Hi Reader,

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Happy Thursday! We're diving back into our Zettelkasten series today. For the past several weeks, I've written about the Zettelkasten or "slip-box" note-taking method and how I'm implementing it in Obsidian.

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Let's chat about "fleeting" notes, and the different ways to capture them as we're reading / watching / consuming content. You can check out this article for a quick refresher on Luhmann's three types of notes, and a case study using one of my own notes as an example. Fleeting notes are the quick thoughts or ideas we need to jot down immediately so as not to forget them...

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How to Capture Your "Fleeting" Notes

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While these notes might not make it into the Zettelkasten, they're important nonetheless because they inspire our "literature" and "permanent" notes. And there are many ways to capture them - in a notebook, on a post-it note, in the iPhone Notes app - but in the spirit of efficiency, how do we simplify the process so that we remember to elaborate on those notes later?

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1. Drafts app

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Several people have reached out to me recommending Drafts as an app for capturing notes on the go (big thanks to you)! While I'd heard great things, I hadn't tried it yet myself. *And if you're already familiar with Drafts - you can skip this part and scroll down for a useful tip about integrating with the new Obsidian mobile app (which changes the game; iCloud vs. Dropbox).*

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​Drafts is a "launching-off point for text" and opens to a new page with the keyboard ready so you can type immediately. It eliminates the friction of navigating to the appropriate file or text editor; you can simply take notes and then tell Drafts where they belong.

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Even better, Drafts integrates with Obsidian - you can create an "action" to append notes in Drafts to your Daily Note in Obsidian. You can probably see why this was super useful before the Obsidian mobile app, when there wasn't a perfect solution on mobile for capturing quick thoughts.

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​Here's a great article from The Sweet Setup about creating that custom "action" in Drafts.

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Quick caveat: To create the custom "action" that allows you to append your notes to Obsidian's Daily Note, you need to pay for the "Pro" plan which is $19.99/year. Without the Pro plan, the free version only allows you to save notes in Dropbox (and so you'd need to manually copy/paste into Obsidian).

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Using Drafts with Obsidian's Mobile App

This custom "action" required users to store their Obsidian vault in Dropbox... And as I mentioned last week, Obsidian's new mobile app only syncs with iCloud.

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Luckily, there's a workaround - Ellane Weedon reached out to me to share her process (thanks, Ellane!) and wrote a helpful article about integrating Drafts with Obsidian's mobile app. After you've followed Ellane's steps to set it up, it runs on autopilot.

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2. Obsidian's Daily Note

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Even if you don't use a tool like Drafts, Obsidian's Daily Note is an excellent place to capture your "fleeting" notes. (Drafts might make it easier to take notes on the go, but the fact remains that they end up in the same place - Obsidian.)

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I keep Obsidian open to my Daily Note almost all day long. This is where I capture those quick thoughts or ideas that I haven't had time to process... as in, I'm not sure yet where they belong. The Daily Note is often the easiest place to capture links to interesting articles or meeting notes for work.

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If you're following the Zettelkasten method, the key is to process these notes at the end of the day - and by this I mean that you elaborate on those "fleeting" notes to create the literature or permanent notes that are worthy of your slip-box (using complete sentences, in your own words).

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The point is this - your method of capture matters less than what you ultimately DO with those "fleeting" notes. What matters is that you find a tool or a process that works for you, and then makes it easy to take the next step - elaboration.

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I hope this is helpful to you! Have a question about Obsidian or Zettelkasten? Hit "reply" to send me a message. I'd love to answer your questions in the coming emails.

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Sincerely,

Brooke H