• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • Articles
    • Financial Freedom 🌱
    • Creator Corner 🎨
    • Meaningful Life 🎯
    • Reading Better 📚
    • Learning Hacks 🧠
    • Rethinking Education 🧱
  • Books

learntrepreneurs

make the most of your mind

  • About Eva
  • Media
  • Contact

roam

Why and How to Switch From RoamResearch to Obsidian

January 12, 2022 by Eva Keiffenheim


A 3-step process to migrate all of your notes.

Photo by Fabian Irsara on Unsplash

I’ve been a RoamResearch power user for over a year before I fell out of love.

Roam is an online workspace for organizing and evaluating your knowledge. Unlike linear cabinet tools, the software allows you to remix and connect ideas, where each note represents a node in a dynamic network.

Networked note-taking with Roam transformed my writing process and cut my research writing time in half. It increased my productivity and helped me think better and have more original ideas.

Yet, about half a year ago, I fell out of love. Here’s why and how I switched from Roam to Obsidian.


Two Reasons Why I Switch From Roam to Obsidian

My entire writing process used to happen within Roam. Every morning, I’d start by opening my headline practice template. Once I decided on the headline, I’d create a page for the chosen title and use my article template to get started.

How I start writing an article using my Roamkasten (Recording by Eva Keiffenheim).

Performance issues and slow load time

About 50% of the time, when I started my writing process, Roam wouldn’t load. I’d need three to five attempts reopening the software until my graph finally loaded.

Roam’s performance issue is not new. Other users reported having slow load time as well, and a Reddit user writes: “I’m concerned that this is an issue at this level of product maturity and wonder if there’s any roadmap to resolve these issues.”

Alexander Rink measured Roam’s performance times and writes: “Roam Research is still usable with the 10,000 pages data set, but you need good nerves when using the high-linked pages because the application keeps you waiting and jerks.”

Ten thousand pages might seem like a lot, but it isn’t. If you’re an avid reader and connect Readwise to RoamResearch and consistently create permanent notes, you’ll soon have a few thousand pages with page links.

Rink concludes: “I’m pretty sure that Roam Research will need some algorithmic enhancements to reduce the bottlenecks at references and backlinks because they will be even more dramatic the bigger the database (and the number of backlinks) gets.”

Data security

The other issue around Roam is data security. Even though Roam is a cloud service, the software doesn’t offer end-to-end encryption. A hack, or anyone guessing your single password, would make your private data vulnerable.

A leak of my notes about book summaries wouldn’t worry me. But Roam serves as my second brain and contains sensible personal information.

I’m not alone with this concern. Mark Mcelroy writes: “If you care at all about the integrity and security of your personal knowledge management system, Obsidian may be a better solution than Roam.”


The 3-step Process to Migrate All of Your Notes

1) Export Files from Roam

First, click on the three dots on the top right corner and select “export all” and the “markdown” format. All you have to do afterwards is to unzip the file “Roam-Export-xxxxxxxxxxxxx.zip”.

2) Download Obsidian and Open Folder as a Vault

Next, click on “Open” next to open folder as vault. Pick the folder you just unzipped to.

3) Use the Markdown Format Converter to format your Notes

In Obsidian, on the left side, click “Open Markdown Importer.” Turn on the first three options and start the conversion.

Obsidian now converts from Roam’s variations of Markdown format and link convention to Obsidian format. For example, it will turn #tag into Obsidian [[links]] and also convert Roam’s ^^highlight^^ into Obsidian’s ==highlight==.

Optional: Connect Readwise to Obsidian

To connect Readwise to Obsidian, you want to launch your obsidian vault, click on settings, select “community plugins” in the left panel, and toggle off Safe mode.

Then, search for “Readwise Official”, click install and enable. Then, in the panel, scroll down to “Readwise Official” and click on connect. Here is a short video tutorial by Readwise.

Before you initiate a sync, you want to ensure to enable a couple of options: set the resync frequency to your desired interval (I chose 1 hour). If you want to review your highlights in your daily notes, check out this article.


In Conclusion

Even if I fell out of love with RoamResearch, I admire the software. I’m grateful it introduced me to the power of networked note-taking and bi-directional linking.

If at some point, they resolve the performance and data issues, I might return to the software. Until then, I’ll start getting acquainted with Obsidian. And I’m in good company — with more than 45,000 members in their Discord chat and 20,000 members on their forum, Obsidian has one of the largest note-taking communities.


Do you want to build a consistent writing habit?

Pre-register for the next cohort of the writing online accelerator. You will transform into a consistent writer to attract an audience, create career opportunities, and become a better person. Find more details about the next launch date here.

Filed Under: 📚 Knowledge Management Tagged With: learning, obsidian, roam

How I Built a Book Brain with RoamResearch

August 4, 2021 by Eva Keiffenheim


Here’s how you can do it, too (templates included).

Image credit: Model-la.

Have you ever read a book only to forget the quintessence three weeks later? Human brains don’t work like recording devices. When we read things a single time, we’ll likely forget them. Even the densest non-fiction books become mere entertainment.

