinite amount of life changing video on RUclips, but there is a line between time where you can effectively consume that content and where you can effectively implement and integrate the knowledge found. There are risks with venturing too far to either side of that line. Too far into the information gathering side, and you don't have time to implement and/or produce anything. Too far into the integration/implementation side, and you become increasingly disconnected from the ever accelerating developments around you.
Thank you so much for this. I've studied Luhmann but was unaware of the Zettelkasten system. I had improvised my own tag and reference notebook system but it's been insufficiently referential. This will be a huge research help.
It's fascinating looking at who all used variants of this approach per the Wikipedia entry. Luhmann's debate rival Friedrich Kittler, whom I studied with in his very last class, was also a practitioner of the method.
Fourth year student in psychology PhD program here. A couple thoughts. First, fantastic overview, thank you, this system looks amazing... I'm motivated to learn more! While I wish I knew of this sooner -mostly done with classes at this point- but like you said, may be very helpful for dissertation. Second, I'm wondering about pulling the notes in our own words directly out of the saved notes and connections and dropping them into the paper as you spoke about at the end of video. Love the idea of the writing already done, but I think I will run into the issue of self-plagiarism at some point, since many research topics for papers have overlap across classes. That said, I can see it working best for dissertation, since it's often a giant research paper diving into one specific area. Really appreciate you sharing this!
In this case, I wonder if you can make yourself a notation that will show you that you have used your own quotation in whichever way you have used it.
sorry..... there is such a thing as "self-plagiarism"?!
@@leannesampson3199 yes if it’s something you’ve published… if you’re taking it word-for-word and publishing it again, you’re plagiarizing yourself lol
@@wearmeout1 WOW! I never thought of that possibility.... 🤔
This video was my launching-off point for Obsidian. It has been absolutely invaluable. Thank you.
I love this. Been writing my undergrad thesis for a little over a year now, and by far the most challenging part has been remembering the things I read months ago and using them where I originally planned it. Thank you so much for the video!
I love videos on note-taking systems and this video has been appearing in my YT recommendations for at least two months! Today I decided to give it a try. Good surprise I had! You speak so well and your voice is so pleasant I didn't get bored as you were showing us your way of taking notes with Obsidian. Great work! And thanks for sharing your system! 😊
Ah, thanks for clicking on the video, it's so great to have you here! 🥰
Hey! Thanks for showing off your Obsidian setup. I'm mostly a Notion user, but am considering switching to Obsidian for my Zettelkasten because it seems to be built more for this purpose. Also, I'm really digging the topic you used as an example. Really helpful video!
After 12:44 I started crying.
I have Adhd and when you described how obsidian works it sounded like you were describing me.
And now whilst showing the technicalities on how you set it up, the content of the work you are setting up is so emotionally relevant to me.
Yes, I never felt like it is me acting, but me being acted, the teacher acting through me. Like I am dehumanized in the school system to an instrument of vicious projections.
And it's not on the teachers and profs, they aren't at fault. Because I met teachers that didn't want to grade, but still were forced to.
It's a systemical error and it needs systemical change
You are actually who introduced me this wonderful tool called Obsidian.
I've watched this video many times; as someone who struggles with organizing notes and thoughts, this has been such a game changer.
Thank you so much! Can't show my appreciation enough.
Ah, that is wonderful to hear, I'm so glad it helped!
I’ve seen so many videos on zettlekasten, on obsidian, and taking digital notes for paper copy books, but this one is just the best walkthrough of a easy to follow workflow! Great job!
Engineering students: "I'll see myself out."
Would love to see an adaptation of this methodology that applies text embeddings or something to help automate the process linking between notes and creating a knowledge graph.
Might attempt to make an obsidian plugin for this or a standalone program if I get the motivation to. In case anyone else wants to beat me to it I think a simple starter approach that could work decently would involve getting embeddings for every note (I’d use openai’s embeddings api), calculating cosine similarity, and then thresholding based off of the result. Any notes above some threshold would then be linked to eachother. I am not well versed in semantic search methods so there could be an obvious better answer but this is what I’m thinking. You could also automate titling these notes with gpt3 and then you only need to write notes and nothing else.
really good, very clear and straight forward explanation. I'm glad the system is working for you. I'm not an academic but i'm guilty of having scores of scraps and notebooks littering my home. So I definitely feel the need to use Zettlekasten to connect the dots... :P Good luck with your dissertation! Greetings from Northern Ireland.
