You can be extremely selective, or simply takes notes upon asking yourself:

• What is interesting about this?
• What’s so relevant it’s worth noting down?

By transforming consumed content into literature notes, you're using one of the most effective learning stra...

A note is only as useful as the context you place it in. A note’s true value unfolds in its network of connections and relationships to others.

You don’t have to use your brain anymore to find separate ideas from different books related to each other. In a Zettelkasten, you don’t file notes...

Creating a personal knowledge database can feel difficult. First, the many options and tutorials confuse you. Then, building a system slows down your consumption speed.

A Zettelkasten can work as an idea-generation machine. You discover related ideas that you hadn’t thought of in the first ...

Niklas Luhmann , a notable sociologist, was living proof for a system that is effective. During his life, he wrote 70 books and 500 scholarly articles. He attributes his success to a note-taking system called the Zettel...

“Making good cross-references is a matter of serious thinking and a crucial part of the development of thoughts.”

Here are two questions to ask yourself when you create references for your literature notes. Answering them will help you make good cross-references:

1. In which circums...

Sometimes permanent notes are truly original. Other times they can be just a reference to the original source added with a personal anecdote.

Permanent notes are no holy grail — but a work in progress. Don’t be afraid to write them. You can change and update them whenever you want: ...

Permanent notes are the real value-adders. You create them by looking through your fleeting and literature notes. Ideally, you create them once a day.

Both Sönke Ahren and Andy Matuschak say a knowledge worker’s productivity should be measured by the number of permanent notes they write in ...

As a rule of thumb, you can create permanent notes about every topic you're curious about or working on. When you’re in doubt, ask yourself whether you’re curious to explore your idea further.

When you create permanent notes, you think for yourself. In contrast to literature no...