Zettelkasten
A quick and dirty introduction to the revolutionary note-taking and

personal knowledge management system
Vít Rusňák

SITOLA, 24. 11. 2021
How many of you take notes?
How?
How do you take notes?
How do you process and organize them?
Niklas Luhmann


(1927–1998)
• German sociologist (systems theory), 

Bielefeld University

• Received his Ph.D. and habilitation in two
consecutive years and professorship 

three years later! Without formal education in
sociology!

• Wrote ~50 books and ~600 research papers 

(and over 150 un
fi
nished) 

• All thanks to his Zettelkasten

containing 90 000 hand-written note cards
https://www.ndr.de/geschichte/koepfe/Niklas-Luhmann-Der-Mann-mit-dem-Zettelkasten,luhmann100.html
Zettelkasten is …
• Slip-box (kartotéka)
• Framework rather than the step-by-step guide

• Your personal web of knowledge

kind of “Second memory” or “External Brain”
• Your partner in discussion
Source: https://niklas-luhmann-archiv.de
Building Blocks
Reference ManagerInbox
Roam Research
Note Archive
Roam Research
Note archive = Zettelkasten
My Building Blocks
Reference ManagerInbox Note Archive Reference ManagerInbox Note Archive
Source:
(book, article, 

tweet, quote, …) Fleeting Notes
Goes to
Store in Store in
“….”




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Literature Notes Permanent Notes
Work
fl
ow
Fleeting Notes
• E.g., quotes, ideas, book highlights,
tweets, thoughts

• Anything that pops into your mind

• Do not organize, just record them
(inbox)

• Should be processed within a day and
deleted
Source: https://lifehack.store/product/aqua-notes/
Literature Notes
• Summary of your understanding of
authors’ thoughts

• Do not copy-paste, rephrase!
• Your own thoughts from book highlights

• Keep it short, the context (i.e., the
source document) is close

• Be extremely selective, only those ideas
that resonate you are worthy
Source: https://lifehack.store/product/aqua-notes/Source: https://www.nateliason.com/blog/smart-notes
Permanent Notes
• Atomic and easy to understand in
isolation

• One idea = one note

• Based on
fl
eeting and literature notes

• Develop ideas and re
fl
ect
arguments, not just accumulate
thoughts

• Linked to other permanent notes in
your zettelkasten
Source: https://lifehack.store/product/aqua-notes/Source: https://www.nateliason.com/blog/smart-notes
Indexing and Linking Permanent Notes
• Index is a permanent note

• Contains topic keywords and references
to some initiating permanent notes that
develop the topic

• Links are connections of our permanent
notes

• #tags (weak links) vs. [[wikiLinks]] strong
links
Source: https://eliskasestakova.cz/how-to-take-smart-notes/
(Simpli
fi
ed) How-To
1. Read with a pen in your hand

2. Make
fl
eeting / literature notes

3. Revise them the same day and think how they link to your permanent
notes

4. Those which
fi
t, transform to permanent notes and insert in your
zettelkasten and link them with existing ones

5. Delete
fl
eeting notes / save literature notes to your bibliographic system
Tricky Parts
• Reading is soooooo much slower

• Learning how to rephrase the information in your own words

• Thinking about connections to existing notes

• Build trust in your Zettelkasten

• All of it takes more time before you automate it
Why It Works?
• Our brain and Zettelkasten care about what they are good at 

• Our brain loves routines

• Good ideas need time

• More notes does not mean chaos; you save only those, that matter to you.

• With Zettelkasten, you will deepen your understanding
Adapted from https://twitter.com/gapingvoid
To Be Continued?
Resources
• https://zettelkasten.de

• FB: Chytré poznánky a
Zettelkasten (CZ)

• Blog https://eliskasestakova.cz
(CZ)

• https://niklas-luhmann-archiv.de
(DE)

• Google, Youtube, Reddit, …
Bonus: Other Strategies
• Evergreen Notes by Andy Matuschack

• Second Brain

• The P. A. R. A. Method