Zettelkasten Español

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

Anytime a passage spoke to something he was working on, or reminded him of an idea previously recorded in his zettelkasten, Luhmann wrote down the page number of where the passage could be found, followed by a brief description of what was said or how it related to his thinking. On the back of the slip, Luhmann recorded bibliographic information.18

How does the slip-box, the heart of this system, work? Strictly speaking, Luhmann had two slip-boxes: a bibliographical one, which contained the references and brief notes on the content of the literature, and the main one in which he collected and generated his ideas, mainly in response to what he read. The notes were written on index cards and st