@writingslowly Wise words. I'm behind you on this note-making journey, but I recently had a similar insight regarding journaling. I've kept a journal for decades. When I switched from handwritten journals to Day One, I kept the same kind of journaling style: one long, meandering daily journal entry, some with a half dozen tags. "Daily Notes" in Obsidian or Bear take the same form. But for the past three months, I've been writing "atomic" journal entries. One idea/tag per entry. Some days, I write three or four different entries, depending on the topic. When I filter on a tag, the results are super focused, and I no longer have to scan long entries to get to what I'm searching for. Plus, it takes off the pressure when sitting down to write in my journal. I know this is a far cry from what you are doing with Zettelkasten, but I wanted to share how the atomic approach can also improve review and discovery in journals.
@robertbreen Thanks for this reply - you're describing an interesting process. What kind of tags do you use? Are they subject-based (e.g. 'biology') or process-based (e.g. 'blog-post idea'), or both?
Funnily enough this doesn't seem very far removed from my own practice of note-making. I sometimes write a long, meandering journal entry, then return to it later to extract more 'atomic' notes from it by means of transclusion.
In a way this reflects a much older practice, from the era when paper was scarce and expensive. People would make rough notes on reusable wax or slate tablets, then transcribe what they really wanted to preserve later, onto paper. This two-step process allows for reflection and refinement, even if it does require a bit more work.
@writingslowly My journal tags are subject-based: reading, health, fatherhood, technology, etc. that I've consistently applied to some 4,000 entries. Your transclusion approach for longer entries as a second review is smart. I am always learning from you!