Literature Notes: Ugly, incomplete notes you take as you are reading.
Permanent Notes. Top-level topics or groups of notes that help you establish thoughts and arguments.
Sequence Notes. Atomic notes with one idea each that sit inside your top level permanent notes.

Think of literature notes like the first draft of a note. It doesn’t have to be beautiful, just capture your thought and move on.

Subconsciously after you’ve created the note your brain is going to work thinking about that note and connecting it to what you already know. That doesn’t happen if you are just reading and highlighting.

My general rule of thumb for the Zettelkasten is don’t overthink it. It’s a living system. You might be going over your notes later and realise that two permanent notes are similar and you’ll merge them together. You might re-write a note title. Think of your system as a living ecosystem that can grow and change over time.

One note = one thought. And this is why sequence notes sit underneath permanent notes. They add thoughts and ideas to the original permanent note.

Your Zettelkasten can be a powerful system for thinking and generating new ideas. I consider it one of the secrets to my success. But not necessarily because of the structure of the notes, or the interconnectedness of the system. It’s because of the practices I employ every day that make the system work.

Build your system, then support it with good practices.