# Notes that can never be atomic

Published: 2026-07-22
Tags: obsidian

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Every guide to atomic notes eventually meets the same objection: most of what I write cannot be atomic. A meeting note is a list of actions and a transcript of a specific day. It's an event. A project plan is a spec file that contains decisions and at times, serialized tasks, glued together. I do think if a system demands everything become atomic, that system quickly becomes useless.

In [Sönke Ahrens'](https://www.soenkeahrens.de/en/takesmartnotes) description of the Zettelkasten workflow, permanent atomic notes are the output of a pipeline, not the only format allowed to exist. The original system never demanded that.

Fleeting notes capture and source-bound notes feed the pipeline and remain themselves. They are only as useful till I reach the output. This is why the _kind_ of note file should live inside different folders. They have different life cycles.