Okay. It is another one of those phases where I am writing more. Mostly because I am reading a lot lately and trying to optimize things. Even through stuff like temptation bundling. But while doing that, I realized that everything I am doing right now revolves around one big topic: The Second Brain.

Second what?

How many brilliant ideas have you had and then forgotten?
How many insights have you failed to put into action?
How much useful advice have you slowly lost track of over the years?

We feel this constant pressure to learn, improve, and make progress. Every year, we spend countless hours reading, listening to, and watching information.
But where did all that valuable knowledge go? Where is it when we actually need it? Our brain can only hold a few thoughts at a time. Our brain is for having ideas, not storing them.

That one sentence was my wallpaper for a long time. Almost as long as:
Do not let perfect be the enemy of good enough.
Building A Second Brain* is a method where we can store and systematically recall the ideas, inspirations, insights, and connections we have gained through our experiences. It expands our memory and our intellect by using modern tools of technology and networks.
This method is not just about preserving these ideas, but about turning them into reality. It offers a clear, actionable path to creating a „second brain“ – an external, central, digital backup for the things you learn and the resources they come from.
To be successful in today’s world, you have to manage many different types of information – emails, texts, messaging apps, online articles, books, podcasts, webinars, memos, and many others.

All these types of content are valuable, but trying to remember them all is overwhelming and impractical.
By bringing ideas together from these sources, you develop a valuable resource that moves you forward with your projects and goals. You will have an ongoing record of personal discoveries, lessons learned, and actionable insights for any situation. I thought it was really cool back then to find old notebooks and look through them to see what kind of ideas I used to have.
Anyone who knows me can probably remember the time when I always had a notebook and a pen in my bag?
I would still like that today, but my problem is that I always forget it in some bag.
I love writing.
Like, with a pen.
That is why I use my iPad* so much – even if it is not the same – but what do you do when you do not have your notebook with you?

At least I always have my phone!

That is how I came across the Second Brain method. Do not ask me exactly how! Most of the work needed to consume this content is already being done. We spend a large part of our professional lives creating snippets of text, sketches, photos, videos, diagrams, web pages, notes, or documents.
However, if we do not store these valuable resources carefully, our valuable knowledge stays in silos and scattered across dozens of different places.
We fail to build a collection of knowledge that both grows in value and can be used over and over again.
By moving our thinking into a „second brain„, we free up our biological brain to imagine, create, and simply be present. We can go through life with the confidence that we will remember everything important, instead of struggling through the day trying to keep every detail in our head.

My second brain serves as an extension of my mind and not only protects me from forgetfulness but also boosts my efforts when I face creative challenges. The first step to building a second brain is to „capture“ the ideas and insights you find valuable. Ask yourself:

  • What are the recurring themes and questions I keep coming back to in my work and life?
  • What insightful, valuable, and impactful information do I already have access to that could be worth something?
  • What knowledge do I want to connect, combine, and regularly bring back to the surface to spark future thoughts on these topics?

Most of the time, we take in information pretty randomly – we send ourselves a quick note via email, brainstorm in a Word document, or take notes on books we read – but then we do nothing with it.
We are already consuming or producing this information; we just need to keep it in a single, central place, like a digital note-taking app such as Evernote, Microsoft OneNote, Bear, Notion, Obsidian or others.
These apps make it easy to capture small snippets of text and can also store hyperlinks, images, web pages, screenshots, PDFs, and other attachments, all of which are permanently saved and synced across all devices.

I have tried everything

I have tested a lot. When I started building a digital memory, I put everything into Notion. Then I tried different tools.
From Apple Notes, from OneNote, from Evernote, GoodNotes, Notability. I had all the apps, but that was exactly the problem. Everything was somewhere and nothing was exactly where you needed it and could find it quickly. But just recently, I moved everything again.

Believe me, I have watched all the videos on YouTube about the „best digital note taking app.“

But if you ask seven people, you get eight opinions.
But what everyone at least somewhat agreed on was the statement:
A different app, a different system works best for everyone. Take what fits you. OKAY. I thought.
I think Notion is cool, I will take Notion.
Looks great. Has cool shortcuts on the iPhone. Sweet!

Too bad I could no longer take cool notes on my iPad during meetings.
Is it really worth it to me? For a long time, I avoided giving an answer, but at some point, enough was enough.

I HAVE TO BE ABLE TO WRITE IN MY NOTE APP ON MY IPAD WITH MY PEN.

Then there was the wish that I need the app always and everywhere. Phone, laptop, work computer, iPad, Apple Watch??

