What is Zettelkasten?Zettelkasten is a note taking process and a personal knowledge management system rolled into one.

The entire Zettelkasten process is three types of notes -Fleeting Notes,Literature Notes and Permanent Notes.

First,we have the fleeting notes.

When cosuming content,be it a video,podcast,article or books take down fleeting notes.

These are temporary notes that serve as memory reminders when creating the actual notes.

This can be deleted later on.

The next type of Notes is Literature notes.

You can convert the Fleeting Notes into a better formatted version called Literature Notes.This will be a summary of the entire content.

But make sure to keep it short.Be very selective about what you are writing down and use your own words to create this.

Finally,we have the Permanent Notes.This is the main types of Notes in the Zettelkasten system.

when you have finished consuming the content or at a smaller point ,like you are reading a book- go through the Literature Notes and write down all the main concepts that are presented

This will be your Permanent Note.

This process can create more than one Permanent Note for one piece of content.That is absolutely normal.

Make sure the Permanent Notes meet the following criteria.

Write only one idea per Note but be as complete as possible

Write as if you are writing for somebody else.Use full sentences .Show sources.

The Note should be understood even if you don´t know the context it was taken from.

If you are looking at the Note later ,you will have forgotten the original context.The Note should stand by itself.

Be precise ,clear and brief.

There is one more step.

Connecting the newly created Notes to the existing body of content that you already have in the system.

Think of how the new Notes are connected to your earlier Notes.

How does this idea fit into what I already know.

What does this idea mean for some other idea that I already have.

Does this add to, contradict, or explain another idea that I already have.

If the new Note is connected to an existing idea, link out to that idea from the new Note

Let´s look at an example.

I recently encountered the concept of Imposter Syndrome.

It´s a psychological pattern in which somebody who knows a lot thinks that they know very little or not enough.

This is how my Note would look like.

A few days later, I come across another concept called Dunning-Kruger Effect, where somebody who actually knows only a little thinks that they know a lot.

Almost an exact opposite of Imposter Syndrome.

So when I take down the new Note about Dunning-Kruger Effect,I will link out to my earlier Imposter Syndrome Note.

After a while, this will end up being an interconnected web of ideas.

What you see here is a visual representation of my Zettelkasten system.

The orange dots are tags and the grey ones are the actual Notes.

You can see how the concepts link with each other.

Now you know how Zettelkasten works.

If you stop the video right here,you already have all the information you need to create your own Zettelkasten.

But my job does not end here.It is my job to convince you to use the system and that is the ´why´ of Zettelkasten.

The point of this system is not better note-taking.It is better thinking

Real thinking only happens with some type of externalization.

This can be notes on a book,mindmaps,typing into a text editor,anything-as long as it´s outside your brain.

The Zettelkasten process forces you to actually think while creating notes.

The normal note-taking process does not require any thinking.

That´s a major issue with our current learning system

You write down notes as is from the source content.

Zettelkasten process changes that.

You have to take notes in your own words.You are not allowed to copy the content as is.

This forces you to think about the content and distill it down to its core ideas.

Another problem with the current learning system is this.

When you re-read the content or the notes that you have taken,there is no new understanding.

All it does is create the illusion that you have understood what you read.

But more often than not ,that is not actually true.

The only way you can find out how much of the content you actually understood is by testing yourself.

Try explaining the concept to another person.

This will show you how much you have actually understood and where the gaps in your knowledge are.

In Zettelkasten,this is done when you create the Notes.

It´s a smaller version of the self-test.

It will show you how much you actually understood.

Elaboration is one way to make sure you understood what you learnt.

Another way is deliberate practice

Deliberate practice is not a part of Zettelkasten but it is a part of this video.

When the the video moves to the next slide,pause the video and write down the notes of this video in the Zettelkasten format.

You can use whatever medium you wish.

You can write in a book or on your phone or on your laptop- as long as it´s outside your brain.

If you want, you can rewind and see the video again but do not go past the next slide.

Are you done with the notes? If so, go to the next slide.

Please do not continue till you have actually finished your notes.

This is how I would have taken down notes for this session.

If your notes are different, that is fine.

You have to take notes for yourself.I am showing my notes just to illustrate the point better.

Feel free to pause the video and go through these notes before continuing.

This brings us to the end of the session.The next step is actually starting your own Zettelkasten practice.

The easiest and recommended approach is to create a digital Zettelkasten and there are quite a few good tools available to do this.

But that is a subject for another video.

Before you go ,post a comment on this video with the notes you have created about this video.

This will give everybody else an idea of how people take Zettelkasten notes.

Thank you.