To remember the valuable ideas that randomly come to mind, you MUST have an effective system to capture them.
Thankfully, that's where fleeting notes come into play.
In the Zettelkasten method, fleeting notes are simple reminders that we can process in the future to remember our past thoughts.
When I'm on my late-night walks, I need an easy way to capture all the insights I come across when listening to podcasts, as well as spontaneous thoughts like video ideas.
Sure I could directly put these into my Obsidian notes, but due to me having over 4000 of them, it'll take a few minutes and 300 MB of data.
I could also just record them in Google keep, but that requires me to manually transfer these ideas into my vault, which adds unnecessary friction.
So I found the best of both worlds, an app like Google Keep but with links and sync with Obsidian called Fleeting Notes.
Why use another app?
I use it ~~because I'm a co-founder of the app~~ because it matches the three important criteria I look for in a solid quick capture workflow:
Effortless
First off, the harder it is to capture an idea, the less likely you'll want to take note of it.
Fortunately, Fleeting Notes lets you effortlessly capture ideas in a few clicks.
Speed and Accessibility
Next, Obsidian is a great place for permanent knowledge, but I find it too slow and inaccessible for fleeting notes.
The longer it takes to capture an idea, the more likely you will forget its essence.
Luckily, Fleeting Notes is supported on various different platforms, from browser to mobile app, to help you take notes in any scenario.
Processability
Lastly, it should be easy to turn your fleeting notes into permanent notes in your PKM system.
With the fleeting notes Obsidian plugin, you can automatically sync the app’s notes into your vault.
With customizable templates, you can creatively structure these packets of information for easy processing.
My Quick Capture Process
If you prefer video form, consider watching the video instead
Mobile
Let's say I'm listening to videos on the way to work, and came across an epic idea.
I can share it to the Fleeting Notes app, and from there it will create a note with the link automatically generated.
If you're on browser, it will also add on the timestamp.
From there, I can start using my keyboard's voice to text feature to vomit out the idea, then add a title.
Let's say later down the road (literally), I watched another video with ideas related to my last note.
I can share the video once again, then create a link to the note.
Aside from links, you can also set the source to files or images.
Browser
Let's say I come across an inspiring quote I want to keep.
I can highlight it, then using the chrome extension, right-click and create a fleeting note.
If it's moreso an idea that came into my mind, I can click on the icon up here to use a pop-up version of the app.
If you want to take notes side by side, you can also open a persistent window.
Syncing with Obsidian
Be sure you have your notes stored on an account Go to settings, then community plugins, then search for fleeting notes.
Install, enable, then go to the settings and modify it to your liking.
I personally like to set it so fleeting notes are deleted once they're synced, but you can also set up two-way
You can also modify what template to use when importing the notes, and there are also different variables you can play around with. You can just put the bare minimum or format it like you would a permanent note in your vault, it's completely up to you.
So now, just open the command palette, and run the command Fleeting Notes Sync: Sync Notes with Fleeting Notes
If you check the folder, they should all be there.
Find and Process Fleeting Notes
To process your notes, there are two commands you can run to get a list of all your fleeting notes.
The first one, Insert Unprocessed Notes, embeds all fleeting notes.
The second one, Insert All Notes Containing Specific Text
embeds all fleeting notes that have a certain text, like a certain source
- If your chosen text is google, even a URL like google/alskdjaskldjal/ will still be included
From there you can open the notes and either extract the content into your vault or turn them into permanent notes after elaborating on them
My Personal Workflow
In my workflow, I include a seedling tag in the template so these unprocessed notes show up in a dataview query.
If I'm content with their content I'll convert the lengthier inputs into my input notes, personal journals into my thought notes, and little details into new or already existing notes.
I usually try to do this at the end of each day, and for SURE at the end of the week to help with brainstorming for writing outputs like my newsletter video, which I have a video on.
As I create these notes, I make links to already existing notes to make sure I can retrieve them in the future using backlinks and dataview queries.
Feel free to check out the website for more information, and I hope it can help reduce the friction in your knowledge workflow ;)