Building a Second Brain: A Proven Method to Organise Your Digital Life and Unlock Your Creative Potential

by Tiago Forte

You can’t fail, because failure is just more information, to be captured and used as fuel for your journey.

When you use up too much energy taking notes, you have little left over for the subsequent steps that add far more value: making connections, imagining possibilities, formulating theories, and creating new ideas of your own. Not to mention, if you make reading and learning into unpleasant experiences, over time you’re going to find yourself doing less and less of them. The secret to making reading a habit is to make it effortless and enjoyable.

When something resonates with us, it is our emotion-based, intuitive mind telling us it is interesting before our logical mind can explain why.

Thinking doesn’t just produce writing; writing also enriches thinking.

Postponing our goals and desires to “later” often ends up depriving us of the very experiences we need to grow.

While the Weekly Review is grounded and practical, I recommend doing a Monthly Review that is a bit more reflective and holistic.

We can’t always control what happens to us, but we can choose the lens we look through.

Emptying ourselves of our jumble of thoughts requires courage, because without our thoughts as distractions, we are left to sit with uncomfortable questions about our future and our purpose.

That is why building a Second Brain is a journey of personal growth.

The purpose of knowledge is to be shared. What’s the point of knowing something if it doesn’t positively impact anyone, not even yourself?