Note-taking

Second Brains in the Wild

I’m often surprised when people find the idea of a “Second Brain” – a system of knowledge management that lives outside one’s head – to be fanciful or unrealistic. When in fact, the practice of saving and storing important information in a trusted place is ubiquitous. Professionals of all kinds have developed ways of documenting…

Read More »

What do you call your Second Brain?

A system of personal knowledge management, which I call a “Second Brain,” is an indispensable part of any modern professional’s toolkit. Because it is such a personal tool, it’s important to give it a name that evokes the special relationship you have with it. Here is a collection of alternative names for a Second Brain…

Read More »

Octavia Estelle Butler: Notetaking as Science Fiction

Octavia Estelle Butler was born in 1947 in Pasadena, CA. Known in her early years as “Estelle,” she was raised by a single, widowed mother who worked domestic jobs to make ends meet. Painfully shy and introverted from a young age, Estelle became an easy target for bullying at school. Her shyness combined with slight…

Read More »

Second Brain Case Study: Sleep Training an Infant

Many of the case studies I share about how I use digital notes involve major writing projects, because that is the most challenging kind of project I use my Second Brain for. But there is a different kind of use case that is just as meaningful: everyday life challenges. Challenges like troubleshooting the wifi at…

Read More »

The Godfather Notebook

In 1969, studio executives at Paramount Pictures were desperate to find a film director for a new movie they had purchased the rights to. It was to be a crime drama based on the New York Mafia. One after another, all the top directors of the era turned the project down. They all found it…

Read More »

Building a Second Brain in Miro

I recently hired designer and writer Michael Dean to summarize my Building a Second Brain course in visual form. Michael is the writing coach and lead facilitator for The Writer’s Studio, a new cohort-based writing workshop he recently launched in partnership with David Perell. I asked Michael to take the course as a participant, and to document the main lessons…

Read More »

Artificial Time

We’ve been led to believe that we are at the precipice of an Artificial Intelligence explosion. Yet the progress in our digital assistants and self-driving cars seems to have stalled. Computers choke at even the simplest requests, and most of the digital world continues to be handcrafted by humans. But quietly, hidden in plain sight,…

Read More »

Teachable Workshop: How to Take Digital Notes with Tiago Forte

I recently taught this workshop on How to Take Digital Notes, hosted by Teachable, the online learning platform I use for my courses. This is an introductory workshop for people just getting into this crazy world of Second Brains, personal knowledge management, and digital notetaking. I presented some of the core concepts you’ll need to know…

Read More »

Book Update #1: Popularizing the Second Brain

The #1 question I’m receiving these days is “When does your book come out?”

(If you’re just joining, I’m writing a book based on my online course Building a Second Brain)

So I’ve decided to give you all an update on how it’s going and what I’ve learned so far.

Read More »

The 9 Biggest Myths and Misconceptions about Building a Second Brain

A “Second Brain” is a trusted system that lives outside your head and helps you organize your digital world, cultivate your best ideas, and dramatically expand your creative output. By creating your own Second Brain, you can make use of the time you’re already spending reading, listening, watching, and communicating to create a valuable asset…

Read More »

Building a Second Brain: The Executive Edition

The Executive Edition of our online course Building a Second Brain is designed for entrepreneurs, executives, and leaders who want to hire Tiago as their personal coach, dive headfirst into the deep end, and build their Second Brain at an accelerated pace. Spots at this tier are limited, providing a more private, intimate space where we can speak frankly about…

Read More »