Every day information rains down on us: articles, videos, ideas, thoughts. We save them in Notion, Google Docs or Obsidian — and a couple of weeks later we forget why we even did it 😅
Why does this happen? Because we just hoard, but don’t process.
❓ What’s wrong with the usual approach to notes
We save a useful quote or link, but:
- we don’t know how to work with it next;
- we don’t connect it to other ideas;
- we don’t turn it into knowledge or action.
📦 A month later — it’s dead weight.
There's no structure in your head, and chaos in your notes.
🧩 What Zettelkasten is (and what we mean by it)
Zettelkasten
— is a system in which each note is part of a living network. It’s a way to think through your notes, not just collect them.
⚠️ We use a modern digital adaptation of Zettelkasten (ZK 2.0). Luhmann’s original system was closer to a tree structure (1 → 1a → 1a1), without cross-references.
📚 In Obsidian it’s more convenient to work through wiki-links — this is closer to wiki-style, but with the same goals: to create a coherent system of ideas.
🧱 3 types of notes
💭 Fleeting — thoughts, questions, ideas → land in the 📥 Inbox.
📚 Literature — reworking fragments of books, videos, articles → in your own words, with the source.
🧠 Permanent — considered conclusions that stay relevant for a long time → this is your knowledge base.
📌 Note principles
- Atomicity — one thought = one note
- Connectedness — each note is linked to others
- Clarity — written in your own words
- Usefulness — it’ll come in handy in the future
🔄 An example flow
🧠 You’re walking down the street — a thought comes up: “Why do I put off important things?” → recorded it as a fleeting note in the Inbox.
📖 You read an article: “Procrastination is a defence against the fear of failure.” → made a literature note — the essence in your own words + the source.
💡 Then you realised: “I procrastinate because I’m afraid of messing up” → recorded it as a permanent note and linked it to:
[[Страх неудачи|Fear of failure]][[Как справляться с прокрастинацией|How to cope with procrastination]][[Метод двух минут|The two-minute rule]]
🗂️ How to structure knowledge: PARA + CODE
We combined Zettelkasten with two powerful approaches:
1. 📁 PARA (storage structure)
We wrote about it in detail in The PARA method
-
📂 Projects— current tasks and projects -
💼 Areas— areas of life (health, finances, studies) -
📚 Resources— useful materials -
🗃️ Archive— not relevant now, but might come in handy
2. ⚙️ CODE (the processing flow)
We also wrote about it in The CODE method
-
🖊️ Capture— capturing an idea -
🧩 Organize— putting it into the system -
🧪 Distill— squeezing out the essence -
🚀 Express— applying it: write, do, use
💻 For building links I use a template
You can get to know it in detail on the Templates page
📥 Working with the Inbox
Every new note — first lands in the Inbox. Once a week (10–15 min) I do a refactor:
- delete the excess
- make sense of the valuable
- move it to the right folder according to the PARA method
🎡 Come back to old thoughts
Sometimes it's useful to remember what you were thinking a month ago.
🎲 Use the “Random note” button (for me it’s Alt + Q)
🤝 Conclusion
Zettelkasten isn’t about a pretty system. It’s about thinking. The main thing — don’t overcomplicate it:
✅ Start with the Inbox ✅ Write in your own words ✅ Make short, connected notes ✅ Apply it in projects and life
🧭 And after that — you’ll be surprised yourself how your inner knowledge base starts to work.
Keep going?