One of the most common questions I’ve received since the release of Building a Second Brain has been how I used my own Second Brain to write it. There is absolutely no way I could have done this without my Second Brain. I honestly cannot imagine how anyone undertakes an endeavor of this magnitude without some kind of external content management system to depend on.
This is an introduction to Building a Second Brain, the proven method to organize your digital life and unlock your creative potential. How many brilliant ideas have you had and forgotten? How many insights have you failed to take action on? How much useful advice have you slowly forgotten as the years have passed? We…
Our digital world is constantly colliding and overlapping with the digital worlds of others. No one is an island, and that is especially true in our hyperconnected age where information can be so easily shared and intermixed. I’ve long advocated for individuals to create a personal system of knowledge management to help them skillfully navigate…
The modern era didn’t start with the invention of the car, the television, or the internet. It was the arrival of the humble filing cabinet – a simple metal box with drawers that held pieces of paper on their edge – that changed everything. As Craig Robertson argues in his book The Filing Cabinet: A…
I joined Francesco D’Alessio, the host of Keep Productive, on his YouTube channel. His mission is to help you find the most suitable productivity tools for your work and life. We discussed: Why I’ve used Evernote for 10 years My favorite capture, to-do, and calendar apps What is the bottleneck to creativity The power of a weekly review…
After teaching over 5,000 students how to build a Second Brain, I know that there’s no one right way and no one true app. I also noticed that my personal setup not always resonates with everyone. Most students find it helpful to see how other people have implemented the principles of the Building a Second…
Imagine you sit down to work at your computer determined to really get things done. You brew a strong cup of coffee, turn off your phone, put on your favorite playlist, and resolve to not get up before you’ve made real progress on your most important tasks. Even if you already know what your top…
From the Dawn of Email to the Rise of Personal Dashboards In the beginning… was email. The very first email was sent 50 years ago, in the spring of 1971. The incredible spread of email since then unleashed an unimaginable torrent of information into our everyday lives. And to this day, we still haven’t recovered….
We’re supposed to hate email and everything it represents. But I have a confession to make. I love email. (Scandalous, I know.) When it comes to email, I always think about the alternative: What would I do if there was no email at all? Write letters? Telegrams? Or most terrifying of all… get on the phone…
I recently hosted Dan Charnas, author of the book Work Clean: The Life-Changing Power of Mise-en-Place to Organize Your Life, Work, and Mind (affiliate link), for an in-depth conversation about the most interesting, impactful principles from his work. Dan takes us on a fascinating journey through his career in the music business, as one of the first…
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…
Knowledge work is unique among skilled professions in that we lack a culture of systematic improvement. Other skilled trades – from carpenters to welders to nurses to pilots – have been around long enough and are repeatable enough that the best practices are widely understood. How to frame a door, how to weld a seam,…
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