Productivity Challenge | Build Our Second Brain (9)

This session will be hands-on. We will start with understanding the concept of the second brain and then work on building one ready for you to use. If you are new to note-taking systems such as Notion, EverNotes, or Apple Notes, you may focus on understanding the concept, join our note-taking sessions, and then take time to build it later. 

Day 1 What is a Second Brain? (1 hour) 
A second brain is a Personal Knowledge Base (PKB) through which you extend your mind with digitized notes and make it available anytime for quick lookups. The system saves your brain from thinking more and making more decisions than remembering things. The necessary actions for making an effective PKB include:

• Capturing everything you learn in notes.
• Adding digital notes into a "playbook."
• Organizing and connecting the content.
• Processing the messages to refine the quality.

We will apply the Zettelkasten method and PARA methods. 

• The Zettelkasten Method is a note-taking method. It consists of four notes: fleet note, literature note, reference note, and permanent note. The process starts from a fleet note that quickly captures thoughts and ideas. Later, we can move references to reference notes and turn a fleet note into a literature note by adding our topics, understandings, and questions. After translating the subject into our own words, we finalize our notes with permanent notes from the literature note. In the permanent notes, we express our viewpoints and connect to all relevant notes.
• The PARA method a knowledge management system with a hierarchal relationship is between the actionable elements, including missions, projects, and tasks, and a correlation relationship between notes and other components. PARA also introduces the archiving workflow to differentiate active vs. inactive content, creating spotlights in the knowledge management system for better focus. PARA stands for the Project, the Area (of interests), the Resource, and the Archive. A project comprises a series of tasks, has to complete within a limited time, and links to one or multiple areas of interest. An area (of interest) establishes the meaning of a project and is also called a goal or the scope of demands. A resource is an idea, a topic, or a theme of interest. An archive is used to mark inactive items.

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Day 2 Build a Second Brain System (2 hours) 
We will spend 2 hours organizing your past notes to build a second brain system. 

Wait for a second. Do you really need a second brain? You may wonder if I can search google or some good website to answer my questions. Why do I need my own? This is a great question. The goal is about customization and tailored for yourself. Here is some content that you will not have on public websites:

• Your personal contacts and related information. 
• Your learning notes

If you don't need to build this, skip it and start working on it until you feel the necessity. Now, you can get started. Depending on which note-taking tool you pick, you can read the following guidelines on creating a second brain system.

• How to take notes in Notion
• How to take notes in Apple Notes
• Comparing Note-taking Applications
  

Day 3 Use Your Second Brain System (30min) 
Now you have your second brain system, give it a try to resolve one or two problems. If you have limited content, then keep adding your content. With our sample data, you can try answering questions like:

• What should I consider when hosting a meeting? 
• What should I do to improve critical productivity? 

Drop me an email to tell me how you feel about the 2nd brain system by writing your thoughts or answer one or all of the questions as follows:

• Do you think the 2nd brain system work for you? 
• What do you like and don't like about the 2nd brain system? 
• What are your challenges in building and using your 2nd brain system? 

The critical task away from our second brain discussion is that our brain is for thinking, not memorizing. We can use a note-taking system to build knowledge that helps us remember and assist our future considerations. ​

Next Topic: The GDT Method