You probably thought the 4 types of notes in a zettelkasten were something like this:
Fleeting notes
Literature notes
Permanent notes
Maps of content
Not only do these more commonly used terms fail to describe what type of notes belong in a zettelkasten, they don’t describe how the different notes are created.
Not all notes are created equal
All source material has different levels of difficulty to process it. The same goes for the ideas within the source material.
Niklas Luhmann referred to his zettelkasten as a second memory. As divergent thinkers, our working memory capacity depends on our ability to regulate our executive functions.
External distractions from our environment also impact our ability to focus while writing notes. Naturally, our capacity for writing notes is also going to fluctuate.
Understanding the types of notes created in the knowledge development process enables you to adjust your cognitive bandwidth according to your working memory capacity.
In his book Antinet Zettelkasten, Scott Scheper details the 4 note types as:
- Observation notes
- Excerpt notes
- Reformulation notes
- Reflection notes
Just by knowing these 4 note types, you will have a deeper understanding of zettelkasten than 95% of the average digital note-taker. Ok, I made up the 95% part but you get the idea!
Observation notes
Difficulty level 1
These are briefly recorded keyterms and ideas extracted from source material. These are your comments on keyterms, ideas and concepts that you jot down on source notes (or what Ahrens calls literature notes). I like to think of them as field notes on your reading.
Excerpt notes
Difficulty level 2
Ever come across a quote so perfectly worded that you feel there is no way you can possibly write it better in your own words? That is where you may want to employ writing excerpt notes. These are written word for word from the source material with proper citations.
In my Zettel Monetizer course, I go over in detail how to prevent over-collecting excerpt notes and add value to them by including a commentary in your own words.
Reformulation notes
Difficulty level 3
You probably already know that note-making involves expressing ideas in your own words. This is where true knowledge is created. Reformulating ideas into your own words requires processing that knowledge in a way that you can express it clearly.
Luhmann himself said, “perhaps the best method to take notes––not excerpts, but condensed reformulations of what has been read.” (Short Cuts, p.83)
Reflection notes
Difficulty level 4
When you synthesize your experiences, opinions and ideas with complex knowledge, you create the most valuable type of notes – reflection notes.
Reflections demonstrate a deep and meaningful comprehension of knowledge expressed in your own unique way, like nobody else has before.
Write these like you are teaching to an audience and you have a valuable knowledge artifact that is waiting to be shared.
Putting it all together
To sum it up – Observation notes are written as source notes.
Excerpts, reformulations and reflections are written as main notes.
You can also think of these note types as having a value hierarchy in the order they are listed, with observations being the lowest value and reflections being the highest value.
Each note type requires a level of cognitive energy to create equal to its value.
This is why zettelkasten is such a powerful system for the divergent mind. It is truly a thinking partner the adapts to our way we think.