Atomic Notes
- giving each note a clear title,
- linking your notes
- creating reference notes so you don’t lose track of bibliographic information,
- creating hub notes (or whatever you want to call them), to connect ideas together
- enjoying just enough productive and creative mess
- write atomic notes,
- write in Markdown syntax,
- link notes easily,
- re-combine notes by transclusion,
- easily search through all my notes without clutter; and
- export notes without stress.
- Base: TiddlyWiki. I can’t stand the look of the plain OG version but I love the notebook theme that can easily be added.
- Backlinks: To enable backlinks I have found a couple of basic plug-ins really useful and would strongly recommend:
- TWCrossLinks. This adds a footer to your notes to show backlinks and freelinks.
- Relink. This enables automatic renaming of titles and other items across links.
- To-Do: For a to-do list, I greatly admire Projectify, which I have used for work, but for personal use I like the super-simple but effective Chandler, written by the late Joe Armstrong (godfather of Haskell). He talks you through how he wrote it, which in itself is a mini-masterclass in how to customise TiddlyWiki.
- Help: Finally I’ll mention the active and very helpful TiddlyWiki user forum.
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Me too! I hate the name TiddlyWiki, and I hate the word ‘tiddler’ and generally I hate the aesthetic. That’s why I’ve changed it. ↩︎
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Does anyone ever say this any more!? I’m showing my age! ↩︎
- Plenty of clear and specific examples of notes of all sorts. People often ask ‘but what should a note look like?’ Here’s the answer, visually.
- Many helpful workflow diagrams. People also ask ‘how does the system operate as a whole?’ This book shows exactly how the Zettelkasten process works, and in what order.
- Clear references both to Niklas Luhmann’s process and to other relevant predecessors. If you want to refer back to the sources, there is a wealth of pointers here.
- At the end of each chapter, a checklist of specific activities to try, to implement the ideas just covered: what to do, what to remember and what to watch out for. If you’re wondering exactly what to do next with your notes, this book shows you (also, what not to do, especially in ch. 7).
- Helpful writing advice, which shows how to use your Zettelkasten to produce four different kinds of material: short-short items (i.e. social media posts), blog posts, articles and books.
- Overall, a clear, step-by-step, repeatable writing process to follow, from capturing your thoughts (ch. 1) right through to managing your writing workflow (ch. 9).
- What is the real work of serendipity?
- A library of good neighbours
- The Dewey Decimal System pigeonholes all knowledge, like cells in a prison
- How to think in writing, part 1: The thought behind the thought by Henrik Karlsson.
- Chase your reading by Robin Hanson.
- Learning by writing by Holden Karnovsky.
- How to make writing less hard by Oliver Burkeman.
- When to begin writing by Sheldon Richmond (it’s an old one but a good one).
- Plain text (Markdown) notes.
- Each note is a single idea with a unique ID.
- Each note deserves a clear title.
- Notes link meaningfully to other notes.
- Tiago Forte’s summary of How to Take Smart Notes, by Sönke Ahrens
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Don’t build a magnificent but useless encyclopaedia
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Document your journey through the deep forest
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Avoid inert ideas
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Converse about what really matters to you
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Imagine, then build, new knowledge products
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Where (and how) you go is more important than where you start from
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An example
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If you’re not sure what website feeds are, see IndieWeb: feed reader and how to use RSS feeds. ↩︎
The shortest writing session that could possibly be useful
Here’s my perspective on ‘atomic notes’.
They’re atomic in time even before they’re atomic in any other dimension.
An atomic note, for me, is the shortest writing session that could possibly be useful.
I got this from computer game designers, who call the shortest viable unit of play an ‘atom’. A single life in Space Invaders (and yes, that shows my age). Just enough to make you desperate to keep going.
If you think about it, every note has to stop somewhere. So it’s not a big stretch to stop sooner rather than later, perhaps even before you’re really ready to stop… and to begin a new note.
But if your note-making practice is to write long notes making several points, then good luck to you, everyone finds their own working method.
You’ll still find several aspects of the Zettelkasten note-making approach useful.
