Zettel Method

Harvison

Forgive me if this has already been asked. I just joined the forum and can’t find anywhere to do searches.

I am in the infant stages of the Zettel system and I am confused about document titles. I created a system that creates the title automatically in my app of choice. Looking like this: 202120021157. I am not having any problem linking notes, tags and keywords. So far, so good.

My question to you all, when aquiring new information for a reference note, and or adding information to my own notes pertaining to the same thought or subject, should these items or thoughts be added to existing notes, or always to create a new note with the above mentioned titling method. If the answer is the latter, how are you all linking them all together.

Thx

Will

@Harvison said:
My question to you all, when acquiring new information for a reference note, and or adding information to my own notes pertaining to the same thought or subject, should these items or thoughts be added to existing notes, or always to create a new note with the above-mentioned titling method. If the answer is the latter, how are you all linking them all together?

I'm not sure what you are referring to with "reference note". If by reference note you are referring to note like

202004020722 Coding Hub
202102052228 Keyboard Maestro
202006240540 The Archive

then I myself let these notes grow as I record more reference material. But they account for a fraction of my total notes.

But for all the other notes- yes, usually, sometimes, if the addition is grammatical, no, not usually, if I'm in the mood for refactoring, then I might sometimes make a new note with a new idea, but maybe not. It depends on my perceived value of the old note and the new idea.

I know this sounds wishy-washy but this is how I operate. I have no set rules, or maybe I should say that my self-generated rules are flexible and change back and forth.

More generally I try and keep notes focused and refactor them into multiple notes when the idea expressed feels crowded. One of my self-imposed rules is not to let a note grow beyond 300 words. 84% of my note meet this limit. 125 wc mean 198 wc avg.

Harvison

Thank you @Will . This helps out a lot. My first thought was to keep it together, but wasn't sure. I also did some reading on the host sight here and picked up a wealth of information pertaining to my question and many other things.

I also appreciate the information and screenshot pertaining to the search. The reason I wasn’t finding it, I was on the iPhone. As soon as I saw your screenshot, I realized I needed to change the mobile view to full site view and there it was.

The software they offer hear, looks pretty good, but I already use a different app. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t be a working option for me. I do nearly 100% of writing and research on the iPhone.

GeoEng51

@Harvison 1Writer (iOS app) works really well with files in your Zettelkasten folder.

In regard to some of your questions, have you read through the introduction to Zettelkasten on this web site? It has detailed and very food information.

Harvison

@GeoEng51 said:

In regard to some of your questions, have you read through the introduction to Zettelkasten on this web site? It has detailed and very food information.

I have since the original post went through the website and did find answers to my question and many more! There is a plethora of great information there.

Thx