The Problem With Zettelkasten In 2024

I have a confession to make: for years, I was a Zettelkasten evangelist. I devoured the literature, set up my digital slip-box, and meticulously followed the rules. The idea of building a \'second brain\' that would connect ideas in surprising ways was intoxicating. I truly believed it was the ultimate solution to information overload. But after years of practice, I hit a wall. The system that promised effortless clarity had become a source of friction.

The friction of a \'perfect\' system

The core problem, I discovered, wasn\'t with the theory but with its dogmatic application in a modern digital context. The classic Zettelkasten method comes with a lot of procedural baggage: unique identifiers, strict formatting for links, and an implicit pressure to link every new note to an existing one. Initially, this structure felt comforting. Soon, it felt like a cage.

I remember spending nearly an hour one evening, paralyzed, trying to decide on the \'perfect\' parent note for a simple new idea. I was spending more time on system maintenance than on actual thinking. The cognitive load of managing the Zettelkasten was starting to outweigh the benefits of using it. It was a productivity system that was, ironically, making me less productive.

Digital gardens vs. rigid archives

It was around this time I stumbled upon the concept of a \'digital garden.\' This metaphor immediately clicked. Zettelkasten, as I was practicing it, felt like building a pristine, static library—an archive. A digital garden, on the other hand, is a living space. It\'s messy, it\'s constantly evolving, and it\'s meant for exploration, not just retrieval.

This shift in mindset was liberating. I realized my goal wasn\'t to build an untouchable monument of perfect notes. My goal was to create a space where my ideas could grow, collide, and flourish. Modern note-taking tools with powerful backlinking and full-text search make the old, manual methods of linking with unique IDs feel redundant. The tool can find the connections for me; I just need to focus on the ideas themselves.

My \'Zettelkasten-lite\' approach today

I didn\'t abandon the system entirely. I just stripped it down to its essentials and adapted it to my own workflow. I call it my \'Zettelkasten-lite\' method, and it’s built on a few simple principles that prioritize thinking over tinkering.

Focus on atomic ideas, not rigid structure

I still believe in the power of the \'atomic note\'—one distinct idea per note. This is the golden rule I kept. It makes ideas modular, easy to connect, and simple to understand at a glance. But I completely abandoned the unique ID system.

Embrace messy, organic linking

I no longer force a connection for every single new note. If a link to another idea immediately comes to mind, I add it. If not, I let it be an \'orphan.\' I\'ve learned to trust that my future self will find it via search or that a natural connection will surface later on. This feels much more like how the human brain actually works.

Prioritize creation over curation

My final realization was that my knowledge system should be a workshop, not a museum. Its primary purpose is to help me create things—articles, projects, strategies. If the system\'s upkeep gets in the way of that output, then the system has failed. Now, my focus is always on capturing thoughts quickly and developing them, rather than on perfect categorization.

Ultimately, the problem with Zettelkasten in 2024 isn\'t the method itself, but the rigid belief that there\'s only one right way to do it. For me, true productivity came from breaking the rules and adapting the powerful core concepts to fit my brain, not the other way around.