I read a book a week for some years now and encounter many interesting ideas. Yet, I often struggled to find the content when I needed it. Researching sources for my articles, my weekly newsletter, podcast interviews, or panel discussions was a long and frustrating process.

Building a book brain in Roam helped me find what I need within seconds. As a result, I no longer spend hours searching for ideas from books. Instead, I have everything at a single digital place ready for usage.

Whether you’re struggling to organize your thinking, want to make more of the books you read, or look for inspiration to organize your reading, this article is for you. Here are the exact steps you can follow to find what you need when you need it by building a book brain with RoamResearch.

The Setup

I built a book brain using my Kindle, Readwise, and RoamResearch.

Disclaimer: I'm not sponsored by Roam or Readwise. I pay $15/month for RoamResearch and $8/month for Readwise. Free alternatives to RoamResearch include TiddlyWiki, Obsidian, RemNote, Amplenote, and Org-roam. The only alternative to Readwise is importing highlights manually.

Kindle

I was an e-reading enemy until I read my first e-book. Before, I’d argue you can’t smell and dog-ear the pages, scribble your questions in the margins, or sketch out the concept you just learned.

And while these arguments still hold, technology-assisted learning makes most of them irrelevant. Now that I discovered how to use my Kindle as a learning device, I wouldn’t trade it for a paper book anymore.

Your Kindle Notes page shows all your book highlights (for books purchased via Amazon). This feature is essential for the process that follows.

The kindle notes page (screenshot by Eva Keiffenheim).

Readwise

Readwise is an online service that helps you retain books better. You can resurface your highlights through spaced repetition on their website. In addition, the program also allows you to tag, annotate, search, and organize your highlights.

The only Readwise feature I use is highlight syncing. You can sync your Kindle highlights to Evernote, Notion, and Roamresearch. Once it’s set up, Readwise syncs your highlights with notes automatically every day.

This is how I customized my Readwise to Roam integration:

Readwise configuration page (screenshot by Eva Keiffenheim).

Here’s the code I used for the page metadata. Feel free to copy or adjust it to your needs.

{% if category == "tweets" %}
#twitter 🐦
{% elif category == "books" %}
{{"{{"}}[[TODO]]{{"}}"}} #ToProcess create literature notes for this book
{{"{{"}}[[TODO]]{{"}}"}} #ToProcess create permanent notes for this book
{{"{{"}}[[TODO]]{{"}}"}} #ToProcess write a summary for my blog and publish it
{% else %}
podcast or article
{% endif %}
Author:: [[{{author}}]]
Tags:: #readwisesync
Full Title:: {{full_title}}
Type:: #{{category}}
Recommended by::
Import Date:: {{date}}
{% if document_tags %}Document Tags:: {% for tag in document_tags %}#[[{{tag}}]] {% endfor %} {% endif %}
{% if url %}URL:: {{url}}{% endif %}
{% if image_url %}![]({{image_url}}){% endif %}

RoamResearch

RoamResearch is an online workspace for organizing your knowledge. In essence, it’s a note-taking app that works in line with your brain.

To understand why RoamResearch is superior to most note-taking apps, let’s understand how our memory remembers things. Harvard researchers describe a three-step process:

  1. Through encoding, your memory learns new information, either visual (see), acoustic (hear), tactile (feel), or semantic (mean).
  2. Everything you encode is first stored in your short-term memory and then, through spaced repetition, in your long-term memory.
  3. Through retrieval, you can access and recall what you stored in your brain.

Hence, to retrieve and access what you learned, you first need to encode and store it in a way that helps with this process.

The more details and the stronger you connect new knowledge to what you already know, the better. By doing so, you’re generating more cues. Computer-scientist and lifelong learner Helmut Sachs writes in his book, “The more we know, the more information (hooks) we have to connect new information to, the easier we can form long-term memories.”

Networked note-taking encodes information into your long-term memory more effectively. It can be advantageous to relate the material to a personal experience or to something you already know, explaining the idea to someone else, and explaining how it relates to your life.

And this is where Roam comes into play. While traditional note-taking tools, such as Notion or Evernote, operate within a hierarchical structure for linear thinking, Roam was built around networked thinking. Through bi-directional links and the daily notes default, the platform is built for connecting and interrelating your book notes and ideas.

Created by Eva Keiffenheim via Canva.

The Workflow

One of the biggest hurdles in building a book brain is actually taking the time to do it. Unfortunately, it’s more tempting to start a new book than work with the one you just finished.

But whenever I rush to the next book without pausing to think and reflect, I won’t remember nor apply most of what I read. Hence, I block an hour each Monday to go through the book I just finished.

Within this weekly hour, I do three things: write literature notes, permanent notes, and publish a book summary. To make sure not to miss a book, the three steps show op in my Roam [[ToDo]] page. When I’m done, I tick them off. In case you want different ToDos or # to show up in your database, configure the code above.

Roam [[ToDo]] page (screenshot by Eva Keiffenheim).

1) Create Literature Notes

You might have heard of the Literature notes from the Zettelkasten method. But you don’t need to understand the complex system for knowledge management to create them.