For example:
When I started I couldn’t see the point of ‘atomicity of ideas’. It was only gradually that I realised my long notes would be more useful if I made them modular.
There might be an analogy with what computer programmers call ‘separation of concerns’. You can build really big systems from simple components. It’s much harder to merge even just two complex components.
For a good illustration of this, see Herbert Simon’s parable of the two watchmakers.
Two watchmakers, Tempus and Hora, each make a watch with 1,000 parts. Whenever Tempus is interrupted or drops anything he has to start all over again. But the other watchmaker does it differently. Hora makes watches from assemblies of ten parts only, then assembling ten of these, then ten of these. So when Hora is interrupted, only a small part of the work is ever lost.
Reference
Simon, H. A. (1962). The architecture of complexity. Proceedings of the American philosophical society, 106(6), 467-482. PDF. Cited in W. Brian Arthur (2009). The Nature of Technology. What it is and how it evolves. New York: Free Press.
Enhanced markdown apps you can use for free to make effective notes
I’ve lost track of the ridiculous number of ‘Zettelkasten apps’ now on the loose on the wild wild web. When I checked the ChatGPT marketplace, for example, I had to stop counting at 50. I was losing the will to go on looking at them.
Everyone makes the apps, it seems, but who’s left to use them?
If you’re one of those sensible people who just want to make useful notes, plain text files with Markdown are simple, elegant, versatile and durable.
It’s hardly magic.
You can create these notes with any basic text editor, but I’m keen on people creating a working environment that works for them. So if you’re looking for a few bells and whistles, here are four note-making apps that seem to offer just enough features and not too many. Oh, and they’re open source and free to use, so you know, use them. Go make your notes!
“Hey, check these out!"
Zettlr
“Zettlr offers first-class support for any style of curating your own Zettelkasten. Zettlr supports note IDs, internal Wiki-style links, related files, seamless navigation, and even a graph view.”
There’s a fairly good summary of how to use Zettlr for the Zettelkasten approach to making notes.
Who’s it for?
Academics and others who want to write and publish their research with Markdown and who aren’t totally scared of Pandoc and LaTeX but could do with a little support in that area.
Who’s it not for?
Anyone averse to Pandoc or LaTeX (although you can just ignore these and still use Zettlr).
NB
“a command line and local web note‑taking, bookmarking, archiving, and knowledge base application with plain text data storage, … Initializing a folder as an nb local notebook is a very easy way to add structured git versioning to any folder of documents and other files.”
There’s a very brief nb-for-Zettelkasten summary.
Who’s it for?
Anyone who prefers command line tools, likes the idea of syncing their notes using Git, and wants maximum format flexibility.
Who’s it not for?
Windows users who never worked out how to run Linux-native apps and who aren’t about to start now. Ditto for command-line refuseniks.
Foam
“a note-taking tool that lives within VS Code… Foam is open source, and allows you to create a local first, markdown based, personal knowledge base. You can also use it to publish your notes.”
Who’s it for?
Anyone who already uses VSCode (it’s Microsoft’s flagship code editor) but wants some note management goodness, and anyone who might otherwise use the paid notemaking app that Foam rhymes with.
Who’s it not for?
Timid souls who might be put off by apps that are ‘still in preview’.
LogSeq
“Logseq is a knowledge management and collaboration platform. It focuses on privacy, longevity, and user control. Logseq offers a range of powerful tools for knowledge management, collaboration, PDF annotation, and task management with support for multiple file formats”.
Who’s it for?
They say “Logseq is a networked outliner”, so if you love outliners it might well be for you.
Who’s it not for?
People who don’t love outliners, I suppose. Oh, and they’re planning to make LogSeq Pro a paid app, so it might not be for freeloaders (eventually).
Well, that’s the end of this little roundup. Please let me know what fantastic app you find most suits you - and why.
And for the record, I couldn’t find a note-making app I really liked so I made one myself (sort-of).
Image:
No it’s not a bunch of hyped-up influencers salivating over the latest batch of AI-enabled notemaking apps. It’s actually a Marshall University “arena registration” utilizing IBM punched cards, in 1968.
