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Every day we are faced with a huge amount of information and usually forget most of it. However, there are techniques that help to save and organize valuable data, so that later they can be used in work and not only.
Every day, people around the world generate 500 million tweets, 249 billion emails, 4 million GB of Facebook posts, 65 million WhatsApp messages, and upload 720 hours of new content to YouTube. However, the human brain is not able to efficiently process the entire array of received data. But if you properly organize information from different sources, you can get valuable material to promote your projects and achieve your goals. Trends figured out how the second brain method helps in this.
The second brain is a methodology for storing and systematically reminding ourselves of the ideas, concepts, and even connections that we have made through our experiences. It allows you to expand the possibilities of storing the information received thanks to modern technological tools.
The methodology is designed not only to preserve ideas, but also to bring them to life. The “second brain”, as follows from the definition, works as an external centralized digital storage of information that is available at any time and will not let you down, unlike its own memory.
What is a “second brain” for?
Using the information storage technique will be useful for those who want to:
- consistently bring projects to completion;
- use personal knowledge to generate income, taking advantage of the rapidly growing knowledge economy;
- discover patterns and connections between ideas;
- reduce stress and “information overload” by managing your personal information flow;
- structure knowledge and skills to apply them in a career or business;
- accumulate knowledge and ideas in a convenient format.
How to use the technique
The process of creating a “second brain” includes several stages.
Saving Information
The first step in creating a second brain is “fixing” ideas that are worth keeping. To do this, you need to highlight recurring topics and issues that you have to constantly return to. Then you need to determine what information is available, and what knowledge needs to be connected, mixed and matched.
As a rule, special applications are used to fix notes, such as Evernote, Microsoft OneNote, Bear, Notion and others. They can store snippets of text, links, images, web pages, screenshots, PDFs, and other attachments that are permanently saved and synced across all devices.
Data systematization
It is best to organize the saved content by projects (ideas, goals).
This ensures that the information is used as efficiently as possible.
This principle is used by the PARA organizational system (“Projects” – “Areas” – “Resources” – “Archives”). It applies the principle of projects to organize information and tools for obtaining it. Projects are a series of tasks related to a specific goal that have deadlines. Areas are areas of activity that need to be maintained over time. Resources are topics of ongoing interest. Archives are inactive data from the other three categories.
Information sifting
When data is organized logically, it becomes easier to find patterns in it. For convenience, you can write brief summaries that will summarize the information and highlight the key in it: terms with explanations, links to source sites, and so on. Such notes should be created in stages, summarizing information over time. For example, you can first save several large passages from the book, then write a note for each of them, and then combine these entries into one with the main conclusion. It is better to provide notes with informative headings that will make each one stand out.
data usage
A common problem for people who love to learn is that they absorb more and more information but never put it into practice. Therefore, it is worth switching efforts from information consumption to creating new content. These can be texts, websites, photos, videos or live performances.
The first step towards this will be the creation of intermediate projects, which can include any content on the chosen topic. Over time, these projects can be supplemented with new information and improved.
For example, you can create a simple website and gradually add more pages, or you can publish a draft blog post and edit it after the first feedback.
Collected notes can be combined to form new perspectives, theories, and new strategies. Since all the information has already been collected and systematized, it is easier for the brain to build cause-and-effect relationships and find previously invisible patterns in it.
What are the best apps to use
There are many types of programs that can be used to store and access personal knowledge. But they all serve only one purpose: Word processing applications (such as Microsoft Word) are best when special formatting or printing options are needed; social media apps (Facebook and Twitter) come in handy when you need maximum social engagement; cloud storage services (Dropbox, Google Drive or iCloud Drive) will be needed to share or access files on multiple devices; collaborative editing apps (Google Docs) are best suited for real-time collaboration.
When creating a “second brain”, it is better to choose a special note-taking application that will meet the tasks of the work and will allow you to store and work with information most efficiently. Such services must meet a number of requirements:
- Quick capture and editing of text. Well, if the service supports the translation of texts from pictures into a document format. For example, there is no such option in Google Docs.
- Scale up to thousands of notes with no performance hit. One of the most important principles of creating a “second brain” is that each note should contain information from only one source and be compact. This results in the creation of thousands of notes in a relatively short amount of time. It is very important that the collection can scale quickly without performance lags.
