What's happening in your Zettelkasten this month, September 2026?
The idea: a general chat about what we're working on currently.
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Currently I have found a nice balance between reworking older notes and adding new ones. Two experiments have turned out well:
- I've been running a tagging experiment for a while, and now I'm happy enough with it that I know I'll keep it, or something like it. I'll make a separate post about it another time.
- I've been replacing lists of links in structure notes, with a flowing text which includes the links but puts them in context for an overall picture.
An example of both is here:
The workflow tagging system I've used is 'Import, Tidy, Understand, Export', with further nested tags depending on the note details. I'll expand on that another time.
In the past, there would've been a list of links here, which themselves have further links to other notes. But weaving them together into a mini-text is just so much more enjoyable for me. It's nicer to look at, and turns the list of links into a mini-note in itself.
I'm definitely keeping the 'flowing text' structure note as the replacement for the list-style structure note. I'll keep experimenting with workflow-based tagging to see how I can improve it. I'm not completely satisfied with that just yet, but I'll use something along those lines
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And how is it going for the rest of you? What's happening in your Zettelkasten this month?
Howdy, Stranger!
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Comments
In my zettelkasten The Archive, it occurred to me that a compilation of essential diagrams in chemistry might make for my first book. Quite some material was there already, more is now growing and finding connections. Let's see where this goes.
In addition, I have installed Obsidian to check it out. So far, I need to figure out where that vault is going to go. Currently, The Archive is for virtually everything (in English), Obsidian is (in German) about psychological aspects in corporate life such as negotiations, change management, HR issues and the like. I might eventually merge the .md-files.
How to zettel for stellar revelations? What a fantastic journey!
I like your idea #2 above and the example you gave. It makes the structure note a lot friendlier, although I also like to show links in bullets and sub-bullets. You can do one or the other, but not both. However, I think I'll give your narrative approach a try on some of my structure notes.
@Marcel_Liauw I've experimented with using different apps for different Zettelkasten purposes in the past. This can work well, but over time, I've found it's unnecessary to have separate ZKs, and if one finds the right software, to use more than one app. One ZK can accommodate as many overarching purposes and topics as you want - everything from personal ideas and memories to technical topics to news to politics to daily journal entries to calendar entries, etc., etc. Each major topic might occupy a different "space" within your ZK, but multiple "spaces" can coexist happily. You may find the density of your links higher within each space and sparser between spaces, but that's also OK, and those inter-space links are gold.
Anyway, my only intent here was to say you shouldn't feel obligated to have multiple ZKs and/or use multiple apps to contain your ZK. You might choose to do the latter, to get complementary features, and if you design your zettel format appropriately, you can access the same set of text files with multiple apps, (the trick is to get links to work consistently between apps).
Parenthetically, it's also nice to be able to migrate your Zettelkasten from one app (that you really like now) to another app (that you really like in the future). This may require changes to the format of the zettel title, UID and/or links. We're talking about text files, so the change in format is pretty straightforward, and some rudimentary Python skills suffice to make the necessary changes.
Number two(2) for sure, I started doing the same "in-line" links in my system a while ago. I used to have a list of links at the bottom of my notes, but the integration within the note helps assist with the context. However, I mostly use it for referencing back to a bib note.
One thing I started doing a year ago was adding a "# Journal" or "# Dialog" at the bottom of every note. That way when I discover the note again in the future, I can log my dialog (talking to my note) each time. Usually in bulleted form. i.e.,
- 2026-09-02 I thought this thought when reading this. It reminds me of <link to other note>.My connections usually stem from this dialog. It is my way of creating a "Folgezettel" thought train without the forcing of generating a "Parent-child" relationship. I use the The Archive's default ID system, which also helps deter a forced connection. Plus I don't believe in using back-link connections, only forward thoughts from the current zettel.Excellent idea. This kind of log would solve several problems of mine:
Thanks for the inspiration!
As a rookie (two weeks), I wonder if inspiring ideas such as in this thread are compiled somewhere, or if I should sift through the forum (maybe the "What's happening..." threads first).
How to zettel for stellar revelations? What a fantastic journey!