Source:
Dickinson, Jack L., and Arnold R. Miller. In the Beginning…A Legacy of Computing at Marshall University : A brief history of the early computing technology at Marshall University, Huntington, W.Va., in the forty years: 1959-1999. Huntington, Marshall University Libraries, 2018. PDF
Now read: A minimal approach to writing notes
My favourite tool is this notebook I made
I couldn’t find a note-making app that really suited me so I made one myself.
OK, that’s a bit of a stretch. It’s really just a heavily modified version of TiddlyWiki but it feels tailor-made. And working with it fits me like a glove. It’s a great example of making a creative working environment. That’s important. You have to make your own environment. Some people hate TiddlyWiki1. That’s fine too.
I wanted a notemaking environment that would let me:
Here’s how I made my personalised notemaking app.
I see TiddlyWiki as a rhizomatic tool - one of several. A rhizomatic tool, the way I see it, is one that foregrounds the network and its many connections, while pushing to the background the hierarchy, whether it be temporal, semantic, thematic or any other structure. Such a tool helps users to create “mobile, stable and combinable inscriptions” that enable “action at a distance” (Latour, 1987).
Since about 2020 a fad has been growing online of note-making apps that include rhizomatic affordances. That’s a fancy way of saying lotsalinks. These internal-link-friendly apps include Roam Research, Obsidian, LogSeq, Workflowy, and more venerably, TiddlyWiki. Much discussion has flowed about the nature of the Zettelkasten as a means to construct a networked system of notes. Little of this discussion has referred directly to Rhizome theory, but there are clear affinities.
I wanted a rhizomatic tool for writing, and since I couldn’t find one I really liked, I adapted one for my own purposes. You might not need to invent your own tools, but each of us gathers uniquely the unique contents of our own toolbox.
This post is a contribution to the ongoing Indieweb Carnival, July 2024 edition. Why not check out the other posts, on tools, and contribute yourself to August’s theme, which is rituals.
Some links to relevant material:
Does the Zettelkasten have a top and a bottom?
A network of notes is a rhizome not a tree
Inspired destruction: How a Zettelkasten explodes thoughts so you can have newish ones
Zettelkasten, Rhizomes, and You
A great summary of TiddlyWiki
The rise of networked notetaking
Deleuze, Gilles and Félix Guattari (2004/1980). Rhizome PDF. In A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia, trans. Brian Massumi. New York: Continuum, pp. 3-28.
Latour, B. (1987), Science in Action: How to Follow Scientists and Engineers through Society, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.
Notemaking helps you remember - and helps you forget
Do we really need to remember everything?
This is the question posed by Lewis Hyde’s memorable book, A Primer for Forgetting: Getting Past the Past 📚
He says:
“Every act of memory is an act of forgetting. The tree of memory set its roots in blood. To secure an ideal, surround it with a moat of forgetfulness. To study the self is to forget the self. In forgetting lies the liquefaction of time. The Furies bloat the present with the undigested past. “Memory and oblivion, we call that imagination.” We dream in order to forget.” ― Lewis Hyde, A Primer for Forgetting: Getting Past the Past
Forgetting is the essence of what makes us human
The subtitle of Joshua Foer’s book, Moonwalking with Einstein, promotes the art and science of ‘remembering everything’. Yet Foer accepts that forgetting is an essential aspect of memory. He quotes the Argentinian author Jorge Luis Borges:
“It is forgetting, not remembering, that is the essence of what makes us human. To make sense of the world, we must filter it. “To think,” Borges writes, “is to forget.” – Joshua Foer, Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything
Making notes will aid your short-term memory, even when you haven't got one
This week I was making notes about a presentation when my colleague looked over and offered to just give me the slides. I said thanks, of course. But really I was making my notes to help me remember the key information. If I just referred to the slides, I’d never assimilate the presentation - I’d just listen then forget. Conversely, while I might never look at the notes again, since it was me that made them, some of it has now sunk in.
Many people make notes to help them remember things, but how do you do it?
This question matters to Kat Moody. She writes about learning to live with a nonexistent working memory (Archived version).
