Other Tools: In. Link. Think. Make.
An Ideation Workflow, Part One.
Inspiration is a high maintenance creature. Occasionally, it just needs us to show up. At other times it requires coddling and special treats, bowlfuls of jelly beans with all the greens removed. It can wrap itself around an object, a location, a soundtrack or a particular tool—our cameras, namely, can act as creative lighting rods. But most importantly, it requires a space in which we can think, associate and synthesize.
The Inspiration Journal
I’ve written a few times about the visual Inspiration Journal I keep in Day One: anytime I come across an image that “does it” for me, that’s where it ends up. I don’t have to think about a destination and more importantly, I always know where it is. The situation with written notes and ideas, however, has always been more complicated. Over the years I tried pretty much every solution and app under the sun, but the same issue would always come back to haunt me: they were all black holes, sucking down data never to be seen again.
When I discovered Craft, about a year ago, I immediately understood the app could become the central hub around which everything would revolve, replacing Milanote, a virtual whiteboard I’d been using. But I hadn’t yet realized its potential ramifications in terms of discoverability: I was still mostly focused on individual project organization and siloed, targeted brainstorming. It’s only when I started researching ways to capitalize on Craft’s backlink feature that the pieces of a much broader and richer system began falling into place.
Enter the Zettelkasten.
Luhmann, Zettelkasten and knowledge systems
A search for the word Zettelkasten yields an encyclopedic amount of information, so I won’t dwell too long on the subject. Here are the cliff notes: Zettelkasten means slip-box; it refers to a card-based notation and cross-reference research system, developed by German sociologist Niklas Luhmann; its purpose is to promote active thought, through context and association.
Active being the operative word. The goal of a Zettelkasten isn’t merely to collect ideas: it is to understand and use them. To achieve this, Luhmann divided notes into different types (fleeting, literature, durable, project), all essentially based on their content or their range. But he also used an indexing system to link various cards and ideas, followed by themed boxes that could be further split by keyword tabs. Any topic could then be followed across multiple cards and boxes, potentially combining disjointed ideas into something entirely new. He basically built his own personal, hyperlinked Web in the 1960s.
I’m not a researcher or an academic: I collect ideas mainly for inspiration. But collecting can easily lead to an illusion of knowledge. Inspiration comes from engagement and reflection—not accumulation. Luhmann’s Zettelkasten offered a way out from under a hoarder’s newspaper pile.
Adaptor
Following its release, Craft (along with Obsidian and other similar apps) was quickly identified as a contender for the Zettelkasten method, with @links/backlinks providing the crucial indexing system. This is, however, the 21st century: physical boundaries no longer exist, documents can reach beyond words and hold an infinity of content. Digital notes are Russian dolls, living in a box as big as the universe.
So in trying to apply this method for my own use, I’ve come up with a hybrid approach, based on Craft’s feature set, Luhmann’s ideas (plus various articles I’ve read on the subject), and my personal idiosyncrasies. The system is like an assembly line, where source notes are transformed as the process moves forward. To minimize noise as much as possible and prevent “manageitis” (my tendency to organize for the fun of organizing), I use a simple structure of only four folders for the entire space: In, Link, Think and Make.
There are no categories to fiddle with, no indecision, nothing to manage beyond the minimal “state” of a note. Here’s a closer look at what the folders contain.
In
This is the entry point. Content here varies from simple URLs to articles, to rudimentary notes that may hold basic, pre-formatted header information: URL, Links, Summary, as well as an empty Notes section, ready for further elaboration.
The point of the header information is completely tied to the Zettelkasten method: it forces the beginnings of an interaction with the note’s subject matter.
Link
This is a special folder that’s very much tied to the way Craft works, so I’ll go into the specifics in a later post. Think of it as a bibliography: it contains all the main topics, with dynamically created backlinks to every document where each are mentioned.
Think
The Think folder is where “In” docs go when they grow up (to become durable notes in Zettelkasten parlance). The difference, as I mentioned earlier, is that notes “evolve” towards this state, again making use of Craft’s dynamic indexing along the way. Here are examples of “In” and “Think” notes:
I move notes into the Think folder as soon as I start writing: this means a form of reflection has begun and the topic is no longer just a possibility.
Make
Everything in this folder is about output—what Luhmann would describe as project notes. These can be standalone projects (client shoots, films, talks, articles etc), or ongoing projects like 1EYE SOCIETY or the newsletter.
Chaos and Structure
Because of the type of work that I do, the notes in the Make folder are all directly created here— and they’re what I call Chaos Documents, much closer to a whiteboard concept. Each can contain images, text, drawings, keywords, phone numbers, lists…everything as messy or organized as it needs to be. It’s a completely freeform, extensible canvas.
The Think folder, on the other hand, contains Structured Documents which are more in line with Luhmann’s academic approach: they’re not personal notes, but written clearly, as if destined to be understood by others. This is where I’m likely to turn for inspiration. And of course, Chaos Documents will often include links to Structured Documents, for quick access to reference material.
Think is the reflection. Make is the reaction.
…
After years of a scattered strategy, I’ve finally found a way to make sense of ideas and concepts without either losing trace of them, or becoming overwhelmed. Using a single, dedicated space in Craft for knowledge and ideation has been instrumental (more on this later)—but so has this odd mix of structure, brainstorming and GTD-like processing. It’s brought more clarity and an easier way to connect different threads.
But whatever system we choose, I think Niklas Luhmann’s work points to a simple, basic truth: the goal isn’t to collect, but to comprehend. Ultimately, it is to make.
