How to Organise your Life - Building a Second Brain

The speaker, a young man with short dark hair, glasses, and a light blue button-up shirt over a white t-shirt, sits at a light-colored desk, gesturing expansively with both hands, palms open and fingers spread, then bringing them together in a controlled, precise motion as he speaks. He looks directly at the camera.

"All right, so one of the most annoying problems that I face in my life is information overwhelm. I read all these books, listen to all these podcasts, watch all these YouTube videos, and consume all this stuff."

Setting: office — bright, even, natural light from window and overhead lights

The scene rapidly cuts between various activities: a person reading a book titled "Look for a Life Partner, Not a Prom Date," then the speaker wearing headphones and looking at a phone, then hands holding a tablet displaying an animated movie, then the speaker holding up a small white tablet with an Apple logo, then the speaker sitting at a desk, gesturing with both hands, palms open and fingers spread, then bringing them together in a controlled, precise motion as he speaks. He looks directly at the camera.

"But I end up like information overloaded and don't really know what to do with that information. And that is what this book claims to solve. This is Building a Second Brain by Tiago Forte, which is what we're discussing in this episode of Book Club, the ongoing series where we distill and discuss highlights and summaries from some of my favorite books."

Setting: office — bright, even, natural light from window and overhead lights

The speaker, a young man with short dark hair, glasses, and a light blue button-up shirt over a white t-shirt, sits at a light-colored desk, gesturing with both hands, palms open and fingers spread, then bringing them together in a controlled, precise motion as he speaks. He looks directly at the camera. A graphic appears on screen with a book icon and the text "BOOK CLUB".

"And the whole idea is that this system, this second brain system helps you solve that problem. Now, I've been using this system for the last several years. I took Tiago's course Building a Second Brain."

Setting: office — bright, even, natural light from window and overhead lights

Text: "BOOK CLUB"

A graphic appears showing a brain icon split into green and black halves, with lines extending from the black half to various app icons (Kindle, Text, Web Pages, Screenshots, Files, Handwritten Notes, Paper Documents, Voice Memos, Photos) representing different sources of information. The speaker's voice continues in the background.

"And the whole idea is that this system, this second brain system helps you solve that problem. Now, I've been using this system for the last several years. I took Tiago's course Building a Second Brain."

Setting: digital interface — digital

Text: "Book Notes", "Text", "Web Pages", "Screenshots", "Files", "Handwritten Notes", "Paper Documents", "Voice Memos", "Photos"

The speaker is shown in a web browser window, which is layered over the initial desk shot. He gestures with his hands, indicating the concepts he is explaining. The web page displays the title "A Proven Method to Organize Your Digital Life and Unlock Your Creative Potential" and a video thumbnail.

"Now, I've been using this system for the last several years. I took Tiago's course Building a Second Brain. And so, in this video, we're going to be talking about why you should build a second brain, and then how to build a second brain using the CODE framework."

Setting: office — bright, even, natural light from window and overhead lights

Text: "buildingasecondbrain.com", "A Proven Method to Organize Your Digital Life and Unlock Your Creative Potential", "YES, I WANT TO BUILD MY SECOND BRAIN"

The speaker is shown in a small inset video, while the main frame shows hands using a blue highlighter to circle and underline text on a printed manuscript. The text being highlighted is "Chapter 2 What is a Second Brain?" and then later, "The Digital Commonplace Book". An arrow points from the manuscript to the inset video. The speaker gestures with his hands, indicating the concepts he is explaining.

"And so, in this video, we're going to be talking about why you should build a second brain, and then how to build a second brain using the CODE framework."

Setting: office — bright, even, natural light from window and overhead lights

Text: "Early release manuscript"

The speaker is shown in a small inset video, while the main frame shows hands using a green marker to draw arrows and circles around a diagram of the CODE framework on a printed manuscript. The speaker gestures with his hands, indicating the concepts he is explaining.

"And I'm going to share a bunch of examples about how this kind of thing has helped my life, so hopefully it can help yours as well."

Setting: office — bright, even, natural light from window and overhead lights

Text: "Early release manuscript"

The speaker is shown in a small inset video, while the main frame shows him reading the book "Building a Second Brain." He turns a page, his eyes scanning the text. The speaker in the inset video gestures with his hands, indicating the concepts he is explaining.

"And I'm going to share a bunch of examples about how this kind of thing has helped my life, so hopefully it can help yours as well."

Setting: office — bright, even, natural light from window and overhead lights

A graphic appears showing a brain icon split into green and black halves, with the text "What is a Second Brain?" displayed below it. The word "Second Brain" is highlighted in purple. The speaker's voice continues in the background.

"All right, so let's start with the question of what is a second brain and why should you have one?"

Setting: digital interface — digital

Text: "What is a Second Brain?"

