Zettelkasten is hard because I don't have a system

12 January 2026 rethink

I’ve done some rethinking about note naming conventions and in the back end improved documentation on other aspects of Quantum OS. This note has been updated to reflect that. I’ve left some original text (struck out) to explain my original thinking.

I don’t use the Zettelkasten in The Quantum Garden Vault the way I should. It is not creating new knowledge, but serves instead a repository of a bit of everything. I’ve thought about it and believe the problem is two-fold.

1. I don’t have a rigid enough set of heuristics to manage the processing, quality and structure of information
2. I don’t have a clear purpose for gathering that information in the first place

The two form a negative reinforcing loop. There is no need to process information without purpose, but why would I have a committed purpose if my Future self can’t trust my system.

Goal

Today’s exercise is to explore what that system of processing would look like. With that as a mini-purpose, I’m going to document the process as I go.

I often think via writing and this note is a prime example of that. It will form input into additional and refined Quantum OS notes.

Capturing ideas

Taking a leaf from Getting Things Done, I need to know where my inboxes are.

• The + folder of my The Quantum Garden Vault vault is an inbox. I create notes there either on a desktop or my phone so it’s available on all operating systems.
• I have used Drafts on iOS/MacOS to capture a Fleeting note as it comes to mind but there is always a friction with it especially as Drafts is not available on Windows. Each note needs to be Obsidian as an additional step. Notes sent to Drafts die quickly.
• wallabag articles are imported into the + wallabag folder for subsequent processing as a Literature note.

Stop using Drafts

Transfer all unprocessed Drafts notes

Note naming conventions

It’s a bit of a mess out there. I have a mix of lowercase only names, title case names and sentence case names. That’s ok, once I have a decision I can clean up over time.

Note Naming in a Zettelkasten (physical and digital) suggests using Kebab case as a future-proof and system independent naming convention for notes. My inner software engineer approves and I have no problems reading it inline. The title of this page would be zettelkasten-is-hard-because-i-don't-have-a-system.

Considering many pages are published publicly online at The Quantum Garden Website, I can make use of the title property in YAML to give pages properly formed heading. I could use an Obsidian alias for inline links as Obsidian aliases are good for displaying note titles properly but they are long-term risky because Obsidian aliases are not standard markdown. Just as important is the idea that Obsidian aliases create note-taking friction. If a note is renamed, the aliases don’t change and may have to be updated manually. It’s a good and bad feature.

A simplified system

I decided in the end this system was too difficult to work with, mostly because of proper names. I’ve resolved everything into the Quantum OS Note Naming Rules. The original thought of using Kebab case for future proofing doesn’t hold. Consistency in grammatical naming is more important than preparing for a system change unlikely to be necessary.

I’m going to be selfish here and go with Kebab case for future-proofing and cross-system compatibility at the slight drop in readability and potentially upsetting some readers. Let’s call it a stylistic choice.

As a consequence of this decision, there will be cases where sentences begin with a lowercase letter. That is acceptable. Each will be a link and the lowercase serves as an additional marker. This further reduces the need for an Obsidian alias to handle different grammatical situations.

Use kebab-case for filenames and links

• Moving forward, note filenames will be written with Kebab case.
  • This means they will show as Kebab case when linked in a note’s body. I am ok with that as it provides a stronger visual indicator of a note link.
• Proper names look weird in Kebab case so it is acceptable to use Obsidian alias as the name will not change will not change.¹ For example, [[brandon-sanderson|Brandon Sanderson]]
  • A single word proper name can be capitalised and Obsidian itself will handle the link. Obsidian is an example of a single word proper name.
• ~~Any notes found not confirming to the Kebab case format will be updated when the note is next updated. This may involve removing previous aliases for consistency, and small tweaks of text. ~~
• A standard form sentence title will be created for each note that is to be published and can be automated along with other note properties like datetime and uri.
• A sentence that starts with a link will start with a lowercase letter and not be converted to uppercase.
• ~~I need to be careful when renaming, not to break slug names on The Quantum Garden Website. These are Kebab case already, but I have to keep formatting of punctuation consistent.~~~~

Corralling note types

Along the way I’ve collected a large number of note types in my Quantum OS Taxonomy of Note Types and overall it’s quite confusing. I’ve tacked this before in Mastering the chaos of source notes.

