Building a Second Brain by Tiago Forte

I was the kind of person who use to think, I will do this or that later and after some time, I use to forget what I was supposed to do and I had never used any notetaking app for a to-do list until I read The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey back in 2015.

The same process has been shared by Tiago Forte in his Building a Second Brain book. It has all the elements that most management book has but this talks more about how to Organise tasks in a simple way.

After reading this book, I thought, this book could have been explained in the article but hey, business is business. By the way, I must admit that the book title is very catchy but it didn’t live up to it.

What is Second Brain

Think of it as a study notebook, a personal journal, or even a to-do list application where you write down all the tasks for the day, notes from your study or from podcasts, ideas you get for business, or random thoughts.

Writing down a To-Do list or ideas will help a lot, you won’t realize the importance of a notebook but when you need that idea that you had a month ago and you have it in a notebook then it will save tons of time and energy too.

Basically, the Second Brain is a notebook whether you use it online or offline.

Building a Second Brain Summary

Tiago Forte author of Building a Second Brain book has shared four points that will help you a lot to organize your workflow or any kind of task.

For example, when you listen to podcasts, watch videos, or when you see something interesting and in that time you might say, okay, this seems an interesting point and I will remember it and apply the same in my life but when time passes, you will forget about that podcast or the idea you had…

So what you have to do is, when you find something interesting, note that down in any note app or notebook, it might not seem right at the time but after some time, it will help you to recall the memory.

I also do the same, by the way, I don’t use any Apple products yet but if you have iPhone then try to use Apple’s note app or any of your favorite note-taking apps.

Personally, I use the SimpleNote by WordPress and for the To-Do list, I use the Microsoft To-Do app.

Now, let’s talk about the CODE,

• Capture
• Organize
• Distill
• Express

Capture

As the name suggests, whenever you have any kind of idea and if you feel that, the idea you have might help in the future then don’t just say I will remember this, an instant of that, go write it down in note application.

Organize

Let’s say, you have written down the idea you wanted to work but you don’t know where you have written it.

This is where the Online note taking applications come in,

For example, if you have an idea about business then add it to the Business tab or if you’re reading a book then add it to the book summary tab.

Now you don’t have to sub-categories everything, for example, bookmarks from books will go into the Book Summary tab.

You don’t have to create a Tab for Business books, Self-Help books, or even Horror books, simply add everything into the book summary tab with the book title.

These days, note-taking apps have a solid search, so it won’t be hard to find the things you have written.

Distill

It’s the same thing again,

If you’re reading any book and you feel that, this is an interesting paragraph then just bookmark it with a pen or something else or if you’re using Kindle then you can import every single bookmark from all the books you have read.

Express

This is what I’m doing it right now,

Whatever I have learned from this book and the notes I have taken, I’m sharing with you.

Now, this will help you and at the same time, it will help me because I’m human and I will forget something after a year or two, so I can come back to this article to recall my memory.

Those who don’t have a website or YouTube can share the knowledge with friends or anyone they know or just write down the bullet points in the Note application.

Building a Second Brain Review

If you ask me, I bought this book because of the title and I don’t do this very often but this time I fall for the title and yes, I’m a bit disappointed with this book.

The book talks about, how you can take notes, and for that, a single article or series of articles would have been a great choice.

By the way, that’s what I felt, if you want to buy this book then go for it, it’s your money and you have the right to do anything want.

Buy Building a Second Brain