Watch This to Finally Understand The Zettelkasten Method in Obsidian

[@aidanhelfant]

If you want to build a Zettelkasten in Obsidian check out my FREE email course 7 Days To Building A Zettelkasten In Obsidian As A Student: course.aidanhelfant.com/3daystostartingazettelkasteninobsidianasastudent

[@EdwardVarner]

I'm not going to lie, I almost lost out because I "judged a book by its cover". I saw you and thought, what is some kid going to really know about teaching me this topic. My friends he knows a LOT and he conveys it well! I will rewatch for sure. Thank you for your efforts 💪💪

[@aidanhelfant]

This comment means a lot! 💖 At 19, I don't think I know that much but I have researched into the Zettelkasten quiet extensively.

[@EdwardVarner]

@aidanhelfant My friend, it is clear you have a voracious appetite for wisdom (knowledge distilled into practical application). You have talent and work ethic. If I don't miss my guess, you will reach levels of educating you can hardly dream of today. God bless & God speed 🙏

[@samuileldi]

I wanted to stop watching on 15 second, but I've read this comment... Resume watching

[@jeremybuckets]

@@aidanhelfant something you'll realize more and more is that you don't learn things by aging. You learn by doing exactly what you've done - spending time researching and thinking about some topic that interests you. People older than you have had more time available to research more things, so in that sense they've had a larger *opportunity* for learning, but that doesn't mean they've taken advantage of that opportunity. In fact, most of them haven't. You should never think you know everything, but you shouldn't assume you know nothing either. Just know what you know and what you don't, continue learning, and don't worry about how old you are.

[@NewGottland]

I've never seen anyone scroll their script on the video itself. I really like this technique because it allows me to read ahead. Also if the learner needs to pause the review a concept they may not need to scroll back -- it's right there on the page. Along with your well-timed reinforcing graphics, this made it easy and faster to learn from you. Nicely done!

[@aidanhelfant]

Thanks for the feedback! I plan on doing more YT videos of this style where I have the script on the page itself. I'm trying to get a balance of talking off the cuff with having the most important information on the page.

[@ohsocourt5197]

seconding this. i loved it. i'm partially deaf/use hearing aids, and i normally always use captions. normally it's a bit annoying to me when the captions overlap with words on the screen, which they did here, but having the script on the screen was super helpful. only thing that maybe could have made it better would be a live highlight on where you're reading from, though i understand that may be a bit more complicated to implicate than it sounds. regardless, i loved this format & found it quite accessible. thank you :)

[@princessrashidart]

Agreed . The visual design of his presentation is excellent!

[@kenfhill84083]

@@aidanhelfantIf you adopt this style could you also put the full text in a blog post? The video transcript was more useful than most but a separate blog post would help me a lot. I get thrown off by seeing and hearing and can more quickly find what I want in text. Great content regardless.

[@nicolasturcotte-legare2242]

I don't generally thank KZbinrs for their "generosity", but this video I think has been very thoroughly researched and the delivery is passionate. So I'm taking the time to thank you. I've just liked and subscribed , and will come back to this channel and this specific video in the future. Take care!

[@aidanhelfant]

This means so much. Really. If you want to reach out and chat don't hesitate through calendly.com/aidan-helfant/friendly-get-to-know-you-chat

[@Sub0x-x40]

how funny is this. we study for a hobby. for no apparent reason Ill spend hours building notes in obsidian .. its therapeutic!

[@aidanhelfant]

So true! I find that getting joy out of learning is like an infinite supply of flow. That's one of the reasons I think fostering a love of learning is so valuable.

[@DarkOverFlowOverflow]

Taking notes is important if you are a nerd and you study alot all the time think of elon musk

[@lapbaplaprap]

Best hobby

[@DrinbevorBernd]

Some would call it procrastination

[@coachmystogan]

The therapy aspect... it turns meaningless consumption into productive time, and passing thoughts that can get swallowed by neurodivergence into an inextinguishable candle.

[@christianschnos9875]

Before watching i thought: Oh no, one video more of this stuff. Really do not know why i started watching. But i must say: of all introductions to Zettelkasten this is by far the best and most understandable one. This video is a must one and saves you from many hours of watching stuff i mentioned at beginning

[@aidanhelfant]

I appreciate that so much! Thank you.

[@Annibals]

This was a masterclass mate. You should be proud of this beauty you've created and shared

[@aidanhelfant]

Thank you! I’m glad you resonated with it.

[@matsamsung895]

Totally judged the video before watching and so glad I decided to watch it anyway. Your video is legit and you did a fantastic job. I am so impressed and thankful you made and published a video like that. Thank you for your work and your excellent teaching!

[@aidanhelfant]

This is super kind and thoughtful, thank you.

[@Krmiby]

Thanks for the video. I recently started using Obsidian **seriously** and finished creating my own system. It's easy to get overwhelmed by the available options with plugins. From what i have learned, it's more important to start simple and try new features when you actually need them.

[@aidanhelfant]

Exactly! 20% of the aspects of Obsidian account for 80% of the value!

[@sharonhillam4182]

I've watched this twice. I've also read your blog post of 5/21/23. Love your rebranding Permanent Notes to Concept Notes AT the 16:22 mark you said, "Permanent notes are evolved atomic notes which you have gone back to, fleshed out, and heavily connected to other parts of your system." Got it! You then create MOCs to pull those concept notes together and provide a summary or overview. (Or, you can be developing one or more MOCs while you are also evolving and fleshing out the atomic notes.) Finally, concept notes (atomic notes) are the building blocks of MOCs - the ultimate creations that you then produce content from (or simply store away for future use). Makes total sense to me. Does this summarize your system accurately?

[@aidanhelfant]

This sounds phenomenal to me! Great job summarizing the videos and blog post to understand it better yourself. Happy notetaking!

[@directorserge]

Thank you very much for the research and structuring it for us. It's much more clear now. As a film director, I use lots of notes to structure my thoughts and it used to be a mess before. Now it's starting to get shape. Thanks again!

[@aidanhelfant]

I'm so glad it helped! You might be the first film director to have found value from this video. I would love to hear how your using the system for your film directing. You can email me at [e-mail].