Presumably she doesn’t really have absolutely no short-term memory, but she does have ADHD, or as she likes to call it, CRSS (Can’t Remember Sh*t Syndrome).
That really resonated with me. And the horrible feeling of forgetting everything might seem familiar to you as well, even if you’re not diagnosed with either of these.
Inspired by author Ryan Holiday’s notecard system Kat Moody uses an app, readwise.io to make notes while she reads.
Bob Doto, author of the excellent new note-making manual A System for Writing, also does this. He says:
“I tend to read articles on a tablet or phone, using a read-later app with note-taking capabilities to capture my thoughts. When I’m done, I bring these thought-captures into my writing platform, usually as main notes.” (Bob Doto, A System for Writing, p.50)
There’s an informative Hacker News discussion, which extends to memory hacks more generally. One commenter laments that school rewards memorization more than understanding. That can be hard for people whose memory isn’t their strong point.
Perhaps ironically, I see note making as a useful means of forgetting, not just remembering. I don’t want to forget everything, but then I certainly wouldn’t like to remember everything either.
It’s a double act. My brain, when combined with my notes, helps me find the right balance between remembering and forgetting.
I have more to say about this subject, so please stay tuned1. Update: Notemaking helps you remember - and forget.
Some other salient pieces about making notes:
On Keeping an Everyday Notebook (Instead of a Bullet Journal) archived version
Audio transcription workflow: How to Take Perfect Notes with Your Voice Using ChatGPT and Notion
Big, beautiful goals – but can’t be bothered? 11 great productivity tips for lazy people (includes tips such as ‘Write everything down’ and ‘Ditch the to-do list for a ‘first things’ list’.
How to actually use what you read with Readwise
Ryan Holiday’s notecard system
Image credit: Photo by Sean Benesh on Unsplash
A System for Writing by Bob Doto
“The note you just took has yet to realize its potential.” - Bob Doto
Another ‘Zettelkasten primer’ won’t be needed for some time, since this one is direct, concise, thorough and strongly practical.
📚A System for Writing by Bob Doto is out!
If you’ve become confused or cynical watching those endless videos in which an influencer who discovered the Zettelkasten five minutes ago is suddenly the expert; or if you’ve read Sönke Ahrens' book, How to Take Smart Notes and thought “now I know why I should make notes but I still don’t really know how”, well here’s the antidote: the only Zettelkasten book you’ll ever need.
My paperback copy of A System for Writing arrived just in time for weekend reading. It’s a deliberately useful book, with a clear three-part structure. It gets to the point quickly and stays there: how to write notes, how to connect them and how to use this system to produce finished written work.
Things I especially appreciate in A System for Writing:
Will anyone be disappointed? Well, if you’re only looking for a manual on a particular piece of software, this book won’t satisfy you. It tells almost nothing about whatever the popular app-of-the-day is. You are not going to be told here whether Obsidian is better than Obshmidian. Software comes and goes, while the underlying principles of the Zettelkasten approach, as presented here, can be applied in many different contexts.
What about those who aren’t all that interested in actually publishing anything, who instead just want their notes to help them remember stuff, perhaps for tests? Well, although this book focuses without apology on writing, it will still be really useful for anyone making notes as a ‘second memory’ (Luhmann’s term) because by reading this (especially the first two parts) they’ll soon be making clearer, more concise and more accessible notes, whatever they intend to use them for.
And what of those who have absolutely no interest in obscure terms like ‘Zettelkasten’, who recoil from any kind of dubious productivity fetish, and just want to get things written? This is where the book excels and where it really comes good on the promise of its title. Yes, this is a system for writing. The author, who has himself written several books, shows from his direct experience how an effective note-making practice can lead to a more natural, unforced, effective and consistent writing practice. The Zettelkasten as presented here is an approach to note-making that will simply aid writing, without wasting time or effort.
This has certainly been my experience. Before I implemented my own Zettelkasten approach I was struggling both with organising my notes and with producing coherent writing. Since then, it’s been a different story. But until now there hasn’t been a Zettelkasten guidebook I’d wholeheartedly recommend to others. Now there certainly is.
So if you want to learn quickly how to capture your ideas effectively and write productively, stress-free, then get hold of A System for Writing right now.
