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The Invisible Mentor Weekly Newsletter: Brain Food Wednesdays Number 113: Can Zettelkasten Help You to Build Thought Leadership?
Dear Reader,
Last week I mentioned that I was reading the book, Digital Zettelkasten by David Kadavy because I wanted to understand the fundamentals of network note-taking. A Zettelkasten allows you to connect your notes, so they’re more useful, enabling you to use them to create something.
The book has some critical information. However, the system is too involved. I think most senior executives wouldn’t use the system because it’s too much work. But let me take a step back.
Some of you know that I teach senior level executives how to read in a way that shaves hours off their reading time. As a next step, I wanted to explain network note-taking skills, so they can connect the ideas from the books they read. I do have some strategies in my training to do that, but I also wanted a technology-based strategy. And that’s where network note-taking comes into play.
What these senior level executives most want is to use what they learn from books to solve problems and answer questions they have. At that level, they also want to develop thought leadership. Zettelkasten can help them do that, but it will take a lot of work on their part.
Three technology-based options for network note-taking are:
- Roam Research
- Obsidian
- Logseq
What ideas would you come up with if you had the ability to connect the ideas in the Bookish Notes on the membership site.
The membership fee for the Art of Learning is low right now as I build out the content, and as I identify more benefits to add to support your success. Gift yourself a membership. You’re worth it.
In the Ask Avil section of this newsletter, I’ll explain how to use a Zettelkasten to build thought leadership, and how to create your own Zettelkasten.
Join my Facebook group Reading Rocks: Read a Book, Discover Solutions, Change the World.
In the News
Here are some podcasts I appeared on and magazines I’ve been featured in. They’re packed with a lot of information. I’ll also be appearing on a few podcasts, so I’ll let you know when I’ve done them.
Leaders Must be Readers (Here’s the link to the article http://magazine.diversityprofessional.com/publication/?i=735345&ver=html5&p=66)
208: Have You Been Reading Books Wrong? https://elkinsconsulting.com/sarahs-blog-podcast/2021/12/21/208
Ellevate Network: http://ow.ly/s8pR50GCBTy
Envision2BWell: https://blog.envision2bwell.io/post/1157/envisionwell-podcast-invisible-mentors
313 Challenge with Ryan Foland: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/avil-beckford-read-and-get-new-ideas/id1484382840?i=1000523572323
I would appreciate your support in growing my YouTube channel.
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Ask Avil
How Zettelkasten Can Help You to Become a Thought Leader
If you want to be a thought leader, you need to develop a clear and concise way of thinking. You need to be able to think critically and be well-read. Zettelkasten can help you to do this by providing you with a system for organizing your thoughts. By using Zettelkasten, you can easily find information that you have previously collected and develop new ideas. This system will also allow you to communicate your ideas more effectively, helping you to become a better writer.
What is Zettelkasten?
Zettelkasten is a German word that means “note card box.” It’s a system for organizing your ideas and thoughts using cards or scraps of paper. You can clip articles, make notes, and brainstorm ideas using this system. The great thing about Zettelkasten is that it helps you to become a thought leader.
- To become a thought leader, you need to have a lot of knowledge and be able to share it with others.
- A great way to organize and share your knowledge is by using a Zettelkasten.
- A Zettelkasten is a system where you collect your thoughts and ideas on cards, which can then be sorted and connected to other cards.
- The Zettelkasten will help you to collaborate with others and to develop new ideas.
- The Zettelkasten is a great tool for professional development. You can use it as a guideline for your own personal learning, as well as participate in workshops or training.
Establish yourself as an expert:
When it comes to being a thought leader, having a vast amount of knowledge is essential. However, unless this knowledge is properly organized and accessible, it can be difficult to put to use. That’s where Zettelkasten comes in. This powerful tool can help you to organize your ideas and thoughts, making it easier to access the information you need when you need it. Different from a note-taking system, the Zettelkasten is not only for taking notes. It was designed to encourage people to think and organize their knowledge. It provides you with a simple yet powerful tool to facilitate this process.
A Zettelkasten is a personal information management system (PIMS) that can help you to become a thought leader. By using a Zettelkasten, you can organize your thoughts and ideas in a way that makes them easy to find and use. You can also use your Zettelkasten to create articles, presentations, and other content that will help you to share your ideas with the world.
Anatomy of a Zettelkasten
I pulled the following from my book notes of Digital Zettelkasten.
- Fleeting Notes: Notes you take “on the fly.”
- Literature Notes: Condensed notes of an entire article, book, and so on. These are informal summaries you write about media you consume. Media could be a book or article you read, a podcast you listened to, a conversation with an expert. A literature note is something you can later review as a reminder of the key points. You use fleeting notes to write literature notes.
- Permanent Notes: Notes summarizing a single idea. These are assigned keywords and linked to other notes. You use literature notes to write permanent notes. Permanent notes help you to create a rough draft of an article and even a book.
