I first heard about something called a “second brain” on HackerNews a few years ago and never gave it much thought. Recently, however, I’ve found another article there about the gains of having a second brain. This piqued myy interest about them and gave me the idea to give it a go.
At the time of writing, I’m still very new, nay, not even started developing my second brain, but I indent to use this blog as a way to keep myself accountable and active in its use and development.
Second what? Brain? What’s that?
Bfore getting into the details, no the second brain isn’t a physical brain, or even part of the body (not to be confused with the second brain in medicine being the Enteric nervous system known as the “brain in the gut”). This second brain has to do with the way you collect, recall and record thoughts and knowledge, freeing up your real brain to work on problems in the here and now
A second brain? Why?
For the longest time I’ve tried to commit my learning to either memory or writing them physically writing them down somewhere. Although I thought this would be effective enough for me to learn and retain information, it has for small projects and simpler learning, it’s failed me when trying to recall long passed details, and my organizational skills in keeping track of my numerous notebooks is… less than desirable.
In addition to my failings to keep an organized stash of notes and memories, benefits of maintaining a second brain are reported to include: writing more, thinking more, understanding my own productivity better, and, better decision tracking.
So after hearing about the second brain concept numerous times, I thought why not. It’s worth a try and if it doesn’t work out, at least I’ve got an organized collection of notes, learning and musings.
Tooling… You must have some tools right?
You may be wondering what tools, programs, or pieces of technology I’m using to maintain my second brain are. Well, let me tell you, there are many, from a quick Google, I’ve seen people using software like OneNote EverNote Notion, as well as integrating numerous other smart device apps with them to build a multi-device multi-app solution
For me though, I’m starting out using just OneNote. It’s the most convenient in both my work and personal life, where a Microsoft subscription is maintained for both. The biggest limitation I can foresee for myself is the strict separation of work and personal notes and collections. This may be in the best interest of my work, although I can already see some cases where thoughts and knowledge collected isn’t strictly one or the other.