13 best insights to help you organize your digital life,
from BUILDING A SECOND BRAIN (by @fortelabs)
from BUILDING A SECOND BRAIN (by @fortelabs)
What is note-taking?
Professional notetaking, a note is an acknowledged building block a discrete unit of information interpreted through your unique perspective and stored outside your head.
Professional notetaking, a note is an acknowledged building block a discrete unit of information interpreted through your unique perspective and stored outside your head.
What is a note?
A note could include a passage from a book or article that you were inspired by; a photo or image from the web with your annotations; or a bullet-point list of your meandering thoughts on a topic, among many other examples.
A note could include a passage from a book or article that you were inspired by; a photo or image from the web with your annotations; or a bullet-point list of your meandering thoughts on a topic, among many other examples.
Four essential capabilities that we can rely on a Second Brain to perform for us:
1. Making our ideas concrete.
2. Revealing new associations between ideas.
3. Incubating our ideas over time.
4. Sharpening our unique perspectives.
1. Making our ideas concrete.
2. Revealing new associations between ideas.
3. Incubating our ideas over time.
4. Sharpening our unique perspectives.
To guide you in the process of creating your own Second Brain, I've developed a simple, intuitive four-part method called "CODE":
Capture; Organize; Distill; Express.
Capture; Organize; Distill; Express.
4 criteria I suggest to help you decide exactly which nuggets of knowledge are worth capturing:
#1: Does It Inspire Me?
#2: Is It Useful?
#3: Is It Personal?
#4: Is It Surprising?
#1: Does It Inspire Me?
#2: Is It Useful?
#3: Is It Personal?
#4: Is It Surprising?
Surprise is an excellent barometer for information that doesn't fit neatly into our existing understanding, which means it has the potential to change how we think.
Notetaking is the easiest and simplest way of externalizing our thinking. It requires no special skill, is private by default, and can be performed anytime and anywhere. Once our thoughts are outside our head, we can examine them, play with them, and make them better.
Capturing notes without an effective way to organize and retrieve them only leads to more overwhelm.
This gave rise to PARA, which stands for the 4 main categories: Projects, Areas, Resources, and Archives. These 4 categories are universal, encompassing any kind of information.
This gave rise to PARA, which stands for the 4 main categories: Projects, Areas, Resources, and Archives. These 4 categories are universal, encompassing any kind of information.
The project becomes the main unit of organization for your digital files.
Instead of having to sort your notes according to a complex hierarchy of topics and subtopics, you have to answer only one simple question: In which project will this be most useful?
Instead of having to sort your notes according to a complex hierarchy of topics and subtopics, you have to answer only one simple question: In which project will this be most useful?
Instead of organizing ideas according to where they come from, I recommend organizing them according to where they are going, specifically, the outcomes that they can help you realize.
Your efforts to capture content for future use will be tremendously easier and more effective if you know what that content is for. Using PARA is not just about creating a bunch of folders to put things in. It is about identifying the structure of your work and life.
Your Second Brain evolves as constantly as your projects and goals change, which means you never have to worry about getting it perfect, or having it finished.
Imagine your future self as a demanding customer. They will surely be impatient and very busy. They won't have time to pore through page after page of details just to find the hidden gems. It's your job to "sell" them on the value of the notes you are taking now.
Get my mini reading guide to learn:
- How to build a reading habit.
- Which book you should pick first.
- How to be consistent with your reading.
- How to remember what you read.
- How to take notes.
And a lot more...
🌟 Rated 4.3/5 on Amazon
Buy Link: amzn.to
- How to build a reading habit.
- Which book you should pick first.
- How to be consistent with your reading.
- How to remember what you read.
- How to take notes.
And a lot more...
🌟 Rated 4.3/5 on Amazon
Buy Link: amzn.to
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