Zettelkasten

Develop Empathy with your Future Self

Dear Zettlers,

There is one trait that needs to be developed if you want to make any long-term system work:

This trait is a proper relationship with your future self.

To understand how a proper relationship with your future self is developed, we need to understand the nature of our future self.

Neurologically speaking, our future self is processed as another person. That means that we don’t have a relationship to ourselves, but to another person. There is quite some research on how we fail to engage in delayed gratification and engage in future discounting because we fail to empathize with our future self.

There are two conclusions to draw from this line of thought:

  1. The skill of managing time is partially a social skill. As we come to realize: One characteristic of modernity is the break-down of social skills and social motivations. So, it is a combination of lack of skill and lack of motivation.
  2. We can use models of social interactions to understand our relationship towards our future self.

This is the connection to the Zettelkasten Method: Each note that you create has several layers of interpretation to it. Two of these layers are:

  1. It is (ideally) a single idea that is processed down to its essence, presented in a concise and straight forward manner and enriched with knowledge-based value (e.g., reliability, usefulness, etc.)
  2. It is also an act of communication. It is not only an idea, but it is also communication to your future self. So, how you craft your notes should be optimized as an act of communication.

The very guidelines on how to create a title, how and why you create tags, how to present the idea, why you should not only capture an idea or even worse, merely capture a quote, but process the idea and increase its value – everything can be seen as variations of the implications of this basic idea:

Your past, present, and future selves and their respective relationships

This is a slight variation of the basic model of the principal-agent-problem. Let’s put this model into action:

  1. Is your past self someone you would hire with great confidence if you need a thinking environment that helps you to solve problems or be creative? For many people, the answer sadly is “no”. Part of my job, both as a life coach and as a teacher of the Zettelkasten Method, is to restore this confidence or even create it in the first place. This is hard work. So don’t feel disappointed if it takes time and energy.
  2. Are you, the present self, diligent in creating value for your future self, or do you delegate the work to your future self? This is the consequence of “just in time”-practices. Just put yourself in the shoes of your future self: What is the ideal future? A future in which you have to create value because the time arrived? Or would you rather find yourself in a future in which the value is already created?

The above model allows you to see the deeper layer beyond the mere workflow and technical advice.

Surely, the methodological soundness of what you do is important. But the spirit in which you act is also very critical. If you engage with your Zettelkasten, with little care for your future self, chances are that you create incomplete or misleading titles because you lack the motivation to put in the work. This is rational regarding the specific situation: If your future self is not part of the calculus, then you are left with your past self and your present self. If you feel disappointed or even betrayed by your future self, you have a higher tendency to act in purely in your own self-interest. The problem that we encounter: If we act in our self-interest now, the future will arrive, now turning sour self-interest on you. You are now the future self, and you turn into the treacherous past self that you resent.

So, what’s the verdict, then? Whatever you do, do it as an act of service to your future self.

Technically, the moment you, the present self, come into being, you die and become the past. Truly process for your future self and instead of asking how to save time and energy now, focus on creating value that you want to be created in the future.

Every principle, method, and technique should be based on this mission. This is one of the guiding principles for me, while working on the Zettelkasten Method and with my Zettelkasten myself.

Live long and prosper,
Sascha