# Rebecca Williams - The Zettelkasten Method: Examples to Help You Get Started (Highlights)  ## Metadata **Cover**:: https://readwise-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/static/images/article2.74d541386bbf.png **Source**:: #from/readwise **Zettel**:: #zettel/fleeting **Status**:: #x **Authors**:: [[Rebecca Williams]] **Full Title**:: The Zettelkasten Method: Examples to Help You Get Started **Category**:: #articles #readwise/articles **Category Icon**:: 📰 **URL**:: [medium.com](https://medium.com/@rebeccawilliams9941/the-zettelkasten-method-examples-to-help-you-get-started-8f8a44fa9ae6) **Host**:: [[medium.com]] **Highlighted**:: [[2021-02-14]] **Created**:: [[2022-09-26]] ## Highlights ### The Zettelkasten Method: Examples to help you get started. - Dreyfus model of skill acquisition (Dreyfus, 1980), people learn first by following rules until they’ve learned enough that they feel confident in experimenting with their own way of doing things. #### Zettelkasten Workflow ##### Fleeting Notes - Fleeting notes are temporary reminders of ideas. - in order to take a fleeting note, it must meet at least one of the following two criteria: - 1. You want to remember the idea permanently. - 2. You want to use the idea in your work - quick processing is critical for these reminders to work - Here’s an example: #image #example  ##### Literature Notes - At the end of the day, or sooner if you want, go back to your fleeting notes and pick out the ideas that you really want to keep. - The next step is to elaborate those reminders of those ideas into a paragraph that describes the idea in full. - don’t look up the original idea on the page you got it from. Really try and write it in your own words yourself. - whether you want to invest the energy in filling those gaps - Don’t interrupt yourself to research more at this stage, one type of task at a time. - There are five criteria it would be beneficial for your literature note to meet:1. Write it in your own words. 2. Write it in such away that if you read it 10 years later it would make complete sense by itself.3. One idea per note. If you need to define a term for the idea/concept to make sense, create a term definition card and link to it from the concept note.4. Include the complete reference for the source you got the idea from.5. Include the relevant citation (lastName, year, pp.22). - Here is an example #image #example  ##### Permanent notes - Literature notes are written in the context of the source they were inspired by. Whereas permanent notes are written in the context of your own ideas and interests. - Literature notes only have one connection, to the book they came from. While permanent notes can have many connections (to individual notes, as part of multiple topics etc). - This is why it’s important to capture a single idea on each page. - Content first topics (writing) #image #example  - How to connect permanent notes to other permanent notes - Connect notes chronologically * Mentions * Contradictions * Expansions * Comments - Connect notes with a bridge note - Connecting a note through a bridge is where you link two seemingly unrelated ideas together with a separate note that explains why you think they’re connected - Connect notes with a topic index Map of Concept - A topic index is a note which contains a of links to ideas that are directly relevant to a specific topic, question or discussion etc. ##### Index Notes - An index note represents a cluster of related permanent notes. - Strategies #image #example  ##### Keyword Notes - a list of links to relevant notes, except at a more general level than index notes - Art #image #example  #### Writing your first Zettelkasten note - start with an article about something you’re interested in. - Take fleeting notes, then literature notes. Use the first literature note you write as your first permanent note. - write every new permanent note with an eye towards how it fits in with what you already have. If it doesn’t, just add it as a new, standalone note. - Some notes are going to end up getting totally lost in your Zettelkasten, ... That’s okay. #### Obsidian for Zettelkasten