The goal of an Atomic Note is to fully contain a single idea. But, if a note is long enough you have to scroll to see everything, then you can never see the whole idea at once. If I can’t see it, it doesn’t exist
The exact length to target will depend on the form:
- Physical Zettelkastens use 3x5 index cards.
- Published books generally contain 250-300 words per page, although this will decrease on pages with titles and images.
- Atomic Code should be less than 20 lines long.
This is a guideline, not a hard rule. Sometimes one idea requires a thousand words; So be it. Atomic means indivisible, not small. A Uranium atom is much bigger than a hydrogen atom.
Still, the longer it gets, the more likely it is to do multiple things and contain multiple ideas. If the length exceeds this heuristic, consider Splitting It Out.