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You just woke up. You turn on your phone.
Wow, there's a bunch of notifications! Social media, reminders, calendars, etc.
You start making your coffee while listening or watching news.
You get ready, you wanna study a lot, be productive.
But there's too much information out there. Too many important tabs open at the same time.
By the end of the day, you feel tired and with one of the worst feelings for me:
"Damn, I wasn't too productive today."
"I don't remember what I learned."
If you feel this way before or continuously, I'm with you. I know that feeling.
That's why, in this article, I wanna tell you what I did to not feel like that anymore.
Article Content:
1. It's Not Your Fault, Your Brain IS a Forgetting Machine
2. Meet the Second Brain
3. Second Brain Examples
4. How to Start Building Your Second Brain
5. Conclusion and Summary
It's Not Your Fault, Your Brain IS a Forgetting Machine
If you read my previous articles about productivity and study techniques, I often mentioned the idea that our brains are a forgetting machine.
Our brain didn't evolve to remember precise details of our daily lives, nor all the information you're learning.
The brain struggles with information.
And that's why you are also struggling while you wanna answer all your social media messages, watching or reading news, studying new topics, and living your life.
It's just too much for us, and especially for our brains.
But there's a concept and philosophy that you can use to get rid of this: the second brain.
Meet The Second Brain
Because of brain struggles with information, we can make its life easier by just letting it be:
Make your biologically brain forget.
But wait! Then how can we not struggle with information?
Well, we can store the information in a brain's extension, an artificial brain.
That artificial brain is your second brain.
It's a philosophy popularized by Tiago Forte, which means to store all the important information in another place.
That place is your second brain.
Let's look at some examples of second brains!
Second Brain Examples
Calendars
When you write an important date in your calendar, your brain doesn't necessarily NEED to remember the date.
You can check your calendar days after, and you will remember or know that date.
By doing this, you are not trying to remember all the important dates or meetings. All of that is stored in your calendar, a second brain for time and dates.
Notes
When you are studying for an exam from a book, you usually highlight and take notes of that.
Of course, you can't remember the whole book, but those notes are storing the important information that you will check later.
Again, you are not trying to memorize everything, you are storing the information in another place: a second brain that "remembers" the information.
Those examples share one thing in common:
They are an extension of your memory.
- By doing this, you don't have to remember when you have a birthday, meeting, or what the book said.
- You can check this in your second brain anytime.
And most importantly:
Your second brain will not forget information. It will always be there.
How To Start Building Your Second Brain
Sounds good, isn't it?
The second brain allows you to remember everything! So you don't need to worry about forgetting, as the information will always be there.
So how can you start building your second brain?
Here are 5 points that you can use to start building it right now:
- Use a Calendar:
I personally use Google Calendar, as it is easier to share with people. Try to store all the meetings and important dates (birthdays, study sessions, etc).
2. Start Taking Notes:
Notes are fundamental for your second brain, and they will also make you learn easier and better!
3. Use a Note Taking Software
There are several softwares you can use to take notes. Some of them are Evernote, Obsidian, and Notion. Those are the most popular ones, there are much more! Explore them and choose what fits better for your needs.
Conclusion
That was a lot of information, right? Let's do a Summary:
- We learned that our brain struggles with information.
- We can make its life easier if we just let it be, but store all the relevant information in a second brain: an extension of our forgetting machine.
- Calendars and notes are an example of that. The information is always there, and we check them anytime we want.
- By doing this, we can keep all the valuable information in one place, our second brain.
And most importantly, the information will always be there.
So … are you going to build your second brain now?
Thanks for reading! Hope you have a Wonderful Day!
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Axel