Zettelkasten Method: Turn Your Notes into a Creative Idea Engine

I've tried every notetaking method that you can possibly imagine from the classic approach of writing everything

down in notebooks to using various apps in hierarchical folder structures from more modern systems like bullet

journaling cordal method or Thiago Forte PA method but no matter how hard I tried something always felt off instead of

generating new ideas my notes were collecting dust a couple of weeks ago I decided to try a note-taking method that

changed everything for me the zal cting method in this video I'm going to share y ZL Casten is the perfect method if you

want to actually use your notes to generate information retain information more effectively turn learning and not

taking into a creative process whether you're a student a writer or a knowledge worker or just someone who tries to make

sense of all the knowledge you've gathered this method might change the way you think the Z alcaston is a

note-taking system that is designed to help you organize and connect ideas so that you can think deeply and create

meaningful works it was developed by Nicholas l a sociologist who credited the system for his ability to publish

over 70 books in 400 academic paper the core idea is simple instead of collecting information you write short

Atomic notes self-contained notes that focus on a single idea the notes are stored in a way that you can link them

together over time this network will grow and you will see interesting connections patterns and generate new

ideas let's talk about types of notes that you will create when using zle Casten the first type is fleeting notes

these these are quick temporary notes that you capture when you have thoughts ideas or observations fleeting notes are

unstructured you can think of it as an inbox it's a place where you can put everything that comes to your mind

without worrying about organization fleeting notes are meant to be processed later so after you use them in your

permanent notes you can delete them the second type is literature notes these notes focus on summarizing information

that you get from books articles podcasts and other type of content that you consume they're concise they

highlight the main idea of the content what's important about literature notes is not just copy pasting information but

writing it in your own words thus you will better memorize and understand the material the point of literature notes

is to extract the main idea and to use them in your future notes and the third type is permanent notes permanent notes

are the foundation of your zle Casten and you will use them to create connections they contain developed ideas

written in complete sentences they are meant to be alone which means that if somebody doesn't have a context they can

open that note and understand what you're talking about when creating Connections in your zle casting you will

always use your permanent notes so make sure your notes are clear and concise the zal casting system is really good at

mimicking the way the human brain works because when you think of our brain it generates ideas it connects them and it

has associations it's not like you put every idea in folders and they are isolated from each other so zadoc Casten

might be the perfect choice for those who want to have a second brain I've been struggling to find the perfect note

taking system for years I've used notion for a while but I left it with a heavy heart because it felt more distracting

than productive I've tried a lot of note taking apps and in the end I settled for Apple notes because I was tired of

constantly searching for a new app and I just wanted something fast and simple and honestly I still feel like Apple

notes is a pretty good option for anyone who wants to take notes I truly believe that note taking should be simple and

your app doesn't really matter as long as it works for you over time I've realized that there's a bigger problem

than finding the perfect note taking app it's finding the right note-taking method when I finally decided that I'm

going to stick to Apple notes another problem became glaringly obvious what happens to your notes after you take

them do you actually use them can you find ideas easily when you need them or do they just sit there collecting dust

this was my reality I was taking a lot of notes and I only returned to them when I needed them and when I saw a huge

blocks of text the last thing I wanted to do was to read them it wasn't because my notes are boring or because they are

organized in a bad way actually my notes were quite organized the problem was that my notes were isolated from each

other I could never see connections between them seeing huge blocks of text when I was searching for ideas was

overwhelming to say the least no matter how I tried to take my notes they still felt chaotic and unusable and then

there's a very serious issue of folders notes get buried in folders and they only resurface when you're trying to

find them through search but let's be real if you have hundreds and thousands of notes will you really search every

folder to discover ideas besides the more notes you take the more chaotic and crowded your folders will be so this

whole system will collapse under its own weight with time what's the point of not taking if you never return to them

what's the point of collecting information if it never gets used or recycled into something meaningful for

years I thought that simply by taking notes and storing them somewhere I would remember everything and I would become

really smart in reality it's not how things work as it turns out collecting information is quite pointless unless

you do something meaningful with it and to do that you need a good system that will allow you to revisit your notes

connect them and generate meaningful ideas our current approach from note taking isolates ideas from each other

your notes are never connected to each other so you never know where the overlap is and that's the opposite of

how our brains work when you think about a concept your brain immediately makes connections similar ideas opposing ideas

related books or even random associations that's the magic of thinking but when your notes are locked

in folders and buried under the pile of text that magic disappears that realization pushed me to search for

something new and I discovered the zadel Casten method I've heard about zadel Casten for years from different