[@LucasSteele-v4r]

Aidan, this is such an underrated video! Thank you so much for taking the time to put it together. I'm a PhD student in Australia and I've been using Obsidian since the start collate my ideas / annotate bibliographies. But honestly I've struggled with the idea of backlinks and how to synthesise all of my information without feeling like I'm putting in all this unnecessary effort. I've got a bit to process from your video and how I can apply it, but you're a legend, thank you!

[@aidanhelfant]

Thanks for the comment. Australia! This is the first time I’ve been called a “legend.” Means a lot.

[@elyarpourakbar588]

This idea is underrated. Period.

[@aidanhelfant]

Couldn't agree more. The increased level of writing output I have using this method is honestly insane.

[@alexandrucechi]

Great video, Aidan! After recently switching from Notion to Obsidian as my PKM system, I pretty soon got overwhelmed with all the possible ways to organize it, and in this undertaking of mine your video helped a lot by showing practical and efficient ways to do just that. Keep it up :)

[@aidanhelfant]

Thanks Alexandru! I also moved from Notion to Obsidian. What a coincidence!

[@DezziexLollygag]

Really interesting approach to organizing not only your thoughts but your work and life! Your system is too robust for me, but I really appreciate seeing how Obsidian and your Zettlekasten fit into your broader productivity system. That workflow chart was exactly what I was curious about! Thanks for sharing!!

[@aidanhelfant]

It's incredible how you can appreciate an idea without feeling you have to use it yourself. Thanks for your kind comment.

[@ajaygunalan1995]

This is gold. Pure gold. A24-carat gold. Love you, Man!

[@aidanhelfant]

No problem, glad you enjoyed it!

[@ReneDiazJD]

Good job Aiden; you made a rather esoteric concept, real, practical and concrete.

[@aidanhelfant]

Thanks Rene!

[@seanmartinflix]

This video is incredible. I kind of known about these concepts but never had them explained as well with such a clear way of explaining.

[@aidanhelfant]

Thanks! Some people have said it's too complicated but I'm glad you resonate.

[@VivekPayasi]

Honestly, for me the entire system of yours felt overwhelming. I haven't come across anyone who can consistently and without too much maintenance can use a system of this complexity (at least that's my perception). But once I visited your Obsidian pages, I was overwhelmed again (in a good way :)). That made me subscribe to your channel. Please throw some light on how you managed to create such a system and how to manage it without much of an overhead.

[@aidanhelfant]

I totally understand. To be honest, this video is a little overwhelming as I made it a few months ago. I have simplified and explained the workflow more succinctly in this blog post: www.aidanhelfant.com/aidans-infinite-play-35-the-ultimate-beginners-guide-to-starting-a-zettelkasten-in-obsidian-as-a-student/ As for my best tips on overcoming overwhelm. Three things: 1. Create a habit out of notemaking in your system for 15 minutes every day. As long as you hit that, you will be astounded at how much it compounds over time. 2. Reduce the amount you consume. Most people consume too much. 3. Organize opportunistically. Don't rigidly organize everything you put in your system. Keep organization light until you clearly need to add some organization.

[@oa5779]

100% agree, IMO this is a terrible and overwrought process for the sake of process

[@thedog5k]

@@oa5779 The whole "PKM" ( I hate the dogshit lingo that arises out of garbage sections of youtube. Just like hustle culture gets its own lingo) is this way. You could spend the next 3 years watching videos about how to take notes. They want to sell you a course and get views so they introduce you to their ultra complicated process and for 150 bucks and over 100 hours of your time you can untangle their complicated ideas. I get a similar level of psychotic note taking as nick milo. It's not even the note taking, its the note taking ideology. Lmao.

[@nikolaikai940]

After trying a couple note taking systems I arrived at something very simple. *Folder setup* My setup is literally just two folders in Obsidian. _Notes folder_ Here's where I put my notes. All of them go straight in there regardless of topic. No subfolders. You can tell obsidian in the settings "all new notes always go into folder X", that's what I did. The idea is to connect ideas across topics anyway to find connections you wouldn't even think of, so let them mingle. Don't worry about having a billion files in the same folder, that's what search, tagging and looking for orphan notes in graph view is for. You'll find it again if you need it and if not, it probably wasn't important anyway. _Attachments folder_ PDFs, images and what else I want to embed in my notes goes here. That's folders done. This simple setup alone took a huge burden off of me, I don't even want to know how much time I've wasted thinking about where to put a note within a structure of subfolders within subfolders and does it go here or over there ... and what if it fits into two different folders at the same time?! 😱 instead of just writing the note and moving on to the next thing. --- *Note types* There is just one note type. Note. I don't bother with fleeting notes, literature notes, permanent notes and all that jazz. A note's a note, keep it simple. Pro tip for creating new notes: Don't use CTRL+N to straight up create a new untitled note, use CTRL+O to open the file switcher and type the name of the note you want to create (SHIFT+ENTER) there. This will a) show you if you silly goose already created this note previously and just forgot about it (don't ask 😅)and b) it'll show you other notes that are similar to the one you're about to create, perfect to keep in mind for interlinking this note. --- *Note structure* Notes are structured very simple, similar to what Aidan shows at 01:30. _Filename_ Named after what the note's about. Try to name it the way you would search for it, maybe be a bit too verbose and include a keyword or two too many, just to be safe. After a while you'll learn how you look for things and find your sweet spot. _Content/idea_ Short as possible, think atomic notes. 1 note = 1 idea, no more. It's just a rule of thumb but often once I realize I've written 3-4 paragraphs on one idea in the same note I get that nagging feeling it might make sense to split this 1 note up into several. But that depends on you and the topic at hand at what point splitting up a note makes sense to you. That's just something you gotta get a feel for over time. _Related notes_ Here I link to other notes that are related. I might hit up the search function to look up words or phrases from this note to see if I wrote something related already in some other note. Maybe I already a have a tag in mind for this note that I've used before in other notes, looking for that might help me find related notes. _References_ Links to external sources like youtube/websites/tweets where the idea for this note came from if I want to read up on the source again. _Tags_ I don't use "#" hashtags, instead I insert links to notes that might not even exist yet to tag files. For example if I write a note about a car engine and another note about car tires I might write a link to the non existent note [[car]] in the tag section of both. That way this non existent car note will show up as a hub in the graph view with every other note that connects to it and I can decide later to turn that into a real note as some sort of master note/table of contents/map of content for everything car related. Side note: After you've placed a note tag/link like [[car]] in a note once, even if the page still doesn't exist it'll show up in the autocomplete next time, makes it super easy to tag this way. --- That's my entire system. It's low maintenance, easy, no plugins needed. I just have _one_ note template that lays out the note structure "content/related notes/references/tags" and that's it. There's no big system or convoluted rules to remember other than: "1 note = 1 idea" and "After writing the note take a minute to think of fitting tags and other notes that might be related to get some connections going". That's it. This way note taking doesn't turn into a chore, you're not spending more time thinking about how the system works or uselessly organizing stuff than the actual note taking (which happened to me with more convoluted systems) and all the interconnectedness between notes just emerges organically this way.

