The FUN and EFFICIENT note-taking system I use in my PhD
Summary
TLDRIn this video, Morgan, a fifth-year PhD candidate, introduces the Zettelkasten method, an effective knowledge management system for note-taking and idea organization. Originally used by Nicholas Luman in the 1960s, the method is enhanced by modern software like Obsidian, which automates the linking of thoughts. Morgan shares core principles of the system, including writing regularly, valuing all knowledge, making notes on complete thoughts, and interconnecting ideas. She demonstrates how to use Obsidian to transform fleeting notes into permanent ones, connect them with existing knowledge, and leverage the system for efficient writing and critical thinking.
Takeaways
- 🎓 Morgan, a fifth-year PhD candidate, found traditional note-taking methods insufficient for her doctoral studies.
- 🔍 She sought a system to store and access vast amounts of information, interconnected for creative and critical thinking.
- 📚 Morgan's undergraduate note-taking involved highlighting and margin notes, which became cumbersome for research.
- 💡 She discovered the Zettelkasten method, a knowledge management system used by Nicholas Luman in the 1960s.
- 💻 The method is enhanced by modern software like Obsidian, which automates the linking of ideas, surpassing traditional paper-based systems.
- ✍️ The Zettelkasten method emphasizes writing in your own words to capture thoughts effectively.
- 🧠 It views all knowledge as valuable, not just academic sources, encouraging a non-hierarchical organization of ideas.
- 🔗 Each note should represent a single, irreducible thought, interconnected with existing knowledge for a robust network.
- 📝 Morgan demonstrated how to use Obsidian to transform fleeting notes into permanent notes and connect them within the system.
- 🔑 The power of Zettelkasten lies in the quantity and quality of connections, facilitating easy retrieval and synthesis of ideas for writing.
Q & A
What was the main issue Morgan faced with their note-taking method during undergraduate studies?
-Morgan's issue was that the way they took notes in undergrad wasn't sufficient for their PhD program, as it didn't allow for storing and easily accessing large amounts of interconnected information when writing papers.
Why did Morgan start looking for a new note-taking method?
-Morgan needed a method to store huge amounts of information that was easily accessible and fully interconnected with their other knowledge to facilitate creative and critical thinking in their academic work.
What is the Zettelkasten method and who originally used it?
-The Zettelkasten method is a knowledge management system used for note-taking and organizing thoughts. It was originally used by Nicholas Luman in the 1960s.
What software does Morgan use for their Zettelkasten system and why is it advantageous?
-Morgan uses Obsidian, a software that helps in connecting thoughts and organizing notes digitally. It's advantageous because it automates the linking process between notes, making it easier to manage and access the interconnected knowledge.
What are the four core principles of the Zettelkasten method that Morgan mentions?
-The four core principles are: 1) Write all the time in your own words. 2) Everything is knowledge, not just academic sources. 3) Thought is the basic unit of knowledge, making notes irreducible yet complete. 4) Knowledge is interconnected, so every note should connect to existing knowledge.
How does Morgan capture fleeting notes and what is the purpose of these notes?
-Morgan captures fleeting notes by jotting down thoughts, ideas, and information that occur to them throughout the day. The purpose is to later transform these fleeting notes into permanent notes within the Zettelkasten system.
What is the process Morgan follows to take permanent notes from fleeting notes?
-Morgan reviews each fleeting note and decides if it's important enough to be written as a permanent note. If so, they write the note in their own words, making it as irreducible as possible while still expressing a complete thought.
How does Morgan use Obsidian to connect notes and what is the benefit of this?
-Morgan uses Obsidian to create links between notes, which helps in connecting thoughts and ideas. The benefit is that it creates a network of interconnected thoughts, making it easier to retrieve and use information when writing papers or essays.
What is the significance of naming notes in Morgan's Zettelkasten system?
-Naming notes with unique identifiers is significant because it allows for easy retrieval and avoids confusion when linking to specific ideas within the system.
Why is it important to trust the system according to Morgan?
-Trusting the system is important because the value of the Zettelkasten system increases with the number and quality of connections between notes. The more notes and connections made, the more useful the system becomes for generating and organizing ideas.
How does Morgan suggest using the Zettelkasten system for writing projects?
-Morgan suggests using the Zettelkasten system by pulling out already written and connected notes for essays, arranging them in a logical order, and then focusing on connecting those thoughts to create a flowing paper.
