A Second Brain 🕹️
Monday Minutes No. 16 (October 19, 2020)
Hi friends,
Last week, we talked about thinking for a living. Today, we’ll talk about managing that knowledge.
For years, I struggled to systematize all the information I consumed and the ideas I created in my head. I’m the type of person who needs to scribble my thoughts right away. On the spot. Or else, they’d drift to oblivious daydreams, and I would remember nothing.
From a pocket notebook, my notes started to spread all over the place. Google Keep, smartphone notes, post-its, scratch papers. You name it. I wrote everywhere.
I didn’t know what it was called back then, but I knew I had to organize my learning so that my future self can benefit.
When I came across Tiago Forte’s Building a Second Brain, it all made sense. I needed a personal knowledge management system. I had to outsource the “librarian work” so that my brain can focus on creative and analytical thinking. The PARA framework is the ultimate game-changer for me. Instead of organizing my notes according to topic, I now distribute them to buckets of Projects, Areas, Resources, and Archive.
Source: Maggie Appleton
In the Productivi-TEA framework I shared last time, we learned that our brain budget is limited.
With a system in place, you can maximize your return on attention, or ROA.
How does it work for me?
I consider Monday Minutes an Area in PARA. Whether an idea is under psychology, productivity, or artificial intelligence, if I consider it a topic for the newsletter, I nest it under the MM folder. Instead of merely collecting notes, this makes me more intentional with information at hand.
Highlight the internet ✍️
One important concept in BASB is knowledge capture. Once an idea hits you, you have to capture it in whatever form. With the temptation of infinite scrolling, it’s hard to remember that striking quote or that unique data insight. But, with Liner, you can highlight passages on the internet and automatically archive all those in your account.
One question for you:
What golden ideas might leave you if you don’t organize them?
Happy Monday,
Kiara
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Thanks for hanging out!