The speaker, a young man with short dark hair, glasses, and a light blue button-up shirt over a white t-shirt, sits at a light-colored desk, gesturing with both hands, palms open and fingers spread, then bringing them together in a controlled, precise motion as he speaks. He looks directly at the camera.

"All right, so let's start with the question of what is a second brain and why should you have one? And to answer this, we need to start from the root problem, which is this idea of information overwhelm. We all have these like dozens and dozens,"

Setting: office — bright, even, natural light from window and overhead lights

The speaker is shown in a small inset video, while the main frame shows hands writing "INFORMATION OVERLOAD" and "WRITE THINGS DOWN" on a white sheet of paper with a black marker. Arrows connect these phrases. The speaker gestures with his hands, indicating the concepts he is explaining.

"apparently, 34 gigabytes a day of information is what we consume. There was this other news article that said we consume the equivalent of 174 full newspapers every single day of our lives with all of the content that we get deluged with."

Setting: office — bright, even, natural light from window and overhead lights

A graphic appears showing the logo of "The Guardian" newspaper, with the text "Give us our daily data: 174 newspapers in your inbox" and the date "February 11, 2011" below it. The speaker's voice continues in the background.

"There was this other news article that said we consume the equivalent of 174 full newspapers every single day of our lives with all of the content that we get deluged with."

Setting: digital interface — digital

Text: "The Guardian", "Give us our daily data: 174 newspapers in your inbox", "February 11, 2011"

The speaker, a young man with short dark hair, glasses, and a light blue button-up shirt over a white t-shirt, sits at a light-colored desk, gesturing with both hands, palms open and fingers spread, then bringing them together in a controlled, precise motion as he speaks. He looks directly at the camera.

"Now, the easy solution to this problem of information overload is to write things down. And honestly, this is the first step that most of us don't even take. We don't bother to write things down."

Setting: office — bright, even, natural light from window and overhead lights

A graphic appears showing the text "Write Things Down" with the words "Things Down" highlighted in purple. The speaker's voice continues in the background.

"Now, the easy solution to this problem of information overload is to write things down. And honestly, this is the first step that most of us don't even take. We don't bother to write things down."

Setting: digital interface — digital

Text: "Write Things Down"

The speaker, a young man with short dark hair, glasses, and a light blue button-up shirt over a white t-shirt, sits at a light-colored desk, gesturing with both hands, palms open and fingers spread, then bringing them together in a controlled, precise motion as he speaks. He looks directly at the camera. Graphics appear on screen showing icons and text for "A quote", "An interesting thought", "A podcast", and "A story".

"And honestly, this is the first step that most of us don't even take. We don't bother to write things down. If you listen to something in a podcast or you come across a quote or you have an interesting thought or you think of an interesting story that happened in your life or an anecdote, we tend not to default to I should probably write this down somewhere."

Setting: office — bright, even, natural light from window and overhead lights

Text: "A quote", "An interesting thought", "A podcast", "A story"

The speaker, a young man with short dark hair, glasses, and a light blue button-up shirt over a white t-shirt, sits at a light-colored desk, gesturing with both hands, palms open and fingers spread, then bringing them together in a controlled, precise motion as he speaks. He looks directly at the camera. A thought bubble graphic appears on screen with the text "I'll just remember the thing."

"We tend to think, oh, I will just remember the thing. If it's from a podcast or a video, you think, yeah, I'm going to apply it to my life and you never end up applying it to your life."

Setting: office — bright, even, natural light from window and overhead lights

Text: "I'll just remember the thing."

The speaker is shown in a small inset video, while the main frame shows hands writing "INFORMATION OVERLOAD" and "WRITE THINGS DOWN" on a white sheet of paper with a black marker. An arrow points from "WRITE THINGS DOWN" to "COMMONPLACE BOOK". The speaker gestures with his hands, indicating the concepts he is explaining.

"Now, if we do decide to write things down as a way of combating information overload, one old school way of doing that is called a Commonplace Book."

Setting: office — bright, even, natural light from window and overhead lights

Text: "Building a Second Brain"

A graphic appears showing the text "Commonplace Book" with the word "Commonplace" highlighted in purple. The speaker's voice continues in the background.

"Now, if we do decide to write things down as a way of combating information overload, one old school way of doing that is called a Commonplace Book."

Setting: digital interface — digital

Text: "Commonplace Book"

The speaker is shown in a small inset video, while the main frame shows hands using a green marker to underline the title "The Legacy of Commonplace Books" on a printed manuscript. The speaker gestures with his hands, indicating the concepts he is explaining.

"This is a sort of thing that like the great artists in our time and and before used to use to write their thoughts down. You've got people like Taylor Swift who talk about how whenever they have an interesting thought in their day-to-day life, they write it down."

