I want to reiterate what others have said and say THANK YOU so much for such a clear and simple explanation of the fundamental "structure" for setting up a zettelkasten. I have spent way more time than I care to admit (... days) looking for something like your video. And even after more than a year since you posted this video I have not found anything as clear, concise and useful as your explanation.
The most fascinating thing about the system is that it becomes even more useful the more it grows. Unlike traditional organizing where it gets more complicated and hard yo navigate. This really allowed me to write my book in a very short amount of time. It's insane.
@@DonDealio I write non-fiction and fiction. The Zettelkasten helped me with both. Even now, I still use it consistently since it grows exponentially, which is insane. Even in college, I was able to write papers with heavy sources through the Zettelkasten. Legit one of the most overpowered tools if used right. Though a lot of people needlessly overcomplicate it for no reason. If it's complicated in your head, then you're not doing it correctly or your workflow is way too inefficient.
This is a great presentation giving a clear, concise explanation of the digital implementation of the Zettelkasten. Better than many article/videos I've seen. Thank you! I've been experimenting with several tools including Roam Research but ultimately found Obsidian to meet most of my needs for knowledge management and workflows. The team behind it has worked so much, in a span of a month the features have really evolved. So I have confidence they'll eventually implement all the remaining features that only other tools offer at the present. Happy to finally settle here and start importing all my "crumbs" and raw pieces of accumulated notes over the years.
Thank you for the kind comment! I absolutely agree, Obsidian just came out of the blue and in a very short span of time it has become a truly great tool for ZK. If the updates continue at such a rapid pace, one can only wonder what it'll look like, say, in a year or so. 'Tis a good time for knowledge management.
I have been trying to get the most out of Obsidian for 6 months, but you friend, have answered what no one else would. I think it's very easy for academics to get enamoured with their own thinking to the point that they cannot even transmit the idea. You have overcome all that in a a very simple breakdown. Thank you. I have subscribed. Feel free to look me up in Obsidian Discord or the forum.
I am a Graphic Designer migrating to Ux Design, and, as a student, i have lucky to find obsidian and now zettelkasten. This is a very powerful way to have a solid basis for my design decisions and arguments. I build a system to follow the steps to build a digital product and the graph view allows me to see the direct connections for every step, so my decisions are strongly connected with the methodology and concepts that i am using. After many videos about zettelkasten, this was the best explained. I am planning to write about this in Portuguese on medium, then i will mention you as a great helper for the beginning of my journey with zettelkasten. Thanks.
Interesting. Are your notes only about the "theory" or the methodology if you will. Or you also take notes in this structure regarding your actual work and decisions etc. in a specific design project?
@@DonDealio my notes in this case are more about connecting the tools to a step that they can be used. For example, we have a tool called service blueprint and we have a design workflow called double diamond, with several steps. With zettelkasten I could mall where to use each tool or framework that I have learned. Today I am thinking different, I am using zettelkasten to help me thinking about object oriented design and how everything is connected, but this is another cool topic. I hope that I can respond your question, if you don't understand something I can write more about.
As many others have pointed out, thanks for a clear overview of how to digitally implement the Zettelkasten. I have watched many avideo, and so many of them fail to just lay out the Zettelkasten idea in simple and crisp English.
Explained it beautifully. Very intriguing concept. I've always felt like my notes just get lost in folders, never to be seen again. I'm going to try this system out!
Great Tutorial! I was using Tags for action items like #todo #toread #spell etc..because i had the note titles and headliner option in Obsidian already. But after watching this, i may go back through and topic tag my notes better. One thing i do is put my notes from a book all on one page and use headliners. You have me leaning to breaking thoughts down further into individual notes. It is beginning to make sense now. Thank you!
Awesome video I was looking for days for a good and clean video about Zettelkasten system ... Thank You for clarifying this interesting topic Thank You :)
It's not the Zettelkasten that wrote the book its his phenomenal mind that wrote it. The Zettelkasten is just a way of supporting the thinking process and to generate new ideas.
Thanks for the hands on walkthrough of your system. I really enjoyed the video. I'm using obsidian with a slightly different system. I'm finding it useful to create an index where I add and categorise all my evergreen notes. I'm pretty sure Luhmann used indexes too within his slip box, with up to 25 notes on each index. We can obviously have an endless index thanks to obsidian. Without the index, I'm not sure if the tag system will be powerful enough to find what you need, especially if you have many notes on different parts of the same topic. Roam deals with this complexity with search queries, but the same ability isn't in obsidian yet. We can always hope though, right!? Thanks again for the very well communicated video and take care. These apps are definitely the future of note taking, writing and thinking!
