This blog post is about a book titled “Building a Second Brain” written by Tiago Forte

Where It All Started

The book begins with the author sharing a personal story that sparked his curiosity about note-taking. He describes how diligent note-taking allowed him to research and better understand the source of his chronic body pain. By using those notes to identify potential remedies and ultimately find relief, he realized that the same approach could be applied to other areas of his life. This experience led him to further refine and expand his note-taking methods. The launch of an online course was another milestone in his journey, reinforcing his belief that he was onto something meaningful. Priced at around 500 USD, the course serves as the foundation for this book, which distills its core ideas into approximately 250 pages. In this opening chapter, the author provides a clear roadmap of what readers can expect from the rest of the book.

What is a Second Brain ?

The author talks about “a common place book” - a practice of writing down one’s thoughts and notes to help make sense of the world. Famous scientists, historians, polymaths have all recorded their ideas they found most interesting in a book and they carries around with them.

Unlike modern readers, who follow the flow of a narrative from beginning to end, early modern Englishmen read in fits and starts and jumped from book to book. They broke texts into fragments and assembled them into new patterns by transcribing them in different sections of their notebooks. Then they reread the copies and rearranged the patterns while adding more excerpts. Reading and writing were therefore inseparable activities. They belonged to a continuous effort to make sense of things, for the world was full of signs: you could read your way through it; and by keeping an account of your readings, you made a book of your own, one stamped with your personality.

In our digital world, the author makes a case for “Digital Commonplace book”

There is a gaping opportunity to consolidate our myriad marginalia* into an even more robust commonplace book. One searchable, always accessible, easily shared and embedded amongst the digital text we consume

Tiago uses this as a backdrop and says that Digital Commonplace book is what he calls the second brain. One can think of this as additional brain beyond us we can store information, link information, refine concepts as we go collecting various pieces of knowledge and express or communicate the knowledge to others

How a Second Brain Works ?

The author lists down four essential capabilities that we can rely on Second Brain to perform

  1. Making our ideas concrete
  2. Revealing new associations between ideas
  3. Incubating our ideas over time
  4. Sharpening our unique perspectives

Since I am re-reading this book after having implementing digital zettelkasten, I can draw exact tasks that reflect the above four capabilities of a second brain. If I stumble on to something new, I file it under fleeting notes. If it is a blog or book or video that is talking about a concept, then I file it under literature note. While creating literature note, I tend to distill down the concepts in a way that are atomic in nature. These notes are filed under permanent notes. From time to time, I get to add more notes to an existing permanent note. Also as a part of my work, if a need arises, to write a blog post, or create a brief note on a topic, I use the permanent notes across a bunch of topics and crank out an article.

Capture

This chapter talks about the first pillar of the CODE framework – Capture.

We are constantly hit by information overload in our lives. Turn on any source of information—news, social media, articles, or videos—and there is just too much to consume. Most of the time, we flit from one article to another, one multimedia post to the next, one video to another, without having a clear strategy for storing or retrieving the information we’ve just consumed.

The author urges us to create a private collection of knowledge using any of the knowledge assets we come across, such as:

  • Highlights
  • Quotes
  • Bookmarks
  • Voice Memos
  • Meeting Notes
  • Images
  • Takeaways
  • Your own thoughts and reflections

Of course, the above list may make more sense for a writer, while a programmer or designer might identify a different set of knowledge assets. The point isn’t the nature of the assets themselves, but the strategy we follow while growing this digital garden.

One can follow these capture criteria:

  • Does it inspire me?
  • Is it useful?
  • Is it personal?
  • Is it surprising?
  • Capture what resonates

There are many ways to capture information, and some of the tools I personally use, aligned with those mentioned in the chapter, include:

  • Browser plugins from Readwise to clip web content
  • Ebook apps on iPad
  • Kindle device
  • nov mode with org-noter package in Emacs for quickly capturing notes from various books
  • Capturing learnings from video courses using code blocks in an Org file
  • Readwise to export highlights from Kindle
  • Fleeting notes in Zettelkasten
  • Literature notes in Zettelkasten
  • Capturing links in a Map of Content (MOC) file
  • Emacs plugins that automatically populate blurbs based on URL and YouTube links

I would not have fully appreciated the contents of this chapter had I not experimented with org-roam as a PKM tool. After spending time learning the package and implementing a customized workflow, I am now convinced—beyond any shred of doubt—that there is a method to the madness of collecting information, and this chapter is the perfect blueprint for it.

