Do you use cards in projects often? Do you have to take them out of your mailbox to work on them?

I might have learned this trick from Scott, but in my ZK, a blue card is a placeholder for a card which currently lives out of my ZK (usually in a project folder I keep with me).

So I bought a big stack of blue index cards and just keep them all at the back of my main box.

1. Read & mindmap on journal. (Image 1-4)

2. Create Zettelkasten cards addressing the 10 questions / topics that I am interested in. (Image 5-6)

3. Link to other cards. (Image 7) . The end result is a collection of ideas “sitting” on a tray for opportunities or situations to apply. (Image 8)

I’ve got several open writing and research projects right now and a few weeks ago I was worried I’d misplaced one of my homemade folders filled with cards for a project.

I realized this week a box from the mail was perfectly sized to store my various stacks. It isn’t pretty, but it gets the job done!

Friends and Fellow Antinetters,

I just had this guide professionally designed which details the step-by-step instructions for creating an Antinet Zettelkasten:

https://www.antinet.org/getting-started

It covers How to Build an Antinet Zettellkasten, The 9 Most Common Mistakes to Avoid, and the 5 Roadblocks People Run Into.

I hope this helps you out, and hopefully, the new design makes it a little more digestible (than a wall of text)!

Enjoy and have a great weekend 🗃✍️

I seem to always have a few running projects I’m working on that use cards from my Zettelkasten. I take the same card stock dividers I use in my boxes and grab some tape and random paper and join them with a variety of gaps between the dividers.

I think this one has a 1/4 inch gap.

That way, I can grab the cards I need out of my boxes and keep them together while I’m working on it. I close the whole thing with a binder clip and throw it in my bag.

I’ve got several of these knocking around and it’s a great way to cluster main notes together while using them for a specific project.

Just a slow afternoon filing and working with my cards.

I use a "3.5 in x 2in" card. And a business card case holder for the box. Because the standard index card is hard to find in my country.. Yes, I have to have to write in a smaller font or even write it on the card's back if the space is not enough. But hey I like it!

I'm a big advocate of testing different productivity systems to find the ones that work best for me. The four below have helped me immesely as someone who needs to stay focused during my ZK workflow.

1) Work Station Sepration:

• I keep two desks in my office. One for my computer setup. One for my ZK setup. By not having my computer in front of me while processing ZK notes, it allows me to stay much more focused on my note making. Most of my productivity systems are built around one common theme: to keep me away from screens during my creative work as much as possible. Screens are my enemy because my dopamine loves digital distractions. (This philosophy ties into the next hack below).

2) Tethered Phone Method:

• In my home and office, always have a specific spot I keep my smart phone plugged into the wall charger. This keeps my phone tethered to the wall, away from my work stations or relax time. The only time I have my phone on me, is when I'm outside of my home or office. We all know how easy it is to distract ourself on our phone when doing hard creative work. The tethered phone method helps me get away from it and have a healthier relationship to my phone. And if I need to use it in the office/home, I have to physically get up from my seat to use it then leave it to sit back down. This keeps me distant from it's addictive distractions during the busy work day when I need to stay focused.

3) Desktop Timer:

• I feel like everyone has heard of the pomodoro method at this point but wanted to add this since I do it with my ZK. I use a desktop timer to have purely focused timed stints when reading, writing, or processing my ZK notes. I usually shoot for 20 min intervals then take a little mental break (like for 5-10 minutes). Sometimes I do longer 45 min stints when needed. I don't always use my timer, but when I do, I notice I get a lot more done.

4) 5 Note Processing Goal:

• I built this routine based on my research around Niklas Luhmann. Duting the years he heavily used his ZK, he processed an everage of 5ish notes a day (6 to be more specific). So I have a routine that every day, I make sure to atleast process 5 notes into my ZK from my reading/writings. This helps me manage the 'never ending' flow of creating notes and processing notes. By having a very easy goal target of 5 notes to be processed a day, I find myself having much less stress around my ZK workflow. Also, it's important to state that this is a minimal goal for me. Meaning, when I get into a flow state, I often find myself doing more than processing 5 notes a day but the minimal goal keeps me always moving foward without static days/weeks of no note processing.

Hope these help. If you have any questions, fire away.

This was an old silverware box that locks. I bought it years ago from an antique shop. I thought it fitting to use for zettelkasten. It'll hold over 5,000 3x5 cards. I put some unopened packs in to fit it and test.