The Strategy of Note-Taking: Eight Types of Idea Connections

In a previous article, I introduced how to build a redundant note system through folders, tags, links, note naming, timestamps, and other methods to improve the reliability and flexibility of the system, which helps discover unexpected connections. The ability to discover unexpected connections is one of the characteristics of the Zettelkasten method.

Now let's discuss a more fundamental question: what kinds of connections exist between our notes and our ideas? Understanding these connection types might better help us discover unexpected connections between notes. So, let's get into the main topic of the article and introduce several types of idea connections one by one.

1. Inspiration Connection

I'd like to introduce a type of connection called "Inspiration Connection." As the name suggests, this type of connection is related to the inspiration behind our ideas.

We tend to generate inspiration and ideas when we're relaxed, which may help us advance our current tasks and projects, or benefit goals we want to achieve in the future. For example, I often generate inspiration and ideas in various situations such as walking, showering, listening to music, listening to podcasts, chatting with others, and executing tasks.

It's important to emphasize that our primary purpose in those scenarios is to relax and adjust our state, as this helps us return to work after relaxing. We don't need to rack our brains thinking about problems we've encountered before. In fact, it's precisely because we're in a completely relaxed state that inspiration occurs unexpectedly. These moments can't be planned or forced, but they happen naturally. Perhaps that's why they're called inspirations. As for which situations are conducive to generating inspiration and ideas, and how to adjust your state to improve efficiency, we can discuss these in the future.

In fact, the entire writing process of this article is a good example illustrating inspiration connections. By checking the timestamp in the note name, I found that the date of the first note recording this article's topic was 2024-07-16, about ten months ago. I also discovered that I had added two situation-related tags at the beginning of this note: sleep and insomnia. In other words, I generated this idea when I was trying to sleep but experiencing insomnia 😂. This note initially was just a very simple outline with five points: one, two, three, four, and five. After that, there were some scattered ideas and links to other related notes.

Recently, after returning home from exercise, I was somewhat relaxed but my body was also a bit tired. After working for half an hour, I realized I needed to adjust my state. Of course, I could have continued writing this article based on the previous outline, but I felt a sense of compulsion, as if I had to complete this task immediately. However, once I started having this feeling, I didn't want to continue working because my body was telling me I needed a break. Otherwise, efficiency might be low, which would essentially be a waste of time and energy. In a previous article, I also mentioned that we can engage in deep work, but if deep work lasts too long or is done improperly, it will lead to deep fatigue. This might be fine for a day or two, but over a long period, it's detrimental to physical and mental health and is unsustainable.

Eventually, I followed my current feelings and decided to go for a walk to adjust my state. So, I listened to music while walking, and then saw a swing nearby and played on it for a while. This whole process was indeed quite relaxing and smooth. The entire walk and state adjustment process probably lasted about forty to fifty minutes. Afterward, I returned home and used voice notes to write the article based on the previous outline, completing the process in one go.

The process of reviewing and improving the article word by word also emphasized the balance between work and rest. In the morning, I first ate some oatmeal and then started improving the article while listening to music. I chose to listen to music rather than podcasts because the background conversations in podcasts can be somewhat distracting, while music mainly serves as background sound. When listening to music, I often don't pay attention to the lyrics but focus on the melody. Therefore, sometimes listening to music can help adjust mood and improve efficiency, but of course, this isn't always the case; it depends on the type of task, your state, and other factors. For example, for some very complex tasks requiring high concentration, such as coding, algorithm improvement, and result analysis, I need to be highly focused and cannot tolerate any external noise.

After being in a deep work state improving the article for about an hour, I realized I kept wanting to check how long I had been working. Based on my self-knowledge, this meant my concentration was starting to decline, which was the time to begin adjusting my state. Considering that I needed to go out for exercise in the afternoon, I decided to take a shower first. Closing my eyes and letting the water run over me was a very relaxing process; I wish every shower could last longer. I always feel very relaxed after a shower, and this time was no exception. Afterward, I continued to improve the article.

