My FULL Obsidian Zettelkasten Workflow in 10 minutes

Summary

This video script introduces the concept of 'smart notes' as a method for effective note-taking and knowledge management. It outlines the process of transforming fleeting thoughts into reference and literature notes, which are then synthesized into permanent notes that form the basis for idea generation and content creation. The script highlights the use of modern tools like Obsidian for managing and linking notes, emphasizing the importance of summarization and personal interpretation of information. It also touches on the benefits of this system for improving thinking, speaking, and writing skills, and mentions a sponsor, Brilliant.org, for interactive learning in math, data science, and computer science.

Takeaways

• 📝 The importance of transforming passive note-taking into active 'smart notes' that generate ideas and become increasingly valuable over time.
• 🔄 Utilizing the Zettelkasten method, adapted for modern tools like Obsidian, to create a system for note-taking and idea generation.
• 🌟 The three types of notes: fleeting notes (quick captures), reference notes (direct quotes from sources), and permanent notes (distilled concepts).
• 📚 Reference notes store exact quotes from literature to be used for writing literature notes, which are personal interpretations of the author's thoughts.
• 📃 Literature notes are written in one's own words, summarizing insights from reference notes and allowing for better personal understanding.
• 🔗 Linking notes within the system facilitates easy navigation and connection of ideas, making the note-taking process more dynamic and interactive.
• 💡 The process of summarizing and creating literature notes encourages deeper thinking and retention of information, as opposed to just highlighting or copying.
• 📈 Atomic, concise, and understandable permanent notes form the backbone of the Zettelkasten system, allowing for easy integration and understanding of concepts.
• 🔗 Permanent notes should be interconnected, contributing to the overall knowledge base and enabling the creation of more complex works.
• 📝 The ultimate goal of this system is not only personal learning and growth but also the potential to create publishable works from the synthesized knowledge.
• 🚀 The benefits of this method extend beyond just note-taking, improving overall thinking, articulating, and writing skills, which are valuable in any field.

Q & A

What is the main difference between smart notes and passive note-taking?

Smart notes involve actively engaging with the material and creating your own content, whereas passive note-taking involves copying or highlighting interesting information without further processing or analysis.

What is the purpose of reference notes?

Reference notes are used to capture someone else's thoughts, typically direct quotes from books, academic papers, or articles, to help in writing literature notes and building your knowledge base.

How does the speaker use Readwise to manage reference notes?

The speaker uses Readwise to import highlights from books and articles into Obsidian, creating a Readwise folder in their Vault to store all reference notes from various sources.

What is the significance of literature notes?

Literature notes are your own interpretation of an author's thoughts, written in your own words. They help you internalize and understand the material better, leading to more effective learning and knowledge retention.

Why does the speaker prefer to keep separate files for reference notes and literature notes?

Keeping separate files allows the speaker to be less selective when highlighting, read more freely, and focus on the text itself without worrying about whether something should be highlighted or not. It also helps in organizing and reviewing the most relevant information more efficiently.

How does the speaker ensure that their literature notes are effective?

The speaker ensures effectiveness by summarizing the main ideas, writing down their personal takeaways, and being extremely selective about what goes into the literature notes. They also link to the exact location of highlights for easy reference and future review.

What is the role of permanent notes in the zettelkasten system?

Permanent notes are atomic, standalone concepts and ideas that are independent of their original context. They are derived from literature notes and multiple sources, and they form the basis for creating content and generating new ideas.

How does the speaker decide what to include in a permanent note?

The speaker includes in a permanent note concepts that have been linked to from multiple literature notes, indicating that the idea is significant and has been thought about from various perspectives. This ensures that the permanent note is comprehensive and well-informed.

What are some benefits of using the zettelkasten method for note-taking and learning?

Benefits include improved thinking and articulation skills, better insights and connections over time, and the ability to generate content and ideas exponentially as the system grows.

How does the speaker's use of Obsidian enhance their zettelkasten workflow?

Obsidian allows the speaker to easily link notes, create a network of interconnected ideas, and build a knowledge base that is easily accessible and organized. The ability to link and cross-reference notes is crucial for the zettelkasten method.

What is the final step in the zettelkasten process according to the speaker?

The final step is to use the content from multiple permanent notes to write published work, such as academic papers, books, or articles, sharing the knowledge and insights gained from the system with a wider audience.

Outlines

00:00

📚 Smart Notes for Lasting Knowledge

The first paragraph introduces the concept of smart notes, which are not just passive copies of information but actively created thoughts that become your own. The speaker shares their workflow based on the Zettelkasten method, adapted for modern tools like Obsidian. The paragraph emphasizes the importance of moving beyond just capturing highlights to creating reference notes and literature notes for deeper understanding and knowledge retention.