[@nikolaikai940]

@@oa5779 At under 40 minutes this is not even the worst but rather tame in comparison and I like Aidan's humor. I've seen "workflow" videos that are 2, 3, even over 4(!) hours long. 😅 Don't know if you got notified but earlier I posted my simple workflow in this comment chain, maybe that's of interest to you.

[@nuclear5530]

I'll have you know I have linked this video as the best zettlekasten video yet on my daily note. Thanks for the explanation.

[@aidanhelfant]

That means a lot! Thanks so much.

[@joefeetsao]

I love this video the most, it is so easy to follow up especially for foreigners.! thank you for doing that !

[@aidanhelfant]

No problem!

[@Dzoumpakis]

Love the energy and explanation, great video!

[@aidanhelfant]

Thanks! I try and make it seem like I'm on five espressos at all times 🤣

[@jacquelineraner14]

I been arranging my ideas on small pieces of paper no larger than an index card and arranging these as a collage on the walls of my room. I add photos and articles from newspapers as well as paper maps. I spend time in this space as often as possible coming up with ideas for videos playing around with different camera Shots. Lighting. Brainstorming and making mind maps for possible videos. I have so many ideas like this I couldn't possibly finish in my lifetime. I spent 40 years trying to figure out what I should focus my creative energy towards because I had a passion to create something and a million ways I wanted to do it. I highly recommend this if you have problems with executive functioning

[@aidanhelfant]

Thanks so much for your amazing comment! It sounds like this system is helping you organize your incredible amount of ideas.

[@TheosResearchDiary]

hey Jacqueline, do you have any images of your room anywhere? I've always been interested in spatial layout of notes and spatial memory. Would like to hear more. ps. Great video Aidan!

[@toccafire]

How beautiful your video explanation is! I'll watch it more than one time for sure!!!

[@aidanhelfant]

Thanks, it means a lot!

[@Arrow333]

Just recently started using Obsidian. Not the first video of you I saw, but the first that goes a little deeper, and it is great advice. As I am german myself, let me teach you some german myself as kind of a "thank you": - It is "Luhmann" not "Luhman". "Mann" is the german word for "man". - The correct way to write "Sönke" without the "Umlaut" is attaching an e to the base vowel, so "Soenke" in this case. - The plural of "Zettel" (which means "piece of paper" in german) is "Zettel". No s attached.

[@aidanhelfant]

Thanks for these comments! I'm Dutch, so I don't get the German perfectly. Unfortunately, I can't change it in the video but what are you going to do 🤣

[@Arrow333]

@@aidanhelfant Ah! Ik heb zelf een beetje Nederlands geleerd op school, maar ben het meeste vergeten.

[@user-mc9sg9fw3w]

Glad the algorithm brought this to my attention. Great video!

[@aidanhelfant]

Glad you liked it!

[@sg990]

Hey Aidan, this is a great overview! It definitely prompted me to make some changes to my system. Thanks so much for putting in the time to prepare this content. There is one type of notes I make that I struggle with organising, though. Let's say I have a note called "Rome 2023" which contains an itinerary for a trip that is now past. Since I might visit Rome another time in the future, I'd like to keep it around. In PARA, which is what I've been using so far but want to move away from, it would land in the Archive (which I have very little use for otherwise). Where would you put that kind of a note in the ACCESS structure? Cheers!

[@aidanhelfant]

That’s a great question! In ACCESS I would put that in the spaces part under travel.

[@randalfmajere7239]

Wow Aidan, I have been struggling for weeks to try to figure out how to make a raw sketch of the workflow I'd like to implement (in my switch from a casual shallow use of Notion to a purposelly and inentional Pkm building in Obsidian) and today...SBANG! I stumbled upon your great Diagram which is actually the "map" I was trying to start from. Thanks guy! So few years, so many skills and power... Inspiring (I'll nudge my son to watch some of your gamifing videos!) 😉

[@aidanhelfant]

Thanks for your feedback! I hope you son enjoys the gaming videos. I wish more people found them.

[@Sunsetriderrr]

Hi Aidan, it was the eigth favorite question which made the video for me. Awesome job, just subscribed and definitely will come back here later!

[@aidanhelfant]

I'm glad the 12 favorite questions resonated with you! I'm curious, what are some of your favorite questions?

[@ryanbartlett672]

Nice overview. Thanks. Increased my overall understanding. Specific light bulb moment...keyboard shortcut in the template for data entry - a slowdown up to this point.

[@aidanhelfant]

Glad you found that insightful. It seems small but adds up to tons of time over years.

[@ArthurHess]

This video was so inspiring, thank you **so much**. Knowing myself, I'm probably going to start off with something much simpler, but I absolutely loved learning more about your workflow, how you capture notes, how you connect them, and your general philosophy on knowledge management.

[@aidanhelfant]

Thanks so much for your kind comment! I appreciate it greatly. Tell me how your journey goes?