To implement the ideas in this chapter, one can pick up any tool such as Obsidian, Roam Research, Org-roam, or Logseq. It doesn’t matter which tool you choose. What matters is putting into practice a few of the ideas from this chapter (and the ones that follow) to begin seeing the full benefit of the CODE framework.

Even after all her success, even Taylor Swift needs a system to carry her ideas from inception all the way to completion. By integrating her notetaking with her daily life, she’s able to use language and analogies that are rooted in everyday feelings and experiences, forging a powerful connection with her fans who call themselves “Swifties.” Listening to her albums is like following Swift on a journey of self-discovery, each album chronicling what she was experiencing and who she was becoming in each chapter of her life.

Organize

Tiago wrote an entire book about it and I happened to read that book first before reading this book. Here is the my summary of the book - The PARA Method

Distill

Tiago begins by describing how Francis Ford Coppola used his notebook to diligently study Mario Puzo’s novel before creating The Godfather.

The Godfather Notebook is a perfect example of the behind-the-scenes process used by successful creative professionals. Coppola considered the prompt book that emerged from this process the most important asset in the production of his now classic film: “the script was really an unnecessary document; I didn’t need a script because I could have made the movie just from this notebook.”

This chapter emphasizes the importance of distilling information as we consume it. The way to do that effectively is by making our notes discoverable for future use. When we create notes, they should be written in such a way that our future self can easily find and apply them.

Tiago introduces a technique called Progressive Summarization, which I found particularly compelling. I’ve tried it with a few blog posts and articles and found it genuinely useful.

The technique is simple: you highlight the main points of a note, and then highlight the main points of those highlights, and so on, distilling the essence of a note in several “layers.” Each of these layers uses a different kind of formatting so you can easily tell them apart.

The benefit of progressively summarizing a piece of text—using bolding, highlighting, and layered summaries—is that it allows your future self to engage with the content at different levels of depth. Maybe just a summary is enough for one project; maybe another requires highlights and annotations.

Progressive Summarization anticipates these varying needs and ensures that your notes remain discoverable, flexible, and ready to support your creative process whenever needed.

Express

This chapter starts with the real-life story of Octavia Estelle Butler and how she rose to become one of the leading literary voices by diligently taking notes and reflecting on her life.

She used her notes and her writing to confront her demons: “The biggest obstacle I had to overcome was my own fear and self-doubt—fear that maybe my work really wasn’t good enough, maybe I wasn’t smart enough; maybe the people telling me I couldn’t make it were right.”

She used every bit of insight and detail she could muster from both her daily life and the books she immersed herself in: “Use what you have; even if it seems meager, it may be magic in your hands.” Butler found a way to express her voice and her ideas even when her circumstances made it seem impossible.

The key idea introduced in this chapter is that of **“Intermediate Packets”**—tiny chunks of work that you can complete and store for future use. These packets reduce the need to work only on large, daunting projects that often never get finished. Examples of intermediate packets include:

  • Blog posts
  • Summaries of articles
  • Past project artifacts
  • Outtakes
  • Code snippets

The purpose of creating intermediate packets is to make progress feel achievable. By managing these smaller units, you’re better positioned to assemble them quickly when needed. They can be retrieved through search, browsing, tags, or even serendipitous rediscovery.

This chapter might seem abstract at first, but it becomes incredibly meaningful once you’ve experimented with tools like Zettelkasten. After spending time with workflows like org-roam, I truly began to appreciate the power of breaking work into reusable components. The structure of the CODE framework clicked only after I had practiced converting fleeting notes or literature notes into permanent ones.

In my earlier workflow, I would simply fire up an Org file and write something with the intent to publish on a blog. Now, I no longer create content solely for publishing or sharing with my team. Most of my output consists of intermediate packets, crafted to be discoverable and useful for my future self.

I saw the power of this approach a few months ago when I produced a 30-page deck in just a few hours. On the surface, it looked like I had spent days preparing it. In reality, the effort had been spread over multiple sprints, where I had already created intermediate packets that happened to be exactly what the project needed.

These days, I am always working on creating intermediate packets. This method makes me feel productive on a regular basis while building a rich repository of work that can be leveraged again and again in the future.

Art of Creative execution

Creative products are always shiny and new; the creative process is ancient and unchanging.

What I learned from my father is that by the time you sit down to make progress on something, all the work to gather and organize the source material needs to already be done. We can’t expect ourselves to instantly come up with brilliant ideas on demand. I learned that innovation and problem-solving depend on a routine that systematically brings interesting ideas to the surface of our awareness.

Building a Second Brain is really about standardizing the way we work, because we only really improve when we standardize the way we do something. To get stronger, you need to lift weights using the correct form. A musician relies on standardized notes and time signatures so they don’t have to reinvent the basics from scratch every time. To improve your writing, you need to follow the conventions of spelling and grammar (even if you decide to break those rules for special effect down the road).

