The Zettelkasten method of note-taking and knowledge management changed my life and saved my PhD! Originally used by Niklas Luhmann, a German sociologist who wrote hundreds of articles and over 70 books in his lifetime, "zettelkasten" means "slip box" because Luhmann’s system was in a literal slip box filled with note cards. I host mine, though, in a program called Obsidian (link below). If my overview of this method got you intrigued, here are some other resources to check out that go into more detail:
The best book length overview of the zettelkasten system is "How to Take Smart Notes" by Sonke Ahrens. I find it useful for getting inspiration and there’s an audiobook, too, if you just need a refresher/some motivation: https://takesmartnotes.com/
By far the resource I return to the most is a post by Sascha on the Zettelkasten website called "Introduction to the Zettelkasten Method." I also just surf that website whenever I run into an issue with my own zettelkasten, because 100% someone has answered my question there: https://zettelkasten.de/introduction/
Obsidian has a VERY useful "help" section once you download it. It’s definitely worth checking out: https://obsidian.md/
Other software people use for a zettelkastem, other than Obsidian or a literal slipbox, are Notion (https://www.notion.so/desktop), Foam (https://foambubble.github.io/foam/), and Roam (https://roamresearch.com/).
There are so many YouTubers talking about zettelkasten and Obsidian!! Including Bryan Jenks (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wB89lJs5A3s), John Mavrick (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmcAjMf5JoE), Martin Adams (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziE6UExsOrs), and Artem Kirsanov (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6ySG7xYgjY).
0:00 - Introduction
2:44 - Core Principles of Taking Notes
4:59 - Take Fleeting Notes
6:25 - Make Permanent Notes
7:47 - My Obsidian Folder
8:47 - Bibliographic Notes
9:40 - Transcribing Fleeting Notes
10:50 - Naming my Notes
11:49 - Forming Connections
14:22 - Graph View
15:29 - Conclusion
#gradschool #notetaking
EFFICIENTnote-takingsystem
