The FUN and EFFICIENT note-taking system I use in my PhD

- Core Principles of Taking Notes 1. Write all the time 2. Everything is knowlede 3. Notes are irreducible complete thoughts 4. Knowledge is interconnected - Take fleeting notes - While reading a book for example: sticky notes - Make Permanent Notes - Obsidian Folder: - Make Bibliographic Notes - Transcribinc Fleeting Notes - Naming Notes - Forming connections - Graph View - Conclusion: Trust the system!

No joke. There was my life before this video and now my life afterwards. This video led me down a path that has transformed my study habits. I used to have to set an alarm so I could regularly take breaks from studying. Now I find it gains a momentum of its own and I continue to study well past my alloted time. Thank you so much for putting this together for me!

As a german, it took me half the video and the explanation of how the original worked to notice that zettelkasten is german 😂

As someone suffering from severe short term memory issues due to ADHD, systems like that are pure gold for self organization. Thank you for sharing your approach with us!

This is probably the most concise and effective video on how to create a zettelkasten without overcomplicating the process. Well done!

After a number of years of answering questions on Quora, I quit for reasons that aren't important, but I downloaded all the answers I had written, which amounted to thousands of pages. As I was reading some of them, I surprised myself. It was like reading something someone else had written. That happened a number of times and I realized I was losing important insights in the disorganized warehouse of my brain. Since then, I've been experimenting with different methods with some success, but I was blown away that there is actually a system that hyperlinks through the brain. It's kind of embarrassing that I've never heard of the Zettelkasten method until I saw your video. Thanks again for sharing...

Thank you so much for making this video!! I have ADHD. When writing a paper, I tend to get bogged down by the sheer number of ideas that pop into my head. I’ve tried many other note taking techniques but this is the only method that brings to light how ideas are interconnected, an important stepping stone towards achieving a coherently organised essay.

4:33 "Your knowledge is just a network of interconnected thoughts." Nice.

I am absolutely floored by the usefulness of this video. This is so beyond brilliant, I REALLY wish it had been advised to me earlier in my academic career. Wow.

THANK YOU. I was overwhelmed with my PhD lit review and I thought I couldn't do it anymore. So I stopped studying for half a year. After watching your video, I have restarted my PhD journey today. I can't thank you enough. I feel like I can do this. Thank you thank you thank you.

This is such a succinct and clear overview of this system - thank you! I’ve been wondering if I should try it out, the concept has been very fuzzy to me, but now it’s clear it’s not the right fit for how I think - but obviously amazing for many others! Thanks again.

I cannot express to what extent you have simplified my academic life just now. I have been taking handwritten and digital notes, and either find myself re-writing thoughts or just having pretty useless organization tactics. I love this. A million thanks!

I really like the idea of a system that instead of becoming more chaotic the more you put into it it becomes more powerful, more useful. Maybe a bit of a pain to actually put in all the connections, I think an AI powered feature to "Suggest" what you may want to connect with what would be super cool.

I am in my 2nd year of my 2nd bachelor degree and am full of regrets because I wish I'd found out about Obsidian and the Zettelkasten method earlier. So many books, papers and ideas that I could have efficiently pinpointed down in the past years.. but better late than never. Ever since I switched some time ago, I have been loving the mix of efficiency and creativity that comes with the process so much so that I now actually enjoy taking notes instead of experiencing it as a forceful and constrictive activity.

"Everything is Knowledge!" That is powerful. Regardless of where you are in your brain filling journey, never stop learning and never stop wanting to be proven wrong because at that moment, you are learning something new. And it allows us to open to a conversation of understanding one another rather than wanting to just be right (Winning improperly). Love this content!

I'd like to say a massive thank you for making this video. I am a final year plant science PhD student, and I have come to the point where I can see the thesis on my horizon. I have been completely freaking out about coming to writing and the fact that most of the things I've read throughout the PhD have slid out of my brain as I've gone along... I also spend the majority of my time in a lab, so reading papers is not something I have masses of time to do. I am now coming to look deeply at the literature surrounding my project again (after my first-year literature review), and I was searching for a method to store the things I read and notes I take on the literature better. This video is the one that pointed me towards the Zettelkasten system and Obsidian, and it has been so wonderful to bring this into my workflow. It feels like my time reading is now no longer pointless because I can actually capture the knowledge and not lose it in old notebooks/paper highlights/the leaky corners of my brain. Thank you so much for taking the time to make this video; you have genuinely helped a lot of people relieve stress in their life as well as do better research and science (which is hopefully good for everyone).

Living in Bielefeld, Germany where Niklas Luhmann was the founding Professor of Sociology from 1969 to 1993 We had an exhibition of his Zettelkasten (slip boxes) at our Museum of Modern Art it was part of an exhibition entitled "Serendipity" It was interesting to see a selection of his hand written notes and the links he made with his index cards. I would call it his "external brain" We are also going to have one of our new trams named after him too.

This is good stuff! Thanks for making and sharing the video. Something I’ve recently started using is “transclusion”. In the kohn-1993 where your [[grades-inhibit]] link is, just add ! before, and the content of that note will be visible in the kohn-1993 note. You can also using the caret ^ to select just a paragraph, or # to select a heading. So, ![[grades-inhibit^]] and when you type the caret, you’ll see a list of paragraphs you can transclude. This was really helpful to me, and solved the problem of needing text to be in more than one place at once, but not being different copies to maintain. Anyway, this comment is way longer than I expected. Looking forward to more videos!

This is the best introduction to Zettelkasten I've seen. The short practical example makes all the difference. Thanks for sharing!

This was the most useful introduction to the ZK method I've seen, among many many books and blog posts. Everyone else seems self-conscious about sharing their actual notes, but seeing your thought process in action makes it incredibly intuitive. Not only that, but your specific examples show you're a deep and intelligent individual. Thank you so much!