[@josecaldev]

I've been watching and retrieving information from lots of videos to define my Zettelkasten workflow. I can see that exactly that is what you've done over time. Glad to hear you also enjoyed and learned from the Vicky Zhao content (like the Zettelkasten Compass one) from who I've learned a lot. This is a good consolidated workflow and quite close to what I was mapping mine to be. Wanted to thank you for sharing this to all of us. One question which I have not yet found answer and is: At 31:31 you have on the right sidebar you have the graph view bellow the other sections. How can I achieve that. I've seen others, like Nicole van der Hoeven, have the same setup for the graph view. I'm sure is a simple solution, still here haven't found it.

[@josecaldev]

Also, the colors from your graph view are defined by what. And how can I change mines. Since my graph only has purple (actual note), white-ish (created notes) and grey(un-created notes)

[@josecaldev]

Solved it! Can't believed I checked every setting and plugin and the answer was just to drag the graph icon to the bottom of the right pane. An extra question: on the right pane you have many options like a twitter icon an a blank note icon. Which plugins are those from?

[@josecaldev]

Another question, which I've solved differently, and would like to know the reason of: I guess your file configurations are defined so that the title of the note is not included in the body of the note (Show inline title at Appearance in settings). Therefore, you include in your templates a {{title}}. However I noticed that if one has change the file name this {{title}} created by the tempalted when inserted is not updated. Thing that I "solved" by surrounding it like this: [[{{title}}]]. This way by being linked it'd self-update. However, I concluded that by just leaving ON the "Show inline title" setting this would be solved in a more simpler way. Is there another reason on why you having this setup?

[@aidanhelfant]

Thanks for all the engagement! It's the custom frames plug in. It allows you to open links to a website inside Obsidian. One I can open up is twitter.

[@aidanhelfant]

There is! I like having the title below the metadata of the note. It's less distracting to me. However, if I turn inline titles on, it's always above the metadata. In addition, I have had titles work like that for so long that in almost all my notes I see double titles if I turn inline titles on.

[@emmanuelmanzini]

you know how to explain fluently . I learned a lot and of couse i did not forget to subscribe and like , RESPECT ❤

[@aidanhelfant]

Thanks! This video took me a long time to make so I'm happy it resonated with you.

[@emmanuelmanzini]

@@aidanhelfant you are doing a great job

[@heyjustsaying2024]

Excellent video. Fantastic job putting it together 😁

[@aidanhelfant]

Thanks!

[@brain.trinity]

Hi Aidan, thanks for your super helpful vid! Could you explain how you distinguish Fleeting Notes from Zettel notes? From what I am aware of the original Zettelkasten, Luhmann does not necessarily have a separate "Zettelkasten Notes".

[@aidanhelfant]

Zettelkasten notes are notes that focus on only one idea. The process of creating these notes occurs through the atomization of notes. One idea forms the emphasis of the note and the other ideas are background contextual or supporting evidence. This means they can actually be quiet large and have many ideas. I differentiate them from permanent notes because they haven't been through multiple revisions by me and survived for a long time. I differentiate between how long a note has been alive and how many times I have revised it using a tagging system with saplings, leafs, and trees.

[@vincentli287]

Great video! Quick question, how do I create an up note and tag on top of page via the capture section? Tried it but the first thing my obsidian insists I should have a title on the first line. Thank you!

[@aidanhelfant]

It's probably because you have show inline title toggled in your obsidian settings which makes it so the title of the note automatically appears at the top no matter what. If you want to have something above the title you would have to disable that.

[@vincentli287]

Got it. Thank you so much for your videos!! Please keep up the good work🙏🙏

[@lucysteinert5814]

Do you have a link to the written version of this?

[@aidanhelfant]

Unfortunately, I haven't written it out formally in a blog post (which I will do at some point), but I do have a link to the original script on my published obsidian page. Some images won't load because of the limitations of Obsidian Publish. publish.obsidian.md/aidanhelfant/Spaces/Content+Creation/%E2%9C%8D%EF%B8%8FWritings+%26+KZbin+Videos/An+Overview+of+my+Zettelkasten+System+in+Obsidian

[@PatrickSilveiraBR]

Fantastic video! I’ve been testing the zettlekasten method to organize my messy notes. This has helped a lot. Thanks

[@aidanhelfant]

No problem! Tell me how it works out for you in the future.

[@luisjury-f7l]

I think the "UP" idea is genius. Having something to force you to link one note to the rest of your vault is, in my opinion, the core idea of Zettelkasten. I'm not a fan of how it reminds me of folder structures, since your vault should be a graph and not a tree (notes should be linked in any order, not just by a parent), but forcing me to start by linking the note to others in my vault before writing it's content sounds like a really good idea.

[@aidanhelfant]

Thanks for sharing! Tell us how using the UP influences your notetaking in the future.

[@Neylena]

Where can we see the published version of your obsidian vault! Finally trying to get to grips with this app and would love to see yours for inspo!

[@aidanhelfant]

You can check it out right here! publish.obsidian.md/aidanhelfant

[@alyssacdavis8246]

Wow, wow. Dude, I'm obsessed with your brain!! Your thought process is like mine if I could get my shit together 😅 And your humor is top tier. I can't wait to check out more of your content! I just started my Masters program and I desperately need systems.

[@aidanhelfant]

I'm glad you like the humor. Sometimes I think I'm just funny to myself but it's good to hear someone else thinks there is some humor as well.

[@Ben-xk8xz]

@@aidanhelfant do you still use this structure to this day?

[@mausunk]

Hi, can you give me your thoughts on the importance of adding date/time of creation of a note on the note itself? Maybe some practical application(s) where you use that type of metadata later as well? Thanks!

[@aidanhelfant]

I don't think it's essential. The main reason I like doing it is it allows you to see when you first got the idea for something. Which is fun later on. The way I implement it is simply to put a date field at the top of my note that looks like this: CDate:: [[]] However, you will have to change this individual to your date system.

[@josecaldev]

@@aidanhelfant I considered to add this to my workflow and templates. However, found that by default every note has the creation date and time. If you hover over the note on the File structure you can see that information. And because neither do I found a purpose for this information decided to remote it. It clutters and distracts more in my opinion

[@Death__machine]

Well made video. This deserves more views and likes!

