Long thinking is a term coined by Giovanni Corazza and picked up by Cal Newport. According to Cal Newport , long thinking is the persistent and intentional application of thought toward a specific issue, problem, or idea with the goal of creating substantial and useful new insights. He presents the Notebook Method as one way to engage in long thinking. The process follows four specific steps:…
I don’t understand why headlines like The Film Students Who Can No Longer Sit Through Films aren’t inciting moral panics. Our ability to focus is under attack. We are losing our minds. Photo by 2Photo Pots on Unsplash But it is possible to move right when everybody is turning left. (No politics here. The politicization of everything is yet another symptom of our failing minds. So, if you thought…
I listened to a Podcast episode of Modern Wisdom with Cal Newport. There was an interesting idea of him feeling like Cassandra. He called the problem of the modern knowledge work environment early and, in his book Deep Work , gave a pretty straightforward manual on how to solve it on a personal level. I never read it, but from the summaries it seems that A World Without Email could be seen as a…
Dear Zettlers, There is immense tension between AI’s advances in capabilities and its negative effects on our minds. In the last newsletter, I called claims that you don’t have to remember anything a scam . Time proved me right. The canary in the coal mine, software engineering, starts to see changes. It seems that junior positions are being scrapped, as senior engineers are now overseeing AI…
Nori said my zettelkasten notes look more like mini-essays . First, I dismissed this idea as just a gut reaction to the length and thoroughness of my notes compared to the typically presented notes in the Zettelkasten world. However, the notion stuck with me, and I came to the conclusion that Nori has a point. The penny has dropped. To make more sense of this notion, I came up with a hierarchy of…
You never know the value of the idea unless you execute it. If you never roll the dice, you never know if you hit the jackpot or come up empty. But even in a game of luck, there are skills and strategies that skew the game in your favor. Today, we will explore the relationship and the balance of luck, skill, and strategies in the creative process. Working with ideas is constant exploration. Even…
Dear Zettlers, I am currently wrestling with the question of what to make of mnemonics. I barely dipped my toe in this world. But I never seriously engaged with mnemonics. But I am in sporadic exchange with Anthony Metivier , one of the or even the current leading teacher of mnemonics, and I have children. So, I feel nudged to take mnemonics seriously. Part of my hesitation stems from my bad…
How to start as a beginner? This is arguably the most important question of all in any domain, including fitness and the Zettelkasten Method. The typical and best approach is to start with simple explanations and instructions. In fitness, you begin by incorporating regular movement and small diet changes. Assuming that a fictional client doesn’t exercise and has an average diet, the following two…
If you haven’t been academically trained on the topic of citations, chances are nobody ever told you about basic citation conventions. It’s not hard, it’s just something you need to learn (and maybe put in your Zettelkasten for reference) once. I present three examples. I chose the form of a footnote because that’s a common way to back up claims that transfers well to other contexts. These rules…
Dear Zettlers, In today’s newsletter, we will discuss a fairly technical aspect of the Zettelkasten Method: How to link. The Archive encourages you to link using only the unique identifier. The Archive utilises link-as-search. What you see in the double brackets is not a direct link to another note. Instead, it will perform a search for the string within the double brackets. Since the ID is at the…
While Zettelkasten practice improves thinking outside the Zettelkasten, we’ll have to lay out a specific problem with the Zettelkasten Method: we can only think in and within our Zettelkasten when it is available. However, we are often somewhere else. Naturally, the inbox problem and its two faces arise: Quick Capture Problem: How do we capture ideas when we are not in immediate proximity to our…
Dear Zettlers, This might help you relate McPherson’s book, Effective Note-Taking, to the Zettelkasten Method : The term “note” has multiple meanings that can cause confusion. Engagement notes: Those are notes that you take because they help you to engage with the current input (writing down questions, so you don’t forget to ask them; concept mapping to aid your working memory etc.) Many of those…
In the world of the Zettelkasten Method and in the broader world of PKM, size matters. The big, beautiful graph view images, and the number of notes in one’s repository are part of the genre of productivity porn that consistently catches attention. Another genre of productivity porn is the number of written notes per day. So, why not make it a goal to write 10 notes per day? (or 6 or 20) The…
