Usually I don’t read methodology books, because well.. they are boring (Sorry!). One day a youtuber I’m following introduced a book about how to face and solve information overwhelm, which was the exact problem I was trying to deal with. Our brains are handling tons of information every day — from the news you watch in the morning, the book you read on a overcrowded tube, meetings, small talks, technical documents, articles (funny or serious) shared by others … to name a few. After I watched Ali Adbaal’s introduction video, I felt the book might actually provide something I was looking for, so I ordered a Kindle version and dived in right away.
What is a second brain? Why do we need it?
According to the author Tiago Forte,
This digital commonplace book is what I call a Second Brain. Think of it as the combination of a study notebook, a personal journal, and a sketchbook for new ideas. It is a multipurpose tool that can adapt to your changing needs over time. In school or courses you take, it can be used to take notes for studying. At work, it can help you organize your projects. At home, it can help you manage your household. — Building a Second Brain, page 21
In short, the second brain we are talking about here is a knowledge management system that organises the information pieces in a way you can fetch what you need quickly.
How to build a second brain?
Yes yes.. all of the above sounds good, but how can I build a second brain exactly?
There are 2 main concepts introduced in this book — CODE and PARA.
CODE = Code, Organise, Distill, Express
CODE is a flow of how you can digest any information to your system.
Capture means to keep the things that resonate. Examples are your own thoughts, highlights from a book, quotes, meeting notes etc.
Every time you take a note, ask yourself, “How can I make this as useful as possible for my future self?” That question will lead you to annotate the words and phrases that explain why you saved a note, what you were thinking, and what exactly caught your attention. — page 47
Organise means to save for actionability. You should organise your notes by “where you will potentially use this information”.
Distill is to keep only the essence of your notes. Someone calls it “progressive summarisation”. You can do whatever you like to extract core ideas of your notes. Here’s one approach introduced by the author: use highlights — bold some important sentences in an article, highlight the bold sentences further when you review it, then add a executive summary on top of the page if you keep visiting your note. Also you should consider:
- You are making briefs for your future self. Keep the summary as simple as possible but also keep the original links so you can be sure that your future self can pick up the concept quickly yet have enough resources for reference
- The goal of organizing one’s knowledge is to move your goals forward, not get a PhD in note taking. Knowledge is best applied through execution, which means whatever doesn’t help you make progress on your projects is probably detracting from them.
Express your work. Sharing your thoughts with other people is beneficial to both sides, you can establish your personal brand by knowledge sharing, use some constructive feedback to shape the idea and others can learn from you. It is recommended to show your work in intermediate packets (small units, like a paragraph instead of a full article) in the early stage. Keep it small so people can review it quickly and you are more likely to receive their feedback; gathering feedback as soon as possible so you have more time to adjust the trajectory. About choosing a channel to show your work, it really depends on you. Be it blog posts, podcast, youtube videos or anything else, as long as you can express your ideas to the public. Be open to judgement and correction, as that’s how you can learn from others.
Cunningham’s law, which states that “the best way to get the right answer on the internet is not to ask a question; it’s to post the wrong answer.” — Riccomini, Chris; Ryaboy, Dmitriy. The Missing README (p. 4). No Starch Press. Kindle Edition.
We use the CODE flow to store information in PARA.
PARA = Project, Area, Resource, Archive
PARA are the only 4 places you should keep your information.
- Project — The things you are working on currently. It could be investment of this year, house renovation or a topic you want to learn. A project should have a clear goal, start date and end date. Also it might be useful to write down how to measure success of this project when you start it.
- Area — The things you own or want to manage, like family relationship, personal finance and career progression. There’s no end goal or timeline of an area. Each project should belong to one area.
- Resource — Where you keep the information, such as links to online articles, you feel useful in the future. Adding tags to each resources will help the future you find the targets more efficiently.
- Archive — After a project is completed, you should move it to the archive folder. You can pull part of it out any time to enrich your current projects.