Literature notes are brief, contain your own words, and sometimes bibliographic references. When writing literature notes from a book, I answer two questions:

  1. What is so interesting about this?
  2. What is so relevant it’s worth noting down?

First, I try to recall everything from my memory (an exercise that supports my memory in transforming information from the short-term to the long-term memory).

When I’m done with this brainwriting, I’ll go through the highlights from the book. Readwise synced the book’s highlights to my RoamResearch database, so I don’t have to pick up my Kindle. If I find something noteworthy I hadn’t thought of, I’ll add it to the literature note.

Three examples for my Roam literature notes (screenshot by Eva Keiffenheim).

2) Create Permanent Notes

While literature notes are your summary of someone else’s ideas, permanent notes are your own ideas. You combine what you read with your area of interest and focus. Literature notes serve as a stepping stone for your thinking.

While your literature notes are bullets and fragments, your permanent notes should sound like written prose. A reader of your permanent note (e.g., your future self) should understand it without reading the source that led to your idea.

These notes are called permanent notes because they’re supposed to be permanently useful to you.

Created by Eva Keiffenheim based on “How to take smart notes.”

3) Write a Summary to Learn in Public

Writing is one of the most effective ways to embed information in your mind. Before you write, you have to take several steps: filter relevant information, organize this information and articulate them using your own vocabulary.

In short: When you write, you have to understand and think for yourself.

Scientists call this the ‘Generation effect.’ In 1978, researchers discovered that information is better remembered if generated from one’s own mind rather than read. And while research is still unclear about why it works, it has been shown to accelerate learning and remembering information.

I committed to learning in public. Hence, I publish my book summaries on my website. This is a way to hold me accountable to show up each week and support people who want to become lifelong learners. And that’s it — the process I use to create a book brain in Roam.


In Conclusion

Books are incredible — you can learn about anything, travel in time and place, and become anyone you want.

With a book brain, you can remember and use anything you want from the books you read. If you’re new to Kindle, Readwise, and Roam, it might take a day to set it up. Yet, once in place, it can save you hours. Depending on how much you read, it will take you one to four hours a month to make the most of what you read.

Filed Under: 📚 Knowledge Management Tagged With: learning, Productivity, Reading, roam

The First 5 Steps to Unlock Roam Research’s Potential

July 6, 2021 by Eva Keiffenheim


And transform your personal knowledge management.

Image created by the author via Canva.

Roam is an online workspace for organizing and evaluating your knowledge.

Unlike linear cabinet tools, Roam allows you to remix and connect ideas, where each note represents a node in a dynamic network.

Just like Excel, Roam has a low floor but a high ceiling. You can use Excel for simple things like a grocery list, or you can run your entire business from one sheet.

Roam’s strategy is to attract people who are willing to invest time using a power tool. And the effort is worth it.

Once you know your way around Roam, you’ve unlocked the best tool for knowledge management. This article will teach you the first five steps to get started.


Step 1: Learn the most important shortcuts

Don’t waste your precious lifetime by navigating with your mouse.

With shortcuts, you’ll bring a 3-second action down to a 1-second. And because you repeat those actions hundreds of times each week, you’ll save hours. These are the Roam Research shortcuts I use every day:

  • [[ or # → Reference or create a new page
  • ⌘+ opt + 1 → Heading 1
  • ⌘+opt + 2 → Heading 2
  • shift+click → open page in the right sidebar
  • / → Show quick commands
  • tab → Indent block
  • shift + tab → unindent block
  • ⌘+ u → find or create a page
  • three formatting shortcuts:
Screen recording by the author.

How to apply this:

Within your first week, force yourself to use the shortcuts instead of using your mouse. While this will feel slow first, you’ll soon save hours every week.


Step 2: Always start on the daily notes page

Every time you open Roam, you will find yourself on the Daily Notes page.

Think of it as your entryway to work on your personal knowledge management system.

There’s no reason to be afraid of the missing folder structure — networked note-taking accelerates your learning. Here’s why.

Networked thinking includes interactions and relationships between thoughts. Because you don’t have to decide for parent topics, you’ll stumble upon interrelated ideas.

Image created by the author.

By seeing your daily notes page first thing whenever you open your Roam Research graph, you can focus on your thoughts and ideas instead of wasting brainpower on storage structure. In Roam Research, information is fluid and interconnected.

How to apply this:

Whenever you take a note on your daily page, make sure to add a label. For example, if you capture an idea relevant to one of your projects, add a hashtag with your project label and another one for the topic.

The next time you’re looking for your thoughts on the project, all you need to do is use ⌘+ u to see all your ideas in a single place.


Step 3: Unlock the power of bidirectional linking

You can create new pages with brackets [[]] and hashtags #.

Both commands have the same function, but they look different. You can use either one. All pages are tags, and all tags are pages. Here’s what it looks like:

Screen recording by the author.

Here’s an example of how you can use it on your daily page: I have a page called [[quote]] where I collect my favorite quotes. This morning, I saw a quote I liked and typed it into my daily notes. I added #quote behind it. When I now click on #quote (or [[quote]]), it shows up with all the other quotes I labeled with this tag.

