Table of Contents

I recently integrated Zettelkasten into my 15+ year collection of org notes. Following Jethro Kuan's slip box approach, I organized my notes into four categories:

  1. main - Quick thoughts and snippets
  2. references - Ideas from books, articles, and other sources
  3. article - Long-form content like paper reviews and essays (synthesis of multiple notes)
  4. project - GTD-style task management (The default bucket for all my existing notes)

Combining Zettelkasten with GTD

The project directory bridges Zettelkasten and GTD workflows. I use ripgrep with custom org-agenda settings to find TODO items in project files and surface them in my agenda.

Why separate projects from other notes?

  • Keeps zettels conceptual and task-free
  • Prevents org-agenda from scanning thousands of note files, which would be unusably slow
  • Forces clear distinction between concepts (zettels) and actionable tasks (projects)

You can find my setup here.

Last Modified: January 24, 2026