Thanks Damon! I remember you asked me to do a walkthrough of ZK in my previous video so you definitely spurred me to come up with this second. And you're absolutely right about the index notes, I think Luhmann called them "Folgezettel." In hindsight, I probably should have included this piece of information in the video. Thanks again for your input and insightful comments! :)
@@trmsy It's great fun to learn how different people are using these apps to improve writing and thinking. My system is: (1) bring highlights into obsidian from PDF or Kindle; (2) convert highlights into literature notes; (3) convert literature notes into evergreen notes (with connections to other evergreen notes); (4) add evergreen notes to index; (5) create outlines for anything I'm writing (e.g., article, chapter, ethics application); (6) drag evergreen note contents into outlines under subheadings; (7) smooth out the gaps between notes; (8) move the writing across to word for final edit. Seems to work well so far. It takes a while to process even one article from start to finish, but it should be worth it in the long run :-) I'm sure we will all find more efficient ways to use these apps over time. Looking forward to your next installment!
@@damonpthomas Honestly I feel like you should write these things somewhere on the Internet, I think other people might find them useful! If you ever do choose to do so let me know and I'd be more than glad to read them and hopefully learn something new along the way. :)
@@damonpthomas a couple of questions if you don't mind: 1) where do you make literature notes? I was thinking in the daily notes. 2) are the evergreen notes in a separate folder? 3) Do you keep an index of all evergreen notes or just higher level tags? - thanks in advance
Thank you very much for such a great review. Very clear, visual, and with attention to detail. I would like to clarify the usability of unique ID number after the title/file name: as I understand, Obsidian will update all the links automatically if you rename the title of the note (with or without ID). Then why spend extra seconds to add ID symbols, which appears as just unnecessary visual information on the screen?
Thanks for the kind comment! That's a very good observation. The reason why I add IDs is to be able to be platform-independent. While it's true that Obsidian does this, I like to think that at any time, I can just take my folder and open it with a new/different application, and I don't lose any functionality. A sort of future-proofing, if you will. I hope this answers your question!
@@trmsy What do you think about adding the ID as a tag? Then the ID wouldn't have to be in the title, but you'd still have the information in case you want to move to a different application. I'm just starting with this, so I'm not sure what the implications of that would be. EDIT: And thanks for this vid. Cleared some things up for me. :)
Thank you, that was very clear and concise. I now how have a better grasp of the numbering system and how it might be useful. I'm just getting started with Obsidian, so it's still kind of early for me to switch over my notes so far to the numbering system.
Thanks a lot for this video. Since Roam research is inaccessible without a sumptuous fee, I have also been using Obsidian and although in its beta stage, it is quite a wonderful software. It was very helpful to learn the Zettelkasten method since I am a Sociology graduate myself!
Great video! Thank you. I’ve been trying to find a method that would work for me. Didn’t quite understand the linking and the tagging. Was also a little confused about the references but you managed to explain everything in this video! Would you mind sharing the example from your previous video using the “economics” folder as well?
Thanks Delon! In this video I didn't show the other folder since I wanted to start "from scratch" for beginners, but I am planning on making more content on ZK, including more advanced topics.
Great video! Simple and to the point! I'm new to Obsidian and just finished reading Sönke Ahrens' book. It just wasn't clear to me the reason of putting an ID in the title. Doesn't Obsidian update all the links to that note once it's renamed, making the ID unnecessary?
Thank you! That's definitely true, Obsidian does do that. The reason why you might want to do it is if one day you decide to move away from Obsidian, making your system truly "tool-independent"
Thank you for video! I have a question. If for example I will a much of notes (>1000) how I can find some information in it? For example I have written two notes about animals 2 years ago, how now I can find it. Thanks
Why do you put the zettlekasten ID at the end of the name, and not the front? Do you find having the ID in the file name cumbersome? Do you try and structure your notes in folders at all?
Hi Toby! 1. I put the ID at the end because I believe it makes it slightly easier to parse text while reading a note's title in other Zettels. For instance, I find it "smoother" to read something like "For more information, see this [[Other Idea 123123123]]" rather than "For more information, see this [[123123123 Other Idea]]. Ultimately it's all a matter of personal preference. 2. Yep. It's not ideal, but I understand why it's done and if it benefits the long-term, then it's fine 3. Yes, I will occasionally create "list-notes" when I find that it makes sense to group some notes together.
