Fuelling My Top 2% Podcast With 15 Years of Atomic Note-Taking

• Jan 27th, 2026
• by Sascha

Dear Zettlers,

Currently, I am building a podcast called “Das gute Leben in der Moderne” (“How to Live a Good Life in Modern Times”). When I hit a mere 9 episodes, I got mail (2026-01-13) from podstatus.com that I hit the following rankings on Apple Podcasts:

• Position 28 in the category Self-Improvement (Switzerland)
• Position 30 in the category Self-Improvement (Germany)

In percentiles, this means that my podcast is ranked like this:

(Based on the assumption that in German Self-Improvement there are ~1400 active shows, in Switzerland there are ~450 active shows)

The retention rate is valued at “strong,” and the backlog is also considered very active, indicating that episode quality is high and people will seek out older episodes and/or older episodes are still considered to be relevant and worthy of being shown by the algorithm.

As I am a little addicted to statistics, I have to continuously correct my predictions upwards. This means that I entered an exponential growth phase. And I don’t even have a single social media profile.

What does this have to do with the Zettelkasten Method?

The connection is about using the Zettelkasten Method for content creation. A lot of the episodes I am producing are solo, ca. 1-hour episodes. Here is an overview of the first eight episodes:

1. Is life an adventure? Direct answer to the question. What is an adventure? Is it a working framework for lifestyle design?
2. All about Zone 2 training. How it works, why it works, and how to implement it in your training schedule.
3. Ben Richter – What if Nietzsche raises children? On Nietzsche as a diagnostic tool for the modern phenomena.
4. Which training plan fits me? Types of training plans, their effects, and how they influence how life feels.
5. Lectures on the Hero’s Journey. Practical application of the hero’s journey by Joseph Campbell
6. Training the Heart. What is the stimulus for better heart health, and how to apply it with various training intensities and modalities?
7. Elias Gudwis – How to Engage in Philosophy, so it matters for life. How to make philosophy more than mental masturbation.
8. Systematic Meditation Without BS. My own biography regarding meditation, how to think practically about meditation, and how to work with meditation as a tool.

Each episode takes quite a bit of preparation because they are deep dives into the topic. The role of the Zettelkasten in this preparation is straightforward:

I just pull content from my Zettelkasten. For most episodes, I can create the outline (I like Bike for outlining) in a pretty short time because I draw on over 15 years of dedicated Zettelkasten work. The episode on training the heart, for example, is me summarising and presenting work spanning more than 15 years of my research for my job as a trainer. Since I have done much of this research using my Zettelkasten Method, the results are readily available. One definition of a good note I am using is that it is the result of an accomplished task. It is finished work that you can use, instead of an implicit task that you have yet to do. I don’t collect material that I have to use to create texts (or podcast episodes). I create readily available material that I have just put into a format suitable for communication.

Luhmann once wrote:

Without writing, you cannot think; at least not in a sophisticated and scientific way. If you have to write anyway, it is pragmatic to exploit this activity by creating a system of notes that can act as a competent communication partner. Communications with Zettelkastens

If you can’t pull material from your Zettelkasten with minimal work needed to create, you didn’t perform the necessary writing to think, so your Zettelkasten is a store of value that reflects your past efforts. Either you didn’t put in the thinking work, or you weren’t effective in storing it.

This is the reason why I put such a high emphasis on taking the task to create good individual notes, the principle of atomicity, and making sure that everything that you do is adding to the knowledge value in your Zettelkasten, but also in your overall workflow.

My past self is now serving me, or more precisely: an army worth of 15 years of past selves is now working for me.

I briefly considered titling this text “The Zettelkasten Method explains why House MD is so witty (Clickbait).” Gregory House is witty because each line he delivers represents hours of work by a dozen writers, filtered through rehearsals, revisions, performances, direction, logistics, and coordination. He is not the source of the wit but its focal point. Gregory House is the prism through which the intellectual light of an army is concentrated.

The same could be said of me now. I am not the sole creator of this podcast’s content, but I am the prism through which 15 years of past selves are concentrated.

To add to that, I don’t need to look into my Zettelkasten very often, because the way I build my notes involves a deep level of processing. I take notes in a way that allows me to memorize their content. That means that I can spend more time working on the episode outline without switching my attention between my Zettelkasten and the outline. This means less fragmentation, more focus, and ultimately higher productivity with less mental strain.

What’s the verdict then? The flavor of the Zettelkasten Method presented on zettelkasten.de is carefully modernised and upgraded by respecting the mechanics of learning, extensive research on the nature of knowledge, and actually applying the Zettelkasten Method for 1.5 decades (sometimes manically), and seeing many Zettelkastens in action.

The current criticism of the Zettelkasten is that it seems to be yet another gimmicky method, interchangeable with others, as you see fit. This is not the case. It is based on general principles that apply to knowledge work. It brings together timeless, universal principles, ensuring each is respected and implemented.

There is one wish that all Zettelkasten owners have in common:

I wish I had started my Zettelkasten sooner.

Start your Zettelkasten now, even if you feel stuck in theory.

Live long and prosper
Sascha