The Zettelkasten Method - My Exact Process

If you've not heard of it before, the Zettelkasten Method is a way that will help you collect and organize your research, thoughts, and ideas, and any information you come across in a structured manner or a single system.

It has its origins in the mid part of the 20th century. The German scholar Niklas Luhmann is the man behind it, and he used the Zettelkasten Method to write over 70 books and more than 400 different articles.

His Zettelkasten method was a paper-based system. When Niklas read or came across an interesting piece of research, he wrote a single idea down on an index card and filed it in a cabinet. He also referenced where he found the idea on the index card and interlinked each index card using a numbering system.

Today, you can replicate much of what Niklas Luhmann did using digital tools and software. But you don't necessarily need to have fancy software to build your version of the Zettelkasten Method.

Resources:

• Digital Zettelkasten by David Kadavy
• The Zettelkasten Method Means You’ll Never Run Out of Ideas Again - Sascha Fast

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