Outlines
🎓 Transitioning to Advanced Note-Taking: The Zettelkasten Method
Morgan, a fifth-year PhD candidate, discusses the inadequacy of undergraduate note-taking methods for her PhD program. She needed a system to store vast amounts of information in an accessible, interconnected manner to facilitate creative and critical thinking for her papers and dissertation. She experimented with various note-taking methods and discovered the Zettelkasten method, originally used by Nicholas Luman in the 1960s. This method is enhanced by modern software like Obsidian, which automates the linking of thoughts. Morgan emphasizes the importance of a knowledge management system and shares the core principles of Zettelkasten, which includes writing in one's own words, considering all encountered information as valuable, making notes as irreducible as possible while maintaining a complete thought, and ensuring knowledge is interconnected.
📚 Implementing Zettelkasten for Book Notes
Morgan demonstrates how to apply the Zettelkasten method when reading a book, specifically 'Punished by Rewards' by Alfie Kohn. She uses sticky notes to mark passages and ideas she wants to remember, ensuring to note the page number for future reference. She then transforms these fleeting notes into permanent notes by writing them in her own words and creating a bibliographic note for the book. The note includes the author's name, publication date, and an MLA citation. Morgan shows how to use Obsidian to create links between notes, forming a network of interconnected thoughts. She also discusses the process of taking notes from a book, turning them into individual notes, and connecting them to other relevant notes within the system.
🔗 Linking Ideas and Expanding Knowledge Networks
Morgan continues her explanation of the Zettelkasten method by focusing on how to link ideas within Obsidian. She shows the process of creating a new note from a quote in the book, rephrasing it in her own words, and naming the note to reflect its core idea. She then connects this note to other relevant notes, such as one about students being actors in the world, to create a network of related thoughts. Morgan emphasizes the importance of making connections between notes to enhance the system's value and usefulness for writing and learning. She also introduces the graph view in Obsidian, which visually represents the interconnectedness of her notes, and encourages viewers to trust the system for effective knowledge management.
🌟 Trusting the System and Embracing the Zettelkasten Journey
In the final paragraph, Morgan adds a fifth principle to the Zettelkasten method: trust the system. She explains that the value of Zettelkasten lies in the quantity and quality of connections made between notes. As more notes are added and connected, the system becomes more valuable and efficient for generating ideas and writing projects. Morgan encourages viewers to adopt the Zettelkasten method, reflecting on how it contrasts with traditional notebooks, which can become chaotic and less useful over time. She invites viewers to engage with her content, ask questions, and consider subscribing for more videos on knowledge management and learning. Morgan concludes by encouraging viewers to take fleeting notes from the video and turn them into permanent notes in their own Zettelkasten system.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Zettelkasten
💡Note-taking
💡Interconnected
💡PhD Candidate
💡Theater and Performance Studies
💡Knowledge Management
💡Obsidian
💡Fleeting Notes
💡Permanent Notes
💡Citation
Highlights
Morgan, a fifth-year PhD candidate, realized the need for a more effective note-taking method for their research.
The Zettelkasten method was introduced as a solution for managing and interconnecting large amounts of information.
Nicholas Luman's Zettelkasten method from the 1960s is adapted for modern use with digital tools.
Obsidian software is Morgan's choice for implementing the Zettelkasten method digitally.
Four core principles of the Zettelkasten method were outlined: writing regularly, valuing all knowledge, considering thoughts as the basic unit, and recognizing knowledge as interconnected.
The process of making fleeting notes to capture immediate thoughts and information was explained.
Transforming fleeting notes into permanent notes involves writing in one's own words and making ideas irreducible.
Morgan demonstrates how to create a bibliographic note and link it to a book in the Obsidian software.
The importance of naming notes after single ideas for effective retrieval and connection was discussed.
Morgan shows how to connect notes within Obsidian to create a network of thought.
The graph view in Obsidian was introduced as a way to visualize the interconnectedness of notes.
A fifth principle was added: trusting the system for the accumulation of notes and connections to enhance productivity.
Morgan encourages viewers to adopt the Zettelkasten method and share their experiences or ask questions for further guidance.
The video concludes with an invitation for viewers to subscribe for more content on knowledge management and related topics.
