Tiago Forte - Building a Second Brain : A Proven Method to Organize Your Digital Life and Unlock Your Creative Potential

Building a Second Brain

A Proven Method to Organize Your Digital Life and Unlock Your Creative Potential

Tiago Forte

An Imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

1230 Avenue of the Americas

New York, NY 10020

www.SimonandSchuster.com

Copyright 2022 by Tiago Forte

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information, address Atria Books Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

First Atria Books hardcover edition June 2022

and colophon are trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Simon & Schuster Special Sales at 1-866-506-1949 or .

The Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau can bring authors to your live event. For more information or to book an event, contact the Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau at 1-866-248-3049 or visit our website at www.simonspeakers.com.

Interior design by Timothy Shaner, NightandDayDesign.biz

Illustrations and diagrams by Maya P. Lim

Author photograph by Ted Saunders

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Forte, Tiago, author.

Title: Building a second brain : a proven method to organize your digital life and unlock your creative potential / Tiago Forte.

Description: First Atria Books hardcover edition. | New York : Atria Books, 2022. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2021057378 (print) | LCCN 2021057379 (ebook) | ISBN 9781982167387 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781982167394 (paperback) | ISBN 9781982167400 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Creative ability. | Thought and thinking.

Classification: LCC BF408 .F67 2022 (print) | LCC BF408 (ebook) | DDC 153.3/5dc23/eng/20211208

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021057378

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021057379

ISBN 978-1-9821-6738-7

ISBN 978-1-9821-6740-0 (ebook)

To Lauren, my partner, my muse, and my greatest inspiration in everything I do

Introduction The Promise of a Second Brain

H ow often have you tried to remember something important and felt it slip through your mental grasp?

Perhaps you were having a conversation and couldnt remember a fact that would have convincingly supported your point of view. Maybe you conceived of a brilliant new idea while driving or in transit, but by the time you arrived at your destination, it had evaporated. How often have you struggled to recall even one useful takeaway from a book or article you read in the past?

As the amount of information we have access to grows, such experiences are becoming more and more common. Were flooded with more advice than ever promising to make us smarter, healthier, and happier. We consume more books, podcasts, articles, and videos than we could possibly absorb. What do we really have to show for all the knowledge weve gained? How many of the great ideas weve had or encountered have faded from our minds before we even had a chance to put them into practice?

We spend countless hours reading, listening to, and watching other peoples 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. So much of the time we are information hoarders, stockpiling endless amounts of well-intentioned content that only ends up increasing our anxiety.

This book is dedicated to changing that. You see, all the content you consume online and through all the different kinds of media you have at your disposal isnt useless. Its incredibly important and valuable. The only problem is that youre often consuming it at the wrong time.

What are the chances that the business book youre reading is exactly what you need right at this moment? What are the odds that every single insight from a podcast interview is immediately actionable? How many of the emails sitting in your inbox actually require your full attention right now? More likely, some of it will be relevant now, but most of it will become relevant only at some point in the future.

To be able to make use of information we value, we need a way to package it up and send it through time to our future self. We need a way to cultivate a body of knowledge that is uniquely our own, so when the opportunity ariseswhether changing jobs, giving a big presentation, launching a new product, or starting a business or a familywe will have access to the wisdom we need to make good decisions and take the most effective action. It all begins with the simple act of writing things down.

Ill show you how this simple habit is the first step in a system Ive developed called Building a Second Brain, which draws on recent advancements in the field of PKMor personal knowledge management. In the same way that personal computers revolutionized our relationship with technology, personal finance changed how we manage our money, and personal productivity reshaped how we work, personal knowledge management helps us harness the full potential of what we know. While innovations in technology and a new generation of powerful apps have created new opportunities for our times, the lessons you will find within these pages are built on timeless and unchanging principles.

The Building a Second Brain system will teach you how to:

• Find anything youve learned, touched, or thought about in the past within seconds.
• Organize your knowledge and use it to move your projects and goals forward more consistently.
• Save your best thinking so you dont have to do it again.
• Connect ideas and notice patterns across different areas of your life so you know how to live better.
• Adopt a reliable system that helps you share your work more confidently and with more ease.
• Turn work off and relax, knowing you have a trusted system keeping track of all the details.
• Spend less time looking for things, and more time doing the best, most creative work you are capable of.

When you transform your relationship to information, you will begin to see the technology in your life not just as a storage medium but as a tool for thinking. Like a bicycle for the mind, once we learn how to use it properly, technology can enhance our cognitive abilities and accelerate us toward our goals far faster than we could ever achieve on our own.

In this book I will teach you how to create a system of knowledge management, or a Second Brain. Whether you call it a personal cloud, field notes, or an external brain as some of my students have done, it is a digital archive of your most valuable memories, ideas, and knowledge to help you do your job, run your business, and manage your life without having to keep every detail in your head. Like a personal library in your pocket, a Second Brain enables you to recall everything you might want to remember so you can achieve anything you desire.

Ive come to believe that personal knowledge management is one of the most fundamental challengesas well as one of the most incredible opportunitiesin the world today. Everyone is in desperate need of a system to manage the ever-increasing volume of information pouring into their brains. Ive heard the plea from students and executives, entrepreneurs and managers, engineers and writers, and so many others seeking a more productive and empowered relationship with the information they consume.