Now, most people stop here, right? I've  got the question. I've got the evidence   I've got the conclusion. What more do I need?  A-ha. This is where you are going to outsmart   others. Because the next thing about smart  notes is that they are atomic. The size of your   notes and the ideas on them matter.
03:17
When other  people are organizing their notes in one giant   document, 2/ atomic smart notes whether digitally  or in notebook, you do something different. You   make your notes atomic. This is a classic example  of how tools actually shape and limit how you can   think. Think about it. If you use a giant word  doc, how do you think? You think vertically,   right? You think chronologically, you think A,  then B, then C.

he  way to get out of the illusion is to make sure   you're latching your new ideas onto existing ones.  And how do you do that? You can try the compass   of the Zettelkasten thinking. I learned this  one from my friend Fei. You take one idea in the   middle and you think in four different directions.  Compass of Zettelkasten Thinking North is:   Where does this idea come from? West is: What's  similar to this idea? East is: What competes   with this idea? And South is: Where can this  idea link to next? Let me give you an example   from Atomic Habits again. "You do not rise to the  level of your goals. You fall to the level of your  

" Let's use that as the main idea. Okay,  so let's go north. Where does this idea come from?   Well, James Clear says it comes from goal oriented  thinking that most of us do. But the problem   is that winners and losers have the same goals,  right? So what's different? It's the systems   they set that help them achieve those goals. Okay,  then let's go West.
05:46
What's similar to this idea of   don't focus on goals, focus on the system? Well,  systems thinking is exactly about this idea.   I've talked about it in detail here. But the  gist is that you want to troubleshoot a system   to make sure that you're reaching your  eventual goal. So just like how we manage   large organizations, we can apply similar  principles in our habit formations.
06:05
Okay,   then let's go east. What competes with this idea  of focus on systems, not goals? What's opposite?   What's missing? Well, we can

ay that goal setting  is important. Right. It gives us a direction to   go towards and then have the system that get you  there.
06:22
But if your goals are wrong and you are on   the wrong trajectory, then it doesn't matter how  good your system is, you're not going to get to   where you want to go. Goal setting has to happen  first, but then you need the systems. All right,   then, let's go south.