Converting Math/Physics Notes to Zettels

At the end of a semester I am left with an exhausted mind and several books of scrappy lecture notes. Historically, I saved these notebooks. At first I did this because I thought I might become the next Stephen Hawking and future generations would marvel at my introductory physics work. Later I saved them because I was not, in fact, the next Stephen Hawking. Like most people, I engage in a good deal of forgetting, and keeping notebooks around was a practical way to recall information by setting a firecracker under the old hippocampus.

The problem is, lecture notes are written chronologically. Some professors do a marvelous job of guiding students on an overarching narrative arc throughout the semester. In the moment, having the chronological ordering is a great benefit; I can remember the professor’s voice, where he was standing, who asked a question, and if the cute boy in front of me had been particularly distracting that day. Years down the road, however, it is unlikely that I will remember the rise and fall of the semester; nor will I need to. Like most of my nonfiction books, I do not often need to recall the entire picture, but rather the small pieces that are relevant to my current question. I detect a trend. Why is the answer always my zettelkasten?!

There are two primary reasons I have long avoided creating digitized atomic notes from my technical lecture notes. First, it is new and writing technical notes on mathematics and physics is very different from writing notes on psychology, biology, history, or statistics that come from a book. Second, it is a lot of work. I won’t downplay it. There are many steps involved in zetteling class lecture notes and each has unique and obnoxious demands which kill efficiency and speed.

Is it worth it? I’m not sure. I have not created or used enough of these notes to offer an informed answer. I am, however, strongly inclined to believe it is a worthwhile endeavor. Zetteling these notes forces me to review material and face the fact that I might not understand certain concepts as well as I thought. I am forced to look at the textbook while creating citations, which I may or may not have read during the semester. I can get rid of shelf-clutter that I rarely use and is difficult to locate answers to questions in when I do. Of course, I also gain all the general benefits of a zetteled note, including ease of future writing, organization of thoughts, and peace of mind that my work has been safely stored.

As I have spent several days of my precious leisure time writing up my lecture notes, citing them, and going through the motions of creating and linking zettels, I have decided that I would much rather this be a weekly routine than a semester-end slog. I’ll be curious to see if this extra bit of incremental work will actually be achievable throughout the semester.

Turning Technical Lecture Notes Into Zettels

Here is the process I have gone through to convert my hand-written notes into digitized zettels. I decided to fall on the overall perspective of back-zetteling, where I view any addition to my zettelkasten as a win, and won’t beat myself up for letting some concepts slip through the cracks.

Step One: LaTeX Important Concepts

While this step is necessary in the practical sense of breaking down concepts and preparing them for the zettelkasten, the ultimate goal of this step is actual comprehension.

Books with awkward, bumbling sentences that blur the lines of understanding are not the sorts of books I waste my time finishing or zetteling. In my mind, the author ought to have a firm grasp on the content he or she is writing, and should express him or herself with clarity and concision. My class notes, however, are written by an awkward, speed-writing twenty-five year old who may have been struggling with the material for the first time. I have the advantage of knowing her innermost thoughts, but when I find myself confused the author is of no help.

For this process I write out the deepest understanding I can attain from my notes. If the sentences are incomplete or the knowledge is shaky, I lean on the textbook to fill in the gaps. When the gaps are filled, I take a last look over the idea to verify that it is as concentrated or atomic as possible. Where necessary, I divide run-on ideas into smaller pieces, but since some of these mathematical ideas are process or multistep-oriented, I am not determined to pry apart every crack and isolate every axiom. Per my typical practicality-focused mindset, I concentrate on creating useful, efficient, and understandable notes, even if they come at the cost of being slightly atypical to the style.

Step Two: Create Citations

Citing lectures or conversations (think unpublished work) is awkward and difficult… At least in APA format, which I try my best to follow. Creating citations, then, becomes a bit of a laborious process. I need to search the textbooks associated with a class in order to find the definitions, procedures, and ideas to which a professor had been referring in lecture. Unlike a typical zetteling process, I find ebooks much easier for this technical note conversion. The ability to search a keyword or phrase is incredible, and something I will dearly miss when I dive into classes that have no ebook.

Truthfully, here is where many of my zettels fail. If it is too hard for me to find a citation, then I simply decide there are better things to do with my time than find obscure references. I have the notes typed up neatly and geared towards understanding, so I am happy to simply keep them for personal reference. Instead of zettels, they become something like a Wikipedia page; they are idea-generators and memory-joggers, but not the place where one should stop research.

Step Three: Create the Zettel

The manner in which a zettel is created will vary depending on the platform used. I adore Notion, and keep my zettelkasten there. Like most word-processors, writing equations is clunky or impossible, so I have settled on taking a screenshot of the relevant portion in my typed LaTeX document and placing the screenshot in the body of the zettel. This is what I will actually read when searching through my zettelkasten. Rewriting my zettel every time I need to use it, however, would be extremely inefficient, so below the picture I also copy and paste the LaTeX “code”.

The rest of the zettel-creation process is identical to my old methods. The bibliographic zettel is linked, appropriate tags are applied, and similar zettels are connected.

With all of this I have to practice a large amount of self-patience. If you plan to endeavor on a similar feat, I would recommend that you also practice patience and self-compassion. The process can be long, difficult, and frustrating, but I have the feeling that in some years’ time I will be extremely grateful for my current efforts.