My 26 Favorite Essays of 2019

As part of my year-end review, I always review my favorite reading of the year. These usually tend to be “long-form” online essays diving deep into interesting ideas. Revisiting my notes on these articles serves three functions: Helps me absorb their ideas more deeply Serves as a reminder to think about how I can use…

Opensourced: Increasing The Output of The World’s Creative Professionals

I recently spoke with Ian Lenny via videoconference for his series showcasing interviews with entrepreneurs, experts, high performers, and thinkers. We talked about my Building a Second Brain methodology, and what I’ve learned about the most effective ways for people to build one for themselves. Watch or listen below, or visit the episode webpage for…

Decoding Superhuman Podcast: Distributed Cognition with Tiago Forte

I recently spoke with Boomer Anderson on his podcast Decoding Superhuman, about my ideas on productivity and knowledge management. Including: [2:18] Why I moved to Mexico City [5:19] My influences in developing productivity theories [9:14] Benefits of network effect and momentum on productivity [17:14] The guy who doesn’t like Cal Newport [27:56] Organizing the endless…

Interview with Conor White-Sullivan, Founder of Roam

This is a one-hour interview, discussion, demonstration, and debate between Conor White-Sullivan, founder of “note-taking tool for networked thought” Roam, and myself. We’ve exchanged many messages on Twitter and other platforms about our differing approaches to knowledge management and note-taking. In this in-depth conversation, we talk about Conor’s background and what led him to dedicate…

Notion as a Second Brain Tour

I’m very excited and proud to announce that I’ll be co-organizing a series of free meetups in cooperation with Notion, the up-and-coming productivity and knowledge management software. We’ll be hosting events in the following 6 cities to start, with possibly more to come later next year (click each link to register): Mexico City (12/4) Sao…

Making Knowledge Work Visible

By Tasshin Fogleman In my time as a reader and writer, I’ve discovered something I didn’t expect: reading multiple books at the same time, or writing multiple essays at the same time, increases not only the quantity of books I read, but also the quality of the essays I write. As a young reader, I…

Black Friday Promotion: Last Chance to Join Building a Second Brain

My favorite scene in all the Harry Potter books is when Harry uses a “Pensieve.” A Pensieve is a large, enchanted dish into which wizards can pour their memories, so that they can later be “re-lived” in full detail: (Here’s a 5-minute clip from the movie Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire in which…

Introducing Forte Academy

Since 2013, we’ve helped thousands of students hone their professional skills through our courses in productivity and personal effectiveness. We’ve seen them gain knowledge, master new skills, and take on new perspectives that have had a profound impact not only on their careers, but on their quality of life. Now we are kicking things up…

The Creative Process Workshop

We’ve developed a live, in-person creative writing workshop called The Creative Process. First prototyped in New York City, we’ve since delivered it in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Arizona, with many more cities around the world planned for the coming year. As the name suggests, this isn’t just a workshop to help you write better….

Zen Courses Podcast With Janelle Allen

I recently joined Janelle Allen on her podcast to talk about “organizing” our learning for better productivity. She is the founder of Zen Courses, where she helps business owners apply learning & marketing strategies to create profitable online courses that change lives. Here’s some of the things we talked about: 5:08 My entrepreneurial journey 9:17 The…

Why Now is the Time to Build A Second Brain: 7 Trends Driving the Note-Taking Revolution

Illustration by Mark Weaver We are living in the midst of an Informational Apocalypse. The volume of information we’re exposed to every day continues to explode without regard for the number of hours in a day. “Information overload” has evolved from a narrow preoccupation to a pervasive state of mind. Every minute of our day…