https://web.archive.org/web/20241113110726/https://www.experimental-history.com/p/so-you-wanna-de-bog-yourself

from 2024/01 by Adam Mastroianni

"You can see I have quite a lot notes I have to make."

This is a difference in mentality between Ryan Holiday and me (as well as Muhammed Ali Kilic)

@M.AKilic50

Our mentality (inspired by GTD and other standard productivity stuff, mostly Flow) is to avoid creating homework.

You don't HAVE to make notes on something. You select what you deem valuable and are interested in working with at the moment.

Because of the marginal gains effect I wrote about earlier, it doesn't matter if you don't make a lot of notes. Besides, you can always return later--especially with a proper bib card and potentially a custom index/ToC for a book.

A Zettelkasten is the lazy man's path to excellence.

(this is an ironic statement of mine because a Zettelkasten asks a lot of work over time. However, it doesn't have to be on a day to day basis. Plus you work only on what you want, hence it doesn't require that much discipline.)

I really don't like this David Allen quote which is often seen in these spaces. It's usually used by people who haven't spent any time training their memory.

I'll give BD the benefit of the doubt that the entirety of this PKM paragraph is sidelining the "PKM scene" altogether.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/156407303710

Pocket note card portion of the Memindex System

According to each of the printed cards, the system was patented on 1904-12-06.

Zettelkasten is a method for creating "slow productivity" against a sea of information overload

Some of the framing goes back to using the card index as a means of overcoming the eternal problem of "information overload" [see A. Blair, Yale University Press, 2010]. I ran into an example the other day in David Blight's DeVane Lectures at Yale in which he simultaneously shrugged at the problem while talking about (perhaps unknown to him) the actual remedy: https://boffosocko.com/2024/09/16/paul-conkins-zettelkasten-advice/

It's also seen in Luhmann claiming he only worked on things he found easy/fun. The secret is that while you're doing this, your zettelkasten is functioning as a pawl against the ratchet of ideas so that as you proceed, you don't lose your place in your train of thought (folgezettel) even if it's months since you thought of something last. This allows you to always be building something of interest to you even (especially) if the pace is slow and you don't know where you're going as you proceed. It's definitely a form of advanced productivity, but not in the sort of "give-me-results-right-now" way that most have come to expect in a post-Industrial Revolution world. This distinction is what is usually lost on those coming from a productivity first perspective and causes friction because it's not the sort of productivity they've come to expect.

In reply to writingslowly and Bob Doto at https://discord.com/channels/992400632390615070/992400632776507447/1285175583877103749<br /> Conversation/context not for direct attribution

04:00 Allen compares GTD to F1, here. Funnily enough, the most productive people are the ones that get most into GTD. Similarly, the fastest people, in F1, want to get even faster, "by reducing drag in the system".

Interestingly, DRS can thus be used in other contexts, like productivity. "How can you open your flap, and reduce drag, like F1 cars do?"

19 areas of focus with mind maps

Only use GTD agendas list for regular meetings. Else, put it on a Next-Action list (one off communication).

First, ask yourself if the item is actionable. Then, series of stuff you might do: throw away, reference, someday/maybe, incubate (calendar/tickler)

highlights link to this video: https://youtu.be/sz4YqwH_6D0

via https://www.reddit.com/r/gtd/comments/1b984sc/fellow_gtders_which_tools_do_you_use_to_track/

The ZK is a simple system. It isn't't a Second Brain. Nor is it GTD. Nor all the other things that people sometimes use it for. I have held this opinion for a while, and it is reassuring that Chris holds the same opinion.

How to beat procrastination?

07.00 Clear goals — goals that focus on the action, not the outcome. (Very specific)

See GTD on next-actions that make a distinction between outcomes (projects) and clear goals (Next-Actions)

"This keeps your brain from wondering, what is the first step?"

10.00 Challenge-skill balance. Find sweet spot where challenge is slightly more than your skill level. Too much challenge is anxiety, too little is boredom. How to tune it? (1) Lower the hurdle. (2) Compress time for a given task. (3) Define scope (What needs to be done? Why? How long?)

14.00 Bypassing/response inhibition. Engaging in a task as soon as you are committed. Don't waver. Sleep to flow is an example.

17.30 Flow payoff — have long blocks of focus, where the struggle to get into flow is actually worth it.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/aki_oda/albums/72157606070587225/

Another writer in Japan using the Pile of Index Cards method with visualizations in Flickr.

The creator of the Today System was definitely aware of GTD, Bullet Journal and likely other methods, and intended his to be an added piece on top of them.

https://betterhumans.pub/i-built-my-own-personal-productivity-system-around-a-3-x-5-index-card-147d7a8d83de

Melange of GTD, card index, and gamification....

