I just captured my first content note in my Obsidian system: your proposition of capturing notes without judgment. I agree with, and love, the idea that this helps practice a sort of mindfulness; too often do I dismiss my thoughts outright and give them no space -- sometimes to a very negative mental effect.
Thank you for watching and sharing this Marco! You’re so right, how we react to our own thoughts have a direct mental effect. I wasn’t consciously thinking about this in relations with mindfulness so thank you for the connection!
I've watched a lot of RU-vid videos on using Obsidian as a platform for Zettlekasten. There is a real risk of overcomplicating the process, but this video offered a lot of clarity and is the best video I've watched. Thanks for putting this together.
Okay, it took me 3 hours to watch this video! Your content is so beautifully dense! I slow myself down, to capture the thoughts in Obsidian right away, and my ADHD brain goes down soooo many rabbit holes. And I love, that I can put the thought process somewhere with your amazing help! My lifes paradox is to combine chaos and structure so I found a home here, and in Obsidian. I have been searching for this my entire life. In my 20s (half a lifetime ago) I even build a Flash Card "Idea Generator" But I didn't finish it. So here I am 20 years later. Other people build my dream program and learned how to use it! Thank you so much!!!
Most of all, I enjoy the way you think. Okay, I relate to the way you think. I love your interest in paradox and opposites. It's so revealing to observe in this way, things hidden in plain site simply require a new angle to heighten the contrast, too many kind words to say. Thank you for sharing Vicky
For the past college year i tried many things to capture notes from lectures. None worked - I don't have time reading word in word transcriptions of lectures from mine or other student's notes. The most useful tool was actually small cards and leaked presentations. But they were liable only right after the creation, which is why my sessions were quite stressful. New semestre starts soon, hope obsidian and atomic note taking will help. THX for tutorials!
This is SO HELPFUL. The idea compass is GENIUS and something I want to teach my middle schoolers :D I'm just beginning my Zettlekasten for my Ed.D. and I've started and restarted so many times, but watching this video, I feel like I finally have a grasp of how I can make mine actually be helpful! Thank you so much for your time, care, and clarity!
Wow thank you for sharing this with me!! I love this and those are lucky middle schoolers! I wish my teacher taught me this back in the day haha 😂 I really hope this can get you started for good 👍 please keep me posted!
I have tried the zettelkasten method multiple times with different tools and always used to lapse back into Google notes because of all the friction the system used to command. I tried your method and in half an hour, WOW! The way to use tags and backlinks just clicked, and what really seemed to pull this together was the Idea compass. I have at least 10 ideas to build out on and even a couple of ideas for a book from this first hour of processing 3 day worth of notes. Thank you so much Vicky! I hope i can sustain this
Dear Vicky, I think you're a great teacher! And you have such a soothing voice and presence that makes learning from you that much easier. Thank you for sharing and more power to you!
I believed if a thought is important to me, I will remember it without taking a note, but your writing everything way gives me a second thought. Thanks for sharing your idea and way of processing information!
I just wanted to tell you thank you, this is THE best channel about obsidian... and I watched a lot. Everything is well explained, why and how you use this etc... So thank you a lot.
For more 🟣 Obsidian Tutorials 🟣 » Zettelkasten for beginners: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-GpV47rUYk8I.html » Obsidian for beginners: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-d3e7GWsqoU0.html » Best Obsidian Plugins (Productivity & Visualization): ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-etDWfg1Zsw8.html
Hi! It would have been helpful if this was the pinned comment. I ended up going to your Videos page and searching for the beginners video and then just happened to see this in the comments the second time I watched this video
This is the rabbit hole I would gladly dive into over and over again. Thank you for the idea map and this whole video! I'm excited to see where my Obsidian journey leads to.
Hi! I realized lately that I am bad at learning and honestly, not very efficient in terms of information retention, so I try to delve into that kind of content to improve. I do like this technique and with some tweaks to work with my visual memory, I can’t wait to see the evolution of the process and how it will impact the way I learn and my overall knowledge. Thank you!
I've trawled through so many videos and clicked out of a lot of them because they haven't presented any new ideas or ways to question my thinking, but I've been binging several of your videos because I like the way they make me think of things from a new perspective. I always WANT to learn something new, but when I come across something, there's nothing satisfying to me about it with my typical way of analysing or evaluating it. So this brings a little excitement back to me by giving me new tools to learn with. Thank you for sharing intriguing stuff.