Nice vídeo! One simple question: Is there any reason you put the id number at the end of the file name? Im wondering if it would be better at the begining so the files are displayed in chronolpgical order...
Hi Luis. Good question. It's merely a question of personal preference, as I like to read the "title" first, it feels to me less cluttered. But that's about it
I don't use the full Zettelkasten method in my notes. I'm a beginner, and using Obsidian I think that links are enough. The ID seems a bit of an overkill. If I learn something new I create a new note. If I learn something about something already learned I just update the old note. What am I missing?
Honestly, as I say at the end of the video, what matters is that it works for you, so if this is what you need, by all means go ahead. Some might say you’re missing out on the fact that you can’t rename notes since you don’t use an ID, but really, you’re fine 😀
definitely the best video I watched explaining the concept!
Wow, thanks!
I've spent the last week searching for how to set up a Zettelkasten on Obsidian. This was the clearest explanation I have found thus far! Thanks!
Glad it helped!
I want to reiterate what others have said and say THANK YOU so much for such a clear and simple explanation of the fundamental "structure" for setting up a zettelkasten. I have spent way more time than I care to admit (... days) looking for something like your video. And even after more than a year since you posted this video I have not found anything as clear, concise and useful as your explanation.
Thank you jbarrieu, really appreciate your comment! :) I'm glad my video helped you out understanding ZK!
The most fascinating thing about the system is that it becomes even more useful the more it grows. Unlike traditional organizing where it gets more complicated and hard yo navigate.
This really allowed me to write my book in a very short amount of time. It's insane.
What sort of book? And was it your first book, or you started using this method and saw improvement?
@@DonDealio I write non-fiction and fiction. The Zettelkasten helped me with both. Even now, I still use it consistently since it grows exponentially, which is insane.
Even in college, I was able to write papers with heavy sources through the Zettelkasten. Legit one of the most overpowered tools if used right.
Though a lot of people needlessly overcomplicate it for no reason. If it's complicated in your head, then you're not doing it correctly or your workflow is way too inefficient.
great video, zettlekasten is usually very confusing but you phrased it very well, and in steps. thanks!!
This is a great presentation giving a clear, concise explanation of the digital implementation of the Zettelkasten. Better than many article/videos I've seen. Thank you! I've been experimenting with several tools including Roam Research but ultimately found Obsidian to meet most of my needs for knowledge management and workflows. The team behind it has worked so much, in a span of a month the features have really evolved. So I have confidence they'll eventually implement all the remaining features that only other tools offer at the present. Happy to finally settle here and start importing all my "crumbs" and raw pieces of accumulated notes over the years.
Thank you for the kind comment! I absolutely agree, Obsidian just came out of the blue and in a very short span of time it has become a truly great tool for ZK. If the updates continue at such a rapid pace, one can only wonder what it'll look like, say, in a year or so. 'Tis a good time for knowledge management.
Impossible to make a better video. Clear, concise and straigh to the point. You got yourself a new sub.
Thanks for the sub! :)
I have been trying to get the most out of Obsidian for 6 months, but you friend, have answered what no one else would. I think it's very easy for academics to get enamoured with their own thinking to the point that they cannot even transmit the idea. You have overcome all that in a a very simple breakdown. Thank you. I have subscribed. Feel free to look me up in Obsidian Discord or the forum.
Thank you for the kind comment :) i'll be sure to frequent the discord server!
I just love the way how you systematically explained Zettelkasten and the soothing voice :)
Look forward to seeing more of your coverage on ZK soon!
Thank you very much! Too kind :)
I am a Graphic Designer migrating to Ux Design, and, as a student, i have lucky to find obsidian and now zettelkasten. This is a very powerful way to have a solid basis for my design decisions and arguments. I build a system to follow the steps to build a digital product and the graph view allows me to see the direct connections for every step, so my decisions are strongly connected with the methodology and concepts that i am using. After many videos about zettelkasten, this was the best explained. I am planning to write about this in Portuguese on medium, then i will mention you as a great helper for the beginning of my journey with zettelkasten. Thanks.
Thank you Saimon, really appreciated! I'll be looking forward to your article about ZK. :)
Interesting. Are your notes only about the "theory" or the methodology if you will.
Or you also take notes in this structure regarding your actual work and decisions etc. in a specific design project?
@@DonDealio my notes in this case are more about connecting the tools to a step that they can be used. For example, we have a tool called service blueprint and we have a design workflow called double diamond, with several steps. With zettelkasten I could mall where to use each tool or framework that I have learned.