Setting: office — bright, even, natural light from window and overhead lights

The speaker is shown in a small inset video, while the main frame shows Taylor Swift in a black lace dress, walking down a grand staircase, then a close-up of her face with red lipstick, then her extending her hand. The speaker gestures with his hands, indicating the concepts he is explaining.

"You've got people like Taylor Swift who talk about how whenever they have an interesting thought in their day-to-day life, they write it down. You've got comedians like Jerry Seinfeld who say that whenever they think something interesting or a funny little quip in the shower, they make sure to write it down on a piece of paper."

Setting: mansion — soft, natural light

The speaker is shown in a small inset video, while the main frame shows Jerry Seinfeld on stage, holding a microphone and gesturing with his hands. He is wearing a dark suit and a maroon tie. The speaker gestures with his hands, indicating the concepts he is explaining.

"You've got comedians like Jerry Seinfeld who say that whenever they think something interesting or a funny little quip in the shower, they make sure to write it down on a piece of paper. This is like a standard part of the creative process for so many people."

Setting: comedy club — spotlight on stage

Jerry Seinfeld is shown in a close-up shot, looking directly at the camera with a slightly amused expression. He is wearing a dark collared shirt over a gray t-shirt. He speaks directly to the camera.

"I know you think people are going to be interested in this, but they're not."

Setting: interview setting — soft, even lighting

The speaker, a young man with short dark hair, glasses, and a light blue button-up shirt over a white t-shirt, sits at a light-colored desk, gesturing with both hands, palms open and fingers spread, then bringing them together in a controlled, precise motion as he speaks. He looks directly at the camera. The main frame shows an old manuscript page with various mechanical drawings and handwritten notes by Leonardo da Vinci. The speaker gestures with his hands, indicating the concepts he is explaining.

"Even back in the day, people like Leonardo da Vinci used to apparently have a Commonplace Book where as he was kind of going about his life, he would gather inspiration, and he would do these little sketches, and he'd put them all into a single book."

Setting: digital interface — digital

The speaker, a young man with short dark hair, glasses, and a light blue button-up shirt over a white t-shirt, sits at a light-colored desk, gesturing with both hands, palms open and fingers spread, then bringing them together in a controlled, precise motion as he speaks. He looks directly at the camera. The main frame shows an old manuscript page with handwritten notes in Italian by Leonardo da Vinci. The speaker gestures with his hands, indicating the concepts he is explaining.

"And then that book became the source of his creativity. It's where he would generate those ideas from."

Setting: digital interface — digital

The speaker, a young man with short dark hair, glasses, and a light blue button-up shirt over a white t-shirt, sits at a light-colored desk, gesturing with both hands, palms open and fingers spread, then bringing them together in a controlled, precise motion as he speaks. He looks directly at the camera. He picks up a small, dark red journal from the desk, holds it up, and then places it back down. A graphic appears on screen with the text "Leuchtturm 1917" and an arrow pointing to the journal.

"And then that book became the source of his creativity. It's where he would generate those ideas from. Now, I do in fact carry a physical journal with me at all times to try and do this Commonplace Book type thing, but it's just, you know, doing it in an analog system is pretty inefficient. You can't search, you can't organize, it's a bit of a faff."

Setting: office — bright, even, natural light from window and overhead lights

Text: "Leuchtturm 1917"

The speaker, a young man with short dark hair, glasses, and a light blue button-up shirt over a white t-shirt, sits at a light-colored desk, gesturing with both hands, palms open and fingers spread, then bringing them together in a controlled, precise motion as he speaks. He looks directly at the camera. A graphic appears on screen with the text "Digital Commonplace Book" with the word "Digital" highlighted in purple.

"And so, thanks to this tech-enabled world that we live in, instead of making an analog commonplace book, we can make a digital Commonplace Book. So, hypothetically, we could have a single source where anytime we come across inspiration from anything at all in our lives, internally or externally,"

Setting: office — bright, even, natural light from window and overhead lights

Text: "Digital Commonplace Book"

The speaker is shown in a small inset video, while the main frame shows hands using a red marker to underline the title "The Digital Commonplace Book" on a printed manuscript. The speaker gestures with his hands, indicating the concepts he is explaining.

"So, hypothetically, we could have a single source where anytime we come across inspiration from anything at all in our lives, internally or externally, so externally might be books or movies or podcasts or quotes or a friend says something and that sparks an interesting thought in you, you have a place where you write it down in a digital kind of system."

Setting: office — bright, even, natural light from window and overhead lights

The speaker, a young man with short dark hair, glasses, and a light blue button-up shirt over a white t-shirt, sits at a light-colored desk, gesturing with both hands, palms open and fingers spread, then bringing them together in a controlled, precise motion as he speaks. He looks directly at the camera. Graphics appear on screen showing icons and text for "Books", "Movies", "Podcasts", and "Quotes".

