#notetaking

I've been trying to get started with a #Zettelkasten for the better part of two years, if not longer. I've read one or two other books on the subject, notably How to Take Smart Notes by Sönke Ahrens, poked around in forums, did some trial and error, and had a clunky, barely functional system. I'm pretty sure that I heard about A System for Writing through someone posting about it on the Fediverse and I'm so glad. Building on the felicitous recommendation of whoever that was, I'd like to take this opportunity to heartily recommend this book by @bobdoto@pkm.social to anyone who, like me, is or has been floundering trying to figure out how to make a working Zettelkasten which they can actually use.

Here's what I found so helpful about the book:

• It's organized really well and is easy to dip back into for reference or reassurance.
• There are eminently practical lists of what to do, what to remember, and what to watch out for at the end of each section.
• His interpretation of the #ZK system is flexible and adaptable to the resources and knowhow one already has. Everything (including reference notes!) can be done on paper, or in one app, or in many, or in another way, depending on one's preferences and needs.
• He explains himself and gives examples which are themselves instructive.
• He clearly calls out his sources and provides detailed endnotes for anyone who wants to dig deeper.
• He gives solid writing advice.

I could probably go on but let me stop here and summarize by stating that the book seems to have every building block I would have needed to get started and then some. My Zettelkasten is still a work in progress, but it's now in a much more usable state thanks to Bob's advice.

Thanks so much for writing the book!

#Zettelkästen #slipbox #slipboxes #notes #notetaking #writing #BobDoto #ASystemforWriting #SystemforWriting #sourcenote #sourcenotes #referencenote #referencenotes #references #pkm

I see lots of people talking about #Obsidian. If it works for you, great! What if you're on the fence? You might want to have a look @joplinapp

Been using it now for a month or 4 & I'm quite happy with it. Not as much features as Obsidian, but that's not an issue for me. There's also plugins for extra features.

I use webdav to sync between the mobile & desktop app. Oh it's also #Opensource so you can take a peek at the code & contribute.

https://joplinapp.org/

#Notetaking #Note #Tech #PKM

Do you know JOPLIN? It's a nice European alternative to apps like Evernote, Google Keep, Notion, Microsoft OneNote.

Joplin is a free, open source note-taking and to-do application, which can handle a large number of notes organised into notebooks. You can search your notes, copy them, tag them and modify them either from the app itself or from your own text editor. The notes are in Markdown format, which is great.

It was created by Laurent Cozic 🇫🇷 back in 2016 as an alternative to Evernote. It's cloud service is hosted in Paris, France. They focus on privacy, security and transparency.

It's open source and offline-first, so you can always access your data on the device, even when you're not connected to the internet.

It's got all the basics you'd expect, and you can also attach images, videos, audio files and PDFs to your notebooks.

There's a huge community of people who have made extra features possible with their plugins.

It's also super easy to export and import your files, which is great if you're worried about vendor lock-in.

The handy web clipper extension lets you save web pages or take screenshots in the browser and save them to your notes.

Check all the features in their website:
https://joplinapp.org

#notetaking #opensource #BuyFromEU #europeanalternatives

Follow them on Mastodon: @joplinapp