Today I am thinking different, I am using zettelkasten to help me thinking about object oriented design and how everything is connected, but this is another cool topic. I hope that I can respond your question, if you don't understand something I can write more about.
This is a very helpful summary of Ahrens' book and the Zkast method. The "live video" feel also added to its value. Thank you!
As many others have pointed out, thanks for a clear overview of how to digitally implement the Zettelkasten. I have watched many avideo, and so many of them fail to just lay out the Zettelkasten idea in simple and crisp English.
Glad it was helpful! :)
Explained it beautifully. Very intriguing concept. I've always felt like my notes just get lost in folders, never to be seen again. I'm going to try this system out!
Glad you enjoyed it! :)
Great Tutorial! I was using Tags for action items like #todo #toread #spell etc..because i had the note titles and headliner option in Obsidian already. But after watching this, i may go back through and topic tag my notes better.
One thing i do is put my notes from a book all on one page and use headliners. You have me leaning to breaking thoughts down further into individual notes. It is beginning to make sense now.
Thank you!
¡Gracias! Me ha ayudado mucho mucho tu video. Gran explicacion y muy concisa. ¡Saludos desde México!
Saluti dall'Italia! :)
Awesome video! Thank you very much for the information and examples!
Glad it was helpful :)
I've spent hours looking for a clear and pratical explanation of HTD a note. Thank u.
You're welcome!
I just wanna thank you, man. This video helped me a lot and I'm really excited about putting this on practice. Be well.
Thank you for the kind words. Best of luck!
thanks again - nice to know before i read the whole book that the process is not chiseled into stone ...
TRMS - agreed, thank you for a very clear explanation of the Zettelkasten system. I'm experimenting with Dynalist for my system / 2nd brain.
Love your introduction, concise and to the point. Thank you!
You are welcome!
A clear explanation, thank you.
Glad you think so :)
Awesome video
I was looking for days for a good and clean video about Zettelkasten system ...
Thank You for clarifying this interesting topic
Thank You :)
You are most welcome :)
Same here. This is incredibly helpful. @trms also really helped with my decision in choosing a software
Thank you for that, my friend. Best regards from Brazil.
It's not the Zettelkasten that wrote the book its his phenomenal mind that wrote it. The Zettelkasten is just a way of supporting the thinking process and to generate new ideas.
Thanks for the hands on walkthrough of your system. I really enjoyed the video. I'm using obsidian with a slightly different system. I'm finding it useful to create an index where I add and categorise all my evergreen notes. I'm pretty sure Luhmann used indexes too within his slip box, with up to 25 notes on each index. We can obviously have an endless index thanks to obsidian. Without the index, I'm not sure if the tag system will be powerful enough to find what you need, especially if you have many notes on different parts of the same topic. Roam deals with this complexity with search queries, but the same ability isn't in obsidian yet. We can always hope though, right!? Thanks again for the very well communicated video and take care. These apps are definitely the future of note taking, writing and thinking!
Thanks Damon! I remember you asked me to do a walkthrough of ZK in my previous video so you definitely spurred me to come up with this second. And you're absolutely right about the index notes, I think Luhmann called them "Folgezettel." In hindsight, I probably should have included this piece of information in the video. Thanks again for your input and insightful comments! :)
@@trmsy It's great fun to learn how different people are using these apps to improve writing and thinking. My system is: (1) bring highlights into obsidian from PDF or Kindle; (2) convert highlights into literature notes; (3) convert literature notes into evergreen notes (with connections to other evergreen notes); (4) add evergreen notes to index; (5) create outlines for anything I'm writing (e.g., article, chapter, ethics application); (6) drag evergreen note contents into outlines under subheadings; (7) smooth out the gaps between notes; (8) move the writing across to word for final edit. Seems to work well so far. It takes a while to process even one article from start to finish, but it should be worth it in the long run :-) I'm sure we will all find more efficient ways to use these apps over time. Looking forward to your next installment!
@@damonpthomas Honestly I feel like you should write these things somewhere on the Internet, I think other people might find them useful! If you ever do choose to do so let me know and I'd be more than glad to read them and hopefully learn something new along the way. :)
@@damonpthomas a couple of questions if you don't mind: 1) where do you make literature notes? I was thinking in the daily notes. 2) are the evergreen notes in a separate folder? 3) Do you keep an index of all evergreen notes or just higher level tags? - thanks in advance
Thank you very much for such a great review. Very clear, visual, and with attention to detail. I would like to clarify the usability of unique ID number after the title/file name: as I understand, Obsidian will update all the links automatically if you rename the title of the note (with or without ID). Then why spend extra seconds to add ID symbols, which appears as just unnecessary visual information on the screen?