[@aidanhelfant]

Thanks! I appreciate it.

[@manthanshah2152]

Hey, thanks for this great video! I am curious, how do you delete or clean out previous reference notes? The ReadWise references is piling up to a huge, overwhelming list of notes, and i was curious if you had thoughts on managing those? Thanks again.

[@aidanhelfant]

I'm so glad you enjoyed it! I'm assuming you are talking about the Readwise literature notes filled with highlights that come in on sync. If not, please tell me and I'll answer whatever you are talking about. I actually don't clean them up. I like having the literature note with the link to the original source in my Obsidian. When I create a concept note it allows me to see the source it came. This way I can go back to the original for clarification or send the link to a friend that wants to check it out. I use it all the time when a friend asks me for content on a certain topic. I go to my MOC for that topic and check some of the sources linked to it. Sometimes I'll create an entire resource list if I get asked enough like a Gamification resource list or Obsidian resource list where people can get a ton of links to resources on one note.

[@asadplatypus3940]

bro looks like an extra from high school musical still great video

[@aidanhelfant]

Lol, I'll take it!

[@AzleapyChannel]

I’m definetely rethinking bying ebooks. I was starting to buy ebooks but I will stop and wait for this to be sorted.

[@aidanhelfant]

That's wonderful to hear! Tell me how it goes!

[@ytpah9823]

🎯 Key Takeaways for quick navigation: 00:00 📚 This video provides a comprehensive overview of the Zettelkasten method in Obsidian, covering its history, benefits, and practicalities. 01:09 🗂️ German Note Taker Nicholas Lumen popularized the Zettelkasten method, which involves organizing notes on physical slip cards with unique IDs, content, and references. 02:03 📝 Lumen's organizational method allowed for hierarchical connections between notes, breaking free from rigid folder structures. 03:11 📚 Zettelkasten has a deep historical background, including commonplace books and literary extracts, before Lumen's method. 05:15 🧠 Zettelkasten can help fight confirmation bias, perfectionism, and create a unique knowledge base tailored to the individual. 07:07 🤔 Zettelkasten allows for both top-down and bottom-up research approaches, promoting diverse inquiry. 09:25 🗂️ The speaker outlines a structured workflow for capturing, organizing, distilling, and expressing information within the Zettelkasten method. 15:57 📚 The different types of notes in the Zettelkasten workflow include fleeting notes, literature notes, atomic notes, Zettels, permanent notes, and maps of content. 18:03 🗃️ The speaker uses the "Access" folder structure in Obsidian to organize their notes, including Calendar, Atlas, Cards, Extras, Sources, Spaces, and Home. 20:50 🗺️ The Home note serves as a high-level overview, linking to lower-order mods, while the "Encounter" box helps make sense of recently made notes. 21:18 📄 The workflow encompasses capturing resonating, confusing, and high-quality information from various sources and organizing it in Obsidian. 21:59 📝 Define guiding questions: Create a set of 12 favorite questions to guide your knowledge acquisition and activities throughout the day. 22:42 🗒️ Use a consistent note template: Consider using a specific note template, including sections like "up" (related notes), title, body, code block for navigation, related section for additional notes, and a resource section for sources. 26:10 🏷️ Utilize tags for note states: Implement a tag system to indicate the state of your notes, such as "inbox" for unprocessed notes, "seedlings" for notes that need further development, "ferns" for partially developed notes, and "evergreen" for foundational notes. 28:14 🧭 Use efforts over projects: Prioritize daily efforts rather than fixed schedules for note-making and knowledge development. 30:17 ➡️ Implement associative thinking: Link notes in four directions - North (sources), West (similar ideas), South (ideas it leads to), and East (competing ideas) to create meaningful connections. 33:59 🔄 Link to older notes: When creating new notes, consider linking them both in the new note and an older, relevant note to increase the likelihood of rediscovery over time. 34:43 📣 Express through content: Use your Zettelkasten notes as the foundation for creating content such as KZbin videos, newsletters, podcasts, or even casual conversations. 35:53 🌟 Benefits of long-term Zettelkasten: Implementing the Zettelkasten method for at least two years can lead to a transformed mindset, improved knowledge management, and the ability to draw on a vast body of knowledge effortlessly. Made with HARPA AI

[@aidanhelfant]

This is absolutely incredible! Thanks for creating this super helpful navigation. It's so meta as your practicing the notetaking techniques talked about in the video simply by creating this.

[@Sub0x-x40]

i use mocs like indexes. they are some of the only notes i use dataview tables and lists in. for example i have a library moc, which has 2 tables.. books i have read, books im yet to read next and a list of every book in my library folder.. and my Home MOC has a list of every other MOC with an explanation of each "region".. im kinda just taking bits and pieces from everywhere and if it resonates ill use it lol

[@aidanhelfant]

That sounds like a fantastic organization system! I also like using MOCs like databases. I can't tell if it's because I like MOCs or if it's because I find dataview confusing lol.

[@Verrisin]

even just trying not to be overwhelmed is overwhelming nowadays ...

[@aidanhelfant]

True.

[@rubenlopez4833]

Great Content, well-spoken, and love your energy. Subscribed!

[@aidanhelfant]

Thanks! I make sure to drink around ten cups of coffee before each video. Jk, I'm naturally way too energetic.

[@summergreen2412]

Hi @aidenhelfant I'm headed to grad school and I'm totally new to modern studying and notetaking. Can you point me in the direction of your videos for real newbies?

[@aidanhelfant]

That's awesome Summer! I recommend checking out my Beginners Obsidian Resource List: resource.aidanhelfant.com/obsidianbeginnerlist

[@summergreen2412]

@@aidanhelfant Thank you!! I really appreciate your content and delivery!

[@Maisonier]

There is any way to connect an AI model like vicuna, red pajama or mpt-7b with Obsidian? including Langchain or something else to automate tasks?. Amazing video! Liked and subscribed, thank you for sharing.

[@aidanhelfant]

I unfortunately don't know but there has been much talk about AI in Obsidian I'm sure you could check out. I know the most recent LYT conference had a talk on AI kzbin.info/www/bejne/pqmlpp2Zl71si5I

[@Maisonier]

@@aidanhelfant Thank you so much.

