Building a Second Brain: A Proven Method to Organize Your Digital Life and Unlock Your Creative Potential

Written by Tiago Forte

Narrated by André Santana

“One of my favorite books of the year. It completely reshaped how I think about information and how and why I take notes.” —Daniel Pink, bestselling author of Drive

A revolutionary approach to enhancing productivity, creating flow, and vastly increasing your ability to capture, remember, and benefit from the unprecedented amount of information all around us.

For the first time in history, we have instantaneous access to the world’s knowledge. There has never been a better time to learn, to contribute, and to improve ourselves. Yet, rather than feeling empowered, we are often left feeling overwhelmed by this constant influx of information. The very knowledge that was supposed to set us free has instead led to the paralyzing stress of believing we’ll never know or remember enough.

Now, this eye-opening and accessible guide shows how you can easily create your own personal system for knowledge management, otherwise known as a Second Brain. As a trusted and organized digital repository of your most valued ideas, notes, and creative work synced across all your devices and platforms, a Second Brain gives you the confidence to tackle your most important projects and ambitious goals.

Discover the full potential of your ideas and translate what you know into more powerful, more meaningful improvements in your work and life by Building a Second Brain.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
• Release date: Jun 14, 2022
• ISBN: 9781797143873

Tiago Forte

Tiago Forte is one of the world’s foremost experts on productivity and has taught thousands of people around the world how timeless principles and the latest technology can revolutionize their productivity, creativity, and personal effectiveness. He has worked with organizations such as Genentech, Toyota Motor Corporation, and the Inter-American Development Bank, and appeared in a variety of publications, such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, and Harvard Business Review. He is the author of Building a Second Brain and The PARA Method. Find out more at Fortelabs.co.

Reviews for Building a Second Brain

[PawełZawada · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Definitely this books stands in a first line of the best productivity or self-development books.

[timothy lewis · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is an indispensable, productivity, reference guide! When applied, can be life-changing!

[Kate Alcala · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Game changer! If you’re tired of working your tail off and not being able to remember all the incredible information you already know. Read. listen. Take notes. Apply!

[Jim Sutton · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I use GTD David Allen's process daily and this struck me as GTD 2.0 using many of the same ideas and crediting David in many places. Very helpful as a review and with many new ideas to capture and store ideas. Building a Second Brain focused more on how to store and reuse the material the GTD process recommends you capture and store. This goes deep in to just how to do that.

[Eves Daughter · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Absolutely useful. Something that can be implemented and actually helps life as a whole

[michael rasley · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I’ve been following Tiago for many years and it is so cool to finally read a book by him. He is truly a leader in his field.

I recommend listening to this book & then reading it as there are many things to note & resources to write down.

Thanks Tiago and scribd!!

[wan farisan wan sulaiman · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Very good book about personal knowledge management, everyone should read it

[Bakhtiar Arifin · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I look forward to implement whats in this book in my daily life

[Evan Colyer · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

3 take away

Just get started - note taking can be messy

Always archive notes or ideas because they could be used in the future

Searching notes is better than having a perfect system, just get started

How has it changed me?

I will be writing down my ideas whenever I have them and reviewing them once a week to ensure some order

Who would benefit from this book?

All creative types and also project driven people

Would I read this book again?

Yes probably once a year to ensure I was keeping up with my note taking

Other notes:

An in depth strategy to reduce stress and memory requirements by offloading thoughts into a note taking strategy

[Adam Klar · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Excellent book, great ideas. Sometimes you'll need the book version.

[OmarEl-Mohri · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Some good insights but it’s not worth a whole book, could be a blogpost as it contains a lot of abstracts about how to use tools.

[JoelHFX · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

if you're inclined to like discussion around digital organization. you'll like it.

[Saiful · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The book provides me with a better idea how to manage my personal knowledge and how to be more productive and effective in my daily life.

[Kira Cortes · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Gives a new lens into organizing notes which helps and allows for you to be more organized.

[Dundee Cantu · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A few good ideas, but most of the book is fluff though. It has some valuable nuggets, but struggled through many pages of nothing.

[RadoslawSobiecki · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I liked it!
Worth hearing!
Lots to learn from it!

[Fly Floon · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Amazing book! Simple, informative and nicely presented. It's gotten me pumped up for productivity.

[Angie Cibis · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

20% informational, 80% making a case for the system itself.

[Nancy Steinhausen · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I love the idea of building a second brain. The tools are here. I am glad the book is also available so I can reference it. Now, let's see if I can implement it.

[AubanatoR Z · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Was alright. Thought it could provide a bit more instruction on building a second brain. The book focused more on WHY you need this. The author did just post a template for the Notion app which sheds more light on his processes.