Thanks for the kind comment! That's a very good observation. The reason why I add IDs is to be able to be platform-independent. While it's true that Obsidian does this, I like to think that at any time, I can just take my folder and open it with a new/different application, and I don't lose any functionality. A sort of future-proofing, if you will. I hope this answers your question!
@@trmsy Oh, I see now, very good point! Thanks for your responce!
@@trmsy What do you think about adding the ID as a tag? Then the ID wouldn't have to be in the title, but you'd still have the information in case you want to move to a different application. I'm just starting with this, so I'm not sure what the implications of that would be. EDIT: And thanks for this vid. Cleared some things up for me. :)
Sure! That's something that can definitely be played around with. As long as it helps you be productive, nothing is verboten :)
Thank you, that was very clear and concise. I now how have a better grasp of the numbering system and how it might be useful. I'm just getting started with Obsidian, so it's still kind of early for me to switch over my notes so far to the numbering system.
Glad it was helpful! :)
Thanks a lot for this video. Since Roam research is inaccessible without a sumptuous fee, I have also been using Obsidian and although in its beta stage, it is quite a wonderful software. It was very helpful to learn the Zettelkasten method since I am a Sociology graduate myself!
Great to hear! :)
Excellent explanation! well done sir.
Many thanks!
Thanks for your video! Very helpful!
Glad it was helpful!
202002102010 Great explanation, finally.
Great video. Thanks
quote. 6:21
tagging tip. 5:10
2:40 subject code then chapter branch
Very helpful
Great video! Thank you. I’ve been trying to find a method that would work for me. Didn’t quite understand the linking and the tagging. Was also a little confused about the references but you managed to explain everything in this video! Would you mind sharing the example from your previous video using the “economics” folder as well?
Thanks Delon! In this video I didn't show the other folder since I wanted to start "from scratch" for beginners, but I am planning on making more content on ZK, including more advanced topics.
trms awesome! Looking forward to them! Again, thanks, really very helpful
Great video! Simple and to the point! I'm new to Obsidian and just finished reading Sönke Ahrens' book. It just wasn't clear to me the reason of putting an ID in the title. Doesn't Obsidian update all the links to that note once it's renamed, making the ID unnecessary?
Thank you! That's definitely true, Obsidian does do that. The reason why you might want to do it is if one day you decide to move away from Obsidian, making your system truly "tool-independent"
@@trmsy Thanks for clearing up!
Thank you for video!
I have a question. If for example I will a much of notes (>1000) how I can find some information in it? For example I have written two notes about animals 2 years ago, how now I can find it. Thanks
Why do you put the zettlekasten ID at the end of the name, and not the front?
Do you find having the ID in the file name cumbersome?
Do you try and structure your notes in folders at all?
Hi Toby! 1. I put the ID at the end because I believe it makes it slightly easier to parse text while reading a note's title in other Zettels. For instance, I find it "smoother" to read something like "For more information, see this [[Other Idea 123123123]]" rather than "For more information, see this [[123123123 Other Idea]]. Ultimately it's all a matter of personal preference. 2. Yep. It's not ideal, but I understand why it's done and if it benefits the long-term, then it's fine 3. Yes, I will occasionally create "list-notes" when I find that it makes sense to group some notes together.
Nice vídeo! One simple question: Is there any reason you put the id number at the end of the file name? Im wondering if it would be better at the begining so the files are displayed in chronolpgical order...
Hi Luis. Good question. It's merely a question of personal preference, as I like to read the "title" first, it feels to me less cluttered. But that's about it
What theme is that?
I don't use the full Zettelkasten method in my notes. I'm a beginner, and using Obsidian I think that links are enough. The ID seems a bit of an overkill. If I learn something new I create a new note. If I learn something about something already learned I just update the old note. What am I missing?
Honestly, as I say at the end of the video, what matters is that it works for you, so if this is what you need, by all means go ahead. Some might say you’re missing out on the fact that you can’t rename notes since you don’t use an ID, but really, you’re fine 😀
I dont understand why Ahrens argues for a second slip box just for bibliographic information
Does anyone do this physically?
awesome video, can you check review more zettelkasten apps like Taskade?
Thanks! I hadn't heard of that before but I'll certainly give it a look.
Are you brazillian?
Hi! I am from Italy
@@trmsy I thought you were brazillian considering the way you pronounce the "t". I'm brazillian btw :)