As you can see, even in the process of improving the article on the same day, I combined deep work with different state adjustment methods alternately. I know when my attention starts to decline and when I can't focus, and I also know what methods to use to relax at what times. For example, after deep work for an hour, I can alternate with relaxation methods such as showering, shopping, eating, tidying up, etc. During waiting intervals while cooking or in other situations, I can continue to improve the article or think about how to improve it. For instance, on the way to buy something, I inadvertently came up with ideas on how to adjust some sections of the article. This work-rest balance approach prevents excessive fatigue and is conducive to efficiently completing article writing and other tasks.

Regarding work efficiency and time utilization, we can make a very simple calculation. Suppose we force ourselves to work continuously for two hours, but with only 50% efficiency. That means we actually only complete one hour's worth of work in two hours. In contrast, if we work focused for one hour at 100% efficiency, we can use the other hour for exercise, walking, rest, or other activities. We still complete one hour's workload, but we also gain physical and mental pleasure and health. Between these two approaches, which one to choose is a matter of personal preference.

2. Hard Connection

The second type of connection I want to introduce is "Hard Connection." The term "Hard Connection" is actually borrowed from concepts in optimal control methods.

For example, if we want to control an autonomous vehicle to smoothly navigate around an obstacle, we might want the vehicle to follow a planned trajectory. To achieve this goal, we can construct an optimization problem. When constructing the optimization problem, we can add constraints, including hard constraints and soft constraints. Hard constraints, when controlling an autonomous vehicle, involve controlling it through steering, driving, and braking. For instance, our wheel angle has certain limitations; typically, it cannot exceed 90 degrees. These types of constraints are hard constraints.

So what are soft constraints? Using the autonomous vehicle control example again, we might need to add some constraints for acceleration, vehicle speed, etc., because we need to ensure the vehicle drives safely and comfortably. However, these constraints might not be as strict as the wheel angle. Of course, the strictness mentioned here is relative. We certainly don't want the vehicle speed to be too high, but what I mean is that even if we don't want the speed to exceed 110 km/h, due to errors and various reasons, the actual speed might be 110.1 km/h. In contrast, our wheel angle cannot exceed 90.1 degrees because it's limited by the mechanical system.

So why add soft constraints? Because if we add hard constraints for all variables in the system, it would make solving the optimization problem very difficult, or even impossible. Therefore, the addition of soft constraints is a compromise solution given out of practical considerations.

The concepts of hard constraints and soft constraints explained here are just a rough explanation. Although not very rigorous, I want to emphasize the difference between them. Hard constraints are very strict and cannot be violated under any circumstances, while soft constraints allow a certain degree of violation, although it's not encouraged.

Finally, let's return to our discussion of "hard connections" and "soft connections." In note management, hard connections can be embodied through note links. When linking notes, we can implement this through note links, represented as backlinks. In tools like Obsidian, Logseq, Roam Research, etc., this is one of the most common features. In a previous article, I also mentioned that when I want to establish strict, one-to-one connections between notes, I use double brackets ([[note]]) to create links. This is why I use the term "hard connection" to represent this type of connection.

3. Soft Connection

The third type of connection I want to introduce is "Soft Connection." Having introduced the relationship between hard constraints and soft constraints, and with the foundation of hard connections, the concept of soft connections is relatively intuitive. Our soft connections can be given through tags, which represent a one-to-many relationship.

We know that if we click on a tag in a note, we can search for related notes in the search window, but this corresponds to many notes. For example, a commonly used tag might correspond to 10, 20, or even more notes. Therefore, this is a one-to-many relationship.

To summarize briefly, hard connections provide a strict, one-to-one connection, while soft connections are a one-to-many connection. If you want to find corresponding notes through tags, the efficiency is relatively low because you need to check and filter them one by one. Note links, on the other hand, are a one-to-one relationship; through one note, you can quickly locate another note, which is a more efficient way to establish connections between notes and discover related notes.

4. Weak Connection

The fourth type of connection I want to introduce is "Weak Connection." If I were to associate, the "weak" in weak connection might come from the concept of light (weak) and heavy (strong) current in physics.

We've previously introduced hard connections given through links and soft connections given through tags. They are both tangible connection methods, whether one-to-one or one-to-many, because you click on a link or tag and can find the corresponding notes, which is very intuitive.