Update 2024-01-04: I knew I had heard/seen this system before, but not delved into it deeply. I hadn't seen anyone either using it or refer to it by name in the wild until yesterday. All the prior mentions were people sharing the URLs as a thing rather than as something they used.

Example of someone suggesting the migration of uncompleted tasks from one day to another in 1998.

reply to verita-servus at https://www.reddit.com/r/gtd/comments/15pfz8o/comment/k7iqjwa/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

Last year I had a Field Notes card with the year's calendar on it that I kept with my daily cards when necessary. (I think it came included with their "Ignition" edition.) Many companies give these sorts of calendars away as PR.

This year I used a Mizushima Perpetual Calendar Stamp to create my own custom card with the coming years' dates. (I also often use this stamp for individual months on other types of cards.) I'm sure you could also find something online to print out or draw your own if you wish. These index card specific templates might give one ideas: https://www.calendarsquick.com/printables/free.html.

Pretty much any spread one might make in a bullet journal can be recreated in index cards. Some of the biggest full page spreads or double page spreads are still doable, they may just need to be shrunk a bit or broken up. I've also printed things onto larger 8x12" card stock and then folded them down to 4x6" before to use as either larger notes or mini-folders as necessary. Usually I do this for holding the month's receipts.

This set of calendar cards from Present & Correct which are done in letterpress looked nice if you wanted to go more to the luxe side as well as to the larger side.

Given the sticker market for Hobonichi and other similar planners, you could also buy some custom decorative stickers which you could attach to cards as well. And there's nothing keeping you from just writing it all out by hand if you wish.

Options abound.

15:00 "David, you are so organised, can't you be spontaneous" GTD actually allows for spontaneous action

via u/MortenRovikGTD at https://www.reddit.com/r/gtd/comments/n6g3d2/comment/iv6s0eh/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

Capture wallet was a site he ran with his wife as a side project for several years from 2019 to late 2022.

https://capturewallet.com/

Previously a licensed franchise partner of David Allen Company in Norway.

https://web.archive.org/web/20211223144733/https://capturewallet.com/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vww7JLcrJl4

8:05 - 16:20 GTD - Capture - Clarify - What is it? - Is it actionable? What is the action? - Is it a project? - Batching - Reflect - Review over lists/calendars daily/weekly - Engage

17:30 They use the phrase "atomic" paper based index cards, so they've been infected by the idea of "atomic notes" from somewhere, though it seems as if he's pitching that he's "invented" his card system as if from scratch.

19:45 He mentions potentially using both sides of the card, against the usual (long term) advice.

20:00 Analogizes his cards as ballerinas which work together, but each have their own personalities and function within the ballet

He's using a leather cover for Moleskine pocket notebook and Manufactum A7 index cards, as well as a box

Sections of his box: - to erase - inbox - next actions - projects (3 categories of projects) - someday - to delegate - tickler (by month and by day; 12 months and 31 days) - blank cards

Mentions erasing cards as he finishes them rather than archiving them.

Inspiration by How to Take Smart Notes by Ahrens

Recommends one item per card to make things easier and more actionable; also improves focus versus having a longer list. (28:00)

Portability

Sustainable (he erases)

High quality textile experience

The ability to shift between associative modes and sequential modes seems to work well with such a system.

They distinguish between atomic notes and "stellar" notes. Stellar being longer lists or more dense notes/outlines/etc.

Project cards<br /> titles and project numbers (for reference) Project numbers in the top right with a P and/or M below it for<br /> - P for paper<br /> - M for email data<br /> - D for digital files which helps him find reference materials

Weekly review with all cards out on the table

Expansion pack includes: - action - calendar - waiting

Search was quick and easy, but had to carry his box back and forth to work.

Stopping doing it because he was losing the history (by erasing it). Moving to notebook and he likes fountain pens. He likes the calendar portion in his notebook.

He tried it out for the sake of experiment.

In the paper world things are more present and "in your face" versus digital formats where things can disappear.

https://web.archive.org/web/20220926154335/https://patrickrhone.com/2006/05/12/org-fu-uberpost-productivity-whitepaper/

Capturing (GTD etc.) inspiration and spirit

12:00 Allen talks about the science of flow, but doesn't coin the term explicitly, he only refers to it as being in the zone. This makes sense: gtd makes you know your commitments, and helps you to focus on one thing at a time, undistracted, which gets you into flow.

sometimes known as eating the frog first...

definition of hipster PDA, a backronym for Personal Digital Assistant (PDA).

