Writing Zettels within a Zettelkasten

Previously I shared the overall structure and use of my Zettelkasten in Notion. Now I want to share the practices and philosophies I abide by while reading content, writing notes, and organizing threads of thought. This is something of a wholistic view, as you will see my original ideas, fears, and confusions as well as my current perspective and future hopes regarding my Zettelkasten.

When I Started

I officially started my Zettelkasten on March 15, 2022. I went in strong. By March 31, 2022 I had written 100 notes.

The first sixteen days were a mess. First of all, writing zettels was all I did in my free time and it was utterly exhausting. I don’t recall any mention of the strain factor in Sonke Ahrens’ book “How to Take Smart Notes”, but let me assure you it is real. A good note should be written well enough that the sentences may easily slide into a formal paper without much adjustment. This means that original drafting, revising, and editing are all done at once. In a sense, it was like writing many papers from start to finish in one sitting.

The first weeks of starting my Zettelkasten were exhausting for another, more basic reason; it was a new exercise. Playing a C scale on the piano is not difficult for the person who has done it a thousand times. The beginning pianist, however, has to learn which keys to tap, which fingers to use, how to cross the thumb under the middle finger to reach the F key, how to temper the force exerted by different fingers which have varying strength and dexterity, how to make sluggish fingers nimble and fast fingers patient so each note in the scale gets an even timing, and more. It’s not even “Hot Cross Buns”, but the C scale can be difficult. There were many times when I desperately wanted a Zettelkasten equivalent of a piano teacher, or at the very least, someone to to say “it gets easier with practice”. Maybe I can be that person for you – it does get easier with practice, and it gets exciting when results begin to emerge.

Technical blunders and typical water-testing aside, the single biggest mistake I made when starting my Zettelkasten was what I call back-zetteling. In the months before I was introduced to the concept of the Zettelkasten, I had read a decent-sized list of books, many of which were deeply insightful. It made sense that I wanted to zettel these (some I still do). It made sense that I imagined note-writing would be easier and faster for books I had already finished reading.

Reality hit me like a truck.

While midway through a book, my mind is actively engaged in the concepts expressed on the pages. I see the narrative arc clearly, citations are mindless, and any confusions or connections that would lead me to reread previous chapters may be dealt with relatively quickly. Even a week’s distance from a book warbles the precision of that information, dulling the facets and details necessary for a useful note. Back-zetteling books was a frustrating business for me. I knew that I had previously seen the facts, but when I sat down to write them it wasn’t a simple matter of flipping through the book and finding the right pages. I had to reimmerse myself in the world I’d left behind, and essentially reread the book from scratch. I could not reliably recall that a set of pages or chapters were uninteresting to me. I had to speed read (or even meticulously read) through whole sections to reestablish that I had no interest in them. This was the sort of practice that drained what little joy there was to be had in the beginning stages of a Zettelkasten.

In his book “Atomic Habits”, James Clear compares the gap between work and results to an ice cube that is in a room several degrees below freezing [2, p 21]. The room begins to warm one degree at a time, but the ice doesn’t begin to melt until the room has reached 32 degrees Fahrenheit. The argument is that while a single degree change tipped the scales and melted the ice, the result would not have been possible if all the preceding degrees had not been passed through one by one [2, p 21]. He calls this the Plateau of Latent Potential.

The Plateau of Latent Potential is dangerous, because it obscures future results. This can discourage valuable work or enable a quitter’s attitude since no immediate feedback exists. Yet the Plateau is also encouraging, because it means that work is not wasted, only stored in a bank of delayed gratification [2, p 21].

In this beginning stage, I was deep in the Plateau of Latent Potential, and only making my life harder. If you are like me, and enjoy the feeling of accomplishment when boxes are checked and books are closed, I would recommend that you not back-zettel. At least, not until you begin seeing results from your Zettelkasten and that excitement can fuel you during the slog that back-zetteling can be.

My Present Practices and Philosophies

I have now entered a stage where I see results for all the effort I have been putting into my Zettelkasten. I have also had enough practice to pick up on what works for me. Here is a list of my top personal discoveries.

1. Don’t stop reading because you can’t write notes for all the content you consume. I read whole books without writing a single zettel. For me, writing these notes takes enough energy and time that it is simply not practical to zettel every book I read. I believe writing notes for the most inspirational, insightful, and practical reads is better than writing few or poor quality notes on everything I read. Worse still would be succumbing to overwhelm and reading no books or writing no notes at all.

   
   

2. You can zettel audiobooks, but it is hard. I love audiobooks, but I find it better to listen to an audiobook to test the caliber of the content. Listen and determine if it is worth writing notes on. If it qualifies, check out the paperback version from the library. Collecting a quote or concept from words I can’t point to with my finger is unnecessarily difficult.

   
   

3. Don’t avoid writing notes because you can’t do it perfectly. Many people have lived by the mantra “If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well”. For some things, yes. For instance, it is definitely important to get everything precisely right when building a rocket. But many, or dare I say, most, endeavors that are worth doing are just… worth doing. I don’t avoid making friends because I can’t be a perfect friend. I don’t avoid eating food because I don’t have the perfectly balanced diet. Don’t let perfectionism get in the way. Imperfect endeavors are pretty much all we imperfect humans can handle.

   
   

4. When back-zetteling a book, do it slowly and firmly in the mindset of, “Even if I only write one note, that’s a win”. Realize that you may need to reread the whole book, and if you don’t? Hey, that’s a win.

   
   

5. Similarly, lower all the hurdles, and be happy about it. This is a massive, interconnected database which cannot be built overnight. A habit to write notes is fantastic, but I have found that it is even better to maintain a mentality of positivity. Celebrate the accomplishment of writing just one zettel. The accomplishment of fixing just one sloppy citation. Remember, most people will never keep anything remotely like a Zettelkasten. Zetteling is hard work that a lot of people won’t understand or value. Which is okay. We all have our priorities. Yet it is important to realize that what you are doing (even if it is done poorly, inconsistently, or with a goofy attitude) is more than most people do. Beating down on yourself is a dangerous method of motivation, and can leave you despising and abandoning the activity in which you never seem to measure up. I find that I can enjoy and be grateful for my Zettelkasten when I can enjoy and be grateful for the smallest contributions I make to it.

My Future Hopes

At this point, I have reached a critical mass with my Zettelkasten. It is actively beneficial for writing and idea-forming in several separate topics. However, it is not yet a resource that may stand alone. It reminds me of a particular stage in language-learning; there comes a point when several kinds of conversation may be had, but the conversation is limited due to vocabulary constraints. It is a little awkward and bumbling, but there is no great grammar barrier, so deeper conversations are only a few words away. That is how I feel now. Deeper idea-formation and connnection-building is only a few notes away.

Of course, this is an infinite game. We play not to win, but to keep the game going. There will always be new notes to write, just as there will always be new vocabulary to master. Yet here we come to the point; today, exploring my Zettelkasten is like walking the path of a small garden. One day, I hope that exploring my Zettelkasten will be like climbing in the Cascades.

References:

[1] Ahrens Sönke. (2022). How to take smart notes: One simple technique to boost writing, learning and thinking. Sönke Ahrens.

[2] Clear, J. (2018). Atomic habits an Easy & proven way to build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones. New York, NY: Avery, an imprint of the Penguin Random House LLC.