Starting a Zettelkasten on iPhone — your first week

Zettelkasten doesn’t care what tool you use. It works with paper cards, text files or an app. But for “write it the moment it occurs to you, connect it later,” the iPhone in your pocket is hard to beat. This guide walks through what to do in your first week with ZettelkastenNote.

Only three things to remember

Books and blogs about Zettelkasten throw around terms like fleeting notes, literature notes and permanent notes. You don’t need all of that on day one. Three rules are enough:

One idea per card.
When you write a new card, link it to one existing card.
Don’t file into folders. Tags are for broad context; links are for specific relationships.

In ZettelkastenNote a card is called a Zettel, and inside each Zettel you stack small Notes. The Zettel is the headline of an idea; the Notes are where it grows.

Day 1: throw everything into the Inbox

On the first day, don’t organize anything. Put whatever comes to mind into the Inbox — from the button at the bottom right of Home, the home-screen widget, voice input or the share sheet. It takes seconds wherever you are.

The point is to decide up front that sorting happens later. If you try to classify while capturing, capturing becomes a chore. The Inbox is the home of what Zettelkasten calls fleeting notes: temporary, and allowed to disappear.

Days 2–3: turn the Inbox into Zettels

Once you have five to ten items, go through them and promote the ones worth keeping into Zettels. The trick is to write the title as a sentence.

Weak: “Reading notes”, “Idea”
Strong: “If you explain the same thing twice, that’s a sign it should be a card”, “Split reading notes by claim, not by chapter”

When titles are claims, scanning the list already lets you follow your thinking, and it becomes obvious later which cards relate. Use the Zettel’s description for a one-line elaboration.

Notes are for evidence, quotes, examples and open questions. They’re written in Markdown — lists, checkboxes, web links (shown as cards with titles) all work. Diagrams and scribbles can be drawn by hand, and you can keep adding to them later.

Days 4–5: start linking

With more than five Zettels, start linking. From the Zettel’s “Links” section, tap + and pick a related Zettel. The other side gets a backlink automatically, so you can travel either way.

Any reason counts at first: similar, opposite, an example of. Luhmann recommended noting why two cards connect; in ZettelkastenNote, a line in the source Note such as “→ contradicts ○○” does the job.

There are also note links that connect Notes directly. Use them when it’s “this sentence and that sentence,” not the whole Zettel.

Days 6–7: look back

After a week, open the Timeline and read in the order you wrote. Chronologically you’ll notice that a question from one day was answered by yourself on another. When that happens, link the two cards. This is the mechanism behind “a Zettelkasten gets smarter the more you write.”

“Ideas, revisited” on Home surfaces Zettels you haven’t touched for a while. Turn on the morning notification and an old card arrives each day, which makes reviewing a habit. The Activity heatmap of writing days helps too.

Keeping it going

Don’t try to write a perfect card. One line is enough for a Zettel; it grows later.
Keep tags to five or ten. If you want more, the relationship you’re after is a link, not a tag.
Empty the Inbox once a week. Keep or discard — that’s the only decision.
If you have a Mac, use it on weekends. The link graph shows the whole web, and on-device AI suggests connections you missed.

Zettelkasten rewards the people who keep going. Ten cards and five links in your first week is a solid start.