Zettelkasten

Popularized by German sociologist Niklas Luhmann. Many individual notes are used to capture ideas as they occur, along with metadata to give them relevance in the wider context of a topic or discussion. Luhmann used a slip-box (or Zettelkasten) with each slip containing a single note.

They are the first step in compiling a Zettelkasten and can be roughly divided into two categories:

Reference notes in the Zettelkasten serve as a temporary reminder of facts, quotations, equations or any other interest from a single reference material.

Literature notes in the Zettelkasten combine ideas from your [[source-notes-in-the-zettelkasten-method-of-note-taking]]❌ in such a way that you can revisit them later and fully understand them without the need to refer to the source material.

Index notes in the Zettelkasten are a way to connect notes of a particular topic or interest.

Fleeting notes in the Zettelkasten serve as a temporary reminder of your thoughts. Eventually they might be turned into