Dear Zettlers, Currently, I am building a podcast called “ Das gute Leben in der Moderne ” (“How to Live a Good Life in Modern Times”). When I hit a mere 9 episodes, I got mail (2026-01-13) from podstatus.com that I hit the following rankings on Apple Podcasts: Position 28 in the category Self-Improvement (Switzerland) Position 30 in the category Self-Improvement (Germany) In percentiles, this…
I wrote a post that outlines rewriting as one element of how the Zettelkasten Method trains your mind . Rewriting is basically an externalisation of wrestling with an idea. u/UnderTheHole asked on Reddit two very good follow-up questions: Wouldn’t the effort of rewriting be better channeled into the final products (blogposts, essays, papers, etc.)? What would be a more quantitative…
Dear Zettlers, This sentence states perfectly the mechanics of the Zettelkasten as a tool and how to integrate it into one’s overall workflow: The cultivation of knowledge is the objective of knowledge work and productivity workflows facilitate this effort. ( Source ) Originally, knowledge work is a broad term that means all work entails “think for a living”. I use the term more literally and…
TL;DR: Friction that increases with system size is an existential threat. Any note-taking or knowledge system whose marginal cost per note rises as the system grows will eventually become unusable, regardless of how beneficial it feels early on. A Zettelkasten must be scale-indifferent. It should remain usable even if flooded with massive amounts of low-quality notes. The “one-million bad notes”…
Dear Zettlers, Here are some universal questions for any note-taking system. What do you want to build for your future self? The ability to store a note quickly, for example, benefits your present self. Possessing a valuable note is what your future self will be grateful for. Since the Zettelkasten aims to be a lifelong partner, it is a future-oriented tool. This orientation is methodologically…
This guide is deliberately concise. It is written for people who struggle to get started and get stuck endlessly consuming Zettelkasten theory. Start with a minimalist, distraction-free app. Learn only how to quickly create new notes, set direct links, and find notes in the Zettelkasten (full-text search, following links). Create a structure note for a current research interest. Create notes from…
This piece has two goals: Provide a tool to assess the benefits of various methods and tools for writing and thinking. A deeper dive into the iceberg of the Zettelkasten Method. There are distinct but interconnected chains of cause and effect within each method. Image by Laura Ockel on Unsplash The effects of low-intensity training (LIT) and deep thinking via the Zettelkasten method depend on…
A Zettelkasten session has the following form: Phases of a Zettelkasten session the warm-up phase, the productive phase, the busy but unproductive phase. Warming Up When we sit down at the Zettelkasten, we need a while to reach operating temperature. To do this, we need to activate our brain, orient ourselves within the Zettelkasten, and engage the most important areas of our memory, among other…
Dear Zettlers, The last newsletter went viral. I was lucky in striking a chord that is played quite regularly. The chord is the sound of the attack on our minds. To each topic, there is a fundamental existential layer that is below layers of pragmatics and other layers. The pragmatic layer of AI as a topic is whether it is useful and, if so, how. One use case is to use AI to give you feedback on…
Atomic note-taking is one of the buzzwords surrounding the Zettelkasten Method. In short, it is about putting one idea and one idea only on a note. With this guide, I will take you into the exciting deep waters of both the Zettelkasten and thinking skills. Having read this article, you will both know the theory and the practice, the art and the science of atomic note-taking. This guide is created…
Dear Zettlers, This scam is decades old now and it is quite surprising that people still fall for it. The search engines, old note-taking apps (you know, those with an elephant icon and the like) and AI have something in common: They claim that the effort of remembering things is outdated like using a candle in the age of electric light . The following is, by the way, from my Zettelkasten (2016):…
In this session, James and I talked about how to incorporate the Zettelkasten into a writing workflow. Topics discussed: A push system vs a pull system The Second Brain and how to adapt the approach with your Zettelkasten in mind Processing Habits The Knowledge Work Assembly Line Writing for the reader vs writing driven by curiosity Feeling or virtue as the foundation for ethical behaviour
This is the last session of this little series of developing a knowledge work practice with Nori. Background: Nori wrote an article on leaving her Zettelkasten for good . The quality of her reflection led to my decision to contact her with the offer for a couple of coaching sessions. After two coaching sessions ( watch the first recording here ), she overhauled her system of knowledge work for…
There was a bit of backlash on Reddit regarding the video on using the Zettelkasten Method for Hindu Philosophy. The core point of criticism was about the lack of atomicity of the notes. Isn’t the Zettelkasten all about having atomic notes? I like to take the opportunity to explore the principle of atomicity , as I believe the misconception of atomicity as a principle is hindering the progress of…
