A Zettelkasten (or 'slip box') is a tool for creating notes, forming and connecting ideas, and ultimately building a personal web of knowledge. German sociologist Niklas Luhmann is credited with the invention of the Zettelkasten as it is used today, after sociologist Johannes F.K. Schmidt concluded that Luhmann's prolific life (he published 58 books) could be traced back to this workflow (Schmidt, 2013, p. 168 as cited in Ahrens, 2017, p.17). Luhmann worked with two slip boxes. One contained all of the biographical information for his research, and the other contained his notes and ideas. Luhmann's use of this second slip box involved writing his ideas down in complete sentences, with extensive citations, and organizing notes not by topic but by their connections/references to each other. He used an abstract numbering system and an index to help him identify where his notes were but which did not force him to categorize his thoughts. *How to Take Smart Notes* by Sonke Ahrens details how to take advantage of this workflow for yourself when reading. There are three main steps involved: **1. Take fleeting notes.** Fleeting notes are those that you write in the margins of a book, or on a post-it, or in a notebook. They can be the highlights you make on your e-reader. Ultimately, fleeting notes exist to remind you about what was important when you were reading. **2. Make literature notes.** Literature notes involve writing your own words about the content - what it reminds you of, what you want to write about in a paper later, whatever you think may be useful to *you*. **3. Make permanent notes.** Permanent notes involve integrating your literature notes into your complete ecosystem of notes. Make deliberate links to other material you have read, or generate new ideas based on connections to other material. Some within the Zettelkasten community have taken to referring to these as "Evergreen" notes, which is a metaphor that I prefer over "permanent". Permanent, to me, means *fixed* in some way, where evergreen feels "alive". An evergreen note is aged and well-developed, but it is still alive; it is still capable of growth and change with new information. I believe that this component is essential to the ethos of [[Digital Garden|digital gardens]], because it takes some of the pressure off of writing notes in public, and allowing yourself to change your stance on something, even if it's something that you have thought otherwise about for a long period of time. There are many digital tools that one can use to build a Zettelkasten with, but you can also choose to create a paper one like Luhmann's. I have chosen to develop my Zettelkasten digitally as I believe the easier that you make something for yourself, the more likely it is that you will continue to do it. I have built my Zettelkasten using [Obsidian.md](https://obsidian.md/), which uses locally stored plain text markdown files. This means that if Obsidian software is ever unavailable, I will always have access to my notes. I recommend reading *How to Take Smart Notes* or taking a look at [Zettelkasten.de](https://zettelkasten.de/posts/overview/) if you'd like to learn more. # References Ahrens, S. (2017). _How to take smart notes: One simple technique to boost writing, learning and thinking: for students, academics and nonfiction book writers_. CreateSpace.