Weak connections, on the other hand, are given through keyword searches. For example, in a previous article, I introduced a common way to discover unexpected connections, which is through keyword searches, mainly searching for keywords in note names, and sometimes including searching for keywords in note content. The reason it's called a weak connection is that it's a fuzzy connection and correspondence. Before conducting a keyword search, we can't possibly know what kind of connections we'll discover. And when using keyword searches, we might try one keyword and find a few notes, then switch to a synonym and find some more notes.

As you can see, when using keyword searches, different keyword combinations and different search methods can find different connections and notes, which has a lot of uncertainty and is a fuzzy correspondence. This is precisely why I call it a weak connection. Of course, if we find some related notes through keyword searches, we can transform these related notes from weak connections to hard connections or soft connections. Since using keyword searches is a fuzzy correspondence and has a lot of uncertainty, to facilitate discovering related notes in the future, we can naturally convert weak connections to hard connections or soft connections. For example, we can directly link the found notes using note links, or add some related tags to the found notes.

An interesting example is that through keyword searches, I found a note about "how to discover unexpected connections." Then, I linked this idea to the current article's related notes using note links, transforming a weak connection into a hard connection. Therefore, the process of discovering related notes is also a process of transforming connection types.

5. Semantic Connection

Earlier, we mentioned that we can find some notes through keyword searches, and the "Semantic Connection" to be introduced here has a certain similarity, because when using keyword searches, we can utilize synonyms and semantic methods to search for notes.

So, what are semantic methods? For instance, whether synonyms or different questioning methods, their corresponding meanings might be essentially similar or the same. We can use semantic methods to find different notes, establish some connections, and discover some associations.

When we use semantic methods to establish and find connections, we can manually search for synonyms, and we can also use artificial intelligence and other tools to search for related notes. For example, changing the way we ask questions might help find different related notes. Of course, as I've shared before, I have reservations about using artificial intelligence tools for note management. However, what I want to share here is the "semantic connection" type of idea connection.

6. Folder Connection

As the name suggests, "Folder Connection" means we can see certain associations between notes placed in the same folder.

In a previous article, I mentioned that I use folders to roughly categorize notes, and I didn't encourage establishing many nested levels or very fine-grained folder structures, as that might make note management quite cumbersome and inefficient. We can use folders to roughly categorize notes and create different types of folders when creating them. For example, folders might be used to categorize notes on different topics, or to place notes representing different statuses, such as completed, in progress, etc.

When we look at notes in different types of folders, these notes naturally have certain associations. As for the relationships between these notes, it depends on how you construct and design your folder structure.

7. Hidden Connection

Here, I'd like to introduce another type of connection called "Hidden Connection."

We've previously discussed various methods for building note systems and managing notes, but regardless of what method we use, such as creating links, adding tags, moving to folders, etc., we cannot guarantee that we can process all notes in multiple ways. The reason is simple: we have too many notes in our system. Obviously, we record and manage these notes essentially because they serve our tasks, projects, and goals. So, an obvious truth is that we cannot delay the goals served by these notes for the sake of managing the note library, as that would be putting the cart before the horse.

This is also why I mentioned in previous articles that we can add some reminders at the beginning of a note, suggesting what kind of connections we can establish, what tags to add, what folder to move to, etc. We might also add some time information at the beginning, such as "link to the note about XYZ from a few days ago," or add keywords related to people, such as content discussed with someone, or other information related to the context of the idea. As for what context is, we can discuss that in the future.

In short, we can use different methods to provide reminders, suggesting to our future selves what kind of processing we can do for the current note, such as creating links, adding tags, moving to folders, etc. This is a hidden connection method, a way to remind our future selves what kind of connections we can establish, so I call it a "hidden connection." Of course, when we see these reminders in the future, we can convert some hidden connections into other types of connections, such as "hard connections" represented by links and "soft connections" represented by tags, or "folder connections."

8. System Connection

There's another type of connection that I call "System Connection," which refers to the systems we use to manage knowledge, tasks, projects, etc., which help us generate ideas.

Although this might seem somewhat mystical, it has its rationale. Luhmann once said, "One cannot think without writing." When we record ideas and develop our ideas with words, it's actually a thinking process. When we add tags to notes, link to another note, organize ideas with folders, etc., these processes are ways for us to deepen understanding and establish connections between ideas. During these processes, we engage in thinking; over time, our thinking also gets exercised. And this exercise, this flexibility in thinking, can prompt us to generate new ideas and establish connections. This is why I call it a "system connection" here.