More about Bob Doto.
Read about the illusion of integrated thought, which is cited in chapter 7 of the book.
My take on starting a Zettelkasten: How to make a Zettelkasten from your existing deep experience.
Something from nothing is no fairy tale
As an adult, one of my favourite fairy tales is Puss in Boots.
I have immense respect for this talking cat. He has nothing going for him - not even a decent pair of shoes. And to make matters worse he finds himself lumbered with a pretty mediocre human owner.
Folklore academics have a way of classifying the tales they study. It’s called the Aarne–Thompson–Uther Index (ATU). And in this index, Puss in Boots is Type 545: the cat as helper.
That’s completely wrong.
Read it for yourself. This story is not about the frankly lacklustre youngest son of the mill. No, it’s about the cat, a cat who has almost no help, who has to do practically everything himself, and who never gives up until finally he gets what he needs.
The great writer Angela Carter would have agreed with this. She observed the cat was “the servant so much the master already“[^1]. But this is hardly controversial. Perrault’s version of the story actually has the title “The Master Cat“.
So as you probably remember, the tale begins when the cat experiences an unexpected disaster. The old miller dies, leaving the mill to his eldest son.
But the mill’s cat he leaves to the youngest son.
Not only is the cat suddenly homeless, but to make things even worse his fate is now shackled to a penniless human without prospects.
So what’s a homeless cat to do?
Why not let your reading be a smorgasbord of serendipity?
Yes indeed, why not let your reading be a smorgasbord of serendipity?
Here’s Anna Funder, author of Wifedom: Mrs Orwell’s Invisible Life, on working at the University of Melbourne English Department library as a student:
“It sounds prehistoric now, but I sat at the front desk, typing out index cards for new acquisitions or requests from staff for books or journals — anything from the latest novel, to psychoanalysis, poetry or medieval studies. I read things that had nothing to do with my studies: a smorgasbord of serendipity. Despite my time there, I have never understood the Dewey decimal system: how can numbers tell you what a book is, to a decimal point?” - Every book you could want and many more
My take on this?
HEAJ:Mundaneum by Marc Wathieu is licensed under CC BY 2.0
A minimal approach to making notes
I want a minimal approach to making notes.
I don’t want anything fancy, just enough structure to be useful.
When I see people’s souped-up Obsidian note-taking vaults my head spins (OK, I’m jealous). I also wonder, though, what extra result is achieved with a fantastically complex system. Having said that, I’m keen on people creating a working environment that works for them, and I do admire people’s creativity in this area.
I just can’t be bothered to do it myself.
When discussing the Zettelkasten approach to making notes, it seems there are a lot of different note types to consider, which confuses people. The extensive discussion about different types of notes caused by reading Sonke Ahrens’s book How to Take Smart Notes makes me think this multiple-note-types approach is just too complicated for me. So what do I do instead?
Five useful articles about writing
Here are five links with worthwhile writing advice. 🖋️
A forest of evergreen notes
Jon M Sterling, a computer scientist at Cambridge University, has created his own ‘mathematical Zettelkasten’, which he also calls ‘a forest of evergreen notes’.
He maintains a very interesting website, built using a tool he created, named, appropriately enough, Forester.
The implementation of his ideas raises all sorts of ideas and questions for me, almost all enthusiastic. Here are a few in no order at all:
Make your notes a creative working environment
“Do you have an ideal creative environment? Also do you believe the physical space influences your creativity?”
This is a question Manuel Moreale regularly asks his guests on the People and Blogs newsletter. The answers are always fascinating and well worth a read.
This got me thinking about my own working environment and maybe I overthought it. It looks like I’ve totally ignored Barry Hess’s reminder that you’re a blogger not an essayist.[^1] Anyway, here goes.
Note: This post is part of the Indieweb Carnival on creative environments.
When it comes to writing notes, how much mess is just enough?