Through the simple acts of capturing ideas, organizing them into groups, distilling the best parts, and assembling them together to create value for others, we are practicing the basic moves of knowledge work in such a way that we can improve on them over time.

The chapter also introduces three practical hacks for completing creative projects:

  1. The Archipelago of Ideas – Give yourself stepping-stones Instead of trying to create a polished result all at once, begin with small islands of ideas. These intermediate pieces reduce the pressure to be perfect and allow you to gradually build toward completion.

  2. Hemingway’s Bridge – Use yesterday’s momentum today End your creative sessions by leaving a clue or a starting point for the next session. This keeps your momentum alive and reduces the friction of restarting your work.

  3. Dial Down the Scope – Ship something small and concrete When stuck, reduce the size or ambition of your deliverable. Focus on completing a smaller, well-defined version rather than aiming for a large and abstract goal that may never get finished.

Essential Habits of Digital Organizers

I was initially skeptical about reading the last three chapters. I assumed the author would simply rehash points already covered, without offering anything new. However, I was pleasantly surprised—this chapter turned out to be very useful, especially because it discussed rituals I was already practicing, while also offering suggestions to improve them.

Here are some points I believe will be valuable for readers looking to enhance their note-taking workflow:

  • The analogy of mise en place is particularly insightful. Just as chefs organize their ingredients in advance to make cooking efficient and stress-free, we must organize our digital workspace as part of our everyday work. There’s no room for setting aside a massive block of time to “clean things up later.” Instead, organizing content must be embedded into the flow of working on projects in real time.

Chefs have a particular system for accomplishing this daunting feat. It’s called mise en place , a culinary philosophy used in restaurants around the world. Developed in France starting in the late 1800s, mise en place is a step-by-step process for producing high-quality food efficiently. Chefs can never afford to stop the whole kitchen just so they can clean up. They learn to keep their workspace clean and organized in the flow of the meals they are preparing .

In the kitchen, this means small habits like always putting the mixing spoon in the same place so they know where to find it next time; immediately wiping a knife clean after using it so it’s ready for the next cut; or laying out the ingredients in the order they’ll be used so that they serve as placeholders.

Chefs use mise en place—a philosophy and mindset embodied in a set of practical techniques—as their “external brain.”1 It gives them a way to externalize their thinking into their environment and automate the repetitive parts of cooking so they can focus completely on the creative parts.

  • Project checklists at the start and end of the projects
  • Weekly and Monthly reviews to periodically review yourwork and life and decide if you want to change anything
  • Noticing habits that means notice small opportunities to edit, highlight, or move notes to make them more discoverable for your future self

The most common misconception about organizing I see when I’m working with clients is the belief that organizing requires a heavy lift. They seem to believe that if they could just block off their calendar and get a few days free of pressing commitments, then they’d finally be able to curb the clutter and clear their head.

Even on the rare occasions I’ve seen people somehow manage to clear such a big block of time, it never seems to go very well. They tend to get bogged down in minutiae and barely make a dent in the mountain of accumulated stuff they wanted to tackle. Then they’re saddled with a feeling of guilt that they weren’t able to make progress even with so much time at their disposal. It’s not natural for humans to completely reorganize their entire world all at once. There are too many layers, too many facets of a human life, to perfectly square every little detail.

It’s crucial to stay organized, but it needs to be done a little at a time in the flow of our normal lives. It needs to be done in the in-between moments of moving your projects forward as you notice small opportunities for improvement.

The Path to Self-Expression:

Now our challenge isn’t to acquire more information; as we saw in the exploration of divergence and convergence, it is to find ways to close off the stream so we can get something done.

This chapter asks the reader to relook at the basic function of the brain and change its role as we know it

Instead of trying to optimize your mind so that it can manage every tiny detail of your life, it’s time to fire your biological brain from that job and give it a new one: as the CEO of your life, orchestrating and managing the process of turning information into results. We’re asking your biological brain to hand over the job of remembering to an external system, and by doing so, freeing it to absorb and integrate new knowledge in more creative ways.

Your Second Brain is always on, has perfect memory, and can scale to any size. The more you outsource and delegate the jobs of capturing, organizing, and distilling to technology, the more time and energy you’ll have available for the self-expression that only you can do.

Once your biology is no longer the bottleneck on your potential, you’ll be free to expand the flow of information as much as you want without drowning in it.

