The Second Brain : Ultimate Way of Productivity & Getting Things Done

When someone asks for Any Document, then we start searching in Laptop, Mobile or checking never ending Emails !!

When you want to recall the Details of your Last Meeting, About a Person, About that Client/ Company/ Project, we keep searching / dependent on Others to Help with the Same.. Why ?

Because we don’t have any Disciplined Mechanism to Memorise / Retrieve anything.. Then, why not — Setup our Own “Second Brain” !!

Human Brains are Designed to Generate the Ideas, not to Hold Them.

That’s why, there is a Boom of this new Technique which comes up with set of Principals, Tools & Eco-System to design your own Second Brain, as per Need.

1. Digital note taking system

• Technique for building — Personal Knowledge Management
• Collect all the data (thoughts, ideas, research, reading, images, videos etc.), and then process All of them for your Second Brain
• Identify your own Quick & Efficient Note-Taking Apps:
  - Networked Thoughts : Roam Research (Paid), RemNote (Free)
  - Personal Workspace : Notion (Free)
  Librarian / Just keeping Jotting down: Evernote, Apple Notes, Google Keep
  - On-the-fly Short Notes: Drafts (iPhone, Apple Watch, Voice record)

2. Borrowed Creativity

“Creativity is all about remixing the stuffs”. Good Artist’s Copy is, Great Artist’s Steal.

• Steve Jobs once said that —
  “Creativity is Just Connecting Things. When you ask Creative People how they Did something, they feel a little Guilty because, they didn’t do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious after a while.”
• Understand and read between the lines :)

3. Capturing Habit

• If you come across any idea, any thoughts around you anytime => then, Start making the notes of it
• Why we should Keep capturing it, because our Brain cannot hold it for long
• Try to Sync your Entire Personal Eco-System like — Reading articles, Book Highlights, Research Notes, Workplace / Business Notes, Journal etc.- For that, you can use any Notes taking App mentioned above.

4. Idea Recycling

• Idea has no single use. So important thing is -

Keep track of all the ideas and thoughts you are noting down.

• Then, Recycle them Periodically > then, Re-process.
• Otherwise all your important but raw ideas/ thoughts will become the Dump like a Garbadge with No-Use.

5. Project over the Categories

• Don’t just gather all the details, but keep Creating the Categories and move them all under it.
• One of the Great Productivity Books — Getting Things Done , which is based on “ The Art of Stress-free Productivity “, shares the Idea that -

Everything is the Project, if it Takes More than 2 Steps to Achieve

• So, Gather all the details about your Goals, Thoughts, Work, Business at One Place > Process / Kick-start them together > And, Track them as Projects

6) Slow Burns

• Heavy lift — If you will pick any one big project / Goal to accomplish, and keep doing it until that finishes, Then It will block all the on going sometimes Important things, which will end as frustration..

In place of that : Use slow burns

• List Down all the Projects > and, keep moving with them as soon as it comes like a Flow.
• Don’t pick just any one and make it a Life : But, Move slowly with all of them, by giving Consistent & Parallel performance.

7) Start with Abundance

• If you want to Write any Article or Work on Any Topic for your Project or Research then, we try to start from blank page > Think, How to write > Plan, what to write etc…
• But in place, If you would have Second Brain Note taking app, then you can just search the thought there and you will get bunch of notes to help with Videos / posts etc, so -

Keep writing every bits and bytes > It’s really worth it.
You Never Know, which one will do miracles for you.

8) You only Know, What you Make

• If you will just reading/ watching a Football/ Cricket Matche, then you won’t become a Good Player. For that, you have to Play & Run on Ground !

Similarly, When we engage with doing something by our own, then we can easily memorise that, in place of just reading the existing materials

• So, Keep writing > keep making notes, because it will, mentor you > motivate you > push you, towards the Growth & Real Life You Want !

9) Make it Easier for your Future Self

Brain is dump of All the thoughts, so don’t assume yourself in future, But Write something meaningful or easily accessible in Your Future

Put yourself in the Notes : Attended seminar notes, meeting discussions, travel memories, podcasts learnings, books highlights=> All are notes, notes !!

10) Keep your Ideas Moving

Don’t try to make everything perfect.

• Even if the information you have, stored data or you have gone through tons of podcasts or videos or seminars =>
• If you Don’t Convert them into Meaningful Idea, or
  Don’t make it Actionable thing, or Don’t apply it to your Life,
  then, It’s just a Waste
• Don’t worry about the system, because there is
  No Perfect System | No Perfect Note Taking App

“Keep your Ideas moving & Over the period of time — It will be Perfect “

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Source, Reference : The Second Brain sessions of Tiago Forte and Ali Abdaal.