Build Your Second Brain

February 8, 2024

Photo by matthew Feeney on Unsplash

Background

If you’re some one who seeking knowledge on a regular basis but you’re not able to make value out then the following article might benefit you. The information is a summary of an excellent book called “Building a Second Brain: A Proven Method to Organise Your Digital Life and Unlock Your Creative Potential” by Tiago Forte.

Problem

• Information Overload leads to taxing of mental resources, leaving us anxious
• Unable to access the information when it is most needed
• Most information might not have any immediate use

How the Human Brain Works

• The way the human brain stores information is through connections making it unique for each one.
• This mandates each one cultivates their knowledge themselves to make it more effective
• These unique connections lead to a particular interpretation which leads to our unique perspectives.
• Understanding this helps us to promote and defend our perspective and even correct it if there are shortcomings
• Also it’s well known that your brain can only hold 4–5 items in its working memory at a time.
• We also tend to place more value on our recent ideas even if they are not the best ones also known as recency bias.
• The information you write down in your words will be remembered better
• It is also known that writing helps to reduce stress and improves the immune system.
• It has been noticed when the ceilings are low people think more abstractly and when the ceilings are low they think concretely.

Need to address

• This falls under the Domain of Personal Knowledge Management or Zettelkasten dealing with how information is captured, stored, and retrieved
• Just as we exercise to make our muscles better we need to also use tools to make our knowledge better
• The best way to capture notes and your thoughts is through writing.
• What writing does is, it helps to offload the brain and put it externally on a paper or a digital medium making it easier or solve.
• This knowledge is now visual entities that can be observed, rearranged, edited, and combined.
• They also help you to see the connections you have missed out.
• Using a single tool systematically and intentionally is essential to effective knowledge management.

Points to keep in mind

• Don’t save sensitive information in a way that can be easily accessed by others
• Avoid saving to files that require specialized software
• Avoid saving large files. The key is not saving but to use the knowledge.
• Don’t mix your knowledge with that which you build with others through collaboration.
• Keep your notes private just like your brain
• Your system does not need to be perfect it only needs to work
• It’s not about the tool/app it is about your mindset

Second Brain Method

CODE — Capture, Organize, Distill, Express

Capture what resonates

• We cannot keep consuming every bit of information
• We need to start intentionally capturing the worthy information
  - Mostly they are ideas that resonate with you or inspire you
  - it’s useful such as references
  - it’s personal
  - it’s surprising in a way it challenges your existing beliefs
• Maintain a list of open questions like Feynman. Keep capturing the information for answering them.

Organize for accountability

• We need to organize the knowledge based on their need and not the topic.
• The PARA (Projects, Areas, Resources, and Archives) System for organizing information

Projects

• Short-term efforts in your work or life that you’re working on now.
• It can be similar to what is known as the Hollywood Model — pulling teams together to focus on a single project and ensuring individuals working on the project have (or get) the required expertise to ramp up quickly. When the project ends, the employees go back to their everyday roles.
• Projects can be anything from
  - At work: Create slide deck for conference; Develop project schedule Plan recruitment drive.
  - Personal projects: Finish new language course; Plan vacation;
  - Side projects: Publish blog post; Launch crowdfunding campaign;

Areas

• Areas are something that don’t have a definite start or end. They can be something you are committed to over time.
• Similar to health, relationships, work, etc. Losing 10 pounds is a project but Health is the Area.
• They have a standard that you try to uphold

Resources

• These are simply topics you’re interested in but do not fit under a project or area.
• These can be your interest in hobbies, particular subjects where you gather knowledge on

Archives

• These can be projects that are put on hold, completed, or even canceled
• These can also be areas that you’re no longer committed to like an old job
• These are also resources like hobbies that you’re no longer interested in gathering knowledge of.

Each piece of information must fit into any of these 4 categories based on the order of importance

1. In which project will this be most useful?
2. If none: In which area will this be most useful?
3. If none: Which resource does this belong to?
4. If none: Place in archives.

One typical example would be.

1. Consider that you are currently taking a class on coaching which is under projects.
2. Then you become a manager where you no longer coach directly but have direct reports who you coach. This becomes an area.
3. Then you left the company or job role but are still interested in knowing more about coaching. Now the folder is moved under resources
4. At some point you might lose interest in Coaching altogether and you move the folder under the archives
5. If in the future you decide to start a side business as a coach then you move the folder under projects again

This is based on the idea that if something is out of sight then it’s out of mind. Allowing you to focus on the things of higher priority.

