Maintenance of Your ZK
I've been neglecting and procrastinating on maintaining my ZK while my fleeting notes are piling. Do you guys have a schedule for when to maintain your ZK, when to add new notes into your ZK? What disciplines you into actually maintaining it daily (if so) when your scehdule is full from work, school, family, cooking, assignments, bedtime, hobbies, etc?
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Maintaining my ZK just flows when I'm excited about what I'm involved in. Not so much if I'm not excited. A routine/habit/ritual is, I think, the most important part of the ZK process. Everything else comes along naturally if we can establish regularity and stay open to discovery.
I do most of my ZK work as part of what I've come to call my Monk Morning. Usually, I get to the ZK around 5:30 am and work for about an hour. At a minimum.
I might suggest transcribing your fleeting notes into your ZK, tagging them with an inbox tag. Then set a time, at first only 30 mins early in the morning, to work on clearing your inbox. Let this habit grow from there and let the compounding proceed. Oddly, I find it is helpful to be interrupted just when I get into a flow so that the next day I'm excited to get back into my ZK.
If you find a magic elixir that solves life's scheduling busyness, I'd love to buy a case.
Hope this helps!
Will Simpson
My zettelkasten is for my ideas, not the ideas of others. I don’t want to waste my time tinkering with my ZK; I’d rather dive into the work itself. My peak cognition is behind me. One day soon, I will read my last book, write my last note, eat my last meal, and kiss my sweetie for the last time.
kestrelcreek.com
I think a big change in the general workflow comes when you start thinking inside your ZK. I even have a note that is called "Kill your Inbox". I have no need to put anything into my ZK because most things emerge being already in my ZK.
This reminds me on how I learned to type properly on keyboard. I learned for a short period of time with software but then I just typed and forced myself to use the correct moves even if it meant to type really slow and much slower then peck and hunt.
The same is true with the ZKM. If you begin to do everything in your ZK you feel slow. But over time you will unlock new levels of productivity.
I am a Zettler
That one really confused me. Can you expand on that thought a little?
Yes. Three tags; 0fn (fleeting notes) this is my default tag in all notes I create, 0fs (fleeting sprint), 0ip (in-progress). Final and permanent notes won't include those notes.
Work on completing notes on Wednesday, Saturday, Sunday at 7 pm.
I got the idea from scrum methodology or something like that.
iA Writer sidebar has smart searches, so I have one for each tags and hence there's a zero in the tag's name so they're always on top of the list
This helped tremendously! I worked on my ZK for 30 minutes today (I forget that I work best in the morning) and it didn't feel like a chore! Thank you! Admittedly I sleep late so waking up early was never something I thought of.
Confused with this as well. I think I understand: to remove the fleeting notes writing process. If so It's more beneficial for me to write it and then input into my ZK because it physically forces me to atomize and it helps with retention (school).
@Splattack Scrum looks interesting thank you for sharing!
This should be a little hard, to be honest. And it's good because the more you dread to make fleeting notes into permanent notes, the less you are inclined the next time to add whatever you come across to your Zk. That will make your notes have less but better
Indeed I've noticed that I don't info dump and never look at them again while convinced I will one day.
Here is a tip to help with habit formation. Start small like you did, 30 min and quit for the day. Quit while you feel energized, with the feeling that you have more to give, so you'll be wanting to get back to it tomorrow. Doing this for a week or so will put you a long way on the path to establishing the routine of enjoying and looking forward to working in your ZK.
Will Simpson
My zettelkasten is for my ideas, not the ideas of others. I don’t want to waste my time tinkering with my ZK; I’d rather dive into the work itself. My peak cognition is behind me. One day soon, I will read my last book, write my last note, eat my last meal, and kiss my sweetie for the last time.
kestrelcreek.com
Oh, I mean it literally. I rarely take note anywhere outside of my ZK. I have the luxury to sit in front of my computer most of the day. So, if I take note I directly start creating notes in my ZK.
There are only few notes taken outside of my ZK and the markings in the books I read that can pile up outside of my ZK. If I read an online article (which is a very big component of my work) I immediately create notes in my ZK.
I am a Zettler
Ok! Perfectly clear now. Thanks for responding.