Thank you so much for this post. I had never heard the term zettelkasten before, and I am so intrigued! It seems to be a very tangible system to organize information into bite sized chunks and then synthesize and connect.
That's the idea! I must admit that there is very little organization or synthesis in my collection so far. My thought was to get a collection started and then see what themes were emerging, but I'm not sure how that's going to work out in practice.
Love it! Almost all of my writing takes place in 10 minute chunks. And that small amount of time can feel like it just doesn't count. But the days do add up...even though it always takes me longer than 100 days to get my 100 Days complete!
I'm pondering. I think I might focus simply on copying a poem or a psalm a day.
I know it's kind of silly, but I think one thing that's holding me back from fully committing-- besides just the daily chaos of homeschooling five neurodivergent kids, I mean-- is not having a perfect notebook for the project. I'm dissatisfied with the notebook I'm currently using because the lines are too close together and it feels messy.
I don't want to get trapped in perfectionism, but there really is something delightful about having the proper tools for a task and something frustrating about things not being quite right.
It's probably not true that my life would be significantly better if I could only solve the notebook problem and have the perfect notebook for every task. But then again maybe it would?
I think as homeschool mamas, we are well acquainted with making due with what we have and pushing the bits + pieces into service. It's one of our superpowers!
Do you have a favorite notebook? I use composition notebooks and the occasional sketchbook. I love blank pages, but am often working in the lined comp books.
Ah, you're speaking my language, Kortney! I have a very small index card zettlekästen which I use mostly for holding questions I want to ponder. I find it difficult to keep it orderly though, as my ideas are always mixing together and refuse to stay neatly indexed!
A collection of questions. *you* are amazing. I'm going to add questions to the list of possibilities. Thank you for the post link--it's one of my favorites. 💙
My 100 day project is publishing my novel, Her Lisbon Colors. I just realized that the pub date is 101 days from March 1st! So it truly is a 100 Day project.
This sounds so cool! I cannot wait to see this project unfold. I recently saw a book called Book Marks, where the author (whose last name is Page!) did an art card for every book she read. Check it out: https://www.barbarapagestudio.com/book_marks_book.html
Thank you so much for this link! I love that the titles/authors are still visible. I have a stack of art cards I made over the years for ICAD that I am using to track my own thoughts + questions, much like Ann mention above. Everyone else's quotes gets a plain index card from the stash I found in a free pile. I get the fancy ones!
Thank you so much for this post. I had never heard the term zettelkasten before, and I am so intrigued! It seems to be a very tangible system to organize information into bite sized chunks and then synthesize and connect.
That's the idea! I must admit that there is very little organization or synthesis in my collection so far. My thought was to get a collection started and then see what themes were emerging, but I'm not sure how that's going to work out in practice.
My goal is simply to write something-anything-every day!
Yes. Thanks!
So excited that you are jumping in!
Is the image a printable? Or did you make it?
The tracker image? Lindsay Jean Thomson painted it. https://the100dayproject.substack.com/p/the100dayproject-starts-in-two-days
(then right click >> open image in a new window >> print)
Love it! Almost all of my writing takes place in 10 minute chunks. And that small amount of time can feel like it just doesn't count. But the days do add up...even though it always takes me longer than 100 days to get my 100 Days complete!
I'm pondering. I think I might focus simply on copying a poem or a psalm a day.
I know it's kind of silly, but I think one thing that's holding me back from fully committing-- besides just the daily chaos of homeschooling five neurodivergent kids, I mean-- is not having a perfect notebook for the project. I'm dissatisfied with the notebook I'm currently using because the lines are too close together and it feels messy.
I don't want to get trapped in perfectionism, but there really is something delightful about having the proper tools for a task and something frustrating about things not being quite right.
It's probably not true that my life would be significantly better if I could only solve the notebook problem and have the perfect notebook for every task. But then again maybe it would?
I think as homeschool mamas, we are well acquainted with making due with what we have and pushing the bits + pieces into service. It's one of our superpowers!
Do you have a favorite notebook? I use composition notebooks and the occasional sketchbook. I love blank pages, but am often working in the lined comp books.
Ah, you're speaking my language, Kortney! I have a very small index card zettlekästen which I use mostly for holding questions I want to ponder. I find it difficult to keep it orderly though, as my ideas are always mixing together and refuse to stay neatly indexed!
https://72seasons.substack.com/p/my-idea-lab?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share
Still, I love the idea of it. And of a 100 Day Project. I could use 100 fresh new questions! :-)
A collection of questions. *you* are amazing. I'm going to add questions to the list of possibilities. Thank you for the post link--it's one of my favorites. 💙
Oh gosh, I'm so glad this sparked an idea or two. That's lovely!
My 100 day project is publishing my novel, Her Lisbon Colors. I just realized that the pub date is 101 days from March 1st! So it truly is a 100 Day project.
Absolutely perfect! I love how placed-based your novels are. Always so evocative. Can't wait for Her Lisbon Colors!
This sounds so cool! I cannot wait to see this project unfold. I recently saw a book called Book Marks, where the author (whose last name is Page!) did an art card for every book she read. Check it out: https://www.barbarapagestudio.com/book_marks_book.html
Thank you so much for this link! I love that the titles/authors are still visible. I have a stack of art cards I made over the years for ICAD that I am using to track my own thoughts + questions, much like Ann mention above. Everyone else's quotes gets a plain index card from the stash I found in a free pile. I get the fancy ones!
I look forward to following you on this project! You are my kind of organization/paper/creativity geek!