After watching dozens of videos on how to take good notes in Obsidian, I just found your channel, and I finally feel like I have some clarity! Thank you for putting together such a detailed overview while keeping it simple to understand! And thank you for walking us through your entire process from idea generation to output; I really needed that! I also love the kind of ideas and topics you've been thinking and writing about! Super excited to follow you and continue learning from you 💗✨
Hey i've been really struggling to interconnect all of my ideas together, and this video encouraged me to try the Zettelkasten method and so far I'm optimistic about it, thanks so much for sharing.
I am on the last chapter of 'How to take Smart Notes'. I found myself understanding the system conceptually but struggling to visualise how to implement it. The structure he proposes doesn't fully line up with my thinking. This video is exactly what I needed. Thank you! I think you are brilliant.
Wow thank you!! That is such a big compliment and I'm really glad this video was practical for you! Let me know if there's anything else you want me to cover!
@@VickyZhaoBEEAMP Hey Vicky, can you go into the specifics about how you turn the idea into an output(step 4) and how you process comments on that output. I find that I have good ideas, but expressing them in a clear and concise way to others, is often a challenge.
Would love more details on your output process. I'm a writer, so your newsletter output process would probably be really helpful for us practicing long-form output. Thanks!!!
You are amazing. I just found your channel, binge watched excellent actionable relatable relevant content, while taking my regular notes. Time to get to work and put this into practice…thank you so much!
Thanks Vicky, First time when I saw, I didn't realize the true benefit, Now that I understand that there are other perspective for any situation and among people, I truly understand how this North-South-West-East method encourages us to explore the other perspective.
Excellent video! This is the best video I’ve seen that provides practical ideas for implementing the zettlekasten method in a digital note-taking app. Thank you!
Awesome explaining and I find it very helpful that you focus on content and thinking process. I have my bullet journal to manage my life and I’m in the early stages of setting up a Zettelkasten. The only trouble I have is that there’s so much relevant knowledge in my head already. I try to see Zettelkasten as a way to capture how it applies and grows
The idea compass reminds me of the Frayer model for improving vocabulary. I use it often with my students. This video gave me so many ideas. Thank you!
The most beautiful thing about Zettelkasten is that it's your place where no one can judge you. Sometimes the ideas we think of as not good or not important are the most inspiring ones.
Your videos are absolutely fascinating! As an experienced therapist returning to school to get my PhD, I have so many questions, thoughts, knowledge, and experience that all live inside of me, but sometimes feels like it is just "rotting" there. I am so excited to try some of your strategies to see what I can make of these thoughts! p.s. I have watched many of your videos and love all of them... this one just inspired me to finally comment :)
Thanks so much Jeffrey for sharing this!!! Please do keep me posted on how you go. Like you said, there’s so much knowledge, experience, wisdoms in peoples heads and I really hope we can leverage those hidden gems and create together!
@@VickyZhaoBEEAMP I don't know if this aligns with the type of content that you want to create, but I would be very interested in a video of book recommendations related to Zettelkasten, organizing thoughts, note taking etc. Im really interested in expanding my professional development and don't really know where to start. Would love to broaden my reading list.
Just got introduced to your channel, and am just starting to work with zettelkasten in obsidian. I had to play some of your vids back a few times, a lot of this information is so mindblowing!! thank you for your content and guides, it's really helping me to improve my ability to learn new things and keep information fresh for retrieval 🙏🏾
It's really interesting to think how Luhmann made the Zettelkasten method so powerful even using only slip boxes, of course he had a brilliant mind and his prolific work wasn't only product of that method but mainly a result from a privileged brain. As a snail learner I'm yet starting with Obsidian trying to discover the most simpler yet useful way to enjoy it, not using it to write down every ideas but just the ones on topics that I'm most interested into at the present moment. The simpler, the better! Of course you need to grab everything as your work needs that. I like the way you translate and express your roadrunner brain's ideas in a such clear way. Thanks for share your work and ideas! 👏
Hey Roger! Good seeing you here :) Yes to his amazing brain, to even come up with this simple yet ingenious method is a testament! Love that you're using this system guided by your interest. I'm so curious to see what will come out of your collection!
