My FULL Obsidian Zettelkasten Workflow in 10 minutes
Summary
TLDRThis 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
📚 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.
🔗 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.
💡 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.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Smart Notes
💡Zettelkasten
💡Obsidian
💡Reference Notes
💡Literature Notes
💡Permanent Notes
💡Linking
💡Idea Generation
💡Content Creation
💡Brilliant.org
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
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