Atomizing "Efficient Notetaking" video demonstration

Will

Hi Zettelauts!

I am procrastinating writing an assignment that is due in a few hours, so I thought I'd create a little video on how I zettelkast.

Let me know if you want more like this. Me wresting in real-time, taking a new idea and seeing where I can connect it to established ideas to strengthen them, question them, advocate for or against them, and reconcile them. I have a few other tricks for finding connections, but I was running out of time and energy. I had fun doing this once I got into it, finding some reinforcing ideas.

Background

I tried to keep the content as application-agnostic as I could. The subject of the video is Effective Notetaking (2nd ed) by Fiona McPherson, 2014. One of the ideas she writes about is when highlighting is effective and when it is not. I show how this idea is captured and integrated into my ZK. For the first 6-8 mins, I demonstrate and talk about the capturing part, and the other 20 mins are devoted to my slow real-time thinking about the idea of highlighting as a strategy.

Time is precious, and in this demonstration, I spent 30 mins atomizing and linking this note. Multiply this by the 20-30 atomic notes I expect from exploding this book note, and we come up with 15 hours if all the notes are as interesting or dull as this one. With school, backpacking, the girlfriend, the puppy, the gym, the side gig, the other two book notes I'm exploding, and the other books I'm into, I suspect that 15 hours will be spread over 3-4 weeks or more, but I think the ideas Fiona presents are new and novel.

If you made it this far and watched the video, I'd tell you that I let this note settle overnight, and I found a compelling counterargument this morning.

• Competency [[201902191049]]
  • The downside of highlighting is you can fool yourself into thinking you understand because of familiarity. A note from our friend Sonke Ahrens's book.

Previous videos I've made.
1. Video example of essay factoring into my zettelkasten
2. Two window workflow keeps the target in focus
3. How to tie the title with the note's idea
4. Insert a templated new note, titled based on a selection.
5. File-based Transclusion Comes to The Archive!
6. Mentions Script & Automated Draft Structure Notes
7. File-based Transclusion Comes to The Archive!
8. Using your ZK to write

ctietze

Very cool! ~30min demonstration of an actual piece of work. The community benefits from details like these. Thanks for sharing, @Will!

Will

I find it harder than it looks to produce a watchable video of "an actual piece of work." So much of my zettelkasting is spent quietly thinking and bouncing from idea to idea. We're not used to providing a verbal blow-by-blow commentary. Maybe I'll get the hang of it. Maybe not.

Thanks for taking the time to watch.

Did you notice the arrant highlighting that started at the 10:00 min mark? I can turn it off, but the settings are deep in the preferences and are disruptive to reach to switch.

Sascha

I can't help it. But I like to just listen to your voice.

Ubaldo_Passamonti

hi @Will - again thank you so much for your continuing efforts in helping the Zettelkasten community and, more generally, the note-taker community. I love your videos and your calm voice too.
Quindi, ti ringrazio ancora tantissimo e aspetto il tuo prossimo video per imparare altre cose

ctietze

@Will said:
I find it harder than it looks to produce a watchable video of "an actual piece of work." So much of my zettelkasting is spent quietly thinking and bouncing from idea to idea. We're not used to providing a verbal blow-by-blow commentary. Maybe I'll get the hang of it. Maybe not.

I can relate. It's wild how much effort everything with video is, in the end. Writing is hard enough, but then the performance is with the reader. That helps offload some of the work

Did you notice the arrant highlighting that started at the 10:00 min mark? I can turn it off, but the settings are deep in the preferences and are disruptive to reach to switch.

Yeeeees yes yes I will be adding the highlighting toggle to the menu soon, it's on my list. Promise

Thai

Love seeing how folks work, thanks for sharing this!