Ask HN: Do you use zettelkasten? What have gou gained from the experience?

2 points·mariedavid··2 comments

I have read a lot about Zettelkasten but I am afraid that I am going to quit after a month and not sure exactly what I am going with all the notes. Though I read a lot of books and I am pretty sure the method is useful. I am just not very sure how to start. Would be very interested to have some feedback about successful Zettelkasten uses ! Thanks a lot.

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I have mixed feelings.

I have been keeping and growing my Zettelkasten with Obsidian for about a year now. I can't say that it have been extremely useful, in terms of the work I produce, but that is clearly my own fault. I do expect that at some point I will start producing more writings from my Zettelkasten.

Meanwhile, I suggest you don't get discouraged. Start simple. Download Obsidian (obsidian.md) and start making notes. I like to keep the following format:

""" [[Source of Idea / Book / Article / Tweet]]

> quote that sparked my though

my actual thought.

Tags: [[Thinking]], [[Thoughts]] """

And continue connecting. Don't be too harsh on yourself, keep growing it slowly and you will reach a point where your graph is very superconnected.

thanks ;-) it seems hard indeed to find the right level of information to put in each entry(fact vs thinking) and not to overstore information

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