It is June of 2016, and I’m sitting quietly at my computer in a trendy cafe in downtown Oakland, California. I’m gulping down a huge, over-sweetened chai latte and sweating profusely as I log in to my computer. I’m incredibly stressed out, and using the sugar as a coping mechanism. I’m sweating not because I’m working…
In this new video series, I walk you through my own learning process as I get to know Roam Research, the “note-taking tool for networked thought.” From creating my Roam account and opening the program for the first time, I’ll ask the stupid questions so you don’t have to, experiment with every feature through trial and…
Note from Tiago: Timothy Kenny is the author of “Accelerated Learning for Entrepreneurs,” and is a top productivity instructor on Udemy with more than 87 productivity courses, 110,000+ students, and 5,000+ reviews. Watch our recent interview for a closer look at how our productivity systems can work together. By Timothy Kenny A student of mine recently enrolled in…
In order to get where you’re going, you need to know where you came from. When it comes to learning, you need a way to measure your progress toward your goal. How will you know whether you learned it? How will you compare your performance before and after? What concretely will you be able to…
To celebrate the launch of the 11th edition of Building a Second Brain, we’re co-hosting the first ever Second Brain Week, a series of free events with 8 top creators and experts. Come join us to learn about digital note-taking, organizing, productivity, knowledge management, and online education, and how creating a system of knowledge management for yourself can…
This guide is also available in Spanish. In 2016, I read 57 books. I read like I was running out of time. It felt like an achievement, yet by the end of the year, I could scarcely recall even one useful idea from each book. That moment was a turning point. I realized very little…
There is one guiding question for our team as we design the Building a Second Brain course: How can we make a course that is impossible to fail? So many courses make a big promise of everything you will do and achieve…as long as you perfectly complete every lesson and comply with every requirement. I remember taking these courses….
I recently rewatched Inception, the blockbuster film directed by Christopher Nolan. The film takes place in a world where “dream sharing” technology has been developed by the military for training purposes. By hooking a group of people up to a special device and putting them to sleep at the same time, a team of dream…
I recently sat down with Alex Strick van Linschoten and Matt Trevithick on their podcast Sources and Methods, for an hour-long chat about my latest thinking on methods for organizing knowledge work, and the weaknesses of the ‘deep work’ trend. Click here to visit the Sources & Methods website for the audio recording, or listen below:
I interviewed Oliver Sauter, the Co-Founder of a knowledge management and online bookmarking platform called Memex. Memex is built by a company called WorldBrain, whose vision is “A well informed and less polarized society where everyone can use their full attention to create knowledge and make sustainable, effective and compassionate decisions.” Their vision is “To…
By Pranav Mutatkar Note from Tiago: these are the “5 stages” a recent student went through as part of my online course Building a Second Brain, in which I teach people how to create a system of personal knowledge management (known as a “Second Brain”) for themselves. 1. Holy crap, this could change everything. I’m going…
By Will Mannon, Forte Labs Course Manager This memo outlines the Capstone Project that students will complete for Cohort 10 of Building a Second Brain (BASB). It was originally written for our internal team, but in the spirit of “working with the garage door open”, I’ve decided to share it here. Overview Each student will be…