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William McGlynn

Oct 12 • 20 tweets • 5 min read

OUR BRAINS ARE COMPUTERS NOT HARD DRIVES!

They are very good at coming up with ideas and very very super bad at remembering/holding onto ideas.

The only way to AVOID OVERWHELM is something I've struggled a lot with.

Building a digital 2nd BRAIN.

🧵

Knowing What to do When will free up so much mental space and stop you(me) from getting overwhelmed.

see "Getting Things Done" by David Allen

Or any videos by Ali Abdaal

Once you(I) know what to do when you can be fully present in everything you are doing.

You are probably failing to do some of the things you do every day to their full potential because you are focused on everything you have to do all day and for the next week in your mind.

Start by Clearing out your brain with a brain dump
a helpful one I have used is by Struthless on youtube(link below)

Then start building your second brain.
I love paper and pen but I have thousands of loose papers and 10s-100s of half-filled notebooks in random stacks in my house.

THERE HAS TO BE A BETTER WAY!

There can be.

First off the best system is the one that works for you.

Here are the three tools that I have recently started using and intend to stick with for the foreseeable forever.

1. Note-taking app

this can be anything that can be organized into folders.

Here are the ones that I've heard about
-Evernote(didn't work for me but has its uses)
-Google Drive
-Notion
-Email folders
-Apple/Android notes app
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I am currently using Notion and moving over my old system from google drive.
(I think google drive Is really good for teams because you can easily share and move around things on different computers and all have access to the same materials)

I have a lot to learn about the notion and have only been using it for a few days but I like its sleek design and customizability.

2. App for To-Do lists/ organizing priorities
Some apps I've seen are
-Todoist
-Habitica
-Google Calendar

You could just use google calender or notion for this but I think that having to put it in a different place and being able to look at it cleanly is nice and helpful.

I am using Todoist for this function. I have used it in the past but I never fully adopted all of the things it can do like dumping tasks into the inbox and then organizing them into their places after.

The inbox feature is really good to get things out of your head quickly.

3. Calendar, keep track of due dates.
I recommend google calender, but apple calendar if you use apple products might also be good because you can use it across all your devices.

I have a PC, Andriod, and an iPad as my tech stack so only google can be used across all.

Once you have your BRAIN in place it becomes about maintaining and upkeeping.

Just like your actual brain if you have bad habits your 2nd brain will quickly become overwhelming to interact with.

make sure to have a clear organization system in place in your 2nd brain

Start Slow and intentionally when building your 2nd brain and it will serve you every day and improve your life in ways you(I) can't yet visualize.

I'm still working on it, I am like 1% done with building the perfect system. nurture your mind and the systems in your life.

Living this life to the fullest is simply making progress.

“They both listened silently to the water, which to them was not just water, but the voice of life, the voice of Being, the voice of perpetual Becoming.”
― Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha

Always Be Becoming💪