The Second Brain Guy | Learn how to build one: https://t.co/vPhQg4soKp | Writing: https://t.co/x2KgFyuwlk | Videos: https://t.co/7LdtbIvWHw
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Jul 4 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
People often ask me how values and goals play a role in building a Second Brain
How does everything fit together?
To me, it's a pyramid with several layers!
Let me explain...
The lower you go on the pyramid, the more fundamental and deeply rooted inside of you are the forces
It's more about your nature, your temperament, and who you are as a person
These things are slower to change, if at all
Jun 20 • 10 tweets • 2 min read
How to remember what to store in your Second Brain using INPUT
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Newsletter reader Roman shared with me a clever acronym he developed to remember the criteria for what to save in his Second Brain. It's called INPUT:
• Inspiring
• Needed
• Personal
• Unexpected
• Topics
May 31 • 15 tweets • 2 min read
Seeing the most popular highlights from my books is such a fascinating way to understand what resonates with different people
Here are the 10 most popular highlights from Building A Second Brain 📖
1/10 (Part 1)
We spend countless hours reading, listening to, and watching other people’s opinions about what we should do, how we should think, and how we should live, but make comparatively little effort applying that knowledge and making it our own.
May 16 • 10 tweets • 2 min read
The First-Time Notetaking App User’s Playbook
(Read this if you want to streamline your workflow, enhance your creativity, and build a reliable knowledge repository)
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1/ Choosing a notetaking app isn't just about features—find the right fit for your personal notetaking style:
One of the biggest misconceptions I see when it comes to notetaking apps:
That you need to keep all your notes in one notetaking app only
But I'm here to tell you that you absolutely can use different notes apps for different purposes
(It's what I do):
1. My default notes app
I use Evernote and it works for the majority of use cases
Here’s an example of how I use Evernote to plan my weekly tasks: buff.ly/3UJbPgQ
Apr 30 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
One big lie you’ve been told about productivity...
That you have some kind of obligation to the tasks on your to-do list
Here’s why my approach might surprise you:
It’s a common feeling:
“I feel like a failure if I don’t get to every to-do in my task manager”
But it's based on a misconception that every task has equal weight and urgency
Apr 11 • 12 tweets • 2 min read
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The number of books you read doesn’t matter
What matters is what you’re taking away and implementing from those books
This is the single most powerful habit for applying what you read in books 👇
Distill book knowledge into actionable steps
One of the most life-changing ways I’ve ever applied this trusted method is for sleep-training our newborn son after my wife Lauren and I could no longer handle the sleepless nights
Apr 9 • 10 tweets • 2 min read
If you want to stop mindlessly over-consuming content, read this:
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Add all your content to a read-later app (I'm using Reader) for focused, distraction-free reading, watching, and listening
Mar 29 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
Your brain loves to ambush you with the best ideas at the worst times…
In the shower, when rocking your toddler to sleep, or when you're driving
It's how great ideas get forgotten
So this is how I NEVER let game-changing ideas slip through my fingers 👇
I call it:
Building a “capture habit”
Instead of playing “catch and release” with your ideas, make it a habit to capture your ideas right then and there so they don't slip away and you can revisit them later
Here's how to do it...
Mar 26 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
3 ways I use AI to help me remember everything I read:
1/ I use ChatGPT to create book summaries
You can’t just ask ChatGPT to create book summaries for you (they will suck), but I’ve found the perfect middle ground that blends ChatGPT’s ability with my own interpretations and notes
Give me 2 minutes and I'll show you how to organize your bookmarks with the PARA Method for lightning fast web browsing
What’s PARA?
