Prioritize and Focus

A bare hashtag Kyle attaches in How To Take Smart Notes to the passage introducing Niklas Luhmann’s workflow — the Zettelkasten system that “turned the son of a brewer into one of the most productive… social scientists of the 20th century.” The tagged line is Luhmann’s: “I never force myself to do anything I don’t feel like. Whenever I am stuck, I do something else.” The book’s claim is that a good structure is what makes this possible — it “allows you to… move seamlessly from one task to another–without threatening the whole arrangement or losing sight of the bigger picture,” relieving the mind of holding everything at once so it can “focus on what is important: the content, the argument and the ideas.” A tag marking that idea, rather than a concept discussed in its own right.

Where this appears

• How To Take Smart Notes — tagged on the Niklas Luhmann / Zettelkasten workflow passage (“I never force myself… whenever I am stuck, I do something else”).