What's happening in your ZK this month, May 2026?
We've had weekly versions in the past, but it's hard for anyone to keep that consistent. So I thought we might try a monthly version for a while, where anyone on the forum can start that thread for the month.
On my side, I'm continuing to experiment with different kinds of #tagging. Right now I'm testing how some theoretical frameworks can go across many different topics and categories, and I'm wondering if that could be a base for multi-note tagging. For example, Systems Theory and Game Theory have concepts and keywords that could be applied to many different areas.
A previous experiment with workflow-based tags has worked well, so I'm keeping that for the longer-term.
I also want to branch out a bit in the kind of sources I've used in the past. I noticed I didn't have much in regards to natural sciences, so I've gotten a book about evolution and that will be the first biology/natural science book I'll have taken notes on for my ZK.
Also this month, I'm revisiting a lot of older notes and reworking them. Depending on the case, that can mean editing and reorganizing them, or synthesizing them with completely new notes. It's slower than I expected, as I spend more time thinking that I do writing. But I'm happy with the newer versions.
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@wjenkins81 Thank you for starting this. I, too, have been missing @Will ’s precise and consistent nudging, so a monthly thread feels like a gentle way to bring that practice back.
Your post made me pause and reconsider what I’m currently doing with my Zettelkasten. It occupies me almost continuously, to the point where I rarely step back to reflect on the method itself. It has, over time, become something like a second layer of thinking.
This month I’m trying to be more deliberate about how my Zettelkasten evolves, rather than simply adding more content — partly because I’ve started teaching its use to participants in my natural history training. Converting others to use a ZK is surprisingly enjoyable.
One shift I’ve made over time is moving away from tagging as a primary structuring tool. Instead, I focus on developing explicit concept notes (definitions, distinctions, and applications). These seem to travel better across contexts than tags, which tend to stay implicit.
A second focus is integrating field observation more directly. Much of my current work revolves around botany and species identification, so I’m experimenting with what I would call an “associative field notebook” — linking observations, photographs, ecological context, and conceptual notes. It’s a very different mode of working compared to purely text-based and theoretical approaches, though those remain valuable in their own way — and I surely wouldn't enjoy life without.
Finally, I’m revisiting older notes with a clearer understanding of what that actually involves. Sometimes I refine them, but more often I extract underlying principles or decompose them into more precise units. It’s slow work, but it’s often where the real thinking happens — where connections emerge that go beyond earlier tagging structures. @harr has been a real source of inspiration lately.
So for me, this month will be less about expansion and more about consolidation and sharpening — after all, it is spring. Fresh growth, new twigs and twines.
I know from my own experience that one of the best ways to understand something is to teach it to someone else. It makes you think about it differently and see it from another person's point of view. I'm curious what insights you might get from teaching it, and hopefully you'll share them in the future.
I was also thinking about something like this. I might be over-thinking it, but I was first trying to figure out a concept framework in advance. Probably I should just let it evolve naturally.
That is something I can understand, as I also need to work with more than just text and theory. Integrating many different kinds of sources can be hard, they can so easily end up isolated in little islands of their own.
Sounds good!
I am new to Zettelkasten and I want to focus on this aspect more. I am an undergrad psych student and I want to work on developing my research interests. It’s been very difficult at first but I am sure it will take time, and I can see that my interests are very rough and underdeveloped. I also think that this is why getting hands-on lab experience is very important to me as I see how being in a lab and reading more helps me connect my ideas and find gaps in research I never thought of.
This month, I am currently working on trying to put my thoughts into writing. To be more specific, I have a bad habit of just simply staying inside of my own head rather than writing it down. Which I guess is what fleeting notes are for, maybe I am wrong.
Second, I’m experiencing friction in spanning out my ZK to multiple topics and interests. I’m so used to taking standard lecture notes based on one topic or class and I’m not used to having so many topics connect with each other in one place. It’s rather small but I think it will take me a while to get used to it.
So I guess this month for me is about adjusting to friction and letting outside discussion influence my writing. I am curious as to how Zettlekasten is used in the writing process (i.e. essays).
Welcome to the forum.
In my experience, the ZK helps with writing not just with the notes themselves, but with how much writing you are doing in the process of developing the ZK. You are in effect practicing writing the entire time. So when it comes to writing outside of the ZK, it feels normal and routine to write, because you're doing it regularly, every time you create a note.
Absolutely, I think I’ve been treating writing as something separate instead of part of the process. I also have not been reading outside of my ZK as much as I want to, so I think reading a lot is part of it as well.
Thank you @wjenkins81 for continuing this fun community introspection!
We're about to finalize buying a house for our family + my mother in a nearby town, then tear down and rebuild everything but the walls for a year or so. I'm expanding my departments on renovation, building material, architecture, gardening, insulation, ... to accommodate, to learn about this huge project. It'll be stressful nevertheless and we're bracing ourselves for some tough years, emotionally.
On the upside, I now get to work more with Alexander's A Pattern Architecture and watch gardening videos
But oooooh boy is time in short supply!
When my daughter was newly born, the sleep schedule was awful but I could get up around 4am and simply fall asleep earlier. But with her almost being 2 y.o. the night sleep starts much later and the mid-day nap shortens. And if I go to sleep 1--2h later, I get up a bit later, and not getting as much of a headstart early in the day. ;( We can't move my wife's workday start later into the day to accommodate so the mornings feel very compressed now.
Author at Zettelkasten.de • https://christiantietze.de/
That's wonderful news Christian. It can be fascinating to have a large project, but it can also be exhausting.
When the day comes that I can have a place of my own instead of renting, I think I would need to just concentrate only on that and have no other projects going on.
There's no end to all the possible choices, so right now I wouldn't know where to start!
Good luck with it all, we're rooting for you.