05:01

🔗 Linking Ideas with Literature Notes

This section delves into the process of creating literature notes, which are personal interpretations of reference notes. The author discusses the use of tools like Readwise to import highlights into Obsidian and the rationale for keeping separate reference and literature notes. The benefits of summarizing and linking ideas are highlighted, as well as the importance of being selective with highlights to maintain the value of literature notes.

10:01

💡 Generating Insights with Permanent Notes

The third paragraph focuses on permanent notes, which are independent concepts and ideas. The speaker illustrates how multiple literature notes can link to a single permanent note, which is only written when there's enough content to form a cohesive idea. The process of writing permanent notes is discussed, emphasizing their atomic nature, conciseness, and understandability. The paragraph concludes with the potential of using these notes for content creation and the benefits of this method for improving thinking, speaking, and writing skills.

📝 Capturing Ideas for Later Processing

The final paragraph briefly mentions a separate video where the speaker discusses how they capture ideas and thoughts for later processing in Obsidian. It serves as a teaser for additional content that provides further insight into the speaker's note-taking and knowledge management system.

Keywords

💡Smart Notes

Smart Notes refer to a system of note-taking that goes beyond passive copying or highlighting. It involves actively engaging with the material, creating notes that are uniquely yours, and linking them to form a network of ideas. In the video, smart notes are contrasted with traditional note-taking methods, emphasizing their ability to generate ideas and serve as a foundation for a knowledge management system.

💡Zettelkasten

Zettelkasten is a German term that translates to 'box of index cards' and refers to a method of note-taking and knowledge organization. The concept was created in the 1950s and has been adapted for use with modern tools. It emphasizes the creation of permanent notes that are interconnected, allowing for the easy retrieval and synthesis of information. In the video, the methodology behind Zettelkasten is discussed as the basis for the speaker's note-taking workflow.

💡Obsidian

Obsidian is a modern tool used for note-taking, knowledge management, and idea generation. It allows users to create, link, and organize notes in a digital environment. In the context of the video, Obsidian is highlighted as the tool the speaker has been using for nearly three years to manage their Zettelkasten system, although they acknowledge that other tools can be used as well.

💡Reference Notes

Reference Notes are direct quotes taken from someone else's work, used to capture and store information from books, academic papers, articles, and other sources. They serve as a raw material for further processing and are distinct from personal interpretations or summaries. In the video, the speaker explains the importance of reference notes in the note-taking process and how they are used to create literature notes.

💡Literature Notes

Literature Notes are personal interpretations or summaries of reference notes, written in the note-taker's own words. They represent the individual's understanding and insights gained from the original material. The video emphasizes the value of creating literature notes to internalize and reflect on the information, which is a critical step in the Zettelkasten method.

💡Permanent Notes

Permanent Notes are original ideas or concepts that are independent of their original context. They are derived from literature notes and are meant to be part of a larger, interconnected system of knowledge. In the video, the speaker describes how permanent notes are created from multiple literature notes that link to a common theme or idea, and how they form the basis for future content creation.

💡Linking

Linking is the process of creating connections between notes, which is central to the Zettelkasten method. It allows for the association of ideas, concepts, and information across different sources, facilitating the retrieval of knowledge and the generation of new insights. In the video, the speaker explains how linking is used to relate reference notes to literature notes and to build a network of permanent notes.

💡Idea Generation

Idea Generation is the process of creating new ideas or concepts by combining existing knowledge in novel ways. In the context of the video, it is a key benefit of the smart notes system, where the interconnected network of notes leads to the emergence of new ideas and insights. The speaker emphasizes that this system turns notes into a powerful tool for generating content and fostering creativity.

💡Content Creation

Content Creation refers to the process of producing original written, visual, or audio material. In the video, it is presented as a final step in the note-taking process, where the accumulated knowledge and ideas from permanent notes are used to write published works such as academic papers, books, or articles. The speaker highlights the potential of the Zettelkasten system to support content creation by providing a rich source of interconnected ideas.

💡Brilliant.org

Brilliant.org is an online learning platform that offers interactive courses in math, data science, and computer science. It is mentioned in the video as a sponsor and is described as a resource for learning these subjects in an interactive way, tailored to individual needs, and at one's own pace. The platform is used as an analogy to the smart notes system, emphasizing the value of active learning and the development of skills over time.

Highlights

The video introduces the concept of smart notes, emphasizing that they are not just passive copies or highlights but active creations that generate ideas.

Smart notes exponentially increase the usefulness of your note-taking system, turning it into an idea generation machine.

The video discusses the methodology behind Zettelkasten, which was created in the 1950s, and how it has been adapted for modern tools.

The speaker uses Obsidian as a tool for managing smart notes, but acknowledges that other tools can be used as long as they support linking between notes.

