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.

A zettelkasten is an object.

A zettelkasten is a method. In addition to being an object, a zettelkasten is a methodology—a way to capture ideas in notes, establish relationships between them, and leverage both for knowledge work. The formula is relatively straight forward: Capture ideas in the form of fleeting and/or reference notes. Turn these captures into individual main no

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

As literary critic, Stanley Fish, states, “[I]t is interpretive communities...that produce meanings.”25 Lean on people you trust for insight, and insight will eventually come.

The rest of the procedure is the same as with fleeting notes. Write down your thinking about the passage. Consider the idea’s relationship to others stored in your zettelkasten. Record any connections you’ve made. Add the appropriate alphanumeric ID. Give the note a title.

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.

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

A zettelkasten is a practice.