Building a Second Brain

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Tiago Forte. Build a Second Brain. Atria Books. 2022.

2023-02-28T12:52

Summary

  • Source: Building a Second Brain
  • Method: Capture, Organize, Distill, Express
  • Filing: Projects, Areas, Resources, Archive
  • Keep what resonates
  • Use progressive summarization
  • Maintain sustainable habits

Table of Contents

  1. Part 1 - The Foundation: understanding what's possible

    1. Where it all started
      1. A Personal Turning Point - Discovering the Power of Writing Things Down
      2. Another Shift - Discovering the Power of Sharing
      3. The Origins of the Second Brain System
    2. What is a Second Brain?
      1. Legacy of Commonplace Books
      2. The Digital Commonplace Book
      3. Rethinking Notetaking: Notes as Knowledge Building Blocks
      4. A Tale of Two Brains
      5. Leveraging Technology as Thinking Tools
    3. How a Second Brain Works
      1. The Superpowers of a Second Brain
        1. Make our Ideas Concrete
        2. Reveal New Associations Between Ideas
        3. Incubate our Ideas Over Time
        4. Sharpen our Unique Perspectives
      2. Choosing a Notetaking App: The Neural Centre of Your Second Brain
      3. Remembering, Connecting, Creating: The Three Stages of Personal Knowledge Management
      4. Introducing the CODE Method: The Four Steps to Remembering What Matters

  2. Part 2 - The Method: the four steps of CODE

    1. Capture - Keep What Resonates
      1. Building a Private Collection of Knowledge
      2. Creating a Knowledge Bank: How to Generate Compounding Interest from Your Thoughts
      3. What Not to Keep
      4. Twelve Favourite Problems: a Nobel Prize Winner's approach to capturing
      5. Capture Criteria: How to Avoid Keeping Too Much (or Too Little)
        1. Does it inspire me?
        2. Is it Useful?
        3. Is it Personal?
        4. Is is Surprising?
      6. Ultimately, Capture What Resonates
      7. Beyond Your Notetaking App: Choosing Capture Tools
      8. The Surprising Benefits of Externalizing Our Thoughts
      9. Your Turn: What Would This Look Like If It Was Easy b. Organize - Save for Actionability
      10. The Cathedral Effect: Designing a Space for Your Ideas
      11. Organizing for Action: Where 99 percent of Notetakers Get Stuck (And How To Solve It)
      12. How PARA Works: Priming Your Mind (And Notes) For Action
        1. Projects: What I'm Working on Right Now
        2. Areas: What I'm Committed to Over Time
        3. Resources: Things I Want to Reference in the Future
        4. Archives: Things I've Completed or Put on Hold
      13. What PARA Looks Like: A Behind-the-Scenes Snapshot
      14. Where Do I Put This? - How to Decide Where to Save Individual Notes
        1. Include an "inbox" staging area
        2. Organizing Information Like a Kitchen - What Am I Making? 7.Completed Projects Are the Oxygen of Your Second Brain 8.Your Turn: Move Quickly, Tough Lightly c. Distill - Find the Essence
      15. Quantum Notetaking: How to Create Notes for an Unknown Future
      16. Discoverability - The Missing Link in Making Notes Useful
      17. Highlighting 2.0: The Progressive Summarization Technique
      18. Zooming In and Out of Your Map of Knowledge
      19. Four Examples of Progressive Summarization
      20. Picasso's Secret: Prune the Good to Surface the Great 7.The Three Most Common Mistakes of Novice Notetakers
        1. Over-highlighting
        2. Highlighting Without a Purpose in Mind
        3. Making Highlighting Difficult 8.Your Turn: Keep Your Future Self in Mind d. Express - Show Your Work
      21. How to Protect Your Most Precious Resource
      22. Intermediate Packets: The Power of Thinking Small
      23. Assembling Building Blocks: The Secret to Frictionless Output
      24. How to Resurface and Reuse Your Past Work
        1. Search
        2. Browsing
        3. Tags
        4. Serendipity
      25. Three Stages of Expressing: What Does It Look Like to Show Our Work?
        1. Remember: Retrieve an Idea Exactly When It's Needed
        2. Connect: Use Notes to Tell a Bigger Story
        3. Create: Complete Projects and Accomplish Goals Stress-free
      26. Creativity Is Inherently Collaborative 7.Everything is a Remix 8.Your Turn: You Only Know What You Make
  3. Part 3 - The Shift: making things happen a. The Art of Creative Execution
    1. Divergence and Convergence: A Creative Balancing Act
    2. Three Strategies I Use to Bring Creative Work Together
      1. The Archipelago of Ideas: Give Yourself Stepping-Stones
      2. The Hemingway Bridge: Use Yesterday's Momentum Today a) Write down ideas for next steps b) Write down the current status c) Write down any ideas you have in mind that are likely to be forgotten once you step away d) Write out your intention for the next work session
      3. Dial Down the Scope: Ship Something Small and Concrete
    3. Divergence and Convergence in the Wild: Behind the Scenes of a Home Project
    4. Your Turn: Move Fast and Make Things b. The Essential Habits of Digital Organizers
    5. The Mise-en-Place Way to Sustainable Productivity
      1. Project Checklists
      2. Weekly and Monthly Reviews
      3. Noticing Habits
    6. The Project Checklist Habit: The Key to Starting Your Knowledge Flywheel
      1. Project Kickoff
      2. Project Completion
    7. The Review Habit: Why You Should Batch Process Your Notes (And How Often)
      1. A Weekly Review Template: Reset to Avoid Overwhelm
      2. A Monthly Review Template: Reflect for Clarity and Control
    8. The Noticing Habits: Using Your Second Brain to Engineer Luck
    9. Your Turn: A Perfect System You Don't Use Isn't Perfect c. The Path of Self-Expression
    10. Mindset Over Toolset - The Quest for the Perfect App
    11. The Fear Our Minds Can't Do Enough
    12. Giving Your First Brain a New Job
    13. The Shift from Scarcity to Abundance
    14. The Shift from Obligation to Service
    15. The Shift from Consuming to Creating 7.Our Fundamental Need For Self-Expression 8.Your Turn: The Courage to Share
    16. Final Thoughts: You Can Do This
      1. Decide what you want to capture (2-3 kinds to kickstart)
      2. Choose your notes app
      3. Choose a capture tool (eg a read later app)
      4. Get set up with PARA ( folders or tags)
      5. Get inspired by identifying your twelve favourite problems
      6. Automatically capture your e-book highlights (digital integrations)
      7. Practice Progressive Summarization
      8. Experiment with just one Intermediate Packet 9.Make progress on one deliverable
      9. Schedule a Weekly Review
      10. Assess your note taking proficiency (quiz)
      11. Join the PKM community (#pkm, #secondbrain, #basb, #toolsforthought)
  4. Back matter
    1. Bonus Chapter: How to create a tagging system that works: http://buildingasecondbrain.com/bonuschapter
    2. Additional Resources and Guidelines: Second Brain Resource Guide (buildingasecondbrain.com)
    3. Acknowledgements
    4. Notes
    5. Index