Reference notes are direct quotes from someone else's work, captured to aid in writing literature notes.

The speaker uses Readwise to import reference notes from various sources into Obsidian.

Literature notes are personal interpretations of reference notes, written in the note-taker's own words.

The process of summarizing and writing what you got from a source forces you to think deeply about the material.

Permanent notes are concepts and ideas independent of their original context, meant to be atomic and concise.

Multiple literature notes can link to a single permanent note, which helps in creating a comprehensive understanding of a topic.

The video highlights the importance of learning by doing, which is a core principle of the sponsor, Brilliant.org.

Brilliant.org offers interactive learning in math, data science, and computer science, tailoring content to individual needs.

The video emphasizes that the process of making smart notes leads to better thinking, speaking, and writing skills.

The speaker encourages the audience to explore the method of capturing ideas and thoughts for later processing in Obsidian, as shown in a separate video.

Transcripts

if you want to make notes that last a

lifetime notes to help you think and

even create content then this video is

for you because most people just take

notes they passively copy or highlight

whatever they find interesting and call

it a day but when you make smart notes

you're creating something it's no longer

someone else's thoughts it's your own

and as you make more and more smart

notes your system becomes exponentially

more useful to the point that it becomes

an idea generation machine this is what

makes Smart notes smart and I'm going to

go over my entire workflow which is

based on this little casting system but

the methodology behind zettel castan

which was created in 1950s is a bit

old-fashioned after all it's not like

people back then had access to the same

tools that we have today so while the ID

is the same the execution has been

shaped by the capabilities of modern

tools one of such tools is Obsidian

which I've been using for nearly three

years but if you use something else

that's fine as long as you can link to

different notes also bear in mind that

this is just the way I do it it's not

the only way and it might not even be

the best way because the best way is

whatever works for you and lastly I'm

going to mention a lot of fancy

terminology that may sound intimidating

at first but once you understand it

you'll see that it's actually very

simple alright so first up we have

fleeting notes these are notes to

quickly capture what's on your mind and

they're meant to be deleted I'm not

going to spend any time on this as I

don't use proper fleeting notes I think

of them more as to do's and I've made a

separate video on how I capture my ideas

and thoughts which you can find right

here in this video I'm Only focusing on

reference literature and permanent notes

and each of them has its own individual

chapter and let's start with reference

notes these are meant to capture someone

else's thoughts so if you read a book an

academic paper an article whatever it

may be and you highlight stuff those

highlights are your reference notes

these notes should only have direct

quotes of someone else's work and not

your own the whole point of having

reference notes is to help us in writing

literature notes which we'll get to in

the next chapter there's a lot of

different ways to get reference notes

into obsidian I personally use read wise

so in my Vault there's a readwise folder

which contains all of of my reference

notes from all this stuff I've captured

read wise is great but it isn't free and

if you want double the free trial to see

if you really use it you can use my link

in the description and if you want a

free alternative I recommend looking

into zotero or you can always do it

yourself and most people stop here they

don't go any further they see stuff they

like they capture it in their app of

choice and that's it they see this next

step as a waste of time but really the

true waste of time is stopping here

because you've consumed a bunch of stuff

and you're not doing anything with it

you're just archiving it and before you

know it you'll have hundreds of

highlights that you'll never see again

if you want to actually build knowledge

and stuff that lasts we need to continue

to The Next Step which are literature

notes a literature note is a note you

make in your own words about a reference

note it's your own interpretation of the

author's thoughts it's what you

personally got out of it there's no

right or wrong way to write these as

long as it's in your own words let's

take this book here as an example I read

it on my Kindle I took my highlights and

through read wise those highlights were

exported to obsidian and I can find it

here in My Vault Under the device folder

that's my reference note I then created

a new note which is this one right here

where I summarized the book and I wrote

down what I got out of it that's the

literature note over here on the top you

can see I have a literature tag and I

also have a medium here because I also

take literature notes on academic papers

articles and so on now you might be

thinking why not just keep one note as

opposed to keeping a reference and a

literature note and sure you can do that

but I prefer to keep two different files

because while all the highlights I take

make it to obsidian I try to put only

the most relevant ones in the literature

note the fact that I keep two different

files gives me permission to not be so

selective with what to highlight it lets

me read more freely and really focus on

the text itself instead of spending time

thinking like should this really be

highlighted or maybe I should have

highlighted that end up sitting makes it

really easy to Simply link the exact

location of a highlight so in here you

see that I'm linking to not only this

note but this exact highlight so if I go

on it it's going to take me right there

and when I'm writing the little future

note I normally open up the reference

note on one side and the original note I

want to write on the other the simple

Act of summarizing a book and writing

down what you got out of it may seem

pointless and even a waste of time but

in my opinion not doing it is what is a