- Basic formatting options (such as bold, italic, underline, font colors, and highlight) are an essential feature for quickly annotating text in a note-taking app.
- The service should provide a quick search among thousands of notes both by words in the body of the text, and by headings and metadata. Ideally, the search feature also includes autocomplete (suggestions as you type).
- Ability to process images and attachments. Notes sometimes need to be illustrated with images, and in the form of pictures, not links for viewing. Other file types such as videos, GIFs, PDFs, audio files, web pages should also be included as attachments if needed.
- Private space with shared access. It is important that the note app serves as a personal space for ideas, where you can write down random thoughts, personal reflections, sketch out diagrams without fear of criticism. However, you need to have a way to share these ideas as soon as they are ready to be shown. For this, the exchange function built directly into the application should serve.
- At least three levels of hierarchy. This is necessary to properly organize a large number of notes. In Evernote 3, levels are individual notes contained in notebooks that are contained in stacks. Other applications may use folders instead of notebooks, but it’s important that a group of related notes can be placed in one place.
- Lots of ways to collect information. It is important that the application be able to import data in different ways: for example, using a web clipper (for capturing web pages), a menu bar helper (for accessing through the menu bar of a computer), an email capture (a custom email address to which you can forward emails for capture) and so on.
- Native and web versions. The app must have a web version in order to access your notes from other computers, but the native app must provide primary access. It should also give offline access to notes and a way to save them locally backed up.
- Synchronization across multiple devices. Although some applications allow you to set up synchronization manually using third-party services, it is more convenient when the service itself performs this task.
- Export as text. This is necessary to protect against data loss and save information when switching to a new service. The export should be in separate text files, not one giant database entry.
- Parallel viewing. The ability to compare and contrast two notes and move information between them as needed is essential to creative work.
- Markers or lists. Lists are one of the easiest ways to brainstorm and plan, and they’re perfect for taking informal notes. While a list might just be a collection of text entries with no defined structure, it’s useful if it has bullets or numbers.
- Automatic date stamps. In notebooks or folders, the best way to organize notes into groups is by the date they were created. The note taking app should automatically tag each note with a date.
- Tags. The service should allow you to create and apply multiple tags to any note.
Top digital note taking apps
There are several popular services that can be used to create a “second brain”:
Evernote (iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, browsers) – allows you to scan documents, save content from the Internet, syncs across all devices. There is a Teams option for collaboration. You can use it for free, or choose the Personal or Professional plan (₽219 and ₽299 per month), which offers more storage and additional integrations with Slack, Salesforce, Microsoft Teams and other services.
Microsoft OneNote (iOS, Android, Mac, Windows) – Supports tagging, pen and finger inking, audio notes, inserting and saving clips, and saving on click with OneNote Web Clipper. The service is available both separately and as part of a Microsoft 365 subscription.
Bear (MacOS and iOS) – Supports the simplified Markdown markup language. Thanks to this, you can easily format what you write, add headings, highlight text, insert separators, add several types of lists and todo items. You can download a note in HTML, PDF, DOCX, TXT, RTF, Markdown itself and JPEG. Supports a hashtag system to organize note threads. The service is free, and the Pro subscription costs ₽99 per month.
Google Keep (browsers, iOS, Android) – Supports quick search and sorting of notes by color, content, or whether they are shared. Supports voice to text translation. Offers sync, share and reminder feature. The service is free.
RoamResearch, Notion, Simplenote (iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, Linux), Zoho Notebook (Windows, Mac, iOS, Android), Notability (iOS, Mac) and Goodnotes (iOS) are also good for taking notes.
Weaknesses of the method
The idea of creating a “second brain” revolves around storing all the information we receive in a digital database, whether we think it will find immediate use or not. The catch is that people are often fired up with ideas and projects when they don’t have the ability to capture information (for example, there is no Internet or device at hand to write down a thought).
The emergence of the second brain technique is due to the expansion of the capabilities of cloud technologies. Thus, the condition for the successful construction of a “second brain” is the presence of an unlimited storage space. At the same time, free note-taking services do not offer this option, and you have to pay for the “memory”.