Proper Care for a Digital Zettelkasten

Lessons learned in extracting value from an exotic note-taking system

Backlink note-taking systems bring the rabbit hole experience of navigating wikis to the writing process. There are many applications available to create such a system. My personal favorite is Obsidian. If chosen and implemented wisely, these tools can be an aid to productive writing. I’d like to provide observations of the most important principles guiding my personal implementation. While this isn’t meant to be a “how-to” on such systems, there are plenty of starter resources to find. I recommend Nicole van der Hoeven’s introduction to Obsidian.

Backlink note-taking systems should be purposeful

A back link note-taking system should always have a clear purpose for the notes developed. This purpose determines the notes that get attention, what is written, and what standard of writing should be set before making a note part of a larger work. Without a clear purpose, the system can easily become a vehicle for procrastination. Procrastination is only healthy if it leads to better work. Every effective writing system is essentially someone’s clever way of working around their desire not to write. One of the strengths of backlink note-taking systems is that they help guide procrastination by embracing mind-wandering about a specific idea. These systems only work if there is an understanding of what results are intended.

Possible aims for a system include:

• Content creation

• Academic research

• Knowledge collection

• Journaling

• Productivity hacking

• All of the above

I prefer to use my current system primarily for content creation. My first system found itself burdened at every turn due to attempting to do all of the above. With Obsidian, it's possible to add a plethora of plugins to make the system anything you want. I find I dislike having a plugin heavy set-up, as it distracts from the writing I do. It’s also often better to use separate tools that are dedicated to a specific task, like using a robust calendar app, over using a calendar plugin in Obsidian.

Linking works best when it’s purposeful

I like to appraise the quality of links within two categories:

• Strong Links

• Weak Links

Strong Links are typically formed within the content of a note. Because linking works best when it's purposeful, they have the advantage of being supported by highly relevant context. This makes picking out notes to potentially link much easier. It also paves the way to indicate what topics may be worth exploring in the next or future projects.

Weak Links are formed as anchor notes to broadly connect loosely related ideas to each other. If these links are too dense, it muddies finding insightful connections to notes that are relevant to a specific project. This should typically be used sparingly and temporarily until appropriate Strong Links can be found.

Following this principle leads to high signal note linking, which is critical to a healthy system. It's important to ensure there are more Strong Links than Weak Links. In my first system, I would have excessive "topic" notes that would anchor connections for a wider variety of notes. The problem is that these notes would often times outnumber more detailed notes and appear as outgoing links in entirely too many notes due to their breadth.

The best way to ensure note linking is purposeful is to have an end project in mind for the notes. This can be a blog post, an essay, video script and even the bones of a programming project. Purpose makes it much easier to find the notes that are relevant to the desired work. I enjoy knowing that every time I cycle through my notes, it's just a matter of opening a single note, finding what notes are linked, and pulling those notes to compose a post that I'm most interested. At that point, I can modify what I'm writing to suit any changes in my understanding at that point in time. This is effectively Zettelkasten and as long as the process leads to more and better work, it's an effective implementation. Don't let the distinctions of whether it's analog or digital be of any importance, as long as you are simply getting great results.

Don’t be afraid to force links

Linking should be introduced into every note, even if it results in Weak Links. If linking is insufficiently done, it leads to a growing number of orphaned notes, and orphaned notes drag down the quality of a system.

Orphaned notes are notes that have no links. These notes surface less often during reviews, because they have no links provided to aid in discovery. The bigger the note system becomes, the harder it is to navigate folders of notes to find a note of relevance. No links make compiling notes especially difficult when attempting to prepare a larger work. The solution to avoid this is to use Strong Links where possible and if unable to provide that, Weak Links. Don't be afraid to force links if it means one less orphaned note.

To avoid this problem further, I ensure in my note assembly line that in order to make it to the folder for finalizing, linking is a requirement.

Creativity is notoriously hard to pin down, but some have suggested that it is nothing more than making connections that no one else has noticed. - Daniel Doyon, Co-founder of Readwise

There is one easy way to avoid this: initially linking at the earliest stage of adding content.

It's better to have a link to act as an initial bridge to more content than to risk losing it upon conception. There will always be time to add content when inspiration strikes.

Effective note titles work as writing prompts

The content of the note starts with the title. I like using notes with sentence structured titles, as they often offer a prompt for the content being created. For example, the title of this section. It's also the modified title of the respective note. What's great about it is that it makes a clear statement that I am then positioned to expand upon. It also offers room for contrast and opposition. Excellent titles can sometimes require great conviction, but this is a clear signal of interest in expanding on the topic.

Backlink writing systems aid in identifying topics of passion

The process of forming connections through links leads to greater states of flow that identifies topics I have greater passion about.

When making links, it provides a rapid iteration experience to brainstorm related topics. In that process, it's easy to stumble upon a note where content naturally flows more than others. Once stepping back, it's much easier to measure where focus is most beneficial. This can become overwhelming once it clicks, as new notes form quickly and that means more fleshing out that will have to be done later. The upside to this is that it becomes increasingly harder to start with a blank page.

If you trust the process, once your eyes and heart and mind are fixed on a topic, all the tools you need will rise to meet you. These experiences will flood your consciousness, overwhelming you. It will be a signal that you have chosen well.” - Erika Robuck, Author In Progress A No-Holds-Barred Guide to What It Really Takes to Get Published

I expect a great deal will change overtime with how I use this system, especially now that I’m opening up to putting my writing and ideas in front of an audience. It’s always possible that I could easily drop the system entirely. As long as I can command more from it, I see no reason to.

Backlink writing systems are a long-term investment. With every cycle of linking and developing notes, there will always be more content to pull from, making every successive project less of an uphill climb. This affords ever-increasing complexity and depth. If the advice entailing linking, developing, and finding purpose in a system is not followed, there will be little gain from engaging with such a system. In the end, an unfocused system is just a writing Rube Goldberg machine.