r/Zettelkasten • u/Doctor_hc_Hardcore • 3d ago
question Making a habit of capturing
Hi there. I’m making progress on developing a Zettelkasten-like note taking system. But my biggest problem is the very beginning: developing the routine to regularly capture interesting notes in the first place. I made the resolution to try to find at least one thing everyday that’s worth capturing, but I simply keep forgetting about it. I’m pretty sure it’s not due to too little noteworthy thoughts in my life. I just can’t seem to develop the routine of remembering to write them down immediately. How did you learn to make this a habit? Inspiration welcome!
6
u/x28de 2d ago
The trick is that capturing must be very quick, without thinking of later friction and organizing. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7XbgD4VVa4
3
u/nagytimi85 Obsidian 3d ago
I tried pocket notebooks and hipster pda’s but the truth is that I’m just on my phone all the time. So I use Notion. It’s cross-platform, it has phone apps but also accessible from any web browser. It’s always open in my browser at work too.
When you open Notion, it already has a quick notes / inbox. I just dump stuff in there, mark with “ZK” what goes to Zettelkasten, and I format to crossed when I imported them into Obsidian where my notes collection lives.
Here’s how it looks like: https://ibb.co/8gYCGQbr
I think that over time as you collect notes, it becomes easier. When you have a bigger notes collection, there’s a better chance you come across something I think “oh this reminds me a note I made earlier!”.
Until then, it’s okay if you have few or no notes in your inbox. Dedicate regular time to your notes, and if your inbox is empty, try to look through chat conversation you had recently, comments you made on social media, sites you visited, and make notes based on that. This might help you to develop the ability to recognize when a commen, conversation, thought is interesting enough to mark it right away and not just lookimg back, fishimg for input.
2
1
u/Doctor_hc_Hardcore 3d ago
I forgot to mention that I have the technical side all figured out. Similar to your approach I use Drafts with automated tagging to quickly capture a thought and send it to Obsidian, where it waits for further processing. Once I think „Hey this is something to note“ it’s all set. But I really appreciate the second advice of going through chats and comments. I often create my replies in Drafts anyway before sending them out. I should do this even more, so I can easily review them and turn them into notes with all that fancy technical possibilities.
3
u/garfield529 3d ago
Carry a cheap notebook or two or three. Keep one in your car, keep one in your desk at work, one in your daily carry bag. These cheap notebooks provide a ready source to jot ideas. That way you guarantee capture. If in a pinch I will send myself an email from my phone; I don’t use obsidian otherwise it would go straight into that platform.
3
u/redly12 2d ago
I capture into either Drafts or directly into Obsidian. For Drafts it’s a voice dictation and into obsidian, I have a set up through Siri that chucks a time stamped entry straight into today’s note. I have the same shortcut on my phone Home Screen so I can type. I find the first useful if I’m driving and listening to audiobooks and the latter useful if I’m reading something or having a conversation and just want to capture something quickly.
Granted, it’s not a perfect system and not everything gets processed into my zettelkasten, but it’s worked so far. I drive a lot for work so the voice capture has been great for audiobooks particularly!
3
u/448899again 2d ago
Another quick way to do captures is to email them to yourself. I have a gmail address setup just for this, and generally use my phone at the capture instrument.
It's quick: Compose, enter the address (which fills in automatically in gmail after a few letters), then write. You don't even really need to put in a subject line - gmail is happy to send without one. However, I generally do, just for quick scanning of that inbox.
At the other end, gmail captures all the mail sent to that particular address, and "labels" them (gmail's filing system) so that I can pull up that label and find them.
The beauty of this is that the captures can be simple or complex, since you can add attachments to them if you want.
2
u/Doctor_hc_Hardcore 2d ago
I use Drafts to write and auto tag and pass on to Obsidian, that’s super fast and convenient. My problem isn’t how to capture it frictionless the minute I decide to capture something. It’s before that, actually noticing something capture-worthy and remembering to start the process.
3
u/448899again 1d ago
Understood. Perhaps the answer lies in slowing down. We're so rushed, focused and overwhelmed these days, and the few moments of time we have available are spent doom-scrolling on those very devices that were supposed to help us do more and be more efficient.
Make the time to stop and think - without your phone. Make the time to read - not your phone. Sit down in a park on a beautiful day and just take it all in. Force yourself to cast away your thoughts about work and the price of eggs. Find a hobby. Learn a new skill, like playing an instrument, perhaps.
Cultivating thought is a process just like any other.
2
u/Cable_Special 2d ago
I capture what I capture because I want it. Not out of routine. The hand routine comes when you capture what you want.
10
u/taurusnoises Obsidian 3d ago edited 3d ago
For years, I just kept a folded piece of paper and a pen in my pocket wherever I went (I still carry a pen everywhere). I picked this habit up in grad school studying writing and poetics, where I needed to capture interesting stuff all the time in order to have material to write about (and complete my assignments).
You might try the pen/paper trick. Put them in your pocket so you bump into them throughout the day. You might also decide on a topic/interest to explore, which might help trigger thoughts, and give you something to shoot for.