YouTubers but it never quite clicked for me everyone seemed to have their own version of it so it was very confusing

out of inspiration I decided to read a book how to take smart notes and that book changed my view on notet taking

completely to my surprise the book was incredibly practical and insightful it thought me the basics of sadle Casten

and after reading it I didn't have any questions I just downloaded obsidian and I started using it as someone who enjoys

digital tools I decided to give it a go and choose obsidian as my no taking up in my opinion if you want to use zle

Casten obsidian is one of the best apps on the market right now it connects ideas easily and the app itself is

pretty simple I didn't transfer all of my notes of course because I have hundreds of them I didn't want to commit

too much I was just trying to experiment I took notes on the books that I was reading at the moment and connecting

ideas to each other and let me tell you it was a GameChanger for the first time in my life I could see the benefits of

connecting ideas together short Atomic notes made all the difference instead of massive blocks of text I had a bite size

information that I could easily manage and connect in the connections themselves it's absolutely mindblowing

Concepts I thought were unrelated suddenly clicked together in ways I'd never imagined for the first time in my

life I felt no need to reread the book for the second time because I knew that I've extracted every piece of

information that I might possibly need in the future that's what it means to truly use your notes I realized that the

reason why zle Casten didn't work for me in the past was because I ignored the concept of atomic notes I tried to

connect huge blocks of text to each other and it never made sense the zle cast method isn't about creating a

personal Wikipedia with random hyperlinks it's about creating a system where you collect information that is

relevant to your project to your thinking and your learning this experience completely changed the way a

view not taking my notes aren't static blocks of text they are dynamic they are interconnected and they are bursting

with potential every note I take feels valuable because I know I will use it someday each note that I add makes my

obsidian Vault more and more valuable for the first time in my life I'm excited about taking notes I don't do it

just because I can or I should I do it because it's fun zaddle Casten has completely transformed the way I learn

and consume content these past couple of weeks were extremely productive for me because I was reading a lot of books

watching a lot of content and extracting valuable information and I know that I will use this information in the future

because of the way I organize it no wonder how Nicholas Lumen ended up with 990,000 notes he wasn't grinding or

forcing himself to do it he was just exploring areas that he was interested in That's The Power of the saddle Casten

method it makes learning addictive and it turns not taking into a creative process I know that I've made a video

about Apple notes in the past claiming that it was the best note taking app that you can possibly find but I now

realize that it's much more important to have a proper not taking system not taking systems are much more important

than having an app that you like of course it would be better to combine the two but if you have to choose I would

say find the perfect note taking method and then you can find the perfect app for that don't get me wrong I still use

Apple notes and I really love it I use it as an inbox for my ideas but I find that obsidian is much better for sadle

cast and then Apple notes if you ever feel that your notes are just collecting dust maybe it's time to rethink your

system because the point of note taking is not to just collect information it's to create something meaningful with it

if this video inspired you to try out zle cast and here's a couple of tips that you can use to make this transition

as seamless and easy as possible the first thing that you have to do is to find an app of choice download something

simple don't overthink it and find something that will work for you I personally enjoy obsidian for that

because of the graph view but you can go with something else I know that you might be very excited to use that Al

Casten but please don't transfer all of your notes from other app you don't need to waste so much time trying to transfer

all of your notes from one app to another right now your goal is to just experiment and see if that method works

for you or not focus on learning new ideas and connecting them together experiment for a couple of weeks or

months and only after you feel like this method works for you you can finally transfer all of your notes and use it

for your future projects note taking is a very personal and subjective experience something that might work for

me might not work for you so don't feel like saddle casting is the perfect method for you just experiment and see

what works and what doesn't you can even change zle casting a little bit to suit your needs you can combine multiple not

taking methods and take a couple of Concepts from zle Casten and combine it with the pair method it's not about the

name of the notetaking method or who invented It ultimately it's about if it works for you or not so I hope you will

try zle Casten out I personally enjoy it a lot thank you for watching this video I really appreciate your support I'll

see you in the next video