executive functioning required during processing
Most of the times during processing, when I simultaneously create Zettels instead of writing a full long text, I experience problems such as
- cannot follow how deep I am going in Zettel creation,
- whether the scope is correct,
- am I dividing too much or too little,
- whether I missed a lateral connection,
- is there a better note I can append the new idea that comes to my mind...
And instead, if I write everything as a one long text, then I have to do the whole process twice. Plus Zettel headings kinda prime/prompt my mind, so it's better. How do you solve this situation? By giving metacognitive breaks? Does that happen to you? I suffer from executive functioning problems and cannot really differentiate if it's a me problem or not.
Selen. Psychology freak.
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Yes, some sort of break helps in these situations. It can be a few minutes or longer, sometimes only coming back to it the next day.
If it's a short break (e.g. 5-20 minutes), it's important to do something away from the computer, ideally something healthy like stretching or having a piece of fruit, and not thinking about the note/Zettel at all during that break.
Then I can see it with fresher eyes and clearer thinking when I come back to it.
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I'm not sure if this is helpful, but if I have a few ideas swimming around in my head, I start some zettels - typically just a title and a short sentence to remind myself of what I'm thinking; perhaps also one or two tags. Then I let those sit for a few days and come back to them (rather long metacognitive break, I guess). By then, my subconscious seems to have made progress on what should go in the zettels, where they should be connected, and even if I've formulated the right number of zettels.
My general approach, though, is not to be in a big hurry. I have a practice to identify incomplete zettels (using tags such as "#unfinished" and "#unlinked") and to review those unfinished zettels regularly, to "complete" or at least improve them. Then, the zettels evolve at their own pace and eventually get to a mature condition.
Your ZK should be an organic, ever-changing and developing, living thing - sort of like my gluten-free sourdough bread "starter", come to think of it. Yes; I like that analogy.
I often drop my whole flow of thoughts onto a note that I use as a workbench, as they flows from my mind, as frictionless as I can, without taking care of secondary aspects.
When the flow ends, I look at what I've written and begin to break down, move, and rearrange sentences, creating and separating pieces of text into small blocks.
After or during this process, it's easy for me to give a title to a block, or reduce the text to a concice sentence that works well as a title, and so a note or a note draft is shaped, which can be further developed immediately after or even at a later time. Or even discard a piece.
Shaped notes can remain into the workbench as links as they emerge, so at the end of the process your workbench easily become a structure note.
It's like making cookies, comes to mind.
I first create a big dough with my thoughts, undefined and without a discernible shape, and then I gradually begin to separate small pieces from that mass and shape them. I can take my time shaping the individual cookies; in the meantime, I've captured all the thoughts I've generated in the initial dough, without losing them.
I always suggest bullet style writing.
I find writing my flow using bullets very effective in this work, since I can move bullets very easily when I revisit what I've written, and I can create bullets that are children of other bullets, an action that takes on meaning developing child concepts from a general concept, going into more detail, and establishing relationships between concepts.
Having layed out all on a workbench, besides, let you stop your work and resume after a while or another day and finding all exactly as you left it. And this helps to reset your mind with the pause without losing anything.
Sounds like you would enjoy an app like Logseq in which to create and store your Zettelkasten. I have a similar approach to what you describe and find Logseq empowers the bullet writing approach, and even helps in deciding how to divide your writing into zettels.
I use Obsidian, I've considered Logseq in the past, but I still really like the idea of each zettel having its boundaries within a separate note. The initial and intermediate development of the notes, anyway, often begins in a hierarchical bullet list.
I often develop my thoughts into a journal note, or I make a source note from a book, article, a video, and they are all almost always bullets lists that grow and transform over time.
From the bullets then I create zettels by further transformations.
Obsidian manages to combine both models well, bullet lists and notes.
That's a clever analogy that really clicks with me. It separates the process of capturing ideas from shaping them into separate notes or ideas. Capturing is quick, exciting, and spontaneous, while shaping is deliberate, reflective, and slow. Keep these separated by using a tag that you can remove once the shaping is complete. Use the writerly technique of stopping work on a note when you get excited about it, so your subconscious can work on it. Then, you can return to it with a fresh perspective and renewed energy.
Will Simpson
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.
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It sounds to me that you don't need metacognitive breaks but rather metacognitive preparation. So, you might create little objectives, before you create the notes, while updating the objective as you need.
Example: When I read a paper such Espen Tønnessen, Øyvind Sandbakk, Silvana Bucher Sandbakk, Stephen Seiler, and Thomas Haugen (2024): Training Session Models in Endurance Sports: A Norwegian Perspective on Best Practice Recommendations, I make a list of objectives what I want to get out of the processing.
This paper was clearly structured, so I wrote the list anywhere down. But I knew after one reading, that I was interested in
Sometimes, I make a specific strategy sheet. One of which you can see here:
https://zettelkasten.de/posts/field-report-5-reading-processing-effective-notetaking-mcpherson/
I think metacognitive breaks are a good idea. But preparation is key in my opinion (for myself, too!).
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