Fuelling My Top 2% Podcast With 15 Years of Atomic Note-Taking • Zettelkasten Method

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Fuelling My Top 2% Podcast With 15 Years of Atomic Note-Taking • Zettelkasten Method

Thanks to my Zettelkasten, I can create podcast episodes from existing notes quickly and moved a relatively new Podcast up the charts in just a couple of episodes.

Read the full story here

Sascha

To keep everything together: This is what I wrote on Reddit:

Dear Zettlers,

This is How I fuel My Top 2% Podcast With 15 Years of Atomic Note-Taking

As I am slowly directing my workflow towards publishing material, instead of just using my Zettelkasten for research and thinking, I'd like to present a use case of the Zettelkasten for content production: I started a podcast and set up my system to allow for consistent publication.

The quality metrics look very healthy to exceptionally healthy. Here are some funnel metrics:

Indicator	My value	Industry Average	Comment
Impressions to Awareness (Impression -> Awareness)	9.6%	15% (Gemini)	Lower values mean apparently that Spotify is currently pushing my show, since once people listen, they stick. I am not sure about that.
Reach to Interest (Awareness -> Interaction)	36.4%	8.6%	Could mean: High topic relevance (I think likely), good cover/title (unlikely), good search placement (likely)
Interest to Cosumption (Interest -> Stream)	63%	63%	Could be higher if shows wouldn't be so long and entertaining instead educational.
Average listening time per month per person	2.27h (rising)	?
Listener retention	40-80%	?	Together with the retention shape (sharp drop early and then very horizontal) indicates that listeners keep listening to complete episodes a lot.

Summary: My podcast has a high barrier of entry with a lot of stickiness.

I now benefit from the Zettelkasten principle to treat the Zettelkasten as a central thinking environment. My Zettelkaten doesn't merely provide me with inspiration, thinking prompts, and material that still needs unpacking. It now provides me with the results of 15 years of deep thinking. My past self set me up properly. It has done the work that I now benefit from.

The medium I chose to publish in is much more forgiving. A podcast is not that polished, and therefore, the pipeline from Zettelkasten to publication is much smoother. The productivity of the Zettelkasten translates much more smoothly and directly to a podcast than to an article/books.

The flavor of the Zettelkasten Method presented on zettelkasten.de is carefully modernised and upgraded by respecting the mechanics of learning, extensive research on the nature of knowledge, and actually applying the Zettelkasten Method for 1.5 decades (sometimes manically), and seeing many Zettelkastens in action.

The major message here is:

Don't focus on making the present easier by postponing work that can be done now. Instead, invest in your future self because this will be you one time. Work is easier if an army of past selves worked for you, instead of just caring for themselves.

Happy Reading: Fuelling My Top 2% Podcast With 15 Years of Atomic Note-Taking

Live long and prosper
Sascha