This appeared out of no where. And this is AMAZING, I have 3 more years of undergraduate this is going to change my live. Thank you so much.
This was brilliant, I am unfortunately not longer studying at Uni (had to drop out for personal reasons), but I love learning and studying and especially learning about new ways to study as I have ADHD and its hard to one stay focused and two remember everything. This sounds exciting so I am definitely going to give it a go! Also Obsidian looks amazing and it's free!?!? Did not expect that.
First, I love this content! Finally someone who doesn't recycle what we already know, yayyyy!
Second: Your voice and clear pronunciation (!) make it so easy to listen to this video. Thanks a lot for the time and the effort :cheer:
And --oh no! In now feel like an obsolete wanderer on earth because I have never left a thought in this brilliant way... Obsidian wasn't around back in the day and I honestly feel my academical writing indeed WAS a CHARADE... Whoopsie!
This is incredible. I'm actually thinking about going through my notebooks and "compressing" them into Obsidian.
If I may make a suggestion, Also check the liquidText app.
I'm thinking about making my next notes organization video a documentation of me digitizing all my notebook notes into Obsidian :P
@@morganeua I'm going to want to see that!
My only problem is that I take notes in three different languages so I'll have to translate everything into English (that already isn't) but that's also good practice for the brain.
IT'S SO POWERFUL, AND STUNING
This is the first note taking technique I came across that doesn't sound like torture. I actually even enjoyed creating the first two notes from the book I'm currently reading. Thank you for sharing this!
Hey
First, I want to express my gratitude for you making this video, it has been extraordinarily helpful - both your brief but brilliant explanation of obsidian, and your complete note-method. This whole concept is just so cool, in every way!
Do you recommend fitting all notes, being of entirely different nature, inside one vault?
For example - having seen your "How I Track and Annotate my Reading" - would you keep notes connecting to a paper(/draft) and ones concerning a fiction book in the same vault? I would guess, that, if not linked together, those matters wouldn't interfere (in any way positive or negativ).
Yeah, they wouldn't interfere, but things might get cluttered. Personally, I put everything in the same vault, because the nature of my works means that I never know what connections might emerge between seemingly unrelated things. However, I have started using folders within my vault for different projects (stuff in folders can still connect to stuff outside of them in the same vault). I am considering making a video on how I connect notes on fiction and non-fiction to each other, too! Because I think there's a lot of truths found in fiction :)
Great video, thank you! I have struggled with the endless, Uni-connected note-books. My arts-related PhD demands this kind of approach: I recently stumbled on Obsidian and backtracked to this system. You have brought it to life in m6 domain and resea4ch area. Thank you! Please make more on this topic?
Absolutely! I am overwhelmed by the support on this video and will definitely create more. Next up - how to organize things once you have lots of thought in your zettelkasten!!
Great post-very well organized and easy to follow. I’m in electrical engineering, do you know if there is a zettelkasten system that might work better for technical topics that might have equations?
For your technical needs i think you can get something out of this video here: ruclips.net/video/MYJsGksojms/видео.html
Best overview of the concept behind Obsidian I've seen so far. thank you :)
Thank you so much for introducing Obsidian. Game changer.
This is wonderful! I’ve heard of this system before but not from someone who’s doing an arts-related PhD like me (literature). How long does it generally take you to input all your fleeting notes to Obsidian? Sorry if this question has already been asked!
Hi Morgan! I have a question: how do you make sure that you remember all the past thoughts that you want to create connections to when add a new thought? Or is just a matter of natural association - so you link it to whichever thoughts you remember to link it to? I just wondered, since there can be sooo many thoughts in a system, how to not forget clusters of them over time, which are actually relevant to something you could be doing. Thanks!
One way is to create "structure notes"/"maps of content" for different overarching ideas. So you can group ideas that way. Also, the more you revisit this notes and review them, the more you will get to know your system and remember what exists and where to find it!