The Zettlekasten Method

The Zettlekasten method is a note taking and organizational method that aims to help one to express ideas and connect them to create a knowledge base. It is comprised of the following base: The method suggests three kind of notes:

Fleeting Notes:

Notes that hold fleeting information that you do not want to forget and that might lead into more deep insights.

Literature Notes:

Notes that are directly related to a given piece of literature (book, article, video), they should explain and correlate to the given piece of literature without having to look at the reference for complete understanding, i.e. the note must be self contained and understandable.

Permanent Notes:

The permanent notes are collections of more abstract and direct thoughts and ideas, they should link to other resources such as literature notes, but the understanding of a given Permanent Note should be in and of itself.

Indexes

Should function as entry points on given subjects, an index should hold links to other notes regarding the given subject. For example one could create an index for subjects such as Programming, Music, Productivity.

Personal Thoughts

Fleeting notes should be (as by the name) temporary, one should not collect fleeting notes, instead they should evolve into Literature Notes or Permanent Notes.

References