43 Folders: Introducing the Hipster PDA<br /> by Merlin Mann September 03, 2004

For my money, a lot of the magic is in the smartnote categories; knowing what fleeting, literature and permanent notes are is the basis for recognising and almost automatically doing what you should be doing now.

This is similar to the gardening categories I use: cold compost (annual weeds), submerge (perennial weeds), stones, rubbish. You need a container on hand for each of these as they turn up at random. The benefit of this is that you eliminate the decision-making process which interferes with a gardening task and it's associated potential flow state. This is very much like the cognitive outsourcing aspect of GTD.

Arthur introduces the topic of Robert Pirsig and slips into the GTD conversation on 2004-05-19.

Was this a precursor link to the Pile of Index Cards in 2006?

Note that there doesn't seem to be any discussion of any of the methods with respect to direct knowledge management until the very end in which arthur returns almost four months later to describe a 4 x 6" card index with various topics he's using for filing away his knowledge on cards. He's essentially recreated the index card based commonplace book suggested by Robert Pirsig in Lila.

Example of someone who's also noticed the idea of "zettelkasten overreach" though they call it "frankenbaby".

https://borretti.me/article/unbundling-tools-for-thought

He covers much of what I observe in the zettelkasten overreach article.

Missing is any discussion of exactly what problem he's trying to solve other than perhaps, I want to solve them all and have a personal log of everything I've ever done.

Perhaps worth reviewing again to pull out specifics, but I just don't have the bandwidth today.

مفهوم 4D در GTD: * Dividing tasks into subtasks

• Defining subtasks’ context

• Distributing subtasks to time blocks

• Delegating subtasks

مهمترین بخش GTD شکستن هر کاری به Actionable Steps هست و سپس Next action step توی اون Sequential

GTD对于标准化的工作是可以明确拆分的，但是不适用于仅有模糊想法，需要再研究才能清晰思路的知识工作（需要更开放的组织形式）

知识工作系统 - MBA智库百科

https://web.archive.org/web/20110714192833/http://pileofindexcards.org/wiki/index.php?title=43Tabs_System

Several months back I'd thought about adapting the 43 folders system to a zettelkasten sort of system. I'm obviously not the first to have done so.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/hawkexpress/albums/72157594189436372

https://www.flickr.com/photos/aki_oda/2684257358/

Visual diagram of PoIC system, similar to 43 folders and GTD systems.

https://lifehacker.com/the-pile-of-index-cards-system-efficiently-organizes-ta-1599093089

LifeHacker covers the Hawk Sugano's Pile of Index Cards method, which assuredly helped promote it to the GTD and productivity crowd.

One commenter notices the similarities to Ryan Holiday's system and ostensibly links to https://thoughtcatalog.com/ryan-holiday/2013/08/how-and-why-to-keep-a-commonplace-book/

Two others snarkily reference using such a system to "keep track of books in the library [,,,] Sort them out using decimal numbers on index cards in drawers or something..." and "I need to tell my friend Dewey about this! He would run with it." Obviously they see the intellectual precursors and cousins of the method, though they haven't looked at the specifics very carefully.

One should note that this may have been one of the first systems to mix information management/personal knowledge management with an explicit Getting Things Done set up. Surely there are hints of this in the commonplace book tradition, but are there any examples that go this far?

I would echo Bob's sentiment here and would recommend you keep that material like this in a separate section or box all together.

If it helps to have an example, in 2006, Hawk Sugano showed off a version of a method you may be considering which broadly went under the title of Pile of Index Cards (or PoIC) which combined zettelkasten and productivity systems (in his case getting things done or GTD). I don't think he got much (any?!) useful affordances out of mixing the two. In fact, from what I can see looking at later iterations of his work and how he used it, it almost seems like he spent more time and energy later attempting to separate and rearrange them to get use out of the knowledge portions as distinct from the productivity portions.

I've generally seen people mixing these ideas in the digital space usually to their detriment as well—a practice I call zettelkasten overreach.

An example of a ticker file in the vein of getting things done (GTD) documented using index cards and a card file from 1917. Sounds very familiar to the Pile of Index Cards (PoIC) from the early 2000s.

The Noguhchi Filing System is a method developed by Noguchi Yukio, a Japanese economist, that organizes one's projects using envelopes and sorts them based on the frequency upon which you work on them.

https://lu.ma/az338ptc

Joey Cofone: Are there laws to creativity?

Joey Cofone, author of the upcoming book The Laws of Creativity, is selling the idea of "float" (in comparison to Mihaly Csikzentmihaly's "flow"), which is ostensibly similar to Barbara Oakley's diffuse thinking framework, Nassim Nicholas Taleb's flâneur framing, and a dose of the Zeigarnik effect.

