I've wanted to use the Zettelkasten system of note-taking for a while, but have never got going because I wasn't 100% clear how all the different note types work together.

Here's what I learned from reading "How to Take Smart Notes" by Sönke Ahrens, and going down some YouTube rabbit holes.

Scratch Notes

If you're reading a book, or an article, you may not feel like stopping to ponder every new concept. Instead, you can take Scratch Notes which are very rough hand-written notes, or if you're online, highlighted sections, that you take as you're reading and will come back to later to use as the basis for Literature Notes.

Literature, Reference, or Bibliographic Notes

Literature Notes are the distillation of all the interesting concepts in your source material. This can include the odd quote that you find particularly meaningful, but for the most part you should articulate the ideas in your own words. This ensures that you are engaging your brain in a way that doesn't happen with copy and paste.

Permanent Notes, or Main Slip Notes

Permanent Notes capture your best understanding of a single idea. They may have been inspired by something you've read, or watched (and captured as a Literature Note), or by some personal revelation. In either case, they're something you can add to and improve upon after more consideration, or information from new sources.

Permanent Notes will include references to other linked ideas (Permanent Notes) and contributing sources (Literature Notes).

Putting the Puzzle Pieces Together

Once you have a number of permanent notes related to a particular topic, writing becomes much easier as you are simply structuring and ordering a series of already well-thought-out individual ideas.

I hope that helps anyone else getting started with Zettelkasten. Good luck with your writing!