Thread by @0xSardius

Finished “Building a Second Brain”
by @fortelabs today

Definitely one of the better productivity books I’ve read

Focuses on how to create a personal knowledge management system geared not only for collecting, but for creatively expressing your work

11 Key takeaways 👇🧵

There are four essential capabilities you want to rely on your Second Brain to perform for you:

1. Make your ideas concrete
2. Reveal new associations between ideas
3. Incubate ideas over time
4. Sharpen your unique perspective

1/

The purpose of building a second brain is to revolutionize your relationship with information

At the heart of the system is CODE:

- Capture - keep what resonates
- Organize - save for actionability
- Distill - find the essence
- Express - show your work

2/

The neural center of a second brain is a note taking app.

There are many great options. I use @NotionHQ combined with @todoist and apple notes.

There are a lot of different combos, I would find an app that works best for you and spend time exploring it

3/

Decide what you want to capture

Think about what you most deeply what to capture, learn, explore or share

Start small, and identify two to three types of content you already value to get started

For example, I started with smart contract resources, web3 data, and DAOs

4/

Choose a read later app

This can be helpful in the capture stage, as it clears up endless tab clutter and starts to systematize things

I recommend @Pocket or @instapaper

Again, lots of options and experiment freely!

5/

Start Organizing - setup the PARA system

Once you have your note taking app sorted out, you can start structuring it

Setup 4 folders:

- Projects
- Areas
- Resources
- Archives

Focus on capturing notes with an eye towards taking action

6/

Get inspired by listing 10 of your favorite problems

Start making lists every day on 10 of your favorite problems, or ways to improve things

Creativity can be built everyday, like a muscle

Then start organizing the lists for taking action

7/

Practice Progressive Summarization

In the book @fortelabs teaches how to make multiple layers of notes

Highlight
Underline key highlights
Then hold essential points

Use these summarizations to distill the essence of what you found noteworthy

8/

Make Progress on A Single Deliverable

If you’re feeling stuck, try to use the processes listed here in miniature

Pick one way to move things forward, and take the smallest action you can

1% a day leads to surprising results over time

9/

Schedule Weekly Reviews

Weekly reviews are important for assessing your progress, and something I always struggle with lol

Start small, even 10 minutes a week on Sunday night is great and can help establish better habits

10/

Join a community

There are a ton of great people to follow working on personal knowledge management

Search for #PKM (personal knowledge management), #secondbrain, #BSB, or #toolsforthought

Coming from web3, I cannot overstate how important a solid community is!

11/

Thanks for reading!

Check out the book if you are interested here:

Building a Second Brain: A Proven Method to Organize Your Digital Life and Unlock Your Creative Potential a.co/d/hYnWOYX