I was going through my zettelkasten/slipbox, finding orphaned notes, adding some links and although I am happy with the method in general, I feel I’m not doing it right. This is only natural, I think, because you teach yourself something new and after some reflection you tune your methods. So what did I find?
Currently I have a lot of small deep paths, but they are barely connected to other places in my slipbox. I have a bad habit of collecting stuff without really deeply interacting with it (the collectors fallacy?). For example: I have ‘useful models’ (an index of, and small explanation of ‘The great mental models’ by Farnam Street). I also sometimes have long pieces that should really be broken up into separate concepts.
In fact in June I wrote a note somewhere:
I've joined the 100daystooffload challenge, to write more
but most of my posts are very small. and feel empty to me.
I feel like I have run out of steam / juice.
and most of the posts are based on single thing I've seen or heard, not
a development of my thinking.
I also realise that I have been collecting, hoarding more articles.
I feel like there is nothing to write, nothing to create.
Is it work burning me up?
Am I spending soo much time on reading and work that there is no energy left?
This is too bad, because I started a zettelkasten because I wanted it to give me
power to write. building the connections would create interesting ideas.
Maybe the zettelkasten is the problem.… I have been adding rather low quality
dumps to it in stead of cross connecting. Maybe I should dive in more.
The posts all begin with empty page and an idea, but ideally it should start
from investigating your second brain.
A good workflow that follows your interests carries you forward,
it creates an intrinsic motivation that keeps you going.
Maybe I’m not taking the time to peruse my collection? Todays curation was actually quite enjoyable, not at all like my experience before I had this system. It s quite nice to go through my zettels, connecting some, making notes for new concepts, and adding new concepts.
I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload. You can join in yourself by visiting https://100daystooffload.com, post - 32/100
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