In this post I want to share my second quarterly review of my vault, taken at the start of the third quarter of this year. You can read my post on the review for the first quarter of 2026 here.
Quarter on quarter movement
This was new for this quarter due to having some data to compare from the first quarterly analysis, which I had carried out in April. Part of the comparison was this table.
| Metric | Q2 Baseline (Apr) | Q3 Snapshot (Jul) | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Permanent notes (slip-box) | 2,023 | 2,064 | +41 |
| Literature notes | 578 | 595 | +17 |
| Processing backlog | 1,744 | 1,693 | −51 (first shrinkage) |
| Readwise items | 367 | 580 | +213 |
| Unsynthesised literature notes | ~247 | ~249 | Static |
| Published pieces (quarter) | — | 17 | Blog + newsletter, on schedule |
| Daily journal consistency | 100% | 100% (185/185 days) | Maintained |
It also seems that 136 slip-box notes had been updated, which is 6.6% of my permanent notes. That seems to be a pretty good return to me given the limited time I have to work on my notes.
It then identified what the agent at the time considered to be knowledge gaps: these were backlinks that had been linked to on many occasions, but a note for that link hadn’t yet been created. A lot of these are ideas that I already knew something about, so I have created most of those notes now.
| Missing Concept | Refs | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Universe | 11 | Cosmology/philosophy cluster keeps reaching for it |
| Society | 11 | Central to the intersubjective reality series Sean has queued |
| EU (European Union) | 11 | Recurring in technology-regulation contexts |
| OpenAI | 9 | Referenced constantly; no entity note exists |
| Brand | 9 | Content/marketing cluster |
| USA | 8 | Entity note gap |
| Tiago Forte | 8 | PKM thinker referenced but never captured |
| Search engine | 8 | Technology cluster |
| Context | 8 | Abstract concept stub |
| Content | 8 | Abstract concept stub |
| Cognitive | 8 | Likely partial-name links (Cognitive X notes exist) |
| Artificial Intelligence models | 8 | Distinct from the main AI note |
| MJ DeMarco / Black box / Actions / British government | 7 each | Mixed entity and concept gaps |
Many others who keep a Zettelkasten will argue that every permanent note should link to at least one other permanent note, and while I think this is the case in a perfect world, we don’t always manage it. Especially in the early days of keeping a Zettelkasten, you don’t always have one to link to. For me it is better to create the note and look to link to these orphan notes at some point in the future.
I currently have 56 orphaned notes out of 2,064 permanent notes, that is a stat I can live with. It then suggested some isolated notes I should look at.
Recommended content consumption list
This section ties into a blog post I had recently published about mapping the border of your knowledge, as the AI suggests a number of things I might want to research, explore or read further which match at least one of the following aims:
- Fill critical gaps which Claude has identified in my vault and suggestions on how I could look to fill these gaps in my knowledge.
- Deepen existing knowledge. Suggestions on how I could deepen my knowledge on specific things I already know.
- Exploring emerging themes. These were the themes that I appeared to be exploring in the last quarter with suggestions on how I could continue my explorations if I want to.
- Help my preparations for future content. Suggestions on what I could learn to improve my planned content.
System health recommendations
The final section relates to suggestions on how I can maintain or improve the health of my vault.
Critical suggestions
These are the suggestions Claude thought I should look to implement this quarter. Both suggestions relate to the processing of notes imported into my Obsidian vault from Readwise.
The first suggestion is to add a next 10 list to those I’m planning to synthesise, which is an intriguing idea worth exploring.
Its second suggestion has been on my to-do list for a while, but I had to prioritise other things first: the 1,693 fleeting notes that I had started to process using an old system, which I need to move into the new system, probably as a library entry by default.
Important
The important section appears to be around the misspelling of tags. While it will improve the quality of my vault, it doesn’t have to be done right now.
Nice to haves
These are improvements that Claude thinks could make a slight improvement to the quality of the vault, but aren’t a required change. One of the suggestions was to look at and connect the orphaned notes in my vault.
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