After our thinking becomes active, we often generate unexpected ideas and connections. For example, unexpected connections might be generated when executing tasks or organizing notes; this note comes from an unexpected connection in another note. Fundamentally, through the use of the PTKM method, managing your notes, tasks, projects, etc., will exercise your thinking over a long period; this also makes it easy to generate unexpected ideas and connections. This again forms a positive feedback loop. In fact, this might be a more important thing compared to building a system itself. After all, your thinking becoming active is a more essential reason for generating ideas, creativity, and innovation, isn't it?

Summary of Connection Types

I've introduced many different types of connections, so let's briefly summarize these different connection types.

1. Inspiration Connection mainly refers to activities we engage in that are conducive to relaxation, which help generate ideas. For example, walking, listening to music, showering, etc., all help with relaxation and promote the generation of inspiration.

2. Hard Connection is a type of connection given through note links, which is a one-to-one connection method.

3. Soft Connection is a one-to-many relationship, which can be represented by tags.

4. Weak Connection can be represented through keyword searches; it's called a weak connection because it's a fuzzy correspondence and has considerable uncertainty, as keywords can have different synonyms and construction methods.

5. Semantic Connection is somewhat similar to weak connection, as it can be represented through synonyms and semantic methods, and can also be implemented with the help of artificial intelligence tools.

6. Folder Connection depends on how folders are constructed; notes in the same folder might not necessarily be closely related to a topic but might be in the same state or of other types.

7. Hidden Connection refers to when organizing notes, such as adding file links, tags, or moving to folders, sometimes you can't immediately perform these processes; therefore, you can add some prompt information at the beginning of the note, and in the future, you can process notes and build connections based on these prompts.

8. The last type of connection is "System Connection," which is because after using a system for a long time, it helps exercise your thinking, thereby facilitating the generation of new ideas and unexpected connections.

Practical Applications

In the actual process of managing notes, tasks, and projects, how should we use these different connections?

1. "Inspiration Connection" is a way we generate ideas when relaxing, which can also lead to ideas about connecting specific notes.

2. When we want to establish a one-to-one fixed connection between one note and another, we use "Hard Connection." Fundamentally, after establishing a hard connection, we can very conveniently discover the notes we want to find in the future in the note itself, Linked Mentions, entry notes, project pages, etc.

3. We've also discussed before that we're relatively strict when using links because we want to avoid link abuse, while we're relatively loose when using tags. So, when we want to establish a looser connection, we can implement it through tags using "Soft Connection."

4. The use of "Weak Connection" also has its foundation, because when naming notes, we adopted appropriate naming methods, such as adding prefixes, keywords, dates, timestamps, etc. This way, we can find related notes through keyword searches, which is a weak connection.

5. "Semantic Connection" is similar to weak connection, but it emphasizes more on using synonyms and semantic methods to find related notes.

6. "Folder Connection" depends on how we construct folders. If we place notes with similar topics in the same folder, then these notes naturally have a certain topic connection.

7. "Hidden Connection" is a way to remind our future selves what kind of connections we can establish, such as adding reminders at the beginning of notes.

8. "System Connection" is a way to exercise our thinking through long-term use of a system, thereby facilitating the generation of new ideas and unexpected connections.

In actual use, we often use multiple connection types together. For example, we might first discover some notes through keyword searches (weak connection), then link them (hard connection), add tags (soft connection), and move them to appropriate folders (folder connection). This way, we can establish multiple connections between notes, making it easier to discover related notes in the future.

Conclusions

In this article, we've introduced eight types of idea connections: Inspiration Connection, Hard Connection, Soft Connection, Weak Connection, Semantic Connection, Folder Connection, Hidden Connection, and System Connection. These connection types help us better understand how ideas are connected and how to discover unexpected connections.

In actual use, we often use multiple connection types together to establish multiple connections between notes. This way, we can more easily discover related notes in the future, thereby improving the efficiency and effectiveness of our note system.

Finally, I want to emphasize that the purpose of establishing these connections is not for the sake of establishing connections, but to help us better understand and develop our ideas, thereby improving our thinking and creativity. After all, the ultimate goal of note-taking is to help us think better, not just to record information.

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