This chapter explores the profound transformation that occurs when we shift our relationship with information—from overwhelmed consumers to confident creators. The journey begins with the realization that the nature of labor has evolved. In the past, physical work and scarce information defined our lives. Today, ideas, attention, and creativity are the new currency. Our challenge is not information scarcity but information overload, and the key to navigating this modern world is developing a healthier relationship with knowledge—both external and internal.

Forte argues that the tools of personal knowledge management (PKM), while important, are secondary to the mindset we adopt. Whether you come to PKM via productivity hacks, digital tools, or curiosity about note-taking, what you ultimately encounter is a path of personal growth. Our existing attitudes toward information—shaped by upbringing, experiences, and personality—deeply influence how we think, feel, and act. These hidden attitudes affect our creativity, productivity, and capacity to adapt.

A major psychological barrier we face is the fear that our minds are inadequate. We try to make our biological brain do too much—remember, plan, solve, and produce—leading to stress and cognitive overload. But our brain wasn’t meant to hold everything. Instead, it thrives when supported by an external memory system—a “Second Brain.” With such a system in place, creativity is liberated, insights can flourish, and new connections emerge organically.

The chapter highlights a turning point when people start seeing their Second Brain not as a technical solution, but as an extension of themselves. This transition brings about mental clarity and calm, as the burden of constant remembering is offloaded. One participant, Amelia, initially saw the internet as chaotic and hostile, but once she had a place to curate meaningful content, her relationship to it transformed. She went from avoidance to engagement, from fear to curiosity.

This mindset shift is twofold: from scarcity to abundance, and from obligation to service. A scarcity mindset hoards information out of fear—thinking more is always better. This leads to overconsumption, distraction, and an undervaluation of what we already know. An abundance mindset, in contrast, sees information as plentiful and trusts that what’s truly important will resurface. You don’t need more ideas—you need a few that truly resonate. As Forte puts it, “Life tends to surface exactly what we need to know.”

The second shift—from obligation to service—is equally powerful. Many people feel a deep desire to help others but delay acting on it, waiting until they have “enough” expertise, time, or resources. However, once people begin organizing and reviewing their accumulated knowledge, they realize they already have something valuable to offer. Knowledge only becomes more powerful as it’s shared. Your Second Brain can amplify not just your personal progress, but your ability to contribute meaningfully to others.

This leads naturally to the final shift: from consuming to creating. Building a Second Brain is not just about archiving facts, but about revealing and expressing the tacit knowledge already inside you—what Michael Polanyi called “knowing more than we can say.” Our experiences, insights, and patterns of thought are deeply embedded in us, but not always easy to articulate. Your Second Brain becomes a mirror, helping surface that knowledge so it can be transformed into output—writing, teaching, advising, or innovating.

Forte shares a personal story of how, in the midst of a debilitating health crisis, he discovered two life-changing practices: meditation and public writing. Meditation taught him to separate his identity from his thoughts. Writing gave him a platform to share his experiences and insights, even when he couldn’t speak. Through this, he discovered that self-expression is a fundamental human need. We all long to share our stories, lessons, and perspectives, not only to be understood but to help others.

In the final section, Forte encourages readers to take the leap: to trust their voice, share their knowledge, and embrace their role as creators. Even if only a fraction of what you express resonates with others, it’s worth it. Your story, your ideas, your lens on the world might be exactly what someone else needs. With your Second Brain as support, you can create more freely, serve more authentically, and grow more fully.

Forte closes with encouragement: There’s no one right way to build your Second Brain. Start small. Focus on what excites you. Use the CODE framework (Capture, Organize, Distill, Express) to move your ideas from inspiration to action. Whether you’re just getting started or refining an existing system, the goal is not perfection—it’s progress. With time and practice, your Second Brain will evolve into a lifelong companion, helping you live and express your best self.

Zsolt Viczián One Page Summary

Via Building a Second Brain Book on a Page

Takeaway

I bought this book three years ago but somehow never found the time to read it. I’ve now read it twice this year, and I’m already seeing its benefits in my current workflow. I only wish I had read it earlier, given that it had been sitting on my bookshelf for years.

This book led me down a rabbit hole—one that turned out to be much needed, considering how I had previously been organizing my content. For anyone serious about organizing information, this book is a treasure trove of practical insights and actionable strategies.

More importantly, it encourages us to move toward a workflow where we can spend the majority of our time on expression**—the final step in the creative process. That becomes truly possible only when the other components—**Capture, Organize, and **Distill**—are firmly in place.

If you’re looking to standardize your process for information collection, storage, distillation, and expression, this book is well worth your time. Even if just a few hacks resonate with you, that alone could make reading the book a worthwhile investment.