It’s my simple system for organizing virtually any information in your life
Projects: Short-term efforts in work/life with a deadline
Areas: Long-term responsibilities
Resources: Topics/interests
Archive: Inactive items
Key principle = organize by actionability
Mar 5 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
Our workdays are filled with inevitable gaps…
Between meetings, waiting to pick up the kids, computer doing a software update…
It’s so tempting to spend that time scrolling aimlessly
Here are 2 things I do instead to use those gaps more "productively" 👇
Because these gaps often aren't long enough to make meaningful progress on anything, it's so easy to grab your phone and watch TikTok videos to stay occupied
I don't know about you, but this doesn't leave me refreshed and motivated to tackle whatever is next
Instead try 👇
Feb 26 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
Building a Second Brain can be transformative
But a lot of it hinges on choosing the right notetaking app
There are 6 specific criteria that I believe will help you pick the perfect app 👇
1/6 Utter reliability, like a utility
Reliability comes down to factors like:
• Near 100% uptime
• Speed and responsiveness
• Minimal software bugs and crashes
Feb 22 • 9 tweets • 3 min read
I’ve been using Evernote as my Second Brain for 10 years
6 months ago, I decided to evaluate a newer generation of apps:
• Obsidian
• Tana
• Mem
Here’s my evaluation as to whether they could qualify as my Second Brain platform 👇
1/6 Obsidian
The app of choice for a lot of PKM enthusiasts and a clear leader when it comes to link-based apps
But not the best start for me:
Faced a major hurdle setting up sync between desktop and mobile, which hinted at the complexity ahead
Feb 20 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
My first keynote was at World Domination Summit, followed shortly by a Google Talk
I immediately loved public speaking, but I soon realised winging keynotes wasn't going to cut it for the long haul
So I hired a speaking coach
Here are 5 game-changing insights I discovered 👇
1/5 Mastering public speaking is not just about delivering polished keynotes
It's an art of spontaneous self-expression and connecting authentically with any audience, big or small
Feb 13 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
Every time I start a new project, I follow a very specific 5-step checklist
• It leverages the existing information in my Second Brain
• Takes me 20-30 minutes to complete
• Helps me to execute efficiently
Here’s why 👇
I've noticed that the way most people launch projects is very haphazard, leaving it up to chance whether they will complete or not
But projects are some of our biggest investments of attention
Isn't it worth adding a little bit of structure to how we start them?
Here’s how 👇
Feb 6 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
I bet you're guilty of productively procrastinating (we all are)
Where you organize everything to avoid the thing you should be doing
Turns out learning, researching, and organizing are the most tempting forms of procrastination
You can tell yourself that you're "making progress" only to avoid the point where you need to make a decision on what to do next
Even having to get feedback on every action you take is ultimately a form of procrastination
So here’s my condensed guide to dealing with this 👇
Feb 1 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
I’m always fascinated by the different ways people build their Second Brain
From their vision, to the dots they connect, to the choices of what matters to them
Here’s a peek into 5 people’s Second Brains to inspire your own Second Brain setup:
Neuroscience PhD student Charlotte @CFraza shares her approach to the CODE method, her strategic use of Readwise for capturing book highlights, and the profound impact of building a Second Brain on her academic and personal growth: buff.ly/3u7Mh2a
Jan 29 • 11 tweets • 3 min read
I used to pride myself on reading 50 books a year
Until one day I realized none of the information was sticking
It felt like I was pouring water into a sieve
Here’s what I started doing differently (and how ChatGPT took it to the next level) 👇
I decided to read fewer books and summarize them in my own words
These summaries became building blocks in my work
But they were also extremely time-consuming
Jan 23 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
Reality check: How will you achieve your 2024 goals?
The new year is already 3 weeks old so I bet you've started to form some ideas around what you want to accomplish in the next 12 months
But just setting a goal won’t make any difference
Here’s what you need to do instead 👇
This is the hard truth about goals: If there are no projects associated with these goals, then it's unlikely that you'll achieve them
You see, every goal needs a project attached to it to make it a reality
Otherwise, your goals remain mere dreams
Jan 23 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
I've loaded up every highlighted passage from every book I've read over the past decade into Google's new AI platform, NotebookLM
It includes 24,216 excerpts, totaling 594,379 words, from 719 sources
What should I ask it?
What's the most frequently recurring idea found in my notes?