How many brilliant ideas have you had and forgotten? How many insights have you failed to take action on? How much useful advice have you slowly forgotten as the years have passed?

We feel a constant pressure to be learning, improving ourselves, and making progress. We spend countless hours every year reading, listening, and watching informational content. And yet, where has all that valuable knowledge gone? Where is it when we need it? 

Our brains just aren’t capable of remembering all these details since they can only store a few thoughts at any one time. Fundamentally, our brains are for having ideas, not storing them.

Building a Second Brain is a methodology for saving and systematically reminding us of the ideas, inspirations, insights, and connections we’ve gained through our experience. It provides a clear, actionable path to creating a “Second Brain” – an external, centralized, digital repository for the things you learn and the resources from which they come. A Second Brain ultimately expands our memory and our intellect using modern tools of technology.

Being effective in the world today requires managing many different kinds of information – emails, text messages, messaging apps, online articles, books, podcasts, webinars, meeting notes, and many others.

All of these kinds of content have value, but trying to remember all of it is overwhelming and impractical. By consolidating ideas from these sources, you’ll develop a valuable body of work to advance your projects and goals. You’ll have an ongoing record of personal discoveries, lessons learned, and actionable insights for any situation.

We are already doing most of the work required to consume this content. We spend a significant portion of our careers creating snippets of text, outlines, photos, videos, sketches, diagrams, webpages, notes, or documents. Yet, without a little extra care to preserve these valuable resources, our precious knowledge remains siloed and scattered across dozens of different locations. We fail to build a collection of knowledge that both appreciates in value and can be reused again and again.

By offloading our thinking onto a Second brain, we free our biological brain to imagine, create, and simply be present. We can move through life confident that we will remember everything that matters, instead of floundering through our days struggling to keep track of every detail.

Your Second Brain will serve as an extension of your mind, not only protecting you from the ravages of forgetfulness but also amplifying your efforts as you take on creative challenges.

The Building a Second Brain Methodology will teach you how to:

1. Reduce stress and “information overload” by curating and managing your personal information stream

2. Create a digital environment that promotes clarity and peace of mind

3. Unlock the full value of the wealth of learning resources all around you, such as online courses, webinars, books, articles, forums, and podcasts

4. Find anything you’ve learned, touched, or thought about in the past within seconds

5. Spend less time looking for things and more time doing the best, most creative work you are capable of

6. Cultivate a collection of valuable knowledge and insights over time without having to follow rigid, time-consuming rules

7. Consistently move your projects and goals to completion by organizing and accessing your knowledge in a results-oriented way

8. Turn work “off” and relax, knowing you have a trusted system keeping track of all the details

So, how do you build your Second Brain? 

To guide you in the process of creating your own Second Brain, I’ve developed a simple four-step method called CODE, which stands for Capture, Organize, Distill, and Express.

These are the steps not only to build your Second Brain but also to work with it going forward. 

CODE is a proven process for consistently turning the information you consume into creative output and concrete results. And it’s based on timeless principles that humans throughout history have used to create anything imaginable. 

The four steps of CODE are flexible and agnostic for any profession, role, or career and for whatever notetaking methods and platforms you prefer. You’re probably already doing them already in some form, whether you realize it or not.