Great Video, Vicki! 👍 Just discovered your channel this morning (in Australia). Through your explanation of the Zettlekasten Method Guide video, I have finally understood how I can use it. 👏👏👏. In this video you have succeeded in showing, not just telling how to use the system. Many thanks! Just subscribed. 👍🤩
Thank you for sharing this! I have been struggling with how to connect notes and ideas, as well as how to tag them. I have just implemented what you discussed. The notes and ideas are flowing so much more naturally now. This will help so much with my course work, and as I move more into doing research and writing.
wow, she is literally teaching me how to think! Don't always agree with the author's idea, think about evidences that support the author's idea, also find evidences that go against it, you can even question the very definition of the idea, and of course, you can think beyond the idea
I saw your newsletter or portal titled "intersectional thinking" and immediately thought about the book "The Medici Effect" which I can see in your obsidian vault. It made me so happy. I don't know if this title stems from that book but for me it does. I struggled for years trying to choose a field of study, and the solution came from Johansson (the author). Not to choose, but rather to find the interaction among them all (at a personal level). As if we were the patrons of ourselves... "The Self-Medici"
Thanks for explaining this. I just finished reading the How to take smart notes. Your explainations really help me to fully understand the method to digitilize my notes.
The reason I'm looking into zettelkasten is that my teacher just sat down with me and told me to do 2 things, so I can study better and faster. One of those things was to read my textbooks and write down whatever INTERESTS me while I'm reading. It doesn't really have to be important, it's just whatever popped into my mind while I was reading. This kinda blew my mind because I'm always thinking I need to stay on topic and I can't write down random stuff like "why did the author use that example instead of this one" or "oh, that makes sense, that's why they could do this and that." My dyslexic teacher said that's how you retain info, but writing down what you found interesting and why, not what the book said. So yeah, I agree with you 100%
Really love this video, great insights. Especially the points about not judging the usefulness of thoughts, because it creates a lot of friction and we might judge them to be useful later on!
@Vicky did you make the video for Steps 4/Output and 5/Capture Reactions & Conversations? If not i'd love to see that. this was the clearest Obsidian tutorial I've watched to date - THANK YOU!
Yesss! That's the intention of my video so thank you so much for saying the connecting notes section made ZK click for you!! Thanks for watching and let me know if you've got other things you want me to cover :)
Yes, it would be nice to have a video on creating the output. Although I believe the best way to do a process is to develop the one that works for you (Kolbs') it would be awesome to have a peek at your process :3
I have been using Obsidian for a month now and I'm starting to introduce the Zettelkasten method for my note taking. It is exactly what I've been wanting all these years and never knew existed! This video is so helpful and I've watched many others of yours too that have been really valuable. I love your graphics in this video when you explain concepts. What software do you use for this? Or, how do you create these animated graphics?
Thank you so much Vicky for such hand-hand (手把手) instruction-I now see how Zettekasten can work in action. I can literally visualize in my head how my newtork of knowledge can bloom from atomic Tweet-long idea one after another, and what is Obsidian's "ultimate" use case. Moreover, with associated questions, evidences and other supplementary pieces, one can take a pen to start from a random idea in Zettekasten and write anything from a Tweet seiries to a piece of blogpost, or probably even a book (at the end of day, a book is about one key idea circled with rich companion information/msg)
Heheh so glad you liked the 手把手教成!I completely agree about writing a book 📚 I want to write one with obsidian eventually 😆 what topics are you interested in using obsidian for?
@@VickyZhaoBEEAMP TBH, I am still trying to figure this out, lmao😂 this is the part tripping me off, lately. Initially I was drawn to this whole notetaking rituals and the universe of tools because I want to systematically write down my random thoughts, preserve them and have them ready when needed, like Matthew McConaughey said, "I write down to forget not to remember". However, when digging in, I feel I probably need to incorporate some result-oriented mechanism, as the output tag in your video. I am still experimenting-I consider myself a casual run-of-the-mill content creator mainly "in China for China" , I guess in the end I want to find ways to create content more sustainably and efficiently (as long as I am working a full-time gig, haha).
I took my time with this vid ( over 2 hours ). I like how a concrete case study is used. I think a couple very simple case study or Fleeting to Production case studies would help cement this better. Some people seem to save a lot of time with this ( I guess they already think outside of boxes ).. for others, the learning curve is steeper, and this will take some time to master or see differences being made . It's a bit like using chopsticks to eat anything, or, eating ( navigating nourishment ) from a communal plate when you are used to your TV dinners. I'm interested in applications for academic papers, which might incorporate APA or other bibliographical referencing ( like Zotero, maybe ). I do see this as a stream of conscious note-taking method which requires imposed focus afterwards. I can see how Zettelkasten works for online writing ( 'unpublished' no peer evaluation ) but need to see better how it fits into research article writing, for a more narrow and critical readership. That's my challenge, not a challange to your wonderful videos ! thanks much.