You organize your Literature and Permanent Notes in separate folders in your Zettelkasten. These notes can be written anywhere, such as on scraps of paper or in an app on your phone.
- Inbox: Fleeting notes that need processing, thoughts you wrote note and recommendations from others.
- Someday/Maybe: The author indicates that he got this from Getting Things Done. These are interesting things that you don’t plan to research. But you don’t want to forget about it.
- Raw: Where you store exported highlights from books and articles.
“The purpose of a fleeting note is to say, “here’s something interesting I might want to remember or refer to some day.” You need to record just enough information to later decide whether you want to turn your fleeting note into a literature note, permanent note, or someday/maybe.”
To connect his notes, the author uses tags, keywords and metadata. Do you now understand why I say the process is too involved? I finished reading Digital Zettelkasten a few days ago. And your brain takes time to process information. What became clear to me was that I was using my own form of ZettelKasten without knowing it when I created Bookish Notes.
For each Bookish Note, I have the book information. The keywords are the book titles, subtitles, categories. I create tags, and the Bookish Bite a brief synopsis of the book, is the metadata. The notes are best in Markdown text, and several months ago, I added Markdown as a Google Docs Add-on.
Would you create your own Zettelkasten to connect your notes to come up with new ideas, so you can be seen as a thought leader? I’ll let technology do the heavy lifting for me. By the way, the author uses Obsidian as a technology tool to connect his notes after he’s created his Zettelkasten. I’ve used Roam Research and I have a tutorial to learn how to use Obsidian.
Reading List
The 100 Day Project challenge has started. Each week, I’ll drop the book recommendations for that week here.
- Day 1: Never Stop Learning, Bradley R. Staats
- Day 2: Big Little Breakthroughs, Josh Linkner
- Day 3: Make Your Own Cheese, Imad DeirAtany (This book is a response to Who Moved My Cheese)
- Day 4: The Strangest Secret: Earl Nightingale
- Day 5: The Luck Factor, Dr. Richard Wiseman
- Day 6: Improv Wisdom, Patricia Ryan Madson
- Day 7: Our Iceberg is Melting, John Kotter and Holger Rathbeger
- Day 8: The Compound Effect, Darren Hardy
- Day 9: Believe in Yourself, Dr Joseph Murphy
- Day 10: How We Learn, Benedict Carey
- Day 11: Anything You Want, Derek Sivers
The Invisible Mentor Blog/Articles Written
Blog Posts
Before and After You Learn Effective Reading Strategies for Nonfiction Books
Thinking About Investing in Art of of Learning Leadership Academy
15 Things You Never Knew About Reading Nonfiction Books
10 Common Mistakes Professionals Make When Reading Nonfiction Books
How I Came to Teach Courses on Effective Reading Strategies
The One Problem
I’ve published 46 podcast episodes already. How time flies. You can also find these on my YouTube channel.
- Nancy Ynchaustegui, Health and Fitness Coach
- Carol Walkner, Life Guide, Energy Healer, and Clairvoyant
- Mariett Ramm, Founder, the Powerful Woman, International Bestselling Author
- Sarah Elkins, Storytelling and StrengthsFinder Coach
- Debbie McKiver, Founder of the Strong and Healthy Temple
- Hedieh Safiyari, Founder, Prompt Health, Healthcare Solutions
- Benita Lee, Trade Consultant, Founder, Benita Lee Professional Corporation
- Jenny Siede, Chief Design Thinker, Green Neurons
- Pamela Jeffery, Founder, The Prosperity Project & Women’s Executive Network
- Alta Odendaal, Financial Coach and Consultant
- Larissa Russell, Founder and CEO Queer Voicez and Creative U Business
- Glain Roberts-McCabe, Founder, the Roundtable, Group Coach Academy
- Dr Marsha Carr, Professor, University of North Carolina, Wilmington
- Gabriella O’Rourke, Business Consultant, Borden Ladner Gervais
- Stefanie Booker Atchison, Wisdom Coach & Motivational Speaker
- Michelle Griffin, Founder Brandthority, Building Your Personal Brand
- Donna Knutson, Founder of Write Journeys
- Sophie Gray, Founder of DiveThru: Being Disconnected from Yourself
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Product Alert
7 Day Reading Makeover Challenge
This is an affordable program to get started on leadership reading. Leaders read to learn what they need to know. You’ll also learn how to synthesize information.
Art of Learning Membership Site
How would you like to access the best, most useful information I have, that’s better than book summaries? Buy monthly access to the Bookish Note that’s behind my paywall. I group Bookish Notes together by a common theme, turning them into a course. Imagine reading themed Bookish Notes and starting to lay the foundation for a new skill.
Until Next Week,
Avil Beckford, Founder, The Invisible Mentor!