Screen recording by the author.

Plus, what makes pages even more powerful is that Roam suggests links you haven’t referenced. So when I click on the “Unlinked References” on my [[quote]] page, I see potentially related bullets and can add them to my page by clicking “Link.”

Screen recording by the author.

This function is networked thought in action and the reason you don’t need folders. When you create a page Roam automatically adds all related blocks from your database as references to your page.

How to apply this:

Whenever you write a note, add a tag to connect it with existing notes. After a few weeks, you built an index for your personal library. Your Roam Research Graph will work as your second brain.


Step 4: Create templates

Templates save you time and make your structure consistent. To create a template, follow the following structure:

• TemplateName #roam/templates
• [[Template Title]]
• Your template's content

When you want to use your templates, you type ;; and the template name will show up.

Here’s what it looks like in my workflow when creating a permanent note for my Zettelkasten.

Screen recording by the author.

Another template I frequently use is the book summary template. Feel free to steal it.

• Book Summary #roam/templates
• [[**Book Summary Title** 📘 #learntrepreneur]]
• 📚 3-Sentence-Summary
• 💭 What I think about it
• 🤤 Who benefits from reading this book?
• 🧬 How the book changed my life
• ✍️️ Favorite Quotes

How to apply this:

Whenever you want a repeatable structure (e.g., reflection questions, note-taking templates, or metadata), create a template for it.


Step 5: Get clear about your intentions

Why are you using Roam Research? Do you want to build your second brain? Accelerate your writing process? Structure your thinking? Showcase a digital garden?

While the first four steps are necessary for any Roam Research endeavor, the next steps depend on your needs.

How to apply this:

Learn what you need to learn. Here are some suggestions on the next steps:

  • Writing → How to use Roam to outline an article in under 20 minutes.
  • Knowledge management → Building a second brain with Roam.
  • Learning in public → Creating a digital garden with Roam.
  • Personal development → How to use Roam as a self-therapy and journaling tool.

You can do a zillion things with Roam Research, but these five steps will help you get started. Then, if you feel curious, you can type / inside your database and discover more useful functions, such as TODOs, date pickers, sliders, and a Pomodoro Timer.

“Roam is simple but not easy,” founder Conor White Sullivan said in an interview. It’s worth sticking through the steep learning curve. May Roam Research be as useful to you as it is for me.


Want to feel inspired and improve your learning?

Subscribe free to The Learn Letter. I read a book and 50 articles a week, and each Wednesday, you’ll receive the best in your inbox. This newsletter will make you find tools and resources that help you on your path to health, wealth, and wisdom.

Filed Under: 📚 Knowledge Management Tagged With: learning, Productivity, roam

The Complete Guide for Building a Zettelkasten with RoamResearch

May 25, 2021 by Eva Keiffenheim



This is how networked thought transformed my writing process and cut my research writing time in half

Conceptual illustration of a person holding a drawing of a brain.
Purchased by the author via Canva.

“Are you sure reading all those books is worth your time?” my fiancé asked me last fall. He found a weak spot. I’d been contemplating my reading habits for quite some time.

While I knew how you could remember what you read, I felt my reading was inefficient.

I read a book, along with 50 articles a week, and encounter many interesting ideas. While I had a method to remember what I read, I felt my reading and creative workflow was inefficient.

But when it comes to writing, it often happened that I knew I read something about the topic somewhere. Despite my summaries, I struggled to recall where the information was, making it difficult to reference. I’d spend half an hour browsing through side notes in a book’s margins, digital notes, and bullet journals without a result. I’d continue without the information, frustrated.

So when my partner asked the question, my answer was unconvinced, “Reading is great. I just haven’t found the right system to work with it yet.”

That’s why something clicked when I first heard the term “Zettelkasten” in one of Ali Abdaal’s videos. Yet, I struggled to summarize the Zettelkasten — even Ali admitted that he hadn’t grasped it fully.

Whenever I’m hooked, I enter a tunnel. I watched and read every tutorial I could find on the internet, read the original German texts, studied Sönke Ahren’s how-to guide, researched coaches, and hired one. Since March, I also help my coaching clients set up their system.

I’m so in love with my Zettelkasten, my fiancé sometimes feels betrayed. These are the ways my digital brain has transformed my thinking, learning, and writing.

  • Increased productivity. I write and create faster. I no longer waste time searching for sources. Instead of using my brain to browse through books and digital bookmark notes, I have everything in one place. A research-based 1,300-word article used to take me three hours to write— with Zettelkasten, it takes me one and a half.
  • Original ideas. Whenever I write or research a topic, I browse through my Roamkasten and find what I’m looking for, plus connections between domains I hadn’t thought about in the first place.
  • Better thinking. New information challenges my thinking and helps me overcome cognitive biases. I gain a deeper understanding of everything I read.
  • Maximum retention. I have a place that stores everything valuable from what I watch, read, or listen to. It helped me develop my worldview by comparing evidence, ideas, and arguments.

