The FUN and EFFICIENT note-taking system I use in my PhD

Video Description

An overview of Sonke Ahrens' "How to Take Smart Notes" is available on the book summary app Shortform! Sign up with my affiliate link to get a 20% discount on an annual subscription 🎉 ➡ https://www.shortform.com/morganeua The Zettelkasten method of note-taking and knowledge management changed my life and saved my PhD! Originally used by Niklas Luhmann, a German sociologist who wrote hundreds of articles and over 70 books in his lifetime, "zettelkasten" means "slip box" because Luhmann's system was in a literal slip box filled with note cards. I host mine, though, in a program called Obsidian (link below). If my overview of this method got you intrigued, here are some other resources to check out that go into more detail: The best book length overview of the zettelkasten system is "How to Take Smart Notes" by Sonke Ahrens. I find it useful for getting inspiration and there's an audiobook, too, if you just need a refresher/some motivation: https://takesmartnotes.com/ By far the resource I return to the most is a post by Sascha on the Zettelkasten website called "Introduction to the Zettelkasten Method." I also just surf that website whenever I run into an issue with my own zettelkasten, because 100% someone has answered my question there: https://zettelkasten.de/introduction/ Obsidian has a VERY useful "help" section once you download it. It's definitely worth checking out: https://obsidian.md/ Other software people use for a zettelkastem, other than Obsidian or a literal slipbox, are Notion (https://www.notion.so/desktop), Foam (https://foambubble.github.io/foam/), and Roam (https://roamresearch.com/). There are so many YouTubers talking about zettelkasten and Obsidian!! Including Bryan Jenks (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wB89lJs5A3s), John Mavrick (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmcAjMf5JoE), Martin Adams (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziE6UExsOrs), and Artem Kirsanov (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6ySG7xYgjY). 0:00 - Introduction 2:44 - Core Principles of Taking Notes 4:59 - Take Fleeting Notes 6:25 - Make Permanent Notes 7:47 - My Obsidian Folder 8:47 - Bibliographic Notes 9:40 - Transcribing Fleeting Notes 10:50 - Naming my Notes 11:49 - Forming Connections 14:22 - Graph View 15:29 - Conclusion #gradschool #notetaking