Building a second brain by Tiago Forte
Building a Second Brain is a book written by Tiago Forte, Founder of Forte Labs and a productivity expert recognized by CBNC and Ali Abdaal. Having sold over 100k copies of his book, his goal is to continuously help humans reach their creative potential.
A few days ago, I saw it on the first floor of my building under free books, among others, and I immediately grabbed it, among others.
The book starts with a personal anecdote. During his junior year of college, he began feeling a small pain in the back of his throat. He visited a few specialized doctors but didn’t feel like it was getting better. He started taking anti-seizure medications, which caused numbing sensations throughout his body and severe short-term memory loss.
He was only 24 year old back then. At twenty-four year old, he already felt a deterioration in his ability to express himself. And this is what sparked the creation of the Second Brain System.
Forte’s ideas were eventually featured in publications such as Harvard Business Review, The Atlantic, Fast Company, and Inc.
Here are some key points if you don’t feel like reading it:
> What is a second brain?
The purpose of having a second brain is to help you store information. Let’s be honest, internal bookmarks are not that reliable. “I’ll remember this!” often turns into “What was it again?”.
> How does a second brain work?
Instead of having your brain collect all of the information, you turn to an external system, not paper-based though, because that would kill the entire premise of being efficient. Think Apple Notes, Notion or Google Keep.
I’ve always turned to Apple Notes for keeping track of information because of its simple user-interface. I tried Notion a few times but never got into it.
> What is the PARA?
The PARA method a way to organize your thoughts and information into four buckets: projects, areas, resources and archive.
The idea of this method is to efficiently allocate your time and energy.
Projects: These are projects that you are currently working on that require multiple small steps to achieve.
Areas: These are aspects of your life that you want to improve. They could also be responsibilities, for example, responsibilities to yourself, to your family, and to your workplace.
Resources: These are things you need to refer to in order to accomplish your projects or improve in your areas. They could be habit formation, coffee, marketing assets - basically “tools” that you need.
Archive: These are anything that does not fall into the three categories above. They could be projects you’ve put on hold, or areas that are no longer relevant to you.
Takeaway
Tiago sees simple note taking as way to build blocks of knowledge. Writer’s block for example occurs because we don’t know where to start. But what if we wrote down bits of information every time it popped up in our head? Then it would just be puzzling these pieces of information together.
It’s the same in essay writing. You gather excerpts that you know are going to be important. You write a few notes for each - briefly explaining how do each link to the author’s theme? and then little do you know, you are only an introduction and a conclusion away from a complete essay.
it’s a very simple concept and I think that is the purpose of many self-help or productivity books: to remind us that lives can be simplified using very straightforward methods.
To be honest, this blog started because of Tiago’s book Building a Second Brain. So I guess it’s filled its purpose - to store information somewhere, and to build resources where I can refer in the future.
Thanks for reading and see you next time!
Citations:
Patterson, R. (2022, April 30). How to build and use A “second brain” in college. College Info Geek. https://collegeinfogeek.com/second-brain/