What follows is a crisp description of how the Zettelkasten works and the exact system I follow to set it up in Roam. Everything you’ll need to set this up is in this article.

Table of Contents
1 Zettelkasten - What Is It and How Does It Work?
1.1 Luhmann’s Zettelkasten as fuel for his productivity
1.2 Zettelkasten's three types of notes
1.3 Zettelkasten's 4 core principles
2 Roam Research- What Is It and How Does It Work?
2.1 Roam's Value Proposition
2.2 RoamResearch functions you need for building a Zettelkasten
3 Roamkasten - How to Set up Your Zettelkasten in Roam
3.1 How to capture fleeting notes
3.2 How to take great literature notes
3.3 How to create permanent notes
3.4 Tying it all together in the index of the permanent note
4 How I Use the Roamkasten in My Writing Process
4.1 How I seek great content
4.2 How I block out consumption time
4.3 My automated capturing process
4.4 How I use new ideas for networked thought
4.5 How I write to learn

1. Zettelkasten — What Is It and How Does It Work?

What follows is a brief description of its origins, the four types of note hierarchies, and the key principles.

1.1 Luhmann’s Zettelkasten as fuel for his productivity

Niklas Luhmann was a social scientist and philosopher, and researchers consider Luhmann one of the most important social theorists of the 20th century.

During his life, he wrote 73 books and almost 400 research articles on various topics, including politics, art, ecology, media, law, and the economy.

When someone asked him how he published so much, Luhmann replied, “I’m not thinking everything on my own. Much of it happens in my Zettelkasten. My productivity is largely explained by the Zettelkasten method.”

“Zettel” is the German word for paper slip, “Kasten” means cabinet or box. During his lifetime, he wrote and kept 90,000 index cards in his slip box. All notes were digitized by the University of Bielefeld in 2019, and the original German version is available online. But this is what it originally looked like:

What the original Zettelkasten looked like.
Image created by David B. Clear (CC BY-SA 4.0)

1.2 Zettelkasten’s three types of notes

At its core, the Zettelkasten has different levels of note-taking. I wrote an entire article about the notes hierarchy. Here’s the quintessence of the three different note types:

Fleeting Notes: Fleeting notes are ideas that pop into your mind as you go through your day. They can be really short, just like one word. You don’t need to organize them.

Literature Notes: You capture literature notes from the content you consume. It’s your bullet-point summary from other people’s ideas. I create these notes for all books, podcasts, articles, or videos I find valuable.

Permanent Notes: When you create permanent notes, you think for yourself. In contrast to literature notes, you don’t summarize somebody else’s thoughts. You don’t just copy ideas but develop, remix, and contradict them. You create arguments and discussions. By writing your idea down, you put pressure on your thinking and transform vague thoughts into clear points.


1.3 Zettelkasten’s 4 core principles

You want to keep in mind a few core principles to make the most of your Zettelkasten.

1) Context and Connection. A note is only as useful as its context. A note’s true value unfolds in its network of connections and relationships to others. You don’t tag notes in the context you found them. Instead, tag them in the context in which you want to discover them. By connecting new notes with existing notes, you broaden your thinking.

2) The usefulness grows with time. When you store more, the connections and interlinks grow stronger. The Zettelkasten becomes more useful as it grows because you can discover related ideas you hadn’t thought of in the first place. As Sönke Ahrens writes: “The more content it contains, the more connections it can provide, and the easier it becomes to add new entries in a smart way and receive useful suggestions.”

3) Networked instead of hierarchical note-taking. The problem with traditional note-taking approaches (even with apps such as Notion or Evernote) is the linear structure. Ideas get locked in a folder and, with time, are forgotten. With the Zettelkasten, it’s different.

As Luhmann writes: “Given this technique, it is less important where we place a new note. If there are several possibilities, we can solve the problem as we wish and just record the connection by a link or reference.”

Can you see it’s the same number of thoughts but more connections?

Illustration shows linear thinking and networked thinking. Networked thinking includes interactions and relationships between thoughts.
Created by Eva Keiffenheim via Canva.

Networked thinking includes interactions and relationships between thoughts. Connecting notes leads to new ideas and better ways of thinking. As you will see in some minutes, the Roamkasten has an inbuilt feature (tagging and bi-directional linking) that will help you make more connections between individual thoughts. Thereby, you create a larger web of ideas.

Science supports the value proposition of networked note-taking. As researchers state: “Studies suggest that nearly all non-linear note-taking strategies (e.g. with an outline or a matrix framework) benefit learning outcomes more than the linear recording of information, with graphs and concept maps especially fostering the selection and organization of information. As a consequence, the remembering of information is most effective with non-linear strategies.”

4) Idea Serendipity. Because of the interconnection, the increased value with growth, and the networked note-taking, you tumble upon ideas you have never thought of. Day by day, the slip box will transform into an idea generation machine. You’ll be more creative as you find past ideas and new connections.

Luhmann writes: “The slip box provides combinatorial possibilities which were never planned, never preconceived, or conceived in this way.”