Hi glenn, thank you very much for watching and for sharing them. I really resonate with your point about the learning curve. Let me see what I can do! As for academic papers, I’ve got quite a few other comments requesting similar use cases. So I’m brainstorming now!! Thanks again for the context and stay tuned!
Great content and simple way of communicating, wonderful job! Regarding the idea compass, I find it easier to associate north with "where X leads to" as it reminds me of the North Star, a symbol that leads in many ways.
What a valuable video, such great structure and so easy to understand. I feel validated as I’m already structuring my work notes like this to some extent. So I’ll definitely continue. Thank you so much for the inspiration. Remarkable :)
> I'd love to see some strategies for aggregation and production, even if that meant just a long-form demonstration of what you're doing now. > > As for myself, I write books. I'm compiling content for a couple book ideas that are half-way formed. It's easy to just fill page count but I'd love to know how I might leverage the power of all my capture for aggregating new ideas, as well as some approaches to collating a draft. So far I've never used Obsidian for writing, with Word's Outline mode and Styles being my drafting workflow in the past. The challenge has always been robust annotation; not because the footnotes don't work well, but because organizing my ideas and their sources is such a disciplined affair. > > Thanks for all you do Vicky, it's been a tremendous help so far!
Hey Vicky thanks for all of the value on what runs through your mind when using the Zettelkasten system! I don't use Obisidian, I prefer Notion, but based on me trying to make sense of the Zettelkasten system for my own content engine. I found that Zettelkasten user's tend to float towards Obsidian! And seeing how similar in nature Notion is compared to Obsidian I'm applying your techniques from Obsidian to Notion. (Kind of like using Zettelkasten taking the core concept to create permanent notes xD ) I especially loved your explaination of the Idea Compass, such a nice and easy way to remember. I guess that goes back to connecting ideas that we have familiarity with to new ideas. More Zettelkasten! Such a brilliant system. :)
I've spent decades trying to find a more useful note taking system than my piles of post-it notes growing ever larger on my desk. And I keep coming back to my post-its. This system would work great if I had an assistant to organize it for me, but I generate so many notes that I would never get any actual writing done if I implemented it. Great presentation for anyone who can use the system, though.
Thank you very much for watching and for sharing this with me 🙏 having a system that works for you is definitely important !! Please let me know when you find something that works with your note taking style!
I just ripped out a bunch of notes from a notebook from years ago. It was so much information and sadly i don't remember any of it. It seems digitally being able to retrieve inotes and not having so many notebooks is a very good idea!
Very nice video! Given the topics you are thinking about I recommend you the book "Algorithms to Live By: the computer science of human decision". For instance regarding sampling period you may ask "how long should the sampling period be?" (answer is 37%, related to famous "secretary problem"), or "How to trade off exploratory/discovery phases with exploitation phases(where you use your knowledge in well known territory)?".
I like your thinking and putting together the questions to build relationships. As I like the tagging for creating the thought but will need to look as you say how often do I search based on those tags when writing. (I do do some automated searches that create lists for tags added in the last week or month, on my dailies but they tend to be tasks not new writing)
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and your workflow! I would love to hear more about how to actually create the content. I feel like I am collecting but have a hard time putting things together. Also, do you listen to audiobooks and if so how do you manage to take notes there?
Thank you for the walk through of using Obsidian. At the end of the video when you talk about Output, I think you became aware of the length of the video and didn't really fully bake the idea of output or step 5, collecting feedback. Do you capture those in another video or on your site?
Hey Vicky, Just found your channel and zettelkasten obsidian videos recently and I'm really enjoying it. I really like this workflow video. Question, what Obsidian theme (or other "magic") are you using to get the vertical filenames at the left edge of screen. I really like that look and wanted to explore it more. If you mention this in another video, just point me to that. Thanks
Questions: 1. Do you use templates for your notes? (for example to include the date) - personally I like the idea of including a date so one view of the notes is a journal or lab notebook 2. Do you use a reference manager such as Zotero? - I like that in Zotero you can create an entire book reference by only entering the ISBN number and people have worked out how to transfer references from Zotero to Obsidian?
