Building a second brain

“One of my favorite books of the year. It completely reshaped how I think about information and how and why I take notes.” —Daniel Pink, bestselling author of Drive A revolutionary approach to enhancing productivity, creating flow, and vastly increasing your ability to capture, remember, and benefit from the unprecedented amount of information all around us. For the first time in history, we have instantaneous access to the world’s knowledge. There has never been a better time to learn, to contribute, and to improve ourselves. Yet, rather than feeling empowered, we are often left feeling overwhelmed by this constant influx of information. The very knowledge that was supposed to set us free has instead led to the paralyzing stress of believing we’ll never know or remember enough. Now, this eye-opening and accessible guide shows how you can easily create your own personal system for knowledge management, otherwise known as a Second Brain. As a trusted and organized digital repository of your most valued ideas, notes, and creative work synced across all your devices and platforms, a Second Brain gives you the confidence to tackle your most important projects and ambitious goals. Discover the full potential of your ideas and translate what you know into more powerful, more meaningful improvements in your work and life by Building a Second Brain. Excerpt Chapter 1: Where It All Started Chapter 1 Where It All Started Your mind is for having ideas, not holding them. —David Allen,...

How do you establish the habits of personal knowledge management in your life? Here are twelve practical steps you can take right now to get your Second Brain started: 1. Decide what you want to capture Think about your Second Brain as an intimate commonplace book or journal. What do you most want to capture, learn, explore, or share? Identify two to three kinds of content you already value to get started with. For an extended intro to capturing and taking digital notes, check out this workshop covering how to capture and save the best information you consume each week. 2. Choose your notes app If you don’t use a digital notes app, get started with one now. But I know that choosing your notes app can feel overwhelming and paralyzing. My recommendation is to choose an app based on your notetaking style since notetaking is a highly personal process based on intuition and feeling. In this video , I introduce you to 4 notetaking styles and the best apps for each. 3. Choose a capture tool I recommend starting with a read later app such as Instapaper or Pocket to begin saving any article or other piece of online content you’re interested in for later consumption. Believe me, this one step will change the way you think about consuming content forever. 4. Get set up with PARA Set up the four folders of PARA (Projects; Areas; Resources; Archives) and, with a focus on actionability, create a dedicated folder (or tag) for each of your currently active projects. Focus on capturing not...

If you want to build your second brain in Obsidian then this is the guide you’ve been waiting for. In fact, I’m going to share with you exactly how to get started so that you can walk away from this article with actionable steps and duplicate your brain. So let’s get started. What’s a second brain, and why should you build one? The idea of a second brain is not new. In fact, one of the firsts who talked about second brains was Vannevar Bush. But the idea of building a digital version of your brain comes from Tiago Forte. And when I asked him on my podcast what a second brain is, he answered that it’s nothing else than This is an interesting idea, especially if you’re an information junkie (like me a few years ago).You probably love to find new ideas and are always on the verge of learning and discovering new things. But you also might feel frustrated when you look back at all the notes you’ve taken without getting anything significant out of it. This is exactly the type of people who should build their second brain in the first place. Benefits of a second brain There are multiple benefits of building a second brain. Here are some of them. • Think better • Retrieve information faster • Remembering what you read • Be able to create content faster • Make connections between ideas • … Should you build a second brain or a zettelkasten in Obsidian? Semantics matter. If you’ve been researching online about second brains, you probably came across another barbarian word called the ...

Have you noticed that our digital lives are expanding exponentially? ‍ Your profession and pursuits require you to consume and understand more information than ever… And it’s only going to get more demanding. Building a Second Brain is the answer to information overload and overwhelm. It will help you clear the mental clutter so you can start doing your best work with more clarity, purpose, and ease. Pick-Your-Notes-App Quiz & Checklist Choose the perfect notetaking app for your needs that complements your natural relationship with information instead of interfering with it. We’ll guide you through setting up your notetaking app with our step-by-step checklist so you’re up and running confidently in no time. Guided Implementation Steps Put what you learn into practice immediately using your notes app of choice while avoiding the biggest pitfalls. We’ll make sure that you make the right strategic decisions from the start. All you have to do is follow our blueprint to build a fully functional and reliable Second Brain. Meet Your Instructor Hi, I’m Tiago Forte AUTHOR & CREATOR OF BUILDING A SECOND BRAIN I’ve spent more than 10 years researching and personally experimenting with a new way of organizing our digital lives and improving our productivity. What started as a quest to deal with a chronic illness turned into a life-long mission to help you harness the full potential of your ideas and turn them into reality. • Find out why you need to build a personal notetaking system...

Is all the interesting information you’re consuming leading to meaningful results in your life … or is it going to waste? ‍ A Second Brain is already helping thousands of people around the world save their best ideas, organize their knowledge, and lead a more fulfilling life with more ease & less stress. Join them now! 4 live cohorts per year Work alongside Tiago on a personal or work project, taking it through the CODE system from start to finish. By the end of the 3-week cohort, you’ll have a deliverable you are proud of. Going through the full process together will allow you to apply it to any other project again and again. 4 interactive live sessions per cohort (with options for all time zones) Join Tiago for step-by-step walkthroughs, live exercises, and in-depth Q&As to help you build and implement your Second Brain system. Live captions, transcripts, and recordings are available to make these sessions as accessible as possible for you. Personalized support from our Alumni Moderators Our most experienced Second Brainers will help you implement your Second Brain using a wide variety of notetaking apps and tools. They’re all successful graduates who have tested their Second Brains in the real world and are returning to help our new members succeed. Weekly live events & monthly Q&As with Tiago Of course, we’ll support you on your Second Brain journey in between cohorts as well. Hop on a monthly live call with Tiago to discover real-life examples of how others are using ...

Key points • The "second brain" is a home for digital information one has collected and intends to use for future digital creation. • The "second brain" consists of a method of organization as well as a way to distill its contents, such as via note-taking. • The concept of the "second brain" was developed by Tiago Forte of Forte Labs. The concept of the second brain was developed by Tiago Forte of Forte Labs. A guru of digital organization, he began his journey as a youngster, enamored with organizing his LEGOs. Years later, Forte found he needed a methodology allowing him to organize the vast amount of information he’d been collecting digitally, first around the topic of his physical health, and later as a master of digital creation, and a teacher of his methods. The second brain is the lab in which you become a creator—using the building blocks you’ve downloaded on your computer, smartphone, iPad, or other digital devices. The second brain is not just a library or storehouse of information. Instead, its purpose is to help you use the information you collect to create something new that you will share with others. Others might be your family and friends, or it might be the whole world. All those pictures and stories you’ve gathered from the internet that you’ve read or think you’ll read in the future, need a home where you can find them when you need them. Your second brain is that home for everything you believe you might need when you’re writing or making something new ...