[@andynorth6161]

Thanks, Aidan! I wish my students were half as curious about stuff as you are and as energetic as you are. Then, I look at myself in the mirror and remember what a large part of the problem really is. One quick question: I have tried to reproduce the code for moving the cursor using ALT+F but it does not work. Any idea what I might be doing wrong? Anywhere I could go to learn how to use codes like this one? Thanks! (Subscribed!)

[@aidanhelfant]

I would recommend going to the Obsidian University Forum page. They have great discussions about problems there. My guess is you don't have the hotkey attached to the right command. We want it to be attached to the command "replace templates in active file." Then make sure this is the code in the doc:

[@TheIllerX]

While I really like the idea of zettelkasten and various program like Obsidian, I think it is actually mostly a distraction from get things done. The system itself takes so much administration and energy that it is simply not worth it for me. That is energy I could have used making more traditional notes. I like to draw huge concept maps using A3 paper and a lof of colors. This format forces you to really think about what is important to be able to write it down in a aesthically pleasing way.

[@aidanhelfant]

I agree! But the zettelkasten only has to take a huge amount of effort if you think you need to process and link every note. The secret is to be very picky about the notes you process and grow. Don't process everything. Create notes only out of things that aren't USE, Unimportant, self explanatory, or easy enough to understand on the spot. Create a habit out of growing notes for at least 15 minutes a day. And be picky about what you collect in the first place. This will severely reduce the amount in your system.

[@ErikJohnRichter]

AMAZING video!! Thank you! Question...how do you generate your dynamic boatbox list?

[@aidanhelfant]

Glad you liked it! I'm not sure I understand the question. Do you mean the code behind the boat box list? Or how do I decide what to make a boat note?

[@ErikJohnRichter]

@@aidanhelfant the code behind the Boatbox…how do you generate that list programmatically.

[@pimpXBT]

man just playing around with my existing notes is not doing extra but its still productive (?!) obsidian my beloved fr

[@aidanhelfant]

Agreed, there's so much value in just building upon what's already in our second brain.

[@JoelRdz]

I kind of understand the difference between Zettel / Atomic Notes vs Permanent / Evergreen notes, but I cannot see it clearly in your notes. Could you give some examples to understand the difference? Great content!

[@aidanhelfant]

I would head over to my Obsidian Published website to see it in action: publish.obsidian.md/aidanhelfant

[@ZukunftBilden]

Btw. - your thumbnails and titles are generally getting way better fundamentally. :)

[@aidanhelfant]

Thanks so much! I spent an entire day going through my old notes on in the Part Time KZbinr Academy on titling and thumbnail creation and then applied it to the recent thumbnails and titles. I was inspired from your suggestions!

[@datagovernor]

Great content! I’m just starting, and was curious from a publishing standpoint, do you publish EVERYTHING, or do you have a method to only induce X folders? Or is the only option to create a separate vault for personal notes? Thanks!

[@aidanhelfant]

Great question! I don't publish journal entrees, or any other type of personal note. But other than that I publish basically everything. You can choose whether to automatically have something publish by putting a YAML frontmatter at the top of your notes like this: --- publish: false --- If you wanted it to publish you could put true. But you can also choose when publishing whether to add something or check something off.

[@svvma91]

Great video. It helps me a lot.

[@aidanhelfant]

Appreciate it!

[@alpenjon]

Great explanation. Man your system is so complex :D

[@aidanhelfant]

Thanks! This is an older video and I believe my system is less complex now, but I think it feels simple to me because of how long I have used this system. I would like to create a remake of this video at some point however.

[@nedyalkokarabadzhakov5405]

Very very good presentaion and explanation.

[@aidanhelfant]

Thanks!

[@jason2b29]

Can you explain how this system works for university students?

[@aidanhelfant]

Check out this blog post series: www.aidanhelfant.com/3-days-to-starting-a-zettelkasten-in-obsidian-as-a-student-part-1/

[@Ngocnguyen-x3r]

This is so practical. Thank you so much ❤❤❤❤❤❤

[@aidanhelfant]

No problem!

[@VigneshPai]

2:34 What would he do if he had a note related to only 11a, 11b and not 11c?

[@aidanhelfant]

He would organize it with 11aa and start a entirely new sequence. A note related to that would be 11ab.

[@callmenobody34]

Because you mentioned that the atomic notes are also called Zettels and it confuses you a bit. This comes from the german language where a Zettel is a post-it or a small piece of paper. Due to the limiting size you can only write very concise information onto a Zettel. And I guess Luman was german so thats why they are called Zettel. And Zettelkasten literally means Box of Zettels or paper organizer i guess.

[@aidanhelfant]

I mentioned they are also called that in case you heard about them from some other place on the internet. I'm sorry if it was confusing 😅

[@avonzo]

How did you list all the notes with a specific tag inside a note?

[@aidanhelfant]

That's using a dataview query in Obsidian. Dataview turns your entire vault into a database. Then using some fancy code, you can pull all notes with a specific tag into a query. If you want to learn more I would suggest checking out Nicole Van Der Hoevens Obsidian Dataview explanation.

[@rinleeds]

A very nice video. Thank you for the effort you put into this. But can I ask - with obsidian, if I summarise a paper, can I link a block of paragraph in a note to another block of paragraph elsewhere in a note rather than only being able to link the whole note. I think roam and logseq allow you to do this and help link zettles. But how can you do that in obsidian.

[@aidanhelfant]

You can do what's called a block reference. Even though it doesn't seem like it every paragraph in Obsidian is it's own block. You can with a hotkey create a unique reference code out of the block in Obsidian and link it in a different page.

[@rinleeds]

@@aidanhelfant You know, you are one amazing young man. I can't believe how so clued up at productivity you are at such a young age. Anyway, I didn't realise they were actually blocks. They don't promote each paragraph in obisidan as a block. So 1. how do you create a hotkey and create a unique reference code and put in in a new page (could you do a video to demonstrate). 2. can you add tags to specific blocks rather than pages - don't you think this would be a super idea. then get the right blocks with just a search on tags. and 3. is there a way to automatically insert a small reference point into a new page where an backlinked block came from (at a glance view) rather than having to always click on every single one and go back to the source page? Thanks You are wonderful!