2. Roam Research — What Is It and How Does It Work?

2.1 Roam’s Value Proposition

Roam is an online workspace for organizing and evaluating your knowledge. Unlike linear cabinet tools, Roam allows you to remix and connect ideas, where each note represents a node in a dynamic network.

This leads to vast application opportunities. As Anne-Laure Le Cunff writes: “Roam Research is a tool powerful enough to manage an end-to-end writing workflow, from research and note-taking (input) to writing an original article (output).”

To give you a sneak peek of what you can expect, here’s an example of how I wrote this paragraph using Roam.

How the author wrote a paragraph using Roam.
GIF created by Eva Keiffenheim

Disclaimer: I'm not sponsored by Roam or Readwise. I pay for both tools 23$ a month (15$ for Roam and 8$ for Readwise). You can also work with TiddlyWiki (free and open-source), Obsidian, RemNote, Amplenote, and Org-roam. And alternative to Readwise is importing highlights manually. 

2.2 The only five RoamResearch functions you need for building a Zettelkasten

Think of Roam like Excel. It has a low floor but a high ceiling. You can use Excel for simple things like a grocery list and create a table. Yet, some functions allow entire businesses to run off Excel sheets.

“Roam is simple but not easy,” founder Conor White Sullivan said in an interview. Unlike Notion, Roam didn’t dumb down to the lowest common denominator. Roam’s strategy is to attract people who are willing to learn using a power tool.

Once you know your way around Roam, you’ve unlocked a programming language for personal productivity and development. Here are the five key things you need to know about Roam to set up your Zettelkasten.

#1 The Daily Notes

Every time you open Roam, you will find yourself on the Daily Notes page. Think of it as your entry door whenever you want to start working with your Zettelkasten.

If you’re used to hierarchical note-taking apps such as Notion, or Evernote, missing folders might feel weird first. But you’ll soon understand how this structure accelerates your learning.

You don’t need folders to store a specific note because you link them with each other. In Luhmann’s words: “We can choose the route of thematic specialization (such as notes about governmental liability), or we can choose the route of an open organization.”

Why it’s relevant: Whenever you capture something, just type it as a bullet in your daily notes page and use tags or pages to connect it with existing notes.

#2 Formatting text

These are the three ways I use Roam to format text: ^^highlighting^^, **bolding**, and making text _italic_. Here’s how it works with shortcuts:

Formatting text through shortcuts.
GIF recorded by Eva Keiffenheim.

Why it’s relevant: You’ll use these functions when you go through your literature notes or want to highlight specific parts of your text.

#3 Creating pages (and bi-directional links)

See how you can create new pages with brackets [[]] and hashtags #. Both ways have the same function; they just look different. You can use either one. All pages are tags, and all tags are pages.

Note: Pages are case-sensitive. For example, [[Brain]] and [[brain]] will exist as two separate pages, the one called “Brain” and the other “brain.”

Creating pages.
GIF recorded by Eva Keiffenheim.

This function is networked thought in action and the reason you don’t need folders. When you create a page Roam automatically adds all related blocks from your database as references to your page.

For example, I have a page called [[quote]] where I collect my favorite quotes. This morning, I saw a quote I liked and typed it into my daily notes. I added #quote behind it. When I now click on #quote (or [[quote]]), it shows up with all the other quotes I labeled with this tag.

The author shows their page called [[quote]] where they collect their favorite quotes.

Plus, what makes pages even more powerful is that Roam suggests links you haven’t referenced. When I click on the “Unlinked References” on my [[quote]] page, I see potentially related bullets and can add them to my page by clicking “Link.”

Roam suggests links you haven’t referenced.

Why it’s relevant: You will need pages to create your literature and permanent notes. Moreover, you’ll use them to find relevant references whenever you write or research something. Pages are the engine for bi-directional linking.

#4 Opening a sidebar

See how the sidebar opens by shift-clicking on a page. You can open as many pages on the sidebar as you like.

Opening a sidebar.
GIF recorded by Eva Keiffenheim.

Why it’s relevant: This is extremely useful when you research or write. When you’re working on one article, you can open the sidebar and find all the relevant pages. You can simply pull notes from them.

#5 Using Templates

To create a template, you can use the following structure:

• TemplateName #roam/templates
• [[Template Title]]
• Your template's content

When you want to use your templates, you simply type ;; and the template name will show up. Here’s what it looks like in my workflow when creating a permanent note.

Using templates when creating a permanent note.
GIF recorded by Eva Keiffenheim.

Why it’s relevant: You’ll use templates for your literature and your permanent notes. Templates save you time and make your structure consistent. I’ll share my templates with you in a bit.

Extra tweaks

There are way more things you can do with Roam, but these five functions are all you need for building your Zettelkasten in Roam.

Suppose you’re curious what else you can do type/inside your database. You’ll discover some more useful functions, such as TODOs and a Pomodoro Timer.

When you click on the question mark in the top right corner, you’ll discover more shortcuts. For future inspiration, you might want to bookmark RoamBrain’s resources. But as a start, I suggest you go with the above and ignore the rest.


