Beginners Guide to Building a Second Brain
Beginners Guide to Building a Second Brain – Introduction
One of the effects of living with electric information is that we live habitually in a state of information overload. There’s always more than you can cope with.
While Wikipedia, eBooks and the wider internet are all great for getting information at the tip of our fingers, they also lead us to suffer from information overload. While we consume more information than ever, that doesn’t mean we can retain more. We read or skim information all day long. If we are vaguely organised, we might take notes in a random word document or on our phone, but we are rarely able to find the information again when needed. Let alone recount what we actually read or when.
How often have you struggled to recall even one useful takeaway from a book or article you read?
How much time have you wasted looking for a document or file you were sure you saved?
If your first thought was, “This happened to me today!” then you’re not alone.
The sheer amount of information flooding our brains every day is overwhelming.
Tiago Forte has identified that in the 21st Century, people suffer from information overload, but he also recognises that knowledge is vital to navigating modern life:
Yet, information is the fundamental building block of everything we do.
….
Your professional success and quality of life directly depend on your ability to manage the information around you
As we all know, however hard we try, we cannot remember everything we consumed, and we shouldn’t either. Productivity guru David Allen once said: “Your mind is for having ideas, not holding them.”
The above has led Tiago Forte to develop a system he calls the Second Brain, which outlines how to store information for easy retrieval when needed.
Read on to learn more about the Second Brain, how to implement it, and its creator Tiago Forte.
What is the second brain?
In a nutshell, Tiago Forte’s Second Brain is a note-taking system that enables you to retrieve any information within seconds. It supports and encourages you to store information, thoughts, and learning outcomes without relying on your physical brain. Hence the name second Brain.
With increased information coming at us from all sides, it is important that we build a reliable system that allows for quick retrieval of the right information. According to a tweet from Jan Karol Szymanski, the average US employee spends 76 hours per year looking for misplaced notes, items, or files.
CODE
Let’s delve a bit deeper into the Second Brain. Your Second Brain is not an app or a specific tool but rather a system consisting of four basic steps called CODE – Collect, Organise, Distil and Express.
Collect everything that is important to you, such as articles, grocery lists, quotes from books and more. Astar Studio calls it the ‘Curator of our ideas’
Organise your notes to retrieve them easily and act upon their main ideas. Tiago Forte uses a system called PARA, more on that in a minute.
Distil your information in a way that summarises the main points so you can quickly discover what the note is about now and in the future.
Express your information by sharing then with others rather than just storing them on your hard drive.
PARA
As mentioned earlier, collecting ideas is one thing. It’s easy in today’s digital world. Organising them, however, is another. Tiago uses a system called PARA, which stands for Projects, Areas, Resources and Archives.
In the PARA, system information is sorted into one of four categories:
Projects contain information or a series of tasks linked to a goal with a clear deadline. Examples of a project could be a university assignment, a vacation, a wedding etc. You get the drift.
Areas Luca Pallotta defines them as A sphere of activity with a standard to be maintained over time. I personally would define areas as ongoing projects or tasks that are repeated. For example, maintaining your social media accounts, cleaning your house etc.
Resources are topics or themes of ongoing interest. An example could be notes and articles related to football if you’re into that or recipes if cooking is your thing.
Archives kind of speak for themselves. Archives are notes from Projects, Areas and Resources that you no longer use but want to keep as references.
Forte Labs blog sums up the Second Brain methodology as follows:
“Building A Second Brain is a methodology for saving and systematically reminding us of the ideas, inspirations, insights, and connections we’ve gained through our experience. It expands our memory and our intellect using the modern tools of technology and networks.”
Who is Tiago Forte, creator of Building a Second Brain and Founder at Forte Labs?
Tiago Forte, while a business studies student at San Diego State University – California State University, developed a serious chronic illness. In his search for a way to manage his severe pain and memory loss, Tiago developed the Second Brain. For over ten years, he would research and experiment with new ways of organising his digital life.
After university, a couple of corporate jobs and a stint volunteering in Ukraine, Tiago Forte founded Forte Labs in 2013, where he coaches thousands of people yearly on how to use the second brain. He is also a popular speaker and writes on all things productivity.
How do I Build a Second Brain?
On the Sloww blog, Kyle Kowalski tells us to think of the Second Brain ‘as the world’s best personal assistant.’ as she continues: ‘It is perfectly reliable and totally consistent.’
As said elsewhere, the Second Brain is not a tool or an app but a methodology. So, to implement it, we need to find our tools. While the Second Brain could be done on paper in a traditional notebook, if you store a lot of information, including links to articles or quotes from texts, it might be better to have a digital notes app. There are many on the market, and it is beyond the scope of the beginner’s guide to going into depth on any of them. The most popular ones are Microsoft OneNote, Evernote, Google Keep and Notion. Choose an app that suits your needs and learn how to use it. When choosing one, look into syncing abilities, privacy, tagging capabilities and what platform it runs on.
Once you have found an app and set up your four areas – Projects, Areas, Resources and Archives. Capture important information throughout the day. Daily or weekly, review your captured notes and process them into the relevant folders. Make sure to edit them, so they make sense to your future self. Delete anything you no longer need.
After capturing and sorting your notes, decide whether you could do anything with them. Would they make an article or a talk?
Is Building a second brain right for me?
While anyone can implement a Second Brain, it is best suited for knowledge workers or students who need access to vast information. The second brain is for those with loads of ideas that they forget and waste too much time looking for files on their devices or in the cloud.
BASB is for productivity masters as well as chronic procrastinators. It’s a resource for content creators, writers, students, and academics. BASB is for everybody who’s either a self-professed or a designated knowledge worker and can’t keep up with the information overload.
The above reasons for having a second brain could also apply to any other personal knowledge management system, such as the Zettelkasten. This might appear controversial as a lot of people rave about the Second Brain, but I believe a lot of what Tiago Forte wants us to implement in the Second Brain can be found in other personal management systems.
Professor Paul A. Dorsey, as stated on Taskade defines seven fundamental stages of Personal Knowledge Management Systems as follows:
- Retrieving information
- Evaluating/assessing information
- Organizing information
- Analyzing information
- Presenting information
- Securing information
- Collaborating around information
The Second Brain does all of the above.
I believe you should do a bit more research and decide whether you A need a Personal Knowledge Management System in the first place and B whether The Second Brain is your best option.
Further links to Building a Second Brain
https://www.buildingasecondbrain.com/
https://www.buildingasecondbrain.com/book
https://www.youtube.com/@TiagoForte
If you like to learn more about The Second Brain or Personal Knowledge Management Systems, please get in touch.
trabantbettina
Bettina Anna Trabant, Founder of Life Organised, your professional organising and decluttering service in East London. Eco-conscious minimalist and avid tea drinker,