Quantum OS Taxonomy of Note Types

The multi-purpose nature of The Quantum Garden Vault system of organising and connecting notes means it is important to have strong understanding and taxonomy of the different types of notes in use. Each has an important role to play, but will different in nature and lifecycle.

The need to distinguish note types comes from the work I’ve had to put in to understand the difference between Fleeting notes, Literature notes and Permanent notes in a Zettelkasten structure^1,2

I have a mix of notes that are personal, historical, shareable, instructional, index, and source. Some are even multiples of these.³

The standard for naming notes is Quantum OS Note Naming Rules.

Logical note types

All notes are one of three types. They are either a Permanent note, Fleeting note or Structure note. Each other note type is a specific style used for different mappings.

• Permanent note—a note written with the expectation it won’t be modified. All Main notes are permanent by definition.
  • Concept note—a note defining and contextualising a concept. More expansive than an Atomic note.
    • Atomic note—a Concept note tightly limited to a single topic or concept.
  • Journal entry—a personal journal entry.⁴ These are tagged #journal, subclassed according to Quantum OS Journal Tags and stored in calendar/journal, automated via Obsidian Templater plugin and the journal entry template. Blogs are public journal entries.
  • Main note—a note stored in atlas/notes.
  • Literature note—a note made directly against an item of source material such as a book, article or video. I do not track literature notes as others may in a Zettelkasten. My class/* Quantum OS Tagging Conventions give me the same information.
• Fleeting note—a note created when reading or viewing as a pointer towards a Literature note.
• Structure note—a note that imposes structure on other notes, typically used to collate related notes together. This note could be said to be a Structure note.
  • Map of Content—a note linking other notes together. These are tagged #class/moc and are stored following the Quantum OS Map of Content Rules.
  • Tag note—better to use this for content than an Obsidian tag. These are used for logical structuring of information which is different from Quantum OS Class Tags that are for physical structuring.
• Orphan note—a note completely isolated from all other notes.

All notes should be treated as Permanent notes by default when renaming or deleting to avoid breaking connections across the graph of knowledge. Make the necessary checks.

The Pattern Library extends some of the note types listed above, describing common usage of each note type for Personal knowledge management

Digital garden note types

A Digital garden will typically use Budding, Seedling and Evergreen to mark a note’s maturity. The value of growth maturity in a digital garden is marginal describes why the are not used in The Quantum Garden Vault.

Footnotes

1. How to Take Smart Notes ↩

2. Writing of Bob Doto, especially What is a Fleeting Note?, What is a Literature Note?, What is a Permanent Note? and Zettelkasten, Linking Your Thinking, and Nick Milo’s Search for Ground ↩

3. My Platinum Trophy note is personal and historical covering the video games I’ve played, and also shareable. An entry from my personal journal is not shareable. ↩

4. Doto (2023), Using Diaries and Journals as Source Material for Zettelkasten Notes ↩