In this guide, we explore what literature notes are and how they can help you turn your notes into knowledge.
Literature notes fill the role of a middleman between the original notes or highlights taken from the source content you have consumed and the permanent notes you have yet to create. In this step, you summarise the core points of the source material and capture information on the
What are Literature Notes?
Literature notes are defined within the Zettelkasten method as containing information on the source material from which the permanent notes are created.
You can also use your literature notes as an intermediary stage to summarise and reduce your notes, and I would personally recommend that you do so.
How to create effective Literature Notes
When I first started my Zettelkasten, I didn’t have Readwise, so I had to manually create notes. I used to create my permanent notes from highlights in my Kindle, and it was hard work and caused a lot of friction. It was a real fight to work on my notes.
Now I have Readwise, and it creates fleeting notes in Obsidian, not just of my Kindle highlights but also of notes I take from web-based articles and YouTube videos. I would recommend Readwise to anyone serious about creating a Personal Knowledge Management system.
My Literature Note Summarisation Technique
I open my Obsidian fleeting note, which, in most cases, will have already been summarised once by highlighting the notes that either seemed important or resonated with me. I based this part of my process on the way Tiago Forte highlights, as shown on one of his YouTube videos that I have linked to.
Concentrating on the sections I highlighted, I try to write my literature notes using the Outliner technique. I start to write a summary of the highlighted notes in my own brief words. I show related notes by indenting them, which shows a relationship due to its hierarchal structure.
Creating and Linking to Permanent Notes
Once you have completed creating your literature note, you can make a permanent note. I personally like to give it a bit of a break between sessions, as the repetition could help you absorb and learn the content, helping it become knowledge.
I read my literature notes and consider what permanent notes I can create while remembering that each permanent note has to be about a single idea or entity.
I create the permanent note by creating a link for that note in the Literature note. This allows me to see if I have already made that or a similar note. If there is an existing note, I add any relevant notes from the literature note to that permanent note.
If no permanent notes are found, I click the link and write a new one.
In both cases, I try to write them in my own words and limit any quotes.
Conclusion
Literature notes are essential in any Zettelkasten system as they link your final permanent note and the original fleeting notes and the journey of turning information into knowledge. Not that the permanent notes will change as you and your Zettelkasten feed into and process more information.
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