Hey Jim! Thanks for watching!! To answer your questions: 1. Yes! But I don’t use dates because I’m not the most time aware person lol 😂 I go over my workflow here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-a4-kNVKR_40.html 2. Yes! I use zotero and planning a video on the integration! Stay tuned 🙃
@@VickyZhaoBEEAMP Very, very helpful. I am about to set up Obsidian and ironically have been taking a lot of paper notes LOL on how to do so! The Idea Compass and Q/E/C are very helpful. An analogy for Q/E/C for technology would be P/S/E (problem/solution/example). When gathering computer programming tips and techniques I might tag them with what project they might be useful for (though obviously the whole point is they would not be limited to that project!). Very useful for keeping track of multiple computer languages (say R, Python and SQL) and multiple paradigms (say traditional statistics, econometrics, bayesian statistics, machine learning and causal inference/structural causal models). And of course the intersections between languages and paradigms for example Bayesian statistics implemented in R vs Bayesian statistics implemented in Python.
@@jimcallahan448 haha love the way you approach it! This is a fantastic use case for Obsidian - managing complex but related knowledge 💪 please keep me posted on how you go!!
@@VickyZhaoBEEAMP Update: Working on Zotero/Obsidian integration. Two parts: 1. Citations -- Artem Kirsonov "Zettelkasten workflow for research papers" 2. PDF highlights and annotations -- Bryan Jenks "Comprehensive Obsidian & Zotero Workflow for ZettelKasten & Evergreen Notes" -- still setting up #1 and #2 hope to have running tomorrow.
"...hope to have running tomorrow" 11 days latter I am still mostly using Daily Notes. One neat feature of Daily Notes I use {{title}} {{date:dddd}} which adds 2022-09-11 Sunday because the {{title}} of the Daily Note is already the date, the {{date:dddd}} adds the day of the week. Then I have headings ### Scheduled & Zoom ### Todo / Activity Log The headings reminds me to check paper and electronic calendars (as well as text & email for reminders) for any scheduled events or Zoom calls. The under the next heading I have the Todo list (with checkboxes) for the day and it helps to have the scheduled interuptions right above the Todo list. I also say "Activity Log" because I jot down what I am actually doing even if it wasn't scheduled or on todo list! For example if I perform a Google search or read a Wikipedia article and find something useful I paste a short note here. My stress level has gone down a lot because all the little things I am trying to remember are jotted down. And when distracted or interupted, I know where I left off. I still need to work on atomic notes whether fleeting, reference or zettelkasten.
Love this Vicky! I have one question though: How do you tell the difference between Literature vs Permanent Notes? (using the example in the video: the 'Sampling Period' note) Isn't that note technically still in the authors words?
Loved the video! I had a quick question though. Was the example with the idea compass an example of a permanent note or should this be done for every type of the 3 notes? Sorry if you mentioned in the video.
One optimization that Obsidian is excellent at Pre-Opening a Note. E.g., you could add "Buddhism" as a new note without creating it by adding double brackets. Instead of the need to remember that, you might put that word somewhere. This way, it will appear in your quick switcher, and you can make it if you start referencing multiple times.
I was waiting for you to create a permanent note from the illustration that you created for us. Would that permanent note live separately outside of your illustrated note?
Hey Vicky, long time viewer. Thanks for the content. I've been long curious about question notes and how to handle questions in my ZK in general. I would like to learn more about how you handle them. I noticed you have those question notes particularly in the branching portions of your notes. How do you go about dealing with these kinds of notes?
Hey Joshua!! So good to see you here 🙃 great question! The simple answer is I don’t do much other than connect them to ideas that may help answer the question. I’m thinking about this bottom up, so questions don’t drive my note taking. Instead I want to see overtime which questions gain traction based on the notes I collect. I also want to allow space to change the questions, because I believe asking the right question is half the answer. Not sure this is the best way to approach questions, but at least now, this is what’s intuitive to me. How do you want to use your question notes?
This is great. When you're taking notes on a book, do you use a single note for everything and then 'atomize' it later? Or do you not have a single literature note for the book and only have the atomic ideas, questions and supplementary evidence?
@13:20 you talk about an idea regarding employment...should that be it's own atomic note linked to this one? Or are you still in the note taking phase and not the atomizing phase? Thanks, i find your videos very interesting.
Interesting ... I am curious - you keep stuff like "insurance research", "recipies" and all of those things in the same Zettelkasten with your thoughts and ideas? Coz I sort those in folders...
Thank you, Vicky. I like most of the ideas and I have started implementing them. However, the West, North, East, South thing is making things complicated for me. Is there any simpler way to connect the notes?