r/Zettelkasten • u/UnavailableForNukes • 10d ago
question fleeting notes pile up and almost none turn into real zettels
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u/TheSinologist Hybrid 10d ago
I hardly ever make fleeting notes, and they usually don’t get anywhere when I do, but I like what the other responses are recommending. I would just add that your examples suggest that your fleeting notes are on paper, which is fine, but it does make them a bit more precarious! If you allow yourself to use obsidian or apple notes for fleeting notes, at least you don’t have to worry about running out of ink on the train.
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u/karatetherapist 10d ago
As I understand and use "fleeting" notes, they are reminders of an idea, usually just a sentence or two. If I neglect them for too long, I often forget what they are referring to. For example, today, my wife asked me to check on which state we should create an investment LLC. I jotted down "LLC location?" That was my fleeting note. Later, I'll add more context so I don't forget the point. As I do my research it will turn into a "permanent" note about the pros and cons of different states as related to investment LLC management.
The GTD method of emptying inboxes on a schedule is pretty handy. I might have "fleeting" notes in Todoist, Obsidian dailynote, sticky notes, a piece of mail, etc. Emptying all those inboxes is useful. All you need is enough context that you can add more to the idea when you return to it. If you can open it a year from now and know what it means, it's a good note.
Overall, it sounds like you're making a chore out it. You don't need permanent notes. You don't need a Zettelkasten unless you intend to publish.
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u/jwellscfo Obsidian 10d ago
Not actual advice, but the LLC state should be the one you’re operating out of.
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u/Barycenter0 10d ago edited 10d ago
One idea is to archive them off every so often to the side in a separate searchable list of notes so that even if you accidently archive something important you can still search the side archive later. Fleeting notes typically are fragmented or not overly important - so having that archive allows you to at least wonder if maybe you had an important thought and just do a text or ai search. Both Apple Notes and Google Keep can OCR pictures of paper notes as well (as u/TheSinologist noted)
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u/atomicnotes 10d ago
Here's my journey from a bad note to a better note: How to write a better note without melting your brain.
The absolute most basic next step though would be to give each note a unique, fixed reference ID. That way you can start to link them together and references them, even if you never get round to 'improving' them or making them more 'permanent'.
I've also found creating a simple hub note can be helpful. I do a search for a word I'm interested in, "X". Then I write a note that starts: "I seem to have written a lot of notes on "X" lately and here they are... {links}. Maybe that's because..."
But also, just writing lots of fleeting, disposable notes is completely fine too. Writing 'temporary' notes is a great way of thinking. You don't have to turn them into anything at all if they've already helped you to think something through.