Transcripts
hello my name is morgan and i am a fifth
year phd candidate in theater and
performance studies and when i started
my phd program i quickly realized that
the way i was taking notes in undergrad
just wasn't going to cut it for this new
program so i started looking into
different methods of note-taking that
might help me out in my phd and
specifically what i needed was a way to
store huge amounts of information so
that it was easily accessible at a later
date when i needed it to write a paper
and preferably all of that information
would be
fully interconnected with all of my
other knowledge so that i can make
surprising connections between my
thoughts and turn them into creative and
critical thinking within my papers and
especially within my dissertation but
that is kind of a big ask for a
note-taking method to do and what i was
doing in my undergrad was just
highlighting quotes in books and writing
in the margins and i would take notes on
notebooks and yes i would organize those
notes kind of with a table of contents
marking where each thing was in each
book but then when i actually went to
write a paper i would have like a stack
of five notebooks i would have to be
flipping through to see if i had written
down the thought that i wanted to use
for that paper but i couldn't even fully
remember when and where i learned that
thought and the only organizational
method was when and where i learned that
thought because you know it was
organized by the courses i was taking
not by logically where that information
belongs in my brain so i i had a bit of
a problem
and whenever i went onto youtube say to
look for a tutorial on how to take
better notes it wouldn't be a holistic
system of how to like store and organize
those notes and i now realize the piece
that i was missing was a knowledge
management system and i am so happy to
tell you that i have found a method that
works for me and i hope it will work for
you too because it is the method i'm
going to be sharing in this video the
system i'm going to be teaching you
today and then walking you through how i
use it is called the zettelkasten method
and this was originally used by nicholas
lumen in the 1960s and we are at an even
greater advantage than lumen was because
we have computers and there are so many
softwares online that you can download
to your computer and do all of the work
of connecting your thought for you
personally the software i use is called
obsidian but there's many other choices
out there so find one that works for you
i think that the settle casting makes
taking and storing notes and learning
things actually like fun and efficient
and
almost easy dare i say it yes it still
takes work but the effectiveness of this
system just makes it so much fun to keep
using the system because like you can
feel the productivity oozing out of you
before i show you the way that i use
this system for myself though i want to
give you some core principles to think
about when you're taking notes because
this system is totally malleable to suit
your needs so your system is not going
to look exactly like my system but there
are four core principles that you should
keep in mind and aim to adhere to when
you are setting up your settle casting
system so the first principle is
write all the time whenever you can
write in your own words that's how notes
are going to be stored in this system is
paragraph form writing in your own words
you can take those notes any way you
want you can even audio record those
notes if you want but the point is if
you don't write it down or speak it into
a microphone or something then you're
going to lose that knowledge in the
recesses of your brain the second core
principle you should remember is that
everything is knowledge it's not just
what is in your school books and what
your teacher says that is valuable
information it's everything you
encounter like your experiences or your
memories or your shower thoughts etc the
zettlecaston system is a
non-hierarchical way of organizing your
knowledge so it doesn't think one bit of
information is more valuable or
inherently better than any other piece
of information and you should make your
brain operate the same way the third
core principle
is that thought is the basic unit of
knowledge in this system so when you do
take a note you should think about how
to make it as irreducible as possible
and yet still one complete thought
that's going to make more sense later
but that principle is there so that you
can adhere to the fourth principle which
is your knowledge is interconnected
every time you store a note you should
be asking yourself how does this connect
to something that is already in my
subtle casten system and what do i
already know that connects back to this
your knowledge is just a network of
interconnected thoughts the power of
this system comes in the quantity and
quality of the connections between your
thoughts so now that you've got those
core principles in your head i am going
to walk you through how i use my
zettlecaston system in the obsidian
software to take notes and capture my
knowledge and connect between all of the
thought in my brain and also how to use
that to create new thought and then
create writing products based on that
thought the very first step that i take
is to make fleeting notes and this is
just how you capture bits of knowledge
and information and ideas and thought
that occurs to you over the course of
your day this can be anything it can be
a thought that popped into your head
while you're taking a walk and so you
write it down on a little notepad or
take an audio memo or it can be your
notes from lecture in my case for this
video
i am going to show you how i take notes
on a book specifically alfie cone's book
punished by rewards while i am reading a
book i actually don't physically write
out notes in my own words because i want
to be immersed in the ideas of the book
i don't want that disrupting my reading
experience so instead
i
