I create networked visuals with sketchnotes in my Zettelkasten. The use of colours, symbols and images is my way of making connections between ideas.
As I learnt from Niklas Luhmann [1], it’s best to write my notes in my own words. But why not use sketchnotes to capture ideas instead? Visual thinking always adds a new perspective to my understanding of the idea.
I used this method and noticed a gap between the note and the sketchnote. So I introduced a small process to create coherence:
Review your ideas. Sketched what you wrote? Wrote what you sketched? Check coherence Re-sketch and re-write
The result is an even better note and also a better sketchnote. The dual view brings value to my Zettelkasten with permanent notes.
What’s your strategy to improve your own writing?
References
[1] Ahrens, Sönke. How to Take Smart Notes: One Simple Technique to Boost Writing, Learning and Thinking, 2022.
When we revisit our old notes in our Zettelkasten, sometimes we are not very satisfied with their quality. Some look like “cut and paste” notes, others contain a huge number of words with no summary. And last but not least, some notes have been left without any link to their source.
My question: Should we take the time to improve the quality of our notes for future benefit? My answer: Yes, we should! It’s time well spent.
As a motivational tool to enforce continuous review, I implemented a small dashboard on my Obsidian homepage.
What are your ideas for reviewing your Zettelkasten?
As a beginner, I’d say, ~ half of your notes need immediate action! lol
What logic are you using to determine / retrieve that a note “Needs Action”? I mean to me, it looks like you’re not giving your notes enough action, but I guess the point is to never stop…
I do like the sketch / note sketch approach, I’m indeed a visual brainer and will try this out. On a side note, I feel there needs to be a term to replace the word “note” in Obsidian. I myself, don’t ever find myself writing “notes”, more like blogs, pages of elaborated information, or structured content. Even, when I have a quick “idea”, it turns into a full smorgasbord, I can’t stand a one-sentence or almost empty page lol. Maybe it’s the whole New & Cool factor for me and the type of person I am ha.
I find that I spend a lot of time in Obsidian making my notes styled and organized, resembling a final copy, even when I know that I’m going to be moving the content to a platform that does not support Markdown… which requires me to re-style the content. I’m not sure this is the best workflow, I’m a bit of a perfectionist though so I like both places looking superb and feel its good practice to have my vault looking tits. And boy is it fun to write Md, especially when there’s so many great plugins that demand my attention, which I think is potentially another distraction from my goal/ task - as I’m still getting familiar and dialing in my workflow and setup. Perhaps my websites should be Markdown enabled…
But the script for my tiny dashboard allows up to three issues per note:
no timestamp
no summary (lead paragraph)
no visual included for a sketchnote
// === PERMANENT ===
// --- Count notes WITHOUT TIMESTAMP
var count_timestamp = dv.pages('"3_Permanent Notes"')
.where(y => y.modified == null)
.length;
// --- Count notes WITHOUT LEAD
var count_lead = dv.pages('"3_Permanent Notes"')
.where(y => y.lead == null || y.lead == "+++ Lead paragraph goes here +++")
.length;
// --- Count sketchnotes WITHOUT VISUAL
var count_visual = dv.pages('#type/sketchnote')
.where(y => y.visual == null || y.visual == "![[image.jpg]]")
.length;
var count_perm = count_timestamp + count_lead + count_visual
var status_perm = ""
if (count_perm >= 500){status_perm = "🔴"}
if (count_perm < 500){status_perm = "🟡"}
if (count_perm < 400){status_perm = "🟢"}
It’s only about formal issues, not about the content. But it helps to keep the Zettelkasten clean. And it has to be reduced to issues which coulfd be detected automatically. If necessary I will extend the script to check also:
Does a link to the source exist?
Is the note tagged with a theme?
Is the wordcount higher than 500 words?
Etc.
Each issue is a reason to revisit an old idea. Each visit may help to generate new ideas and new insights by combining new ideas from today with older once I may have already forgotten.
Every issue is a reason to revisit an old idea. Every visit can help generate new ideas and new insights by combining new ideas from today with old ones that I may have already forgotten.
Review your ideas. Sketched what you wrote? Wrote what you sketched?
Check coherence
Re-sketch and re-write
Needs Action”? I mean to me, it looks like you’re not giving your notes enough action, but I guess the point is to never stop…