Context: Nori wrote an article about quitting the Zettelkasten Method. She clearly tried hard and wrote a thoughtful reflection on her journey. So, I decided to reach out to her and offer some help. We recorded the first session here: Nori’s Zettelkasten Journey and Why She Let It Go . My goal was not to bring her back to the only true way, but to apply general coaching methods. I asked Nori to…
The following video is a recorded coaching session on how to write with the Zettelkasten in mind. We talk about the differences between short- and long-form writing with the Zettelkasten; how to work with the Zettelkasten so that the values that you want to ship with your writing pieces are already present in your notes; and much more. Have fun! In case, that you missed the other recorded coaching…
“Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!” - The Red Queen Those who don’t learn to use AI, won’t be able to keep pace with those who do. AI writing is rattling the writer’s scene. It might be one of the strongest disruptors for the reason that it will be able to automate…
Dear Zettlers, I’d like to share three paragraphs from the English translation of the Zettelkasten Method book: The Zettelkasten’s active approach counters the problem of modern information inflation—the overwhelming abundance of low-value content. 1 Information availability is no longer the bottleneck; sense-making and understanding are. With information so abundant, the best use of our time is…
In this video, I coach Ashish on using the Zettelkasten Method to study Hindu philosophy. Hindu philosophy is an ideal domain for learning how to use a Zettelkasten to manage complex, seemingly endless topics. One major challenge is atomicity , as each idea can be explored in greater depth , often requiring notes to be broken down repeatedly. To avoid getting lost, you’ll need to develop both…
In this video, I coach Fernando on how to create depth in his knowledge work using the Knowledge Flower , a core framework for increasing the value of information and turning it into knowledge. It is a thinking tool rooted in my ongoing research on the value of knowledge. If you want to explore the fascinating topic of the value of knowledge, read the article The Value of Knowledge , which offers…
In this video I talk with Nori Parelius about her experience with her Zettelkasten. She shares the struggles she encountered, what ultimately led her to abandon her system, and the lessons she learned along the way. Nori has also penned a thoughtful article, diving deeper into her decision. Check out the video for our candid conversation and read her full story to see if her insights resonate with…
With today’s public release, everyone can enjoy type-to-complete style auto-completion of #hashtags in their Zettelkasten. Type a hash to start completing, and continue to type to narrow down results That means all tags from all of your notes are available for you to insert quickly. Avoid typos and find obscure tags without having to look them up! If you’ve never used any kind of auto-completion…
If you want to increase your productivity, you need a method to measure it. After all, you need information on how high your actual productivity is and what effect changes in your working methods have. The subjective feeling of whether you had a good day has a big advantage and a big disadvantage. The big advantage is that at the end of the day you have a surprisingly accurate sense of whether you…
Dear Zettlers, Currently, my mind is captured by a phenomenon that I called the ST-gap. This is shorthand for “slow twitch gap”, a model that allows to justify the need for low intensity cardio training and allows you to calculate your needs depending on how you train otherwise. If you have an active lifestyle (going on hikes, walks, work in a garden), perform both strength training and higher…
When I processed Transcend by Kaufman 1 , I encountered the following problems: Lack of authority: The book is not a book for me whose structure I want to follow . It is not valuable to me as a whole, but only as a collection of parts. Lack of relevance: My motivation to process the book deeply is low because I get the impression that processing the book will neither advance existing projects nor…
Dear Zettlers, There is one trait that needs to be developed if you want to make any long-term system work: This trait is a proper relationship with your future self. To understand how a proper relationship with your future self is developed, we need to understand the nature of our future self. Neurologically speaking, our future self is processed as another person. That means that we don’t have a…
We’re excited to announce the release of The Archive v1.8 ! Here’s what’s new and improved in this version: Introducing the Plug-In System This system is a game-changer for users looking to streamline their everyday actions without the need for external tools, like: Quickly create notes from templates; Generate statistics for your note archive, or for specific projects, like the current word count…