[@Luci-vp6xt]

Your video is great and as a suggestion your skin type is warm and some of your clothes don't match with your warm skin tone so they make you look yellow. You can change your wardrobe to more warm colors by time if you wish to. And for more specific color palette, i think you're true spring.

[@aidanhelfant]

Thanks for the suggestions! Hopefully it looks better in more recent videos.

[@ilkyway5854]

German here: Zettel is the German word for a smaller pice of paper and one Zettel or a hundred Zettel is the same word. No s for plural. Just a tit bit someone might think interesting. Great video!

[@aidanhelfant]

Thanks! I'm not German but Dutch so I appreciate the help.

[@JamieWhiffen]

Great video!

[@aidanhelfant]

Thanks Jamie!

[@grantnelson7717]

You deserve more follows….

[@aidanhelfant]

I appreciate it!

[@shiningcopper]

Very informative! Thanks.

[@aidanhelfant]

No problem!

[@lscanlon9908]

I like your sense of humor :D

[@aidanhelfant]

Thanks that means a lot!

[@g1rhines]

This is the wildest explanation I've seen about a card catalogue.

[@aidanhelfant]

That's what I was aiming for.

[@Grymt]

Very nice video, thank you. His name is not Luhman though but Niklas Luhmann

[@aidanhelfant]

I realized this after lol. Thanks for telling me

[@Grymt]

@@aidanhelfant I've read a bit in your digital garden. I like your curiosity a lot, and also your interest in living a good and just life. However, and I'm sorry if my critique is raw and hard on you: I think it's a shame that you translate philosophers and other things you read into such goals. You are clearly a very intelligent guy. Still, all your 12 favorite questions are: 1. About you, in a quite narcissistic way. 2. All 12 questions show that you think you need to be better to be worthy. Learning is great, go on with that. But you don't need to be better to deserve attention or be worthy. In stead, what about a bit less self centered approach: what about some questions about other people and how you can help them, or better people's position who have a hard time, in stead of just bettering your relationship with them? You write some pretty superficial stuff. "We are in the midst of a loneliness pandemic. This pandemic is much worse than COVID-19 because Loneliness literally kills us." Ehr, wow. What about the millions of deaths by covid, do you think they died of heartache? I'm not here to make you feel bad or lecture you, although I can understand if you or some of your followers get real angry because of my comment. But when I read your texts about women, your long list of demands for a future love, and the incredibly sexist remarks on supposed differences between men and women, I thought I should write this anyway, just for the small chance that you mean what you say about openness, and to warn you. As I'm very afraid you'll turn in a lonely incel within five years, if you go on, on this path. Please don't. You're too intelligent and curious for that. Conservatism is the opposite of curiosity, and toxic masculinity has never brought anyone any real truth or anything good. Sorry for the way I'm talking to you. It's not very nice, but I don't know a more pleasant way to say this to you. Please have some more experience with real people, and also people that are very different from you. As important as books and theory are: You can't learn everything from that.

[@imad_jj]

keep going brother 🥰

[@aidanhelfant]

Appreciate it! As Nemo says in Finding Nemo "Just Keep Swimming."

[@GarryBurgess]

nice video, subscribed. But when you said to check the video above to create an ideaverse, I didn't see the link, but it's OK, I know Nick Milo

[@aidanhelfant]

I'll be sure to add that in! I'm glad you enjoyed it.

[@stumbleio]

Where is the garden you mentioned?

[@aidanhelfant]

Right here: publish.obsidian.md/aidanhelfant

[@ryanonvr2267]

I am impressed.

[@aidanhelfant]

Thanks Ryan!

[@ukana5315]

Thanks for the video :)

[@aidanhelfant]

Your Welcome! 😃

[@arseniobrown7744]

great video

[@aidanhelfant]

Thanks!

[@themetamystic]

thank you!

[@aidanhelfant]

No problem!

[@mageprometheus]

I'm old, I'm getting older, and I want to become young. I'm sure this method will help me. 😄 But really, thanks for a great video.

[@aidanhelfant]

Anyone who has a dream and loves learning is young at heart!

[@hungry4grace]

I am sixty five and yet I am very excited to learn this new idea. I will start to learn and use daily.

[@MaxwellBuba]

Very good content, thx 👍

[@aidanhelfant]

Thanks!

[@dream-bits]

Isnt the whole idea of Obsidian not to use any folders on the left side?

[@aidanhelfant]

True, one of the magical parts of Obsidian is its linked based nature, but there is a reason folders have been used for so long. Because they are still useful for some types of organizing. Folders make sense to everyone, they provide hard distinctions, and they are time tested.

[@pootieetang]

I thoroughly found this video insightful and helpful in understanding how you leverage every app/program in your workflow. Thanks for sharing! I do have a question from one academic using Obsidian to another, how do you suggest formatting your notes as I am a psychology major, and will run into future courses that have similar theories, concepts and modalities? I ask this because in your previous videos you named the parent note after the course name (eg, PSYC101 - Intro to Psychology), and the child notes not by their chapter numbers. What I am most confused about with my formatting is how do I manage to study for exams based on the specific textbook chapters I am sourcing from? Because overtime my notes from other courses like Counseling101 will connect to Psychology 101, but what I don't want is when studying for my counseling course is to have to read additional material that I've linked in from my psychology course. I am sorry if this is confusing, I posted a more detailed version of this question on the obsidian forums, but hoped I could get a direct response from you as it seems I want to model my PKM similar to yours. Here is the my question from the forum: forum.obsidian.md/t/seeking-help-in-formatting-college-courses-and-their-textbook-notes/50289 Thank you for your time and for pumping out this amazing Obsidian content, I look forward to diving into your gaming content soon!

