In brain dump phase

Stevedave

Hi all, new member and have been running a physical zettelkasten for nearly a month now. So far I'm largely filling it with ideas I've been turning over in my mind for a while rather than the product of new reading. I've come to the conclusion that these ideas should be sat on for a while before they turn into permanent notes and so a zettelkasten would be unsuitable for learning a new field or subfield, which would be better served by a sort of lab manual or similar (not being an academic, I don't particularly need to preserve citations). Like an accounting system that uses a memorandum sheet, a journal, and then a ledger, with the zettelkasten being analogous to the last.

I got into this from Scheper's book, but I'm not a purist and I found his approach a little too dogmatic. But what I don't recall from his book or Luhmann's zettelkasten is recording the date each card was written. I don't know if that information is useful, but I've been including it on each card.

ctietze

Welcome aboard @Stevedave!

Applauding your stance to not be dogmatic: being open to experimentation and to learn from observation is much more useful than dogma

You can check Luhmann's notes online: https://niklas-luhmann-archiv.de/bestand/zettelkasten/zettel/ZK_2_NB_9-8_V

That one doesn't have a date. Doesn't mean none have (I haven't checked all), but it wasn't important metadata for him, it seems.

I personally do sometimes contextualize ideas by date ("oh this was 10 years ago, way before I ..."), so if you have the room, why not!

Will

Welcome aboard @Stevedave!

• Sitting on ideas and letting them fester is a way to waken the mind. This is the primary function of an "inbox." A focal place to look at festering ideas.
• Even though not an academic, saving references will be helpful in the future. You'll think one day, where did I get that idea from? A reference manager helps. I'm not sure how this translates to an analog ZK.
• Like @ctietze, I find the date as a UUID helps with programming. A simple review process is enabled. Using the date/time stamp answers the question, "What ideas was I working with last month or last year?"