tab up the book with little sticky notes
that are highlighting moments i want to
remember from this book because i think
i'm going to turn it into a note later
and then if there's something that just
highlighting it wouldn't suffice for the
thought that was going through my brain
i will put a larger sticky note on that
page and i will write down the thought
that i was having at that moment really
the important thing when reading a book
and taking notes is to remember the
thought you were having and why you
wanted to maybe save that idea but also
to note down where you found that idea
so that you can cite it and find it
later so for me that's easy because i've
literally put sticky notes on the page
and location where i found it but if
you're taking notes off of the book then
you'll want to write down the page
number so the second step is to take
permanent notes based on your fleeting
notes this is when you actually write
down the ideas in your own words in
paragraph form and make that idea as
irreducible as possible so once i've
tabbed up a book or just a chapter of a
book i will go through each sticky note
and i'll ask myself is this an important
enough thing that i want to write a note
about it and if it is then i'll write
the note and i'll take the sticky note
out that's especially good for library
books because i have to return this to
the library so i can't be writing in the
margins you can always write out all
your notes and then divide them up into
bite-sized thought bits later and
writing the note can be done on paper
and then transcribed into obsidian or
you can type it directly into obsidian
if you'd like
it's all totally up to you you don't
even have to use a computer ever if you
don't want to in fact nicholas lumens
subtle casting system was in a series of
slip boxes so he would write out his
note on a little cue card and he would
give it a unique identifier and then he
would slot it in his box after a
corresponding note and then he would
literally write out connections to other
little pieces of paper that were in his
boxes with their unique identifiers so
he knew where to look that seems awfully
laborious to me in an age where we do
have computers but it's up to you
let's head into my obsidian now to check
out what my subtle casting looks like so
welcome to my desktop and welcome to my
obsidian folder this is a folder that is
just housed on my computer and inside of
the folder are markdown files which is
like just a basic text file so at any
point in time i can grab any of my notes
and
print them or print my entire note
system if i want to i also have a backup
of this folder in my google drive so
that i never lose my subtle cast in
system and i will include a link in the
description where you can download
obsidian for yourself so how do i turn
my fleeting notes that i took while
reading alfie cone's book punished by
rewards and turn them into permanent
notes when you enter obsidian you can
see on the left hand side these are all
of the notes that i've taken and on the
right hand side this is where all of the
backlinks will be because obsidian helps
you connect between your notes and
creates little links so you can just
like click between all of the thoughts
that you have the first thing i do when
i want to
put a source like a book into my
obsidian is i create a note for the book
i title all of my bibliographic notes
after the last name of the author and
the date when the book was published and
then i put my mla citation right at the
top there personally because i know what
i'm going to be using these notes for
it's going to be to write papers or blog
posts or etc in the future and then
i put my first link in here and i want
to link this book to another note called
bibliography and if i control click into
that note it's just a blank note but you
can see here on the right hand side are
all of the sources that i have
referenced within my obsidian subtle
casting system so let's go back where's
the case to
this book that we're talking about today
now i go about
opening my book and turning to the first
sticky that i have in here and the first
sticky was for this quote
so i write the quote in there but of
course this quote is not in my own words
and what's the first principle of this
system it's writing in your own words is
the only thing that matters so i'm gonna
go
and turn this into
my own words there it is i now have a
note my note says
while university should be a place where
students discover who they are and what
they are interested in oftentimes they
are instead performing for their
professors to get the grade so they turn
into the people they think their
professors want them to be instead of
creative critical thinkers in their own
right in this way and then i link i'm
going to link the book because this is
actually going to be its own separate
note from the bibliographic note so i'm
i'm actually linking to this book so
that i know where it came from directly
so cohn 1993 writes grades reduce a
student's sense of control over his own
fate and can induce a blind conformity
to others wishes and then i put the page
number so that i know where i got this
from and i don't even have to reference
the book again the next time i want to
use this in a piece of writing so that's
my entire note
and then i ask myself what is this note
about because it needs a name i'm going
to create a new note
the way in obsidian you create new notes
is you go
double square bracket and then you put
the name of the note in there so
what is this note about i think the
thesis of this note is something like
grades inhibit students from becoming
independent thinkers i'm going to write
that down
the reason this is kind of grayed out
right now is because i haven't actually
turned it into a note so i'm going to
take my writing there
get it out of the bibliographic note
and put it into
this note and there we go
there's my note it's written in my own
words it's really small it expresses a
