The Zettelkasten method is a powerful, old school tool for personal knowledge management and research. Originating from the German term for “slip box,” this system involves jotting down individual bits of information on paper slips (usually index cards because of their uniform size and robustness), which are then linked via various metadata, like tags and subject headings. The concept traces its roots back to at least the 17th century, with notable early adopters like Conrad Gessner and later, the English inventor Thomas Harrison.
It probably evolved from something called the commonplace book, which is a book you use to jot down notes, interesting quotes, recipes, or anything else you might want to refer to later. A book makes a great vault, so to speak, but unless you write up an index in the back (and then a meta index for various individual books in a collection), it might be hard to find something later. It’s also harder to rearrange a book’s pages, unless of course, you pull it apart.
The prodigious output of 20th-century sociologist Niklas Luhmann seems to have really catapulted the concept of the Zettelkasten into prominence.
So how does it work?
The beauty is in the simplicity. Each note or “Zettel” in the system is a standalone piece of information. You can add, modify, or shuffle the notes, making the system both highly flexible and infinitely scalable (well, as long as you’ve got enough storage). The process of indexing or connecting the notes helps you think about what you’ve recorded and this enhances creativity and the synthesis of new ideas.
You’ve probably seen or used a modified version of this with sticky notes on a wall when brainstorming or planning a project. The notes can be colour coded and rearranged and the whole thing is visible at once. (A Kanban card project management method also uses something similar to this.)
Of course sticky notes can be moved a limited number of times (the sticky only lasts so long!), and heaven forbid someone brushes against your wall or there’s a stiff breeze. The process of hand writing and hand indexing note cards, meanwhile, also has some disadvantages, namely that its time consuming, and its still down to you to remember how you might have filed something. There’s something to be said for exercising the ol’ brain, of course, but most of us have to exist in a system that doesn’t give us a lot of time. In the modern era, we suffer greatly from the Zeigarnik effect, and it wears us out.
Enter digital technology… and the Zettelkasten has evolved from physical index cards to software applications, using hypertext links, search, file folders, tags and other metadata. A digital Zettlekasten like, for example, Obsidian, helps you reclaim your mental capacity, if you can learn how to use it effectively. In another post, I tackle some of the [[Principles of Good Note Taking]].