true waste of time taking notes

highlighting Etc takes no thinking at

all it's the act of summarizing and

writing what you got out of it that

really makes you think about what you

read and Simply Having the predefined

headers of summary and my takeaways

forces me to think because I can't just

leave them empty and then down here I

have a list of all the chapters in the

book and as you can see the majority

were left empty but that doesn't mean

that they were a waste of time or that I

got nothing out of it in fact I even

took highlights on those chapters but

I'm extremely selective on what goes in

the literature notes this goes back to

what I said earlier about the benefits

of separating a reference and a

literature note and in the case of this

book these were my thoughts on what I

thought truly mattered and if I want to

look at what the author said I can just

click on any of these references and

it's going to take me to the author's

exact quote and if I want to re-read

that exact part of the book I can just

see what chapter it was and reread just

that chapter so depending on the medium

this will either be chapters Pages or

even timestamps I don't like to impose

strict rules on myself but I do try to

keep the literature note as short as

possible because that's what's hard it's

the same thought process as when I plan

out my YouTube videos doing a 30 minute

video is easy what's hard is turning

that 30 minute video into 10 or 15

minutes without losing anything of value

and the same applies here I want to say

the most that I can in the least amount

of words and more often than not as I

make my literature notes on a book it

usually leads me to think of one or more

ideas and I don't have to act on them

right away I can just link them that's

all it takes in fact I often don't act

on an idea until I find that I have

multiple notes pointing to it which

means that I'm almost never starting

from scratch and this usually marks the

starting point for a permanent note

which we'll get to in the next chapter

and even if you do nothing else and stop

here you're doing way more than the vast

majority of people because you're

learning by doing which is exactly what

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sponsoring this video alright so now

comes the permanent notes these notes

are fully hours they're not reference

notes as that's someone else's thoughts

and they're not literature notes as

that's our interpretation of someone

else's thoughts permanent notes are

Concepts and ideas independent of their

original context let's take a look at an

example and go back back to the

literature note for this book right here

if I scroll down here there was a part

where the author talked about the

multitasking myth which basically says

that multitasking doesn't work and when

we think we're multitasking we're

actually switching between two tasks

really quickly and every time we switch

there's a switch cost and this is

something I agree with and I have my own

thoughts about it so it prompted me to

make a permanent note on it at the time

I created the link but I didn't write

the permanent notes I just linked it as

I read it could soon more content I made

literature notes on Atomic Habits by

James clear and Flow by mihali those

three literature notes both ended up

linking to multitasking so later once I

saw that there were multiple links to

that empty note I started writing it and

I already had so much to write about

because I had already thought and

written about it before this is why it's

commonly said that in the goods at all

casting system you never start from

scratch as your Vault grows you'll see

clusters forming in your graph View and

some of these clusters will likely be

around notes you haven't even written

yet but when you have multiple notes all

point pointing to one single link it

becomes virtually impossible to not take

action and write a permanent note about

it because half of it is already written

for you you just need to put the pieces

together alright so how do you write a

permanent note and again there's no

right or wrong way to do it but I do

follow some guidelines the first is that

they should be Atomic which means one

note one idea secondly there should be a

short and concise as possible I make it

so I don't have to scroll down to see

the full note because generally speaking

if I need to scroll to see the full note

I mean it not being clear enough or I'm

covering more than one idea and lastly

it should be easy to understand by

anyone even if it pulls information from

two or three different literature nodes

someone with just basic knowledge of the

topic at hand should be able to

understand it as sunk has said in the

book permanent notes are directed

towards an audience ignorant of the

thoughts behind the text and unaware of

the original context only equipped with

the general knowledge of the field

lastly I do my best to have at least one

Link in each permanent note this of

course isn't possible when you're just

starting but it's something to keep in

mind as your Vault grows because that's

what adds real value to our system it's

what turns it into a Content creation

machine all right so is there more to

this is this the end goal and for me at

this point in time yeah it ends here but

for a lot of people it doesn't because

there's one final step in the process

and that is to write published work

that's when you take the content from

multiple permanent notes to write

published work whether that's an

academic paper a book Etc the same

permanent note can and likely will help

in creating several different published

pieces but for now my journey ends here

so the last question that is probably on

your mind right now is why bother with

any of this if you don't want to have

published work and there's so many

benefits to doing this your notes and

thoughts will compound over time giving

you insights and connections you

wouldn't find otherwise you'll become a

better thinker which turns you into a

better speaker because you're able to

better articulate your thoughts and no

matter what you do or plan to do being a

good writer will probably help it the

one thing I thought in this video was

how I capture my ideas and thoughts so

that I can later process them in

obsidian and you can find that in this

video right here so I'll see you there