# Zettelkasten Created On: 08-10-2022 01:09 pm Up:: [[My Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) (MOC)]] Tags:: #note/evergreen🌲 Topics:: Related:: --- Originating from the German phrase, "note box", [Zettelkasten](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zettelkasten) is an organizational system popularized by [Niklas Luhmann](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niklas_Luhmann), a 20th century German sociologist and philosopher. Through the use of this method, he was able to build a slip box of over 90,000 index cards, leading to a prolific writing career where he published 70 books and 400 scholarly articles in his lifetime. A Zettelkasten is made up of [[Zettel]]s, which are [[Principle of Atomicity|atomic thoughts]], that are individually "linked" together. In traditional pr physical form, these are typically index cards. However, through the advancements of technology and alongside its many affordances, such as powerful search, many today prefer digital note taking approaches. Never the less, this information is captured as acquired and builds incrementally over time to, likely, large quantities of atomic ideas and thoughts. A network of atomic notes activates relational exploration and [[Emergence (MOC)]] in a similar fashion to our brain, boosting creativity and productivity on wide, and often times, seemingly polar areas of knowledge and understanding. In traditional Zettelkasten, the following notes are fundamental: - [[Zettel]] or [[Permanent note]] - [[Literature note]] - [[Fleeting note]] Through concepts like "higher order notes" or "notes of notes", such as [[Map of Content (MOC)]], structure is given to a Zettelkasten, making it easier to traverse and manage the collection of notes. Many individuals utilize [[Obsidian]] as the tool to apply the Zettelkasten method as Obsidian enables the user to draw associative links amongst pieces of content, such as notes. --- Whenever anyone asks me about Zettelkasten and how to do it, I typically refer to this [Youtube video](https://youtu.be/ziE6UExsOrs) on the Zettelkasten workflow. I think it does a masterful job of demonstration a simple Zettelkasten flow through action in [[Obsidian]].