Do you people actually open your index note and then go through all your notes related to your project from time to time?
I do look at index notes when I want an overview (usually because I’m not quite sure what I want to work on nex), but I don’t go through *all* related notes really.
Usually I write things on paper as an extension of my working memory, but right after having finished the thought, I can throw it away.
This is somewhat different from how I develop ideas.
It is true that I’m not mostly going back and re-reading. Most of my time is spent on new material.
It’s also true that I don’t necessarily re-read a note once I’m finished with a thought. I do largely feel satisfied at that point and move on to something else.
However, I often re-visit my notes. Even with paper notebooks, I would tend to look back at recent pages frequently, and less recent pages less frequently, sometimes going all the way back to my previous few filled notebooks. This looking-back was sometimes a result of wanting to see how a specific thing went in my notes; sometimes a result of wanting to know where things left off with a particular line of thought, so that I could try and take it further; and sometimes a result of wanting an overview of what I’d been thinking about, to prioritize what I might think about next.
Furthermore, with Zettelkasten, there is not necessarily a single “path” such that an idea is “finished” when you reach the end. So there’s more incentive to keep going back to things, continuing the various branching paths.
I do keep notes in emacs org-mode, but I almost never go and read them sequentially. I think it would be boring—I’d rather go read stuff on the internet. Actually I rarely read my notes at all. Usually I only do it when I want to remind myself something specific and I remember that I have something written about it.
I do occasionally kind of flip through sequentially, but I agree reading them sequentially would be boring and inefficient. I think your instincts here are basically right, and it’s just that you aren’t developing ideas which require a whole lot of looking back. Also it’s possible that you aren’t asking yourself what you should be working on at a higher level that often (which, at least for me, tends to involve reviewing my open threads).
I do look at index notes when I want an overview (usually because I’m not quite sure what I want to work on nex), but I don’t go through *all* related notes really.
This is somewhat different from how I develop ideas.
It is true that I’m not mostly going back and re-reading. Most of my time is spent on new material.
It’s also true that I don’t necessarily re-read a note once I’m finished with a thought. I do largely feel satisfied at that point and move on to something else.
However, I often re-visit my notes. Even with paper notebooks, I would tend to look back at recent pages frequently, and less recent pages less frequently, sometimes going all the way back to my previous few filled notebooks. This looking-back was sometimes a result of wanting to see how a specific thing went in my notes; sometimes a result of wanting to know where things left off with a particular line of thought, so that I could try and take it further; and sometimes a result of wanting an overview of what I’d been thinking about, to prioritize what I might think about next.
Furthermore, with Zettelkasten, there is not necessarily a single “path” such that an idea is “finished” when you reach the end. So there’s more incentive to keep going back to things, continuing the various branching paths.
I do occasionally kind of flip through sequentially, but I agree reading them sequentially would be boring and inefficient. I think your instincts here are basically right, and it’s just that you aren’t developing ideas which require a whole lot of looking back. Also it’s possible that you aren’t asking yourself what you should be working on at a higher level that often (which, at least for me, tends to involve reviewing my open threads).