Apologies in advance as this is going to be a very chaotic post.
First off, let me show off my notebook:
Main point is:
- it is cute! (being happy at using the notebook is key for anything to work)
- it is discbound (being able to swap around pages and expand sections is key for me to stay sane with paper)
- it is A5, so it fits my purse
Okay, so, what this post is about?
How am I using this notebook at all.
I am doing a mix of Ascetic BuJo and Zettelkasten.
On BuJo:
- I love the method. Ascetic BuJo just changes and simplifies it to a single continuous log and 3 signifiers, corresponding to past (notes), present (tasks) and future (events, waiting for, deadlines...)
- Then when I feel like it, I extract and migrate things under the PARA method (Projects, Areas, Resources, Archive (which is a separate notebook)
Now... what the hell is Zettelkasten and what it has to do with my BuJo?
Zettelkasten is a method to collect and correlate information. Literally slipbox in german. Make notes, make them atomic, link them, profit gain better knowledge.
I want to Zettelkasten. But for zettelkasten to work, you need two things:
- unique identifiers
- linking capabilities
In a way that doesnt get in the way of the spirit of "write on the log as you go and process later".
So, lets tackle what I did to solve these.
- Identifying notes
I have N blocks of bullets per day. So I did a retroative linking system: day:section[...:bullet index], inspired by Luhman indexing. Luhman indexing is mostly: switch between numbers and letters to compact encoding (1.2.3.4 is way longer than 1b3d).
So, for example, at day 16, first section, my 4th bullet was "financial planning". Naturally I threaded it (more on it in the linking section) on the next days, so I referenced it a lot. So I write, 16a4, and 16/01/2026a4b is my ID for my wishlist!
- Linking
That is mostly Threading. I have a simple arrow (→).for "the next section" and "origin", depending on what side of the arrow the thing is, and an arrow with wide base (├>) to denote "root migrated", which when happens, I must seek all links and migrate to the new root.
Apologies for the chaos, I wanted to share what I am doing and assembling all that is being more complicated than I thought.
Thoughts? Questions?