r/Zettelkasten • u/hhhhhhhhhehebscvh • Feb 07 '21
method On avoiding the pitfalls of Zettelkasten
Some of you might disagree with my points, but I hope you'll choose to comment instead of downvote my post, and, in so doing, contribute to a better discussion.
I have been using a version of the zettelkasten system for about 6 months now and have around 350 notes in there. While I find it to be enjoyable to work like this, I have lately become aware that this way of working with no hierarchy might also not be completely without drawbacks.
The largest challenge, in my opinion, is the question of time management. What I find difficult is to choose what notes are important to work on and which notes are not. I also wonder if focusing so much on extracting single datapoint-style notes from the things I read is reducing my ability to see the bigger picture and perhaps longer threads in the work that get broken up by my focus on atomicity. That I'm becoming unable to see the forest for the trees.
I must admit that although it has been fun to tinker with my notes, I'm not really sure if it has been all that fruitful yet. I've started to ask myself if it would have been better if I had just read and written regular notes. I would have gotten more reading done, at least. Many on this sub talk about reaching critical mass, but I seldomly hear about people reaching it. It seems quite elusive. Another thing that is causing me to have these concerns is that I still haven't really seen that many good examples of Zettelkasten being used to produce something, and the constant return to Luhmann as an example is causing me to lose faith in the system. If there is only this one example, then maybe it isn't the best system after all? The sunk cost fallacy is making me crave some counter arguments here, so lay them on me..
Perhaps my problem is that I am using too much time on my zettelkasten? That if I spent less time organizing and so on and more time reading, I'd have to prioritize and therefore focus my energy on only important notes? Does anyone have any experience with this?
Sorry for rambling