I'm concerned that this book will be broadly prescriptive without any founding on any of the extant research, literature, or science of the past. I'll think more highly of it if it were to quote/reference something like Merton and Barber's The Travels and Adventures of Serendipity: A Study in Sociological Semantics and the Sociology of Science.

Following on the above:

David Allen (of GTD fame) indicates that one should close all open loops to free up working memory, but leaving some open for active thought, follow up, and potential future insight creation can be a useful pattern too. (2022-09-09 9:05 AM)

He's got a very specific type of notes for productivity compared with the sort of notes a student, academic, or researcher might take. This has consequences to the sort of system one has and how productive or not it is.

At some point in the book he sounds as if he's talking about notes for content creation/production, but he's also mixing in work productivity sorts of notes which can be treated dramatically differently.

Modern systems need to better distinguish between these two sorts of modes. (Are there others?) What should we even call these things to distinguish them and how they might be differently handled?

What do the two things have in common that allow them to be conflated? What is different that suggests distinguishing them and separating them?

Which digital tools are better for each of these? Do some handle both well? Should there be a mental or physical separation of them?

Am I just wholly wrong here?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWkwOefBPZY

Some of the basic outline of this looks like OER (Open Educational Resources) and its "five Rs": Retain, Reuse, Revise, Remix and/or Redistribute content. (To which I've already suggested the sixth: Request update (or revision control).

Some of this is similar to:

The Read Write Web is no longer sufficient. I want the Read Fork Write Merge Web. #osb11 lunch table. #diso #indieweb [Tantek Çelik](http://tantek.com/2011/174/t1/read-fork-write-merge-web-osb110

Idea of collections of learning as collections or "playlists" or "readlists". Similar to the old tool Readlist which bundled articles into books relatively easily. See also: https://boffosocko.com/2022/03/26/indieweb-readlists-tools-and-brainstorming/

Use of Wiki version histories

Some of this has the form of a Wiki but with smaller nuggets of information (sort of like Tiddlywiki perhaps, which also allows for creating custom orderings of things which had specific URLs for displaying and sharing them.) The Zettelkasten idea has some of this embedded into it. Shared zettelkasten could be an interesting thing.

Data is the new soil. A way to reframe "data is the new oil" but as a part of the commons. This fits well into the gardens and streams metaphor.

Jerry, have you seen Matt Ridley's work on Ideas Have Sex? https://www.ted.com/talks/matt_ridley_when_ideas_have_sex Of course you have: https://app.thebrain.com/brains/3d80058c-14d8-5361-0b61-a061f89baf87/thoughts/3e2c5c75-fc49-0688-f455-6de58e4487f1/attachments/8aab91d4-5fc8-93fe-7850-d6fa828c10a9

I've heard Jerry mention the idea of "crystallization of knowledge" before. How can we concretely link this version with Cesar Hidalgo's work, esp. Why Information Grows.

Cross reference Jerry's Brain: https://app.thebrain.com/brains/3d80058c-14d8-5361-0b61-a061f89baf87/thoughts/4bfe6526-9884-4b6d-9548-23659da7811e/notes

Immediate knowledge capture by highlighting, annotating, or other means when taking notes can help to decrease cognitive load. This is similar to other productivity methods like quick logging within a bullet journal system, writing morning pages, or Getting Things Done (GTD). By putting everything down in one place, you can free your mind of the constant need to remember dozens of things. This frees up your working memory to decrease stress as you know you've captured the basic idea for future filtering, sorting, and work at a later date.

Haha, it can totally be like that. My garden demonstrates it.

But over time I've gotten another impression as well: over time, things do get done -- in some shape or form. It usually happens after I end up again in some node which I'd forgotten, but which feels relevant at the time. Reinforcement and all.

So in a way you could say I believe in magic: some of what I intend to do will eventually be done by some versions of me -- at least in the [[multiverse]] ;)

main principles of modified GTD

How PARA relates to GTD. It provides structure and management to one's filing system.

《管理技术债务》

The Zeigarnik effect is the idea that open or pending tasks tend to occupy our short-term memory until they are done or our brain is otherwise convinced that they're "finished". This is why note taking can be valuable. By writing down small things, we can free up our short-term or working memories to focus or work on other potentially more important tasks. It is named for Soviet psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik.

The Zeigarnik effect is some of the value behind David Allen's "Getting Things Done" system. Writing down to do lists tricks our mind into freeing up space from things we need to take care of. If they're really important, we've got a list and can then take care of them. Meanwhile our working memories are freed up for other tasks.

The entire basis and process of the Zettelkasten method. - Capture - Elaborate - Connect

using Getting Things Done with Evernote via The Secret Weapon

How to use Evernote with the Getting Things Done system.