3. Roamkasten — How to Set up Your Zettelkasten in Roam

Now you know how Zettelkasten works (see 1) and the key Roam functions to build your own (see 2). This part will outline how you can build your slip box in Roam.

3.1 How to capture fleeting notes

Fleeting notes collect the ideas from your mind as you go through your day. My fleeting notes are sometimes really short, like a single word. Fleeting notes serve as idea reminders. They don’t require a fancy workflow. You just need a way to capture them.

I use a simple notebook or add notes on the books I read, in my bullet journal, or my Kindle notes. A preinstalled notes app works as well. Alternatively, you can also use Roam on your smartphone.

Don’t stress about fleeting notes — they are simply your stepping stones for turning literature notes into permanent notes.


3.2 How to take great literature notes

Create these notes whenever you find something valuable in the content you consume. You can take literature notes from books, podcasts, articles, online courses, videos, or even conversations.

There are three rules for taking literature notes: make them brief, use your own words, and note bibliographic references.

Whenever I create literature notes, I follow the template’s structure. Feel free to copy and edit it in your own database.

To do so, I suggest you create a page called [[templates]]. You’ll have all templates in one place. Once you have the [[templates]] page, simply copy the following lines into it.

• LN 📙 Template #roam/templates
• [[
LN 📙 <BookTitle>]]
•
Author:: <Firstname Lastname>
•
Tags:: # (In which circumstance do I want to find this
note? What would I google for to find this note (not a
general single term), When and how will I use this
idea?)
•
Type:: #book #article #podcast #video #onlinecourse
•
Status:: #ToCreate #ToProcess #Reviewed
•
Recommended by:: <Firstname Lastname>
• Source::
• **What's interesting about this?**
•
• **
What’s so relevant it’s worth noting down?**
•

The “Tags” are crucial for your Zettelkasten’s quality. As stated in the core principles, a note is only as valuable as its context. I borrowed the questions in “Tags” from Sönke Ahren’s How to Take Smart Notes. They will help you create good cross-references.

Assign tags by thinking about topics you’re working on, not by looking at the note in isolation. By using helpful tags, you unlock the bi-directional linking power. Once you search for answers with a question in mind, the Roamkasten will give you all the answers and related ideas.


3.3 How to create permanent notes

You create permanent notes drawing inspiration from your literature and fleeting notes. Ideally, you create them once a day (I never meet that goal and feel super proud with 4–5 permanent notes a week).

When you write down a permanent note, make sure it contains only a single idea. If you have a train of thought, create multiple permanent notes. By using the principle of atomicity, you can better link your ideas.

When you create permanent notes, you don’t write a full paper. You write ideas. That’s how your permanent notes become reusable.

While your literature notes are bullets and fragments, your permanent notes should sound like written prose. A reader of your permanent note should understand it without reading the source that led to your idea.

If you’re a writer, the number of permanent notes you write in a day might be the single best metric to track your progress.

Again, here’s my template for your reference. I remove the #ToFile once I filed the permanent note with a number to my existing index, as I’ll show in 3.4.

• PN 📗 Template #roam/templates
•
[[PN 📗 X.x.X.X <Insert Note> ]]
•
References:: <Source> by <Firstname Lastname>
•
Keywords::[[permanent notes]] + #Tags (In which
circumstance do I want to find this note? What would I
google for to find this note (not a general single
term), When and how will I use this idea?)
•
Relevant other PNs:: (link PNs that relate to this
note: How does this idea fit your existing knowledge?
Does it correct, challenge, support, upgrade, or
contradict what you already noted?)
• #ToFile

In the beginning, I struggled to write permanent notes. I thought of them as a holy grail. But they aren’t — permanent notes are a work in progress.

Don’t be afraid to write them. You can change and update them whenever you want: what permanent really means is that they’re permanently useful to you.

Differences between literature notes and permanent notes.
Created by Eva Keiffenheim based on “How to take smart notes.”

3.4 Tying it all together in the index of the permanent note

As there are no folders, you need an index or register to keep an overview. In Luhmann’s words: “Considering the absence of a systematic order, we must regulate the process of rediscovery of notes, for we cannot rely on our memory of numbers.”

You can label your permanent notes as you like and build indefinite internal branches. As Luhmann writes: “We do not need to add notes at the end, but we can connect them anywhere — even to a particular word in the middle of a continuous text. A slip with number 57/12 can then be continued with 57/13, etc. At the same time, it can be supplemented at a certain word or thought by 57/12a or 57/12b, etc. Internally, this slip can be complemented by 57/12a1, etc.”

Here’s an example of the branching I use for my permanent notes in my notes index:

An example of the branching the author uses for permanent notes in their notes index.
Screenshot by Eva Keiffenheim.

“Every intellectual endeavour starts with a note.”

— SĂśnke Ahrens


4. How I Use the Roamkasten in My Writing Process

There are five steps to my creative workflow: seek, consume, capture, network, and write.

4.1 How I seek great content

My creative process starts with the search for great content. To do so, I rely on my friends’ recommendations and my curiosity. I also use content discovery tools like Feedly, Bookshlf, GoodReads, Refind, Inoreader, Flipboard, or Mailbrew. When you feed your brain with good content, it will develop good ideas.