And it became clear pretty quickly where it was headed:

Microsoft OneNote

OMG?! MicRosOft OnEnOtE?1
Yes, exactly. This program. Of all the ones I have to choose from, probably the one that is the least sexy. But you know what? It is available everywhere.

I am sitting at the Windows PC and want to throw a PDF in there: No problem!
On the MacBook and want to type something quickly? OneNote is there.
On the iPhone? Yes! iPad? No problem!
Take handwritten notes with the Apple Pencil? Easy!
Apple Watch? Hold my beer!
Always and everywhere.

That was the reason for me to put everything into OneNote. I even have a BrainDump folder where the stuff I dictate to my watch goes so I can sort it later. God, should I write a post about OneNote and how I use it sometime??

Back to topic

By keeping a diverse collection of information in one central place, things can mix and mingle and help us see unexpected connections and patterns in our thinking. Plus, we have a central go-to spot when we need raw creative material, supporting research, or a shot of inspiration.

The following three guidelines will help you capture only the most important and useful information in your second brain.

Think like a curator

It is tempting to turn on our mobile device or computer and immediately dive into the flood of information presented to us. Much of this information is useful and interesting – articles from experts that could make us more productive, tips on exercise or nutrition, or fascinating stories from around the world. But if we do not decide consciously and strategically what we consume, we will always be at the mercy of what others want to show us.

Instead, adopt the mindset of a curator – objective, opinionated, and reflective. When you come across social media updates, online articles, and podcasts throughout your day, save them for later instead of engaging with them immediately. When you start collecting content, you can specifically choose which sources you want to consume.

Once you start gathering valuable knowledge in one central place, you will naturally start to see patterns and connections. An article you read about gardening will give you an insight into online marketing. (It can happen.) A casual comment from a customer gives you the idea to create a website with customer testimonials. A business card you kept from a long time ago will remind you to follow up and suggest a collaboration.

You can simplify and speed up this process significantly by breaking your notes down into actionable, bite-sized summaries. For example, it would be almost impossible to go through ten pages of notes on a book you read last year in the middle of a chaotic workday. But if you only had the most important points of the book in a three-point summary, you could quickly recall the content of the book and potentially apply it to something you are currently working on.

The following three guidelines will help you summarize your notes and turn them into actionable, useful tools for implementation.

Design notes for your future self An important mindset for handling our notes is to „design notes for your future self.“
Every time we create or edit a note, we can make sure it is easier to find and use the next time. As a rule of thumb, remember: Every time you touch a note, you should make it better. This could mean adding an informative title the first time you come across a note, highlighting the most important points the next time you see it, and at some point later adding a link to a related note. And eventually, it might actually turn into a blog post?

By spreading the heavy lifting of organizing your notes over a long period of time, you not only save time and effort but also ensure that the most frequently used (and therefore most valuable) notes naturally rise to the surface, like on a ski slope where the most popular routes naturally get deeper grooves. (Super annoying by the way…)

Create

All this capturing, summarizing, connecting, and organizing ultimately has one purpose: to create tangible results in the real world. Whether we want to lose weight, get promoted at work, start a side business, or advocate for a cause we believe in – the true purpose of learning is to turn our knowledge into effective action.

With a large supply of supporting material in your second brain, you never have to sit in front of a blank page and try to „think of something smart.“ All creativity stands on the shoulders of giants, and you have the advantage that you have already documented the best ideas of these giants in your notes! With a second brain at your disposal, you always have something to inspire you, remind you, support you, or guide you when you commit to the projects and interests that matter to you. You can draw on the sum of your life experience and knowledge rather than just what happens to come to mind in the moment.

Creating a Second Brain has also helped me immensely to stop just blindly consuming things. A common challenge for people who love to learn is that they constantly feed themselves more and more information but never actually apply it. The goals and experiences that would enrich life are endlessly postponed while waiting for the „right“ knowledge that you supposedly need to get started.

Information becomes knowledge, but how?

Information only becomes knowledge – something personal, anchored, grounded – when we apply it. That is why we should try as much as possible to create new things instead of consuming information. The things we create – whether they are texts, websites, photos, videos, or live performances – embody and express the knowledge we have gained from personal experience. We all need to contribute to bringing something good, true, or beautiful into being. Creating things is not only very fulfilling, but it can also open up unexpected opportunities, bring us together with new friends or collaborators, and have a positive impact on others – by inspiring, entertaining, or informing them.

Create smaller, reusable units of work

Once you start gathering a collection of valuable knowledge in external form, a completely different way of working becomes not only possible but necessary.

