The Zettelkasten system uses three note types that flow into each other: Fleeting → Literature → Permanent.
The Types
| Type | What It Captures | Rule | Lifespan |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fleeting | Shower thoughts, epiphanies, random ideas | Capture immediately, don’t judge quality | Temporary—process or delete |
| Literature | Highlights from books, articles, videos | One atomic idea, own words, include source | Permanent reference |
| Permanent | Your processed, connected thinking | Stands alone, links to other notes | Core of your system |
Fleeting Notes
These are thoughts that disappear fast—capture them before they evaporate.
Sources: Shower, walking, conversations, falling asleep, random moments.
Key insight: Don’t judge quality at capture time. You can’t know if an idea is useful until it connects to something—maybe years later. Write it down anyway.
Workflow: Store in one trusted inbox → Review daily → Process into permanent notes or delete.
See The Temporal Contract for the daily review commitment.
Literature Notes
What you write when consuming content. Not passive highlighting—active extraction.
Requirements:
- One atomic idea per note (brief, 3-5 sentences max)
- Re-describe in your own words (forces internalization)
- Note the source reference (so you can find it again)
Sources: Books, articles, podcasts, videos, lectures, movies, songs—any content consumption.
Permanent Notes
Created by reviewing and processing fleeting + literature notes. This is where your thinking lives.
The transformation: Raw input → Your own articulation → Connected to your existing knowledge.
Rule: Should stand alone. A reader (including future you) should understand it without context from the original source.
Common Trap
Skipping the processing step. Highlighting and clipping feels like learning but isn’t. The literature note is raw material. The permanent note is where understanding happens.
North: Where does this comes from?
- Zettelkasten Method (parent system)
- Niklas Luhmann (originator)
East: What opposes this?
- Illusion of Competence (highlighting feels like learning but isn’t)
- One Giant Document (no separation of capture vs. processing)
South: Where this leads?
- Processing Notes for Retrieval (making notes atomic and searchable)
- The Temporal Contract (daily review commitment)
West: What is similar?
- Progressive Summarization (Tiago Forte’s layered highlighting)
- Cornell Notes (also separates capture from synthesis)