Oliver Burkeman, author of Four Thousand Weeks, likes to keep his notes messy1:
“‘Messiness’, in this context at least, is just the state of not being so hubristic as to imagine that you know, in advance, precisely what’s required in order to do or to create something worthwhile. Which, of course, nobody does.” - The life-changing magic of not tidying up
I really appreciate the benefits of serendipity, but I also need some structure, which is why I’m happy with making atomic notes, densely linked. You might call it a Zettelkasten. Burkeman says he tried a Zettelkasten approach to his notes, but found it too organised.
That’s not at all how I’ve experienced it.
The image that for me best sums up this process of making short notes to create longer pieces of writing is that of my little worm farm. All sorts of scraps get dumped in at the top. And mostly unseen, the worms turn everything into nourishing compost.
It’s almost magical.
So instead of being obsessive, I just have a few simple rules that I mostly stick to.
And while this little system might not result in much tidiness, it’s still really neat.
Don't make a Zitatsalat out of your writing
Zitatsalat? What does that even mean?
Yes, Zitatsalat. I found this lovely but rarely used German term in the title of a book by the journalist Stephan Maus. The book’s name is Zitatsalat von Hinz & Kunz.[^1]
I love the rhyming rhythm of this compound term, but what does Zitatsalat actually mean?
Well, Zitatsalat translates as Quote Salad. It’s not a compliment.
Zitatsalat, by Stephan Maus (2002).
But what’s wrong with quoting other writers?
Work as if writing is the only thing that matters
“Work as if writing is the only thing that matters. Having a clear, tangible purpose when you consume information completely changes the way you engage with it. You’ll be more focused, more curious, more rigorous, and more demanding. You won’t waste time writing down every detail, trying to make a perfect record of everything that was said. Instead, you’ll try to learn the basics as efficiently as possible so you can get to the point where open questions arise, as these are the only questions worth writing about. Almost every aspect of your life will change when you live as if you are working toward publication. You’ll read differently, becoming more focused on the parts most relevant to the argument you’re building. You’ll ask sharper questions, no longer satisfied with vague explanations or leaps in logic. You’ll naturally seek venues to present your work, since the feedback you receive will propel your thinking forward like nothing else. You’ll begin to act more deliberately, thinking several steps beyond what you’re reading to consider its implications and potential.”
The card index system is ‘a thing alive’ - or is it?
Niklas Luhmann, the famed sociologist of Bielefeld, Germany, wrote of how he saw his voluminous working notes (his ‘Zettelkasten’) as a kind of conversation partner, which surprised him from time to time. But he wasn’t the first to suggest that a person’s notes might be in some sense alive.
At the end of the Nineteenth century there was a massive explosion of technological change which affected almost every aspect of society. People marveled at new invention after new invention and there was a tendency to see mechanical and especially electrical advances as somehow endowed with life. The phonograph, for example, was held to be alive and print adverts even claimed it had a soul.
How to start a Zettelkasten from your existing deep experience
An organized collection of notes (a Zettelkasten) can help you make sense of your existing knowledge, and then make better use of it. Make your notes personal and make them relevant. Resist the urge to make them exhaustive.
💬"At what point does something become part of your mind, instead of just a convenient note taking device?"
A question discussed with philosopher David Chalmers, on the Philosophy Bites podcast.
🎙️Technophilosophy and the extended mind
So much of this depends on what ‘the mind’ means. Meanwhile, we do seamlessly interact with our note-making tools, to achieve more than we could without them.
Give it, give it all, give it now
Atomic notes - all in one place
From today there’s a new category in the navigation bar of Writing Slowly.
‘Atomic Notes’ now shows all posts about making notes.
How to make effective notes is a long-standing obsession of mine, but this new category was inspired by Bob Doto, who has his own fantastic resource page: All things Zettelkasten.
The Atomic Notes category is now highlighted on the site navigation bar.
And if you’d like to follow along with your favourite feed reader,there’s also a dedicated RSS feed (in addition to the more general whole-site feed).1
But if there’s a particular key-word you’re looking for here at Writing Slowly, you can use the built-in search.
And if you prefer completely random discovery, the site’s lucky dip feature has you covered.
Connect with me on micro.blog or on Mastodon. And on Reddit, I’m - you guessed it - @atomicnotes.
See also:
Assigning posts to a new category with micro.blog