Zettelkasten with Obsidian: Researching a new topic - Where do you put your new permanent notes?

Starting a brand-new topic inside a Zettelkasten system doesn’t have to begin from scratch. The core move is to write a well-formed research question first, then anchor every early finding—especially literature notes—directly inside that question note. That approach turns “where do these new notes go?” into a clear workflow: the question becomes the organizing container until enough permanent notes accumulate to support linking and expansion.

The process begins with articulating the research question. Because answers only help if the question is specific, the workflow includes experimenting with multiple versions of the question until it feels right. Once the question is stable, it’s placed into the system using the existing structure: the creator checks the overview notes to see where the question fits. If a suitable location exists, the question is added there; if not, it’s stored under “12 favorite problems,” which acts as a fallback entry point for new lines of inquiry.

A question note is then used as a working research hub. In the example, the question is: “What basic rules should I follow when choosing my color palette for note taking and sketching in general?” The question note contains two key areas: a section for permanent notes and a section for research. As research begins, the workflow pulls from both personal notes and external sources—books, blogs, YouTube, and podcasts. When something useful appears, it becomes a literature note, and each literature note includes a succinct summary.

Those summaries are embedded directly into the question note. The benefit is practical: when the topic is unfamiliar, the question note provides a single-page overview of competing findings, making it easier to understand the landscape before committing to permanent notes. The system also keeps sources organized in a dedicated “sources” area, with subfolders for books, blogs, YouTube, tweets, and other learning materials. Literature notes are stored in their designated source locations, while their summary snippets are reused inside the question note for fast scanning.

After enough literature notes and summaries are collected to articulate the topic, the workflow shifts to permanent notes. In the color-theory example, four permanent notes are created, including one about using the red-yellow-blue wheel instead of the RGB wheel because color theory aligns with the former. Permanent notes are placed under the question note in a horizontal hierarchy. That “flat” structure is intentionally maintained until there are roughly 10–20 permanent notes, since meaningful links between ideas require a broader understanding of the topic first.

Once that threshold is reached, the workflow becomes routine: new insights from reading, watching, or noticing something in the world get recorded in the right place automatically—inside the active question note—reducing friction when extending the Zettelkasten over time. The overall message is that new topics should start with a question container and embedded summaries, not with immediate linking or guesswork about where notes belong.