As any method or tool you will use, there are always some principles of [[Notes management]] that will make a use of it even better [^1]: 1. **The principle of atomicity** - each note should contain one idea and one idea only. This makes it possible to link ideas with a laser focus. ^atomicity 2. **The principle of autonomy** - each note should be autonomous, meaning it should be self-contained and comprehensible on its own. This allows notes to be moved, processed, separated, and concatenated independently of its neighbors ^autonomy 3. **Always [[Link]] your notes** - whenever you add a note, make sure to link it to already existing notes. As Luhmann himself put it, “each note is just an element that derives its quality from the network of links in the system. A note that is not connected to the network will be lost, will be forgotten by the Zettelkasten” ^always-link 4. **Explain why you’re linking notes** - whenever you are connecting two notes by a link, make sure to briefly explain why you are linking them. Otherwise, years down the road when you revisit your notes, you may have no idea why you connected them. ^explain-link 5. **Use your own words** - you must express that idea with your own words, in a way that you’ll be sure to understand years later. Don’t turn your Zettelkasten into a dump of copy-and-pasted information ^own-words 6. **Keep references** - always add references to your notes so that you know where you got an idea from. E. g. links to web pages ^references 7. **Add your own thoughts** - if you have thoughts of your own, add them to the Zettelkasten as notes while keeping in mind the principle of atomicity, autonomy, **and the need for linking** ^own-thoughts 8. **Don't worry about a structure** - `There are no privileged positions` and `There is no top and no bottom`. The organization develops organically. ^structure 9. **Add connection notes** - specific notes whose purpose is to link together other notes and explain their relationship ^connection-notes 10. **Add outline notes** - as ideas begin to coalesce into themes, create outline notes. An outline note is a note that simply contains a sequence of links to other notes ^outline-notes 11. **Never delete old notes** - instead, link to new notes that explain what’s wrong with the old ones. In that way, your Zettelkasten will reflect how your thinking has evolved over time, which will prevent hindsight bias. Moreover, if you don’t delete, you might revisit old ideas that may turn out to be correct after all. ^never-delete 12. **Add notes without fear** - you can never have too much information in your Zettelkasten. At worst, you’ll add notes that won’t be of immediate use. And it won't break Zettelkasten. Luhmann is said to have 90k notes. ^add-without-fear [^1]: https://medium.com/p/997e4e0ca125