[@aidanhelfant]

What a great question! This is something I ran into while studying for classes as well. I will admit, I definitely found myself studying other classes while studying for one class because of it. I think you answered your own question in the forum. What I suggest is tagging notes with the chapters you will need to study them from. For example, if you have a note from Psychology 101 that you know the majority comes from chapter 3, tag it with #chapter1-4. Then when you are ready to study for your exams, you can create a dataview query that pulls only notes tagged with chapters 1-4 or whatever chapters you are studying. This way you can still link to other related notes from classes you are taking to build a unique knowledge base, but only pull the notes you need to study for a specific class on a given study day. Hope that helps!

[@rinleeds]

One more question.... have you checked out LogSeq? Why obsidian over LogSeq? LogSeq is meant to be as good as Roam, but free. And I hear has more functionality than Obisidian? Saves on local drive like obsidian and in markdown language like obsidian. And you can use Obsidian even to open the files...

[@aidanhelfant]

Great question! I have two reasons: 1. Logseq is fundamentally an outliner where as Obsidian is a writing app. 2. To be honest I haven't really looked into it. I have become super disillusioned with the new app craze. Not to say Logseq isn't great for some people I'm sure it is. I have just switched apps so many times I'm tired of doing so. So once I realized Obsidian had everything I really ever wanted I stopped looking for another app. I operate by the pareto principle now. 80% of the outputs come from 20% of the inputs. Would it really be worth it to switch to Logseq even if it was slightly better?

[@bradford-vts]

@@aidanhelfant Love your thinking. I totally get the new apps craze and switching. I'm currently in that mode and it is totally doing my head in. My only worry is whether these apps will survive. So Logseq looks brilliant as does Obsidian. I think they are way better than ROAM and Notion, but the latter two have a massive following. Do you ever worry whether OBSIDIAN will die soon because of the competition? What makes you have confidence OBSIDIAN will be there in say 3 years' time and that you wont have to find another app and do the painful process of transferring 2-5000 notes? I currently use Evernote as a repository for just my household stuff (to keep it away from work stuff) - and I have great faith in them - been going 10+ years, massive membership following, new very rich company has bought them out and developing them. So looks very promising. But can you say the same for OBSIDIAN??? PS You're such a bright young man. Wish I was like you when I was younger. PPS A little note about the Pareto principle - it is one of those "flavours of the current decade" things where people use it and apply the rule to everything, when it (a) wasnt intended that way and (b) all the things in life don't work that way - life is more complex and beautiful. For instance, I work as a doctor, and you could use the Pareto principle to say 20% of my patients cause about 80% of my workload. But that's nowhere near the truth and i real life it doesnt work like that. Also Vilfredo Pareto did not intend it to be generalised that way. Actually, it was someone else who coined the term "Pareto Principle" - someone called Juran - who only intended it to be applied to quality issues (for example, 80% of a problem is caused by 20% of the causes). This is also known as "the vital few and the trivial many." But even Juran preferred the phrase "the vital few and the useful many" to signal that the remaining 80% of the causes should not be totally ignored rather than quoting figures like 80 this by 20 that. Hope that's an interesting piece of information.

[@carlyoungps]

Everything in Obsisian is a text file formatted with Markdown. Beware apps that capture your notes in a proprietary format.

[@vu3atg835]

i googled what is first brain. he talks about the jelly thing inside your skull. its not a new app.

[@aidanhelfant]

lol

[@messianicstudiessources5406]

Of course silly lol

[@Verrisin]

when your note taking system is so complex all you do is just processing notes of your note taking system and adding notes about note taking systems through your node taking system ... sounds just like bureaucracy bloat from the outside :D

[@aidanhelfant]

I understand what your saying. I still resonate with a lot of the ideas from this video but I would change many things if I went back through it again. Even so I think a lot of the reason it sounds so overwhelming is because you might not have used it yourself for a long time. For me, my notetaking system feels very easy at this point. It's second nature.

[@M4XD4B0ZZ]

Plural of zettel is zettel. Just a heads up

[@aidanhelfant]

Noted!

[@TheJoshtheboss]

27:53 how to bring up the Emojis?

[@aidanhelfant]

You press the windows and ; button at the same time.

[@TheJoshtheboss]

@@aidanhelfant Thanks.

[@_mishi]

I love the idea and the history behind it, but the whole thing is so meticulous that setting it up would take too long and down the line make me less productive. Just use the linking system of obsidian and the original system of the zettelkasten, link stuff together in a manner that makes it come together

[@aidanhelfant]

I can totally see that. The initial activation energy is very high, but for what I'm looking to do it has been worth it.

[@oninomarugoku226]

13:43 best process take away

[@aidanhelfant]

Agreed! Glad you spotted that process.

[@markgreen4763]

Why not show the notes you used to create the script?

[@aidanhelfant]

Great point, unforutunately I can't share the notes in the video afterward but you can see them on my published Obsidian vault: publish.obsidian.md/aidanhelfant/Spaces/%F0%9F%AA%90Content+Creation/%F0%9F%93%B8KZbin+Videos/An+Overview+of+my+Zettelkasten+System+in+Obsidian

[@heavensplayer]

youre a nice dude

[@aidanhelfant]

No you're a nice dude. We just nice dudified each other.

[@serhatbalk5202]

Haha this is more like "how people create KZbin videos by reading it from script" Thanks a lot for the method :)

[@aidanhelfant]

Lol, you got me

[@modaryaghi]

This video is the best recipe for bringing a simple great idea and shitting it completely. Just for showing off?! Anyone who reads "How to Take Smart Notes" will know from the first pages that what this guy is showing off here is obviously contradictory to the Zettelkasten.

[@aidanhelfant]

Finally a negative comment. Only know your talking about something important when people get mad.

[@modaryaghi]

@@aidanhelfant Yes, I got mad because you falsified an excellent method with your content!

[@luram3118]

The thing with Luhmann talking to his Zettelkasten is: The more you know about Luhmann, the less it sound's weird. Could have actually been real! 😂 And funny how in the community of Obsidian Luhmann became just an important historical "note taker"! 😂😂

[@aidanhelfant]

lol, the deeper you dive into the PKM community the less weird talking to your notes becomes.

[@latsm9362]

Man that sounds exhausting

[@aidanhelfant]

It's invigorating! When you fall back in love with learning you wake up most days with an excitement for what you will learn next.