You will start to see your projects as individual pieces. I call them „intermediate packages,“ which can contain any type of content we have already mentioned: a set of notes from a team meeting, a list of relevant research results, a brainstorm with coworkers, a slide diagram analyzing the market, or a list of action items from a conference call, for example.

Instead of trying to move the entire project forward at once, which is like trying to roll a giant boulder uphill, it is more effective to end each work session – whether it lasts 15 minutes or 3 hours – by completing a single intermediate package. This allows you to work in smaller steps and use any available window of time, while getting plenty of feedback and taking frequent breaks. This leads not only to higher quality work but also to the motivation and inspiration we need to do our best work. You can then save these packages in your Second Brain and use them again the next time you have a similar task.

Share your work with the world

Building a Second Brain brings many benefits: less stress, better focus, more insights, and higher productivity. But the real payoff comes at the end when you make something out of your collected knowledge and share it with the world.

It can be tempting to wait until everything is „finished,“ until you have all the information you think you need, and until all sources have been double-checked and verified. But as you keep collecting and saving content, reviewing and summarizing it, creating a series of intermediate packages, and then feeding them back into your second brain, you will realize that there is no such thing as a finished product.

Everything is in flux, everything is a work in progress, and everything you publish is tied to a „Version 1.0.“ This can be a huge relief – since nothing is ever finished, you do not need to wait to get started. You can publish a simple website now and gradually add more pages when you have time. You can publish a draft of a blog post now and revise it later after getting feedback. You could even publish an ebook in the Kindle Store, and all future updates to the manuscript will sync wirelessly with everyone who bought the book!

If you keep sharing your work with others – whether it is with your family, your friends, your colleagues, or on social media – all sorts of benefits will happen. You will meet new „collaborators“ you never thought would find your work interesting. You will find clients or customers, in some cases even when you were not looking for them at all. Others will give you their reactions, comments, and appreciation (and occasionally criticism). You will find that you belong to a community that shares your interests and values. To achieve something meaningful or important, you have to work with others, and the incredible power of the internet now allows us to find each other, no matter how obscure or weird our interests are.

What can be said in summary

Every note in your Second Brain is a record of something you have experienced in your life – whether you read a book, had an interesting conversation, or finished a project at work. When you have all your most valuable ideas at your fingertips at all times, you no longer have to struggle to remember everything you have learned.

As your Second Brain gains momentum over weeks and months, you will start to become different. You will no longer see things in isolation, but as part of a network of ideas where everything affects everything else. You will realize that something you learned at work about effective communication also applies to your holiday debate with the family… A random fact you read in an airplane magazine will prove useful in a blog post you are writing. You start thinking in the systems and principles you learned while summarizing and repeating, and you see them everywhere. Of course, it sounds extremely time-consuming at first, and yes, it is. But I have really developed a love for looking at, sorting, and refining my notes from the „Quicknotes“ folder in my OneNote (okay, fine, I will write something about how I use OneNote eventually). Then you relive what you experienced in a different way. It is just crazy how fast you forget things from two days ago and only think of them because you made a quick note.

Your mind will work differently and learn to rely on this external tool to draw on resources, references, and research far beyond what it can remember on its own. You start to see „your work“ as an integrated whole that you can point to, shape, and steer in a direction you choose. You become more objective and open-minded, because if a single idea does not work, you know you have a huge reservoir of other ideas you can implement.

Over time, you will realize that everything you learn and experience makes sense. You can see the basic structure of your life in the notes you create. Why you do things, what you really want, what is really important, and what is not. Your Second Brain becomes a mirror reflecting back to you who you think you are, who you want to be, and who you could become. Because you can capture and use everything, every experience you have becomes an opportunity to learn and grow.

When this self-awareness becomes clear to you, you look at your collected notes and realize that you already have everything you need to get started. You start combining the ideas and developing new perspectives, theories, and strategies. Ideas about society, art, psychology, spirituality, and technology will blend and produce ideas you never consciously considered. You will be shocked by the elegance and power of what emerges from your notes. Sounds weird, but it is really true. Even I, standing in front of an empty notebook at the beginning, would never have thought I would ever write about it like this!

This enlightenment will not just exist in your head. People notice. They will notice that you can draw on an unusually large wealth of knowledge in an instant. They will admire your amazing memory, but they do not know that you are never actually trying to remember anything.

Building a Second Brain consists of a series of behaviors that you use to turn incoming information into finished creative projects. Instead of endlessly optimizing yourself and trying to become a productivity machine that never deviates from the plan, you optimize an external system that is more reliable than you will ever be. This gives you the freedom to imagine, to wonder, and to move toward whatever makes you feel alive in the here and now.