Here’s my real-life diagram to show how I implement CODE and PARA:
Some tools I use:
- raindrop.io — A browser plugin to allow you highlight anything on a website, manage bookmarks, add your own notes (need to upgrade to pro account with a reasonable price).
- Kindle — I bought my Kindle on a Black Friday years ago. It’s so convenient to look up vocabulary and highlight interesting sentences. Something I would definitely recommend you to purchase as long as you read books.
- Apple Notes — I share notes between my work and personal accounts, which helps me organise ideas in no time.
- Excalidraw — Digital whiteboard that helps you draw awesome diagrams
You might find other tools that are more suitable for you, just remember:
No single platform can do everything. The intention here is not to use a single software program, but to use a single organizing system, one that provides consistency even as you switch between apps many times per day. A project will be the same project whether it’s found in your notes app, your computer file system, or your cloud storage drive, allowing you to move seamlessly between them without losing your train of thought — page 89
Besides the 2 main concepts, I wrote down some suggestions from the book which I hope you will benefit:
Weekly and Monthly Review
- Consistently review your system. You can think of these habits as the “maintenance schedule” of your Second Brain, which occasionally needs some adjustment to ensure it’s in good working order.
- By reviewing your second brain, I also consider it a good change to review your goals. Is it still something you should go after? Has your priority changed?
- Here are the things you can go through:
- Review and update your goals
- Review and update the project list
- Review the areas of responsibility
- Review someday/maybe tasks
- Re-prioritize tasks
- Anything worth a showcase? In which channel?
The Hemingway Bridge (Time management)
It happens all the time that we can’t finish the to-do in time (e.g. spend too much time on an online course due to slow note-taking or distractions). It is important to not keep expanding the time slot but timebox what you are doing, since if you burn through every last ounce of energy at the end, you could be more reluctant to pick up again.
A tip called “The Hemingway Bridge” introduced by the author could be useful in this case. The name comes from Hemingway himself. He always reserved the last few minutes and wrote down what he planned to write in the next session, so when the next session started, he knew what to do exactly. You can apply the same technique to give your future self some hints for a better start:
- Ideas for the next steps
- Current status
- Any details you have in mind that are likely to be forgotten once you step away
- Intention for the next work session
The Cathedral Effect
Studies have shown that the environment we find ourselves in powerfully shapes our thinking. When we are in a space with high ceilings, for example — think of the lofty architecture of classic churches invoking the grandeur of heaven — we tend to think in more abstract ways. When we’re in a room with low ceilings, such as a small workshop, we’re more likely to think concretely. — Forte, Tiago. Building a Second Brain (p. 85). Profile. Kindle Edition.
Final Thoughts
Finally, some thoughts and quotes to share with you:
- The way I compile this blog post is bullet points → paragraphs. After reviewing my notes and highlights from the book, I surprisingly found there’s no need to write the bullet points myself — I’ve already done it, just need a bit organising. Building a second brain provides your future self a great starting point on any project.
- Why books about productivity are sooooo verbose in the beginning? Why can’t they get to the point in the first chapter? Both this book and Atomic Habits ramble on for several chapters before they start talking about the core ideas. I found the answer during reading this book — Authors put a lot of background stories and examples to help people understand the concepts in their own way, as one example might work for some people but not for others.
Be regular and orderly in your life so that you may be violent and original in your work. — Gustave Flaubert, French novelist — Forte, Tiago. Building a Second Brain (p. 81). Profile. Kindle Edition.
Our brains are physically limited. Dijkstra already said in 1972 at his Turing Award speech: “Be humble, we have small brains.” — Laffra, Chris. Communication for Engineers: A framework for software developers to become better communicators and increase their happiness, productivity, and impact (p. 76). Kindle Edition.
Waiting until you have everything ready before getting started is like sitting in your car and waiting to leave your driveway until all the traffic lights across town are green at the same time. You can’t wait until everything is perfect. There will always be something missing, or something else you think you need. — Forte, Tiago. Building a Second Brain (p. 189). Profile. Kindle Edition.