All note types mapped

Refined the Quantum OS Taxonomy of Note Types

There is no direct value in tracking most note types. As my Zettelkasten grows, the ratio of Permanent notes increases and marking something as a Permanent note (which includes everything characterised also as a Main note or Atomic note) is only noise in the signal to noise ratio.

I have two tags that indicate:

• Fleeting note (#class\fleeting-note)—something unprocessed and needs attention like anything else would in the Getting Things Done clarify step
• Literature note (#class\literature-note)—a note that is a source reference with my notes attached. The value of this note is uncertain.

Acceptable note types

• The acceptable note types are Fleeting note and Literature note.
• There is no need to track Permanent notes

Other decisions made along the way

APA style italics for citations

• Any title that is a link will not be italicised. The presence of a link is sufficient to identify it as a reference.
• Any title that is not a link will be italicised. Should I create a link later I will use the Obsidian unlinked mentions feature to auto-create the link, it’s acceptable to have the italics remain. Not worth the time removing them.
• I will not create a link to a resource that does not exist unless I create a note for that reference immediately.

If it's broke, don't fix it yet

• There is no utility in revisiting existing pages simply to conform them to my new standards. Instead, fix them as they are linked, touched, or reviewed.

Append pluralisation and ownership after the link

• Links that are best read with a plural (-s) or ownership (-‘s) will have the suffix added after the link. Aliases are not to be used even though Obsidian aliases are good for pluralisation because they risk future compatibility. For example, [[permanent-note]]s and not [[pernament-note|permanent-notes]].

Review backlinks when renaming notes

• Renaming a note could cause problems, especially when Obsidian aliases are good for displaying note titles properly has been employed. A simple rename to Kebab case is going to be generally fine, but if Obsidian aliases are good for pluralisation has been used, changes are required.
• Create an Obsidian Templater plugin template to assist this process.

Resolved the dual meaning of "The Quantum Garden"

• At least 46 notes referred to “The Quantum Garden” when what I really meant was one of either my Second brain vault, or my website. These are now Atomic note references to The Quantum Garden Vault and The Quantum Garden Website.

Next steps and outstanding items to resolve

It has become clear thinking through this process that I have a few large ticket items still to resolve.

• The terms Second brain, Zettelkasten and Digital garden are related but inconsistently used. I have a good sense on how they link and will expand upon that in my notes. It’s critical to building a system that I know what I’m referring to.
• Quantum OS and it’s many related articles need a good going over with many pieces turned into Atomic notes. There are notes which refer to old practices that I’ve since changes (see some of the changes above for a start) and much duplication. There is no overall Map of Content.
  • (DONE) For example, I need to check if I’ve formally documented my strategy for tagging. I think I have, but it could do with are review. Certainly Tags are not knowledge and I want to check what I’ve written is correct. The trigger to check this is the resolution of notes which are ideas and notes which are concepts and are any of these a Map of Content?
• (DONE, indirectly resolved by Quantum OS Note Naming Rules) I frequently think in terms of myself which suggests note titles such as “My problem with X” or “How I Y”. These feel too specific for a Zettelkasten but I don’t know if that is a problem.

I know I’m right on the edge here of The optimisation-procrastination trap but there is noise in my head that needs to be resolved. I’ll keep thinking apart my part 2 problem, that of why am I doing all this, along the way.

Once this is sorted, I’ll know what I’m working with to build a system. Already this process has help clarify my thinking a lot.

Footnotes

1. I might change this to use aliases and add a #class/proper-name tag for easier identification if I want to change in the future. It’s an extra step though. ↩