A System for Writing: How an Unconventional Approach to Note-Making Can Help You Capture Ideas, Think Wildly, and Write Constantly - A Zettelkasten Primer

Capture what you think about what the author thinks. Reader-response theory posits that no one person, not even the author, has a monopoly on the meaning of a text.

A main note works best when the thought contained inside has been pared down to its essentials. Having a single idea

A title acts as a condensed thesis summing up the content of the idea stored in the note.32 It should be a declarative statement rather than a descriptor.33 “Not all apples are edible” is a better title than “Apples and edibility.”

long-notes containing divergent ideas create added steps and confusion.

North of Intention, Steve McCaffery states that “Problems in readership arise only from a refusal to abandon prejudicial reading habits,”27

Set up a reminder to check in on your fleeting notes. I recommend a weekly check-in for notes staged in your inbox, and an every-few-months reminder for notes stored in your “Sleeping” folder.

The more “atomic” an idea, the more broadly you can employ it. The more complex an idea, the less surface area it has to be connected to others.

I remembered something my shaykha said: “In Islam, gift-giving is considered a blessing. To refuse a gift is to deny that blessing.”

A reference note is a single long-note containing citations related to interesting passages you came across while reading a book (or engaging with another form of media).

Fleeting notes form the basis for much of what you’ll create inside your zettelkasten, though they themselves will not make it past the velvet rope. Fleeting notes live in a state of potential, waiting to be transformed into more useful “main notes,” the notes that will make up the bulk of your zettelkasten.