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 mod...

We spend a significant portion of our careers creating snippets of text, outlines, photos, videos, sketches, diagrams, webpages, notes, or documents. Yet without a little extra care to preserve these valuable resources, our precious knowledge remains siloed and scattered across d...

1. Uncover unexpected patterns and connections between ideas.
2. Reduce stress and “information overload” by expertly curating and managing your personal information stream.
3. Develop valuable expertise, specialized knowledge...

The first step in building a second brain is “capturing” the ideas and insights you think are worth saving. How do you do that?

Think like a curator - Make conscious, strategic decisions about what you consume. As you come across social media updates, online articles, and podcasts throughou...

Instead of organizing your files primarily by topic (for example, web design or psychology), which is time-consuming and mentally taxing, organize them according to the projects you are actively working on. This ensures that you are consuming information with a purpose – to advance your ...

 Save anything that “resonates” with you on an intuitive level

This is often because it connects to something you care about, wonder about, or find inherently intriguing. By training ourselves to notice when something resonates with us at a deeper level, we improve not only our ability to s...

Every time we create a note or make an edit, we can make it just a little easier to find and make use of next time.

This can include:

• Defining key terms in parentheses in case we forget what they mean
• Inserting placeholders when we leave off summarizing a source so we kno...

Progressive Summarization is a technique that relies on summarizing a note in multiple stages over time. You save only the best excerpts from whatever you’re reading, ...

Add value to a note every time you touch it

This could include adding an informative title the first time you come across a note, highlighting the most important points the next time you see it, and adding a link to a related note sometime later. By spreading out the heavy ...

A common challenge for people who love to learn is that they constantly force feed themselves more and more information, but never actually put it to use.

But information only becomes knowledge – something personal, embodied, grounded – when we put it to use. That’s why we should ...

Begin to think of your projects as made up of discrete parts. I call them “intermediate packets,” which can include any kind of content we’ve already mentioned: a set of notes from a team meeting, a list of relevant research findings,etc

Instead of trying to sit down and move the entire pro...

By consistently sharing your work with others – whether that is your family, friends, colleagues, or externally on social media – all sorts of benefits will start to materialize. You’ll connect with new collaborators who you never would have imagined would find your work compelling.

You’ll...

Each note in your second brain is a record of something you’ve experienced in your life – whether that is from reading a book, having an interesting conversation, or completing a project at work. With all your most valuable ideas at your fingertips at all times, you never need to struggle and str...