What is happening in your Zettelkasten -- Jan 1st 2026

ctietze

How do you end the old and start the new year?

Any retrospective you want to share?

What did you do during the last week?

cashmere

I hope this post is not too technical in terms of computer science/Emacs/software development.

It’s my first year with the topic in general. I had not really thought about starting a fresh Zettelkasten, BUT:

It would be a good start, as I wanted to take the approach to the note-taking system you showed at EmacsConf 2025.

I also want to journal much more. My note-taking approach this year was really focused on the things I deal with on a daily basis, but there were almost no personal notes or journaling. I think the main reason was that I didn’t know how to start, though understanding the whole concept behind Org mode made sense to me after the first few hours.

Note-taking played a big role in my life this year, and I think it will for the next few years.

I also wanted to thank you, Christian, for all the posts that I integrate, in one way or another, into my workflow or life!

ctietze

Thanks for the kind words -- most posts on this website for the better part of the last 10 years have been by @Sascha though

wjenkins81

The main change to my ZK in 2025 was that I took a more minimalist approach, inspired by the 'Zettelkasten Minimalist' book by forum member @Edmund, and my ZK is so much better because of it.

The main change I want to make in 2026 is to stop a bad habit I have of processing multiple books and other resources at the same time. I'd like to be able to focus on deeply processing one resource at a time, and that's the established habit I want 12 months from now.

Martin

Christian's first question: How do you end the old and start the new year?

I don’t “close” the year so much as let it settle. The 1st of January is such an arbitrary boundary. I reread a handful of notes, journals, and project logs, not to judge outcomes but to notice what kept returning and what should be continued. Those recurring questions usually tell me more than any goal list. The new year begins quietly, with space rather than plans.

Christian's second question: Any retrospective you want to share?

The recent year reminded me that thinking systems don’t exist to optimize output, but to protect attention and integrity over time. It rarely occurs to me to publish my thoughts; I am content to absorb wisdom within myself. The most valuable work often looked slow from the outside: refining distinctions, letting ideas mature, resisting premature conclusions. That felt like progress worth keeping. It helps to understand the world a little more accurately.

Christian's third question: What did you do during the last week?

I tidied notes, rewrote a few that had earned a second look, and let several open threads remain open on purpose. I read without extracting much, walked without tracking, and trusted that some things only clarify when not pushed. I have not developed any interest in the notes of top performers in business administration. It felt like ending the year inside the (ongoing) work, rather than stepping away from it or close work like a fiscal year.

Happy New Year to you all!

GeoEng51

Hello everyone - the best of the New Year to everybody!!

Major Zettelkasten accomplishments last year

1. Converted all of my Zettelkasten notes to NotePlan (that took minor Python programming to make changes to the note files) and also transferred my bullet journal, daily journal and task/calendar planning to NotePlan. I'm happy with where I ended up and think it is a stable arrangement now (after cycling through other software over the past couple of years).
2. Finished the text of my personal history, which consists of 54 stories, 86,500 words and about 100 photos. Writing the stories took a year (1 story per week), which was originally accomplished through Storyworth.
3. This past year, I printed off one copy (2 volumes) to get a feeling for the look and feel of the final product. It's pretty good quality, but I wanted better control over the layout and formatting than Storyworth provided, so imported all the material into Atticus. I also had several of my kids reading and editing the text.

Plans for this year

1. Finish the editing and reformatting phases (that seems to take as long or even longer than the original writing). The final editing will be done by one of my daughters who is an accomplished writer, using the collaboration process available in Atticus.
2. Print off copies of the document for all of my kids (this was supposed to be a present for this past Christmas, but I guess it will go out next Christmas).
3. Also produce an ePub version of the personal history.
4. Continue working on my Zettelkasten, but in a more intentional and focused manner.
5. Have some fun learning more about and playing around with Python.

I should say that this personal history has been more than 2 years in the making, in that since I started in the Zettelkasten world about 6 years ago, it's always been with the primary intention of eventually producing a personal history. I have of course discovered many other applications for a Zettelkasten, both in personal and work life, and that has involved many pleasant distractions. But the more focused work of writing the personal history started 2 years ago, as discussed above, and it was only because of the preceding 4 years of capturing stories about my youth and married life in a Zettelkasten, that the actual writing could be done so efficiently. The latter was a random, rather organic process - I wasn't pushing it - which is one reason it extended over 4 years.

You may not consider taking 5 to 10 hours a week over a period of a year to write 86,500 words "efficient", but I assure you that it was.

If anyone else is thinking of pursuing a similar project, feel free to contact me with any questions.

Amontillado

I'm an academic wanna-be very grateful for the discussions I've followed here. My Zettel-related outlining is working out very nicely.

Build a library of facts, then tie those notes to narrative points. No hierarchical outline, just a sequence of notes in the order I want to present them.

I've experimented with Devonthink, OmniOutliner 6, and TheArchive. In either case, the outcome is the same. If I bring up the chapter 7 scene card, I get to see what I want to say along with all the supporting evidence and facts. If I refine a fact pertaining to chapter 7, I want that refinement present everywhere it is relevant. Transclusion and tagging are the ways I've been doing that.

About two weeks ago, sadly concurrent with lots of overtime at work, I broke through some kind of mental barrier. I'm writing in greater volume than I ever have in my life, hopefully some of it is actually readable.

Here's a funny thing. I had an unfortunate keyboard stumble and deleted about 10,000 words from 20,000 words of work in progress.

I was able to recover everything with Apple's "revert" function. The first thing I thought when I realized a lot of work was missing was, "Oh, thank goodness. It's just the manuscript. The outline is safe, recovery is just typing."

Anyway, my Zettel-ish outlining is liberating. I can't wait to finish my current project and dive into something else. I have fantasies about living a mash-up of Good Will Hunting without the street brawling and Isaac Asimov's broad oeuvre.

Yeah, I know. I should get a grip. But I'm having all kinds of fun.