Let your second brain do it

We consume data in fast and linear feeds: emails, chats, stories, reels, Slack/Teams messages etc. Today’s content will be forgotten tomorrow. If we find something valuable in the feed, we collect that information as a bookmark or a file. But we forget it eventually.

The second brain doesn’t forget. It connects all of your knowledge. Unlike the viral and temporary feed, the second brain slowly and meaningfully builds your knowledge over time.

How does it work? You simply link your information together in a way that makes sense to you.

I built my second brain in Notion. I use links and tags to connect all my notes and files on topics like design, consulting, finance, psychology and management. For instance, I have two pages: one about “Presenting to Executives” and another about “Public Speaking”. I think my public speaking notes apply to executive presentations, so I type “@Public Speaking” inside my “Presenting to Executives” page and they both get linked to each other. Referring to my notes like this allows me to jump between related concepts, instead of wasting my brain power remembering files and folders.

As you grow in experience, so does your knowledge. Building a second brain will free up your primary brain to think better and faster.

Don’t just collect dots. Connect the dots.