Aleks Gorbenko

Zettelkasten in 2000 Words or Less

Around 2020 I migrated to Zettelkasten (from Notion to Obsidian). I never looked back.

This is short, opinionated guide for anyone who still finds themselves confused about what Zettelkasten is and how to start using it.

Why People Still Struggle with Zettelkasten

  1. Too much upfront terminology - most of it can be ignored in the beginning
  2. No idea where to start and what to capture
  3. Not using templates from the start
  4. Friction - no quick and easy way to add new notes/capture ideas

Before We Begin…

  1. Don’t set yourself any goals
  2. Don’t question “what am I going to write notes about”

If you are still reading this, you probably have a mild interest in understanding Zettelkasten. This is enough.

I will be using Obsidian as an example, which I highly recommend you do too for following reasons:

Structure of this guide:

  1. Core Ideas of Zettelkasten
  2. Notes and Templates
  3. Where to Start
  4. How to Capture and Link Notes
  5. Misc advice
  6. Next Steps

The Zettelkasten system has two core ideas:

  1. Bottoms Up approach - you are not meant to “architect” your knowledge base from the start, instead begin by writing/capturing everything and anything that might interest you and then build connections using…
  2. Backlinks - every note is connected to some other note. The result is an ever-growing and ever-changing web or a graph that you can traverse and explore topics in. Ideally the moment when you create and fill a note, you also connect it to some other existing notes

Some call Zettelkasten a “Second Brain”. I think the “brain” bit is a pretty accurate metaphor since the 2 core ideas above also roughly describe our brain a high-level: a bunch of thoughts/ideas (notes), all connected with each other by associative thinking (backlinks).

To me, this is also the reason why different people’s knowledge systems end up looking very differently. After all your Second Brain should ideally be easy to use and navigate for your brain.

Note Template and Structure

At the start you only need ONE template (let’s call it Base Note), which will be literally a template for every new note you create.

E.g this is how mine looks:

 1links: [[My Interests]] // breadcrumb style navigation
 2
 3---
 4# // title goes here
 5Date: {{date}} // (links to my journal)
 6
 7---
 8// content goes here
 9
10
11### Related // links to other notes or resources (blog posts, vidoes, etc)
12-

With time you will create as many as you need (I have 20+ now, but it took me years to reach this number).

Adding templates

  1. Create _template folder in your vault
  2. Create template file new_note.md
  3. Add path /_template to Settings -> Templates

Using templates

Now you can trigger template by cmd+p, type template, choose Templates: Insert template and choose new_note.md. You should have a new notes pasted.

How to Start, What to Capture

Start from within. Create a note and call it [[Name Surname]] or simply [[me]]. Write a brief intro about yourself.

Next, create [[My Interests]] and link to it from [[me]] note.

Now, dump as much as comes to your mind about your interests and things you care about. Do not create more notes at this stage, just keep writing in whatever format the writing flows.

Take as much time as needed, days if necessary.

After you dumped enough, start looking for patterns:

  1. What subjects did you write more about than the others?
  2. What subjects would you like to learn more about?

Use Base Note template to create one or more notes based on what you uncovered. Link them to [[My Interests]] and vice versa.

Your new Vault could look like this at this stage:

1.
2me.md
3My Interests.md
4Cooking.md
5AI.md
6Cyberpunk Music.md

At some point, you will notice that you capture similar types of ideas. E.g cooking recipes, meeting notes, tasting notes, travelogues, podcast notes. This is how your collection of templates will grow.

Here are some of my _templates:

1new_museum_visit.md // I now know a lot about my taste in Art
2new_trip.md
3new_project.md
4new_quote.md
5new_weekly_review.md
6new_book.md // highlights from a book/pdf

How to Capture

A useful starting point - a note called Inbox (similar idea to GDT). Here, dump whatever you happen to capture in the moment. Decide on a lightweight format how you will capture things to distinguish them easily. E.g:

 1links: [[My Interests]]
 2
 3---
 4# Inbox
 5All things I capture in the moment
 6---
 7
 8### June 1 Dream Log
 9I had a weird-ass dream today...
10
11--- // separator  between different items in Inbox
12### Meeting with Vlad June 5 2026
13Topic: [[Personal Knowledge Management]]
14Vlad wanted to learn more about it, so i decided to write a small guide with examples

You need to keep this note clean, and review this weekly to extract the information into separate notes or remove it. This process will allow you to see in one place the types of things you capture and notice repeating patterns. When that happens, it is a good idea to consider creating a new template.

If you are a software engineer, optionally, create an Engineering Daybook note, which is essentially an Inbox type scoped to a single topic. I have used it for years and it has been invaluable in learning new things and keeping my work organised.

Vault has potentially grown to:

1.
2me.md
3My Interests.md
4Cooking.md
5Inbox.md
6Engineering Daybook.md # optional
7AI.md
8Cyberpunk Music.md

There are two ways

  1. You already know what to link to and you do it manually. Just type [[Note Name|you can also use aliases]] (think of alias as a <a href="URL">alias</a> tag in HTML)
  2. Have a look at Unlinked Mentions section of the current note in Obsidian (typically at the bottom) that the current note has and press Link

Link lavishly, don’t worry if you link too much. The more interconnected your web of knowledge becomes the more easier it is to traverse and see patterns.

Yes, for the nerds out there - you are building an undirected graph.

Optional Daily Notes

Obsidian has a native Daily Notes functionality which is a good starting point for journaling/thinking in writing. Writing is thinking.

Journaling doesn’t have to be formal, it can be:

It also doesn’t have to be every day. Do when you feel like it or skip this entirely if this it not your cup of tea. The point of Zettelkasten is to organise your knowledge, yes, but also to have fun exploring and expanding it over time.

Let’s configure it in Obsidian.

Go to Settings -> Core Plugins -> Daily Notes, enabled it.

Configure how the note is named, it’s template and where is placed. Or leave defaults:

Configure a shortcut to trigger creation of a Daily Note.

Use Inbox to see WHAT you capture in one place.

Use Daily Notes to see WHY you capture notes you capture. E.g

 1# 6 Jun 2026
 2---
 3Saturday // day of the week - adds context to the log
 4Sai Gon, Vietnam // location - also adds context to the log
 5
 6### 🙂 Thoughts?
 7Today I added a new note [[Astophysics]], I have always been into it since high school...hm...
 8
 9I keep watching these Frank Green videos which are really fun, but I can never remember stuff he talks about...
10
11Maybe I can create a note for capturing YouTube summaries?

Link your Daily Notes to notes that you create and vice versa.

Your Vault after some journaling:

 1.
 2me.md
 3My Interests.md
 4Astophysics.md
 5Cooking.md
 6Inbox.md
 7Engineering Daybook.md
 8AI.md
 9Cyberpunk Music.md
102026-06-05.md # Daily Note

Things to be Aware of

Next Steps

Do this type of note taking for some weeks, don’t go crazy with dozens of templates on a first day.

Get used to the process.

Focus on

  1. Using 1-2 templates (Base Note and Daily Note) and linking all of them
  2. Making the whole process frictionless and fast. If you need to do too many things manually, like typing dates every time - you will eventually stop. Learn and customise Settings -> Hokeys to make note management seamless.

Build habit.

Experiment.

Later, when you feel ready to build more structure into your knowledge base, here are more things to explore in Zettelkasten:

Happy note taking thinking! 🙌

#note-taking