Building a Second Brain and the Zettelkasten Method

Metadata

• URL: https://zettelkasten.de/posts/building-a-second-brain-and-zettelkasten/
• Author: sascha
• Publisher: zettelkasten.de
• Published Date: 2023-06-26
• Tags:

Highlights

• Every form of self-management is an attempt to take a step towards this inner harmony.
• Knowledge work is characterized by the fact that tasks are not given, but must first be recognized as such.4
• but a preparation method of resources like articles, podcasts, and books for later use.
• BASB is a system for resource management; ZKM is a method for working with ideas themselves.
• The four parts (Projects, Areas, Rresources, Archive) are aligned to a hierarchy of urgency.
• In contrast, the Zettelkasten Method speaks the “language of knowledge”.
• Each note merely contains ideas and their connections to other ideas.
• for? BASB is for people who want to manage their information streams and resources in a project-oriented way.
• Overload because of Openness to Experience.
• Something is interesting if it is a thing that can be studied.
• These are the ones who get lost in analyzing and constructing a perfect system.
• doing more work on their system than using it for its intended purpose. They can become overwhelmed
• conducting purposeless research, neglecting project- and deadline-oriented work.
• BASB can provide the solution for both types of overload: 1. It allows managing information and resources with little effort.
• explicitly project-oriented. This helps people who lose sight of project-oriented
• Projects are short-term efforts in work and personal life. They are what you are currently working
• Areas (of Responsibility) are concerned with anything that you want to keep in mind for the long term.
• you do not pursue a goal with them,
• but want to maintain a standard.
• not limited in time.
• an aspiration on ourselves and our living
• Resources are topics that might become relevant or useful at best in the long run.14
• catch-all container
• topics that are interesting,16
• subjects to be researched,17
• My personal criterion for this is that I sit down at least once a week to work on the project.
• Organize is the step where we empty the inbox and incorporate the resources into the PARA system.
• we use the hierarchical nature of PARA:
• check if the resource can be used for something urgent
• urgent:27
  • Note: Good flow chart
• This is where the difference from the Zettelkasten Method becomes particularly obvious. At no point in CODE do you move beyond the resource inside the system.
• Only at Express, the next step of CODE, do we leave behind the resource as the unit of information.
• With BASB, we get stuck with managing resources because we don’t move beyond the resource.
• Even if we process the resource to the point of extracting out each individual thought, as is the case with, let’s say, the Zettelkasten Method, we could still fit the individual thoughts into the PARA system as well.
• Instead, rely on your intuition to tell you when a passage is interesting, counterintuitive, or relevant to your favorite problems
• Progressive summarization does not involve thorough extracting and processing of ideas.
• this step is already outside the actual system of processing and management because most likely you will start writing in your dedicated writing app or implement behavioral changes in your life and not in your second brain.
• System-relevant habits are actions that are necessary for the effectiveness of the system,
• Habits of good use of the system. Through these habits, one derives maximum benefit from the system.
• project checklists.
• Habits of maintenance of the system. By these habits one repairs the current damages and signs of wear. In BASB, these are the reviews. The Project Checklists
• The checklist at the end of the project is for using the completed project to improve the system.31 So, these two checklists are designed as positive feedback loop:
• BASB is a hybrid of (1) information management and (2) project management system.
• The Zettelkasten Method, on the other hand, is a method for processing knowledge.
• The analysis of single thoughts and their relations to each other is clearly a centerpiece.
• the ZKM is agnostic to the use of the processed knowledge.
• The Zettelkasten Method is based on a hierarchy-free network. There are individual notes and their links.
• BASB speaks the language of action. ZKM speaks the language of knowledge.
• The basic categories of BASB are importance and urgency. These are categories of action. The basic categories of ZKM are atomic thought and its relation to other thoughts.
• blood flow of your Second Brain. They keep the whole system nourished, fresh and primed for action.
• Progressive summarizing,
• merely preparing resources so that they are easier to skim.
• categories). It is a production system that puts information where it is most likely to be needed.
• My research on psychological entropy is a good example of what BASB is inappropriate for:
• as the size of the Zettelkasten increases, the search function becomes less reliable and more cumbersome to use.
• The problem described above always arises when one works at the limits of one’s own cognitive capacities.
• The Zettelkasten Method is a system of creating an integrated thinking environment and working with it.
• the core of ZKM is precisely this processing of resources into individual ideas by extracting them from the resource and connect them to other ideas.
• clarify this difference:
  • Note: Great picture
• They focus on different sections of the overall value chain of processing knowledge.
• Rather, there are mere habit recommendations, such as setting up research days.
• Working with the Zettelkasten benefits greatly from incorporating Newport’s deep work strategies into your daily routine.
• they address different parts of the knowledge-based value chain.
• think it is advisable to combine them.
• That way, you get the best of the worlds of productivity-focused self-organization and deep understanding-focused integrated thinking environments.
• BASB is not about creating a second brain in the direct sense. Rather, it is about handing off to the system all that does not belong in the brain.
• We use BASB for organizing resources and excerpts.
• Our Zettelkasten serves as our integrated thinking environment. Here we process the collected resources and excerpts into atomic thoughts and link them together.
• Projects and areas of responsibility are divided: Content belongs in the Zettelkasten, tasks in the task organisation.
• The difference is that you just create links to needed notes instead of moving the actual files.
• Collect everything you know about the project on the structure note.
• Review: Search your notebook for existing knowledge and refer to it from your project structure sheet.
• Move: Moving to a project folder is unnecessary. All notes stay where they are.
• However, it also references resources and excerpts that are outside the Zettelkasten.
• The inbox is coming back. I have reintroduced inboxes. Originally, I eliminated all my inboxes and immediately put everything into the right place.
• However, I now have to work on my resentment of emptying the inbox regularly.
• manage resources and short notes with TaskPaper. Originally, I had a purely thematic
• value effectiveness more. I have changed my work style to more effectiveness (publishing) and less efficiency (basic work, indirect work).
• In the long run, over years and decades, important projects are always urgent.
• The more resources I assign to larger and therefore more difficult to implement projects, or even general areas of responsibility, the more likely I am to structure the project into subprojects.
• for later use and then proposes to proceed from prepared resources directly to publication and implementation. This means that the actual knowledge work must take place in the manuscript.
• The Zettelkasten Method, on the other hand, is primarily concerned with the actual knowledge work and suggests that resources be processed thoroughly and deeply so that ideas and their connections to each other are revealed in Zettelkasten. This shifts the knowledge work into the Zettelkasten.
• The principle Important projects are urgent! is a second-order principle that arises from the application of the Eisenhower matrix:
• We should treat the important but not urgent projects as if they were urgent. This makes us productive.
• PARA follows exactly this principle. The areas of responsibility are what is important but not urgent.
• they continually produce projects that we treat as urgent.
• My Zettelkasten provides the necessary peace and quiet for knowledge work. It gives me a firm foundation.

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