# Evergreen Notes Evergreen notes are a note-taking concept that emphasizes creating notes that evolve and accumulate value over time, transforming ideas into manipulatable objects for building personal knowledge. They differ from transient notes by being carefully crafted to remain relevant and valuable in the long term. ## Key Principles 1. **Atomic** - Each note should capture one focused concept and be written concisely 2. **Concept-oriented** - Written about ideas rather than sources, dates, or projects 3. **Densely linked** - Connected to other notes to form a knowledge network 4. **Written in your own words** - Forces deeper understanding and unique perspectives 5. **Ever-evolving** - Notes grow and improve over time as understanding deepens ## Writing Effective Evergreen Notes - Use clear, declarative titles that can serve as "APIs" for your knowledge - Focus on fundamental truths and concepts rather than raw information - Create links to related notes based on conceptual relationships - Revisit and refine notes regularly as your understanding grows - Write for yourself by default, disregarding audience ## Benefits - Builds a personal knowledge base that compounds over time - Promotes deeper understanding through articulation - Facilitates unexpected connections and insights - Enables idea manipulation and recombination - Supports long-term learning and knowledge development ## Common Pitfalls - Creating overly complex or broad notes that aren't atomic - Focusing too much on collecting information rather than understanding - Not revisiting or refining notes over time - Insufficient linking between related concepts - Using rigid hierarchical structures instead of natural conceptual relationships ## Related Concepts - [[Digital Zettelkasten|Zettelkasten Method]] - [[Atomic Notes]] - [[Progressive Summarization]] - [[Note-taking Methods]]