single idea and i've actually named the
note after that single idea you don't
have to name it after the idea that's
just what i do you can use like a time
date stamp as long as all of the names
of your notes are unique identifiers so
you're not pointing to multiple places
at once and then if we look at the right
hand side you can see that there's one
other note that has reference to this
note and it's just the bibliographic
note but that's not enough that's not a
good enough connection just the book it
came from that's not connecting to my
other knowledge so i'm gonna think to
myself what other ideas might this be
related to and i actually took a note
the other day about how students are
actors in the world
in their own right and that's kind of
related to this let's find that note uh
students students are actors in the
world there it is
i think the direct connection that i
want to make is that it is important
that students make their own choices in
school because students are actors in
the world so if they're just making
decisions based on what they think their
professors want then that's the
professor getting to act in the world
through the student that students are
real people
and what they do in school matters in
the real world so
now i have a direct connection to this
other idea from a different book let's
click on it
students are actors in the world
okay this is actually an idea
that i found in a book
by eternity mardis that was published in
2020
and it was an idea found on page 25. she
also points out that students get
absolved of faults because university
isn't the real world
so i can see there's also a direct
connection to these other ideas and then
on the right hand side i can see oh my
goodness there are even more notes that
connect to this idea that students are
actors in the real world so maybe i'm
writing a paper about this idea and i
need i need more things like um
how there are consequences to dismissing
the ideas of students as
not real because it's part of school so
i'm gonna click into that note because
it's clearly relevant and that's related
to this other text that i haven't made a
link to yet but i should
oh it's connected the idea that student
youth aren't taken seriously etc etc
let's go back to our main note that
we're working with personally within my
bibliographic note i keep all of the
notes that
are connected to it i will go through
the entire book looking at every single
sticky that i stuck in there and turning
it into notes within this document
sometimes i will stick all of my quotes
and notes into this document and then
slowly turn them into their separate
notes and then go to the process of
connecting those things or you can do it
one by one like i just showed you now
sometimes i will spend entire sessions
in my zettlecaston system just making
connections between notes that haven't
been connected yet the last thing that
i'll show you in obsidian which is just
kind of a cool thing i think is
the graph view you can see there's so
many connections that i'm making between
so much thought it's all interconnected
and it looks like a mess when you look
at this network and these nodes
in this graph view and it is a bit of a
mess and that's what makes it so hard to
write things and remember things without
a system like zettelkasten helping you
out because all of the connections
between everything that i know are
already made so when i go to write an
essay on anything i've already written
down that thought and i've already
connected that thought to 20 other
thoughts and i can just pull those notes
out of my subtle casting they're written
in my own words already and i can plop
them into an essay and just put them in
an order that makes sense to me then all
i have to do is the work of connecting
those thoughts and making the paper flow
but the writing's already been done the
writing's been happening throughout all
of my classes and all of my readings all
of the time i think the only thing i
want to leave you with now is one last
fifth principle that i'm going to tack
on here at the end and that is to trust
the system if you just take one note in
your zettle castan nothing magical will
happen it is in the number and quality
of connections that your settle cast in
is going to work for you and that's one
of the big draws for me for zettelkasten
as opposed to notebooks because the more
notes you take in a notebook the more
chaotic everything becomes and the less
useful because the more notebooks you
have to shuffle through to find your
thoughts
but in settle castin the more notes you
take and the more connections you make
between those notes the more valuable
your zettlecaston gets and the easier it
is to come up with ideas for writing
projects and actually start writing the
projects so i hope this video has been
useful to you i'm sure that i will be
making more videos on this topic if
there's anything you specifically want
to ask or want me to make a video about
let me know and i will make it happen i
will also be putting links in the
description box below to where you can
download obsidian as well as external
information from other people that i
think have done a good job explaining
how to use the settle casting as always
you can give me a comment to let me know
what you are thinking about ask any
questions tell me how you currently take
notes whether you think that you want to
switch to the zettlecaston system thank
you for watching everybody i hope that
you took some fleeting notes during this
video that you are now going to turn
into permanent notes in your own
zettlecaston system and connect them to
all of your other knowledges if you want
more content like this i mostly talk
about books that i'm reading but i am
also going to start doing more teaching
and learning and knowledge management
style videos so if you're interested in
that content then feel free to subscribe
to my channel and i'll see you in
another video soon
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