4.2 How I block out consumption time

I block undistracted consumption time, mostly an hour of no phone book reading time before lunch and bed. That’s how I read around 50–60 books a year.

Yet, I don’t focus on quantity and keep Naval Ravikant’s advice in mind: “Reading a book isn’t a race — the better the book, the more slowly it should be absorbed.” Slow reading for deep learning helps you read better.

4.3 My automated capturing process

While reading, watching videos, or listening to podcasts, I always take a few notes (unless I’m reading fiction for fun). My inner metacognition dialogue sounds like “This concept relates to…,” “This argument conflicts with…,” “I don’t know how… .”

I take my notes within the source. I use my Kindle for book notes, Readwise for analog notes and web highlights, Textsniper for capturing text from images and slides, Reclipped for videos, and Airr for podcast notes.

I’m generous with my notes. According to evidence, the more notes you take, the more information you can remember. From my Readwise account, all highlights and notes are imported to my Roam database.

Created by Eva Keiffenheim via Canva.

4.4 How I use new ideas for networked thought

The imported highlights and notes within Roam serve as a starting point for creating literature and permanent notes. Whenever I finish a book, I sit down with my laptop and use the roam template for literature notes (see 3.2).

To make sure I don’t forget to work with my highlights, I customized my Readwise to Roam integration like this.

The author customized their Readwise to Roam integration.
Readwise export to Roam setup. (Screenshot by Eva Keiffenheim.)

Here’s the code I used for the Page metadata. Feel free to copy it (and let me know if you have some ideas for improvement):

{% if category == "tweets" %}
#twitter 🐦
{% elif category == "books" %}
{{"{{"}}[[TODO]]{{"}}"}} #ToProcess create literature notes for this book
{{"{{"}}[[TODO]]{{"}}"}} #ToProcess create permanent notes for this book
{{"{{"}}[[TODO]]{{"}}"}} #ToProcess write a summary for my blog and publish it
{% else %}
podcast or article
{% endif %}
Author:: [[{{author}}]]
Tags:: #readwisesync
Full Title:: {{full_title}}
Type:: #{{category}}
Recommended by::
Import Date:: {{date}}
{% if document_tags %}Document Tags:: {% for tag in document_tags %}#[[{{tag}}]] {% endfor %} {% endif %}
{% if url %}URL:: {{url}}{% endif %}
{% if image_url %}![]({{image_url}}){% endif %}

From this import, my Roamkasten process begins. I use the ;; to retrieve the literature note template (see 3.2). While and after creating literature notes, I create permanent notes (see 3.3). Whenever I’m done with this work, I tick off the TODOs from my import template.

4.5 How I write to learn

Writing to me means not only thinking but also learning, creating, evolving. It means getting at the deeper meaning of everything around me. For me, it’s the best way for life-long learning.

My entire writing process happens within Roam. I start by brainstorming ten headline ideas and let my mastermind groups pick their favorite ones.

On my daily notes page in Roam, I create a page for the chosen title and use the article template to get started. Here’s how I start my writing process almost every morning.

How the author starts writing an article using their Roamkasten.
How I start writing an article using my Roamkasten (Recording by Eva Keiffenheim).

I create an outline with subheads and then search for interesting ideas and thoughts to add to my articles by opening the sidebar.

Once I’m done writing (which typically takes two times 50 minutes), I copy the Roam text to this free tool to remove the markup language. Then, I copy the text into a new Medium story and go through two rounds of editing.


“Writing is not what follows research, learning or studying, it is the medium of all this work. […] Those who take smart notes will never have the problem of a blank screen again.”

— SĂśnke Ahrens


5. Final Thoughts

You won’t see the benefits within the first weeks. To reap them, your Zettelkasten must mature. But after some months, the power will unlock. Or, as Luhmann writes: “The slip box needs a number of years in order to reach critical mass. Until then, it functions as a mere container from which we can retrieve what we put in.”

In the beginning, you might ask yourself whether you’re doing it right. Even if you mix up some structures, it doesn’t really matter. The researchers who digitized Luhmann’s Zettelkasten found inconsistencies in his labeling and interlinking — his Zettelkasten was far from perfect and still made him one of the biggest scientific contributors of his time.

You’ll never again encounter a blank page and have no idea what to write about. Instead, you receive useful suggestions of previous ideas that you’ll have too much to write about.

If you follow the above steps, you can learn better, think better, publish more, and be more creative. My Roamkasten transformed my creative process. I hope it will do the same for you.

Filed Under: 📚 Knowledge Management Tagged With: learning, Productivity, roam, slipbox, tutorial

Footer

Categories

  • ✍🏽 Online Creators
  • 🎯 Better Living
  • 📚 Knowledge Management
  • 🧠 Learning Hacks
  • 🧱Transforming Education

Learner’s Letter

Sign Up for the free weekly newsletter to make your mind work for you.

Copyright Eva Keiffenheim © 2023 ¡ Impressum