Begginer Choices and Doubts
I’m a beginner with Zettelkasten and I’d like to know if these choices make sense or are at least acceptable for someone starting out.
- Is it okay to avoid very long titles? For example, I’m studying Roman Law, and many of my notes naturally want to become something like: “something something… Roman Law” or “legal transaction… in Rome.” It’s not a huge problem, but I feel my titles are becoming repetitive and unnecessarily long.
Should I try any technique to avoid this issue?
I’m also trying to avoid excessive hierarchies and overly remote links because I don’t want to turn my Zettelkasten into an overengineered system that becomes impractical for daily use. For example, “condictio” is technically related to “accidental elements of Roman legal transactions,” but instead of linking it directly to a broad note like “Roman legal transactions,” I’m linking it only to the more immediate conceptual note. I’m doing this to avoid obsessing over connections and spending more time engineering the system than actually studying. Does this approach make sense?
I’m not using numeric hierarchies or Folgezettel. I looked into it, but it feels somewhat impractical for modern digital workflows. Instead, I’m organizing things mainly through index notes.
Does this sound reasonable for a beginner, or am I building bad habits early on?
Howdy, Stranger!
Comments
Welcome to the wonderful world of digital note making! It seems that you are facing classic design decisions.
Yes. The purpose of a title is that you see at one glance what a note is about. The titles help you identify your notes and keep them apart. So it's ok to abbreviate or to use some personal codes.
There's nothing wrong with deep hierarchies and remote links, even if some people have strong opinions on the subject. :-)
The issue usually comes up when newbies are trying to build the ultimate encyclopedia of their area of interest. Many people start by building a topical hierarchy of their area of interest. They start with broad topics and break them down into ever smaller subtopics. They realize that many things are related to many other things. Then they try to model all those relationships. Then they get lost. This is a very common beginner's mistake.
The recommendation is to have a clear focus for your notetaking and to be very selective about your notes. There's no need to re-create Wikipedia or a textbook or an online course or a legal database, because those tools already exist and because it would take more than a lifetime to re-create them.
Your personal notes should be optimized for your personal needs. So the big question is: What do you want to achieve with your notes?
Good choice. Powerful apps like Obsidian have more flexible options. With a smart combination of properties, bases, backlinks and plugins you can navigate tens of thousands of notes instantly in Obsidian.
But in order to set up a useful system, you need to be clear about your usage. Why use Obsidian and not, let's say, a good textbook and Anki?