Remember when you were a kid and how fun it was to forget? To let go of your worries almost in an instant.
Those who have spent time with children know that they are the most innocent and carefree little people. They don’t worry about their health; they just play like little kids. You probably have noticed how quickly a child switches from crying to laughing, or vice versa. At one moment, a kid cries because they bumped their head on the glass door, only to forget about it 2 minutes later and start running again.
Unfortunately, most of us don’t get to forget like that anymore. We carry on life worrying about our future, career, family, finances, and so on.
The weight of the world is on our shoulders.
This constant pressure causes us to lose focus on the task at hand. That’s why we’ve got a Second Brain because, as creatives, we consume and produce vast amounts of information and tend to have so many different thoughts, ideas, and emotions. It can be hard to manage everything.
Luckily there are ways to unburden yourself. You can start by creating a personal productivity system that requires you to identify what you want to forget and maintain a natural flow in life and work.
What is a Second Brain?
A Second Brain is a set of tools and techniques for capturing your work before it escapes you.
You organize the digital information you collect for easy retrieval, so you can take action on your creative ideas without starting from scratch, relying on memory, or worse, trying to reinvent the wheel.
It’s an external source of knowledge that keeps track of anything that matters, which could free you to be ‘happily unoptimized,’ meaning you don’t need to constantly improve your life to do great work.
“It is about optimizing a system outside yourself, a system not subject to your limitations and constraints, leaving you happily unoptimized and free to roam, to wonder, to wander toward whatever makes you feel alive here and now in each moment.” —Tiago Forte.
You can always rely on external systems that help you forget and be at peace because you know your past self takes care of things.
Who coined the term ‘Second Brain’?
Tiago Forte, my mentor and productivity expert, created the Second Brain concept. He developed the idea of the Second Brain to improve his health and has since taught it to thousands of people from all walks of life.
His vision is for every person in the world to have a functional Second Brain.
What is Building a Second Brain?
It’s a course membership and a book.
The online cohort-based course helps the student capitalize on the full potential of their knowledge and ideas by leveraging the power of technology. In 5 weeks, students can create their personalized knowledge management system with a strong community with the most dedicated practitioners.
Each cohort happens twice to four times a year. Learn more here.
After 14 successful cohorts, Tiago got a book deal, which teaches the whole system. Get the book today. If you want to start getting better organized and engaging deeply with the digital content you consume daily, this is for you.
Why should you Build your Second Brain?
There are a few different reasons you might want to build a Second Brain, all of which involve taking control of your creativity.
- You want a simple way to externalize all the notes in your head, so they’re right in front of you whenever you need them.
- You want a system for recording what’s going on in your life, so you don’t forget anything important.
- Your ideas are silos—you’re unsure how they relate to each other. You want a way to link up everything you know about a particular Project or Area so you can find what you’re looking for quick and easy.
My Favorite BASB Concepts
- CODE: this is the creative process in which you turn the information you consume into creative outputs and concrete results.
- CODE stands for Capture, Organize, Distill, and Express.
- PARA: this is a framework to organize any type of information by actionability. Your second brain is constantly changing, and what’s actionable at any given time will also change. The information you capture it’s easier to find when you organize by when it’s useful the soonest.
- PARA stands for Projects, Areas, Resources, and Archive
- Intermediate Packets: these are pieces of tangible knowledge you create which can be reused and recycled. We shift from doing tasks to thinking in building blocks. It is all about creating value in small chunks.
- Weekly Review (or Inbox Triage): this is when we identify the building blocks we need for our Projects and Areas. Read more.
My experience mentoring in the BASB cohorts
I remember the day PARA changed my life. Tiago released a skillshare course in 2015 about GTD and how he organizes his information in Todoist. All I wanted to learn was how to use the app, but Tiago had better plans for me. He taught the framework that could organize all thoughts and digital files in a way that made sense to my first brain.
It changed my life because I found trust in my past and future self, so my present self would be (almost) free of worry.
When you have this system set up in one place, you know exactly what you want to accomplish, and it’s easier to make changes or shift priorities when needed.
Years later, I was such a fan of the process that I decided to teach about it on YouTube, which opened the gates to a whole new world of opportunities. I felt seen for something I was passionate about.
I joined BASB officially as a student during cohort 8.
Our conversations were so engaging, motivating and profound that as soon as I saw the mentorship application for the cohort, I knew I had to become part of it.
During the five cohorts I’ve led as a mentor, I realized we are mirrors reflecting on each other to make ourselves shine even brighter. The power of visibility and opportunity for all kept bringing me back to mentoring.
The community of passionate and dedicated students is so welcoming. We always pick each other up, celebrate each other’s wins and get excited about seeing each other’s progress. Coming together, sharing experiences and supporting each other on our journey strengthens us.
I’ve witnessed students make crucial career decisions, set and achieve goals, find confidence in their art, and become better leaders.
Every cohort is different, but each one is the same in the level of commitment, energy, and openness to growth.
Seeing students evolve and reach their goals is the most incredible gift.
Not only do I see growth with the students, but with myself, growing confidence in my speaking and facilitating abilities.
I’m so grateful for the opportunities BASB has given me, and I’m excited about this new chapter.
Nice article!
I’m currently reading the book and I’m loving it.
Great to hear of your experience. I’ve been slowly building one for years, just didn’t have the language or the tools that Tiago brings out.