Retrieval

Those four retrieval methods are:

1. Search
2. Browsing
3. Tags
4. Serendipity

Distill to find the essence

• Organizing the information leads to new patterns to emerge
• Not every word is important. Try to keep only the essence.
• Think about how it will help your future self
• Make use of the progressive summarization technique.
  1. Capturing — These are the broad experts you take from an article or book. The entire article though interesting might not be required. Imagine you have to go through the entire article each time. Save parts of the article along with the link to refer back if required.
  2. Boldening — The phases within these excerpts
  3. Highlight/Underline passages — Within these bolded lines you can further choose the distill the essence
  4. Executive summary — This is the final pass with all unnecessary/non-important words/passages removed
• Each layer of highlighting should have more than 10–20% of the previous layer

Express — Show your work

• Knowledge should either be put to use or shared with others. If not it’s a waste.
• Shift your focus from being a consumer to being a creator.
• Refuse to wait until you have everything perfectly ready before you share what you know.
• Make use of the Intermediate Packets Method: The Power of Thinking Small
  - Distilled notes — Obtained from the PARA method
  - Outtakes — The material or ideas that didn’t make it into a past project but could be used in future ones.
  - Work-in-process — The documents, graphics, agendas, or plans you produced during past projects.
  - Final deliverables — Concrete pieces of work you’ve delivered as part of past projects, which could become components of something new.
  - Documents created by others — Knowledge assets created by people on your team, contractors or consultants, or even clients or customers, that you can reference and incorporate into your work
• The creative process is usually of divergence and convergence.
  - Divergence helps in knowing about all the options. Capture and Organize are part of the divergence
  - Convergence helps to eliminate unnecessary options, make tradeoffs, and decide the truly essential ones. Distill and express are part of the convergence
• The Archipelago of Ideas: Give Yourself Stepping-Stones
  - To make the process easier split your organizing process into two steps
  - First collect all the different ideas that you want to include in your outline
  - Second, arrange them and put them to make the flow logical and fit your unique perspective
  - This helps you start with an abundance of ideas rather than scarcity
• The Hemingway Bridge: Use Yesterday’s Momentum Today
  - Never end your writing session only unless you are clear about what part should come next.
  - This will help you to come back and immediately spring into action
• Connect the two methods: Building the bridge between the islands
  - Also make a note of the current status and the challenges you’re currently facing. Also, make a note of all the small details which you fear to be forgotten
  - Write down the next ideas/steps/intention that follows the current writing session
• Dial Down the Scope: Ship Something Small and Concrete
  - Start with the simplest version first rather than tackle the hardest ones
  - Focus on the value you can deliver in a fraction of the time
  - Eg. Instead of a Book you can start with a series of articles.

Sustained Productivity

• The Mise-en-Place Way to Sustainable Productivity
• Have a routine to ensure your second brain is always functional
• Each Habit creates boundaries — of time, space, and intention — around the states of mind that can either inhibit or promote your wellbeing

Project Checklist

• To prevent burnout it is better to move quickly and touch lightly. It’s best to take the path of least resistance and make progress in small steps.
• Move something to a project only those where you have already done most work say 80% ie. capture, organize, and distill is already over. this will help you complete it.
• Being organized is a habit — a repeated set of actions you take as you encounter, work with, and put information to use.

Project Kickoff

• Ensure you start and consistently finish your projects, making use of past work. The important thing at this stage is to remember that you’re only planning the tackle the project and not executing it.
• Capture your current thoughts on the project.
  - What do I already know about this project?
  - What don’t I know that I need to find out?
  - What is my goal or intention?
  - Who can I talk to who might provide insights?
  - What can I read or listen to for relevant ideas?
• Review folders (or tags) that might contain relevant notes.
• Search for related terms across all folders.
• Move (or tag) relevant notes to the project folder.
• Create an outline of collected notes and plan the project.

Project Completion

• Mark the project as completed in the project management app
• Review all the intermediate packets to the relevant folders under PARA
• In case you’re archiving put the current status in a file that you can refer back to in case you wish to return.
  - What are the last actions
  - Why the project was canceled or postponed
  - Who are the people involved
  - What are the lessons

Before and After Questions

• Answer premortem
  - Before : What you wanted to learn? , What are your uncertainty?
  - After : What you learned?, What did you do well or can be improved?
• Communicate with stakeholders
  - Before : Explain what the project is about
  - After : Notify the status and the outcomes
• Success Criteria
  - Before : What are the minimal goals you consider successful or stretch goals
• After : What was achieved and the ROI
• Make it official
  - Before : Make a Budget and timeline , Write goals and objectives, Ensure everyone is aligned and clear
  - After : Send the last emails/calls, Celebrate the success with all collaborators

Review Habit

• Make a batch process
• Weekly
  - Clear your email inbox.
  - Check your calendar.
  - Clear your computer desktop.
  - Clear your notes inbox.
  - Choose your tasks for the week.
• Monthly
  - Review and update your goals.
  - Review and update your project list.
  - Review your areas of responsibility.
  - Review someday/maybe task to resurface them and know if the time is appropriate
  - Reprioritize tasks.

Noticing Habits

• an idea you have in mind could potentially be valuable and capturing it instead of thinking
• a note could use a better title — and changing it so it’s easier for your future self to find it
• to move or link a note to another project or area where it will be more useful.
• to combine two or more Intermediate Packets into a new larger package
• Share an intermediate package

Finally

I hope you benefited from the summary as I did. Knowledge forms the basis for our growth. With the advent of machines and robots most of the human labor got replaced. With the advent of AI most of the knowledge workers are getting replaced. The ability to not just learn but to relearn is critical to keep in tabs with the dynamism of today.

Keep Learning :)

Check out the book from amazon : https://www.amazon.in/Building-Second-Brain-Organise-Potential-ebook/dp/B09MDNDYYF