"so externally might be books or movies or podcasts or quotes or a friend says something and that sparks an interesting thought in you, you have a place where you write it down in a digital kind of system."

Setting: office — bright, even, natural light from window and overhead lights

Text: "Books", "Movies", "Podcasts", "Quotes"

The speaker is shown in a small inset video, while the main frame cuts between three scenes: a man typing on a laptop in a cafe, a man washing his face in a bathroom mirror, and a man driving a car at night. The speaker gestures with his hands, indicating the concepts he is explaining.

"Internally, it might be a random musing that you have, or like you're in the shower and you think of something, or like you're on a car journey and you think, oh, this would be a cool thing to do. It might be related to your job, it might be related to your family, and you think, you know what, I should probably write this down and it goes into a digital system."

Setting: various — bright, natural light in cafe and bathroom, dim streetlights at night

The speaker, a young man with short dark hair, glasses, and a light blue button-up shirt over a white t-shirt, sits at a light-colored desk, gesturing with both hands, palms open and fingers spread, then bringing them together in a controlled, precise motion as he speaks. He looks directly at the camera. The main frame shows him reading the book "Building a Second Brain." He turns a page, his eyes scanning the text. The speaker gestures with his hands, indicating the concepts he is explaining.

"And this digital commonplace book is what Tiago Forte calls a second brain. But why should you have a second brain in the first place? Like, what is the point of writing all this stuff down?"

Setting: office — bright, even, natural light from window and overhead lights

The speaker is shown in a small inset video, while the main frame shows hands using a blue highlighter to circle and underline text on a printed manuscript. The text being highlighted is "Chapter 2 What is a Second Brain?". An arrow points from the manuscript to the inset video. The speaker gestures with his hands, indicating the concepts he is explaining.

"But why should you have a second brain in the first place? Like, what is the point of writing all this stuff down? Now, again, if you're in the creative world, it's really abundantly obvious. If you're a songwriter, if you're a poet, if you're a book writer, if you're a YouTuber, if you're a podcaster, you need a place to capture ideas from all the world around you, because it really helps you express your creativity,"

Setting: office — bright, even, natural light from window and overhead lights

Text: "Early release manuscript"

The speaker is shown in a small inset video, while the main frame shows hands using a green marker to circle the title "The Promise of a Second Brain" on a printed manuscript. The speaker gestures with his hands, indicating the concepts he is explaining.

"because it really helps you express your creativity, because now it's not the case that you are sitting down and thinking, shit, what do I write this week for my book or for my blog or for my newsletter?"

Setting: office — bright, even, natural light from window and overhead lights

The speaker, a young man with short dark hair, glasses, and a light blue button-up shirt over a white t-shirt, sits at a light-colored desk, gesturing with both hands, palms open and fingers spread, then bringing them together in a controlled, precise motion as he speaks. He looks directly at the camera. He picks up a stack of papers, shuffles them, and places them back down. He then gestures widely with his hands.

"because it really helps you express your creativity, because now it's not the case that you are sitting down and thinking, shit, what do I write this week for my book or for my blog or for my newsletter? You're thinking, I have all these abundant ideas, and I can just go through my little second brain, and I can decide what I want to write about this week. And this is how basically all creatives have done it since the beginning of time."

Setting: office — bright, even, natural light from window and overhead lights

The speaker, a young man with short dark hair, glasses, and a light blue button-up shirt over a white t-shirt, sits at a light-colored desk, resting his head on his hand, looking thoughtful and slightly frustrated. He looks directly at the camera. He picks up a pen and gestures with it as he speaks.

"because now it's not the case that you are sitting down and thinking, shit, what do I write this week for my book or for my blog or for my newsletter?"

Setting: office — bright, even, natural light from window and overhead lights

The speaker, a young man with short dark hair, glasses, and a light blue button-up shirt over a white t-shirt, sits at a light-colored desk, gesturing with both hands, palms open and fingers spread, then bringing them together in a controlled, precise motion as he speaks. He looks directly at the camera. He picks up a stack of papers, shuffles them, and places them back down. He then gestures widely with his hands.

"You're thinking, I have all these abundant ideas, and I can just go through my little second brain, and I can decide what I want to write about this week. And this is how basically all creatives have done it since the beginning of time."

Setting: office — bright, even, natural light from window and overhead lights

The speaker, a young man with short dark hair, glasses, and a light blue button-up shirt over a white t-shirt, sits at a light-colored desk, gesturing with both hands, palms open and fingers spread, then bringing them together in a controlled, precise motion as he speaks. He looks directly at the camera. He picks up a stack of papers, shuffles them, and places them back down. He then gestures widely with his hands.

"But the question is, what if you're not? What if you're one of those people that does not want to be a quote content creator in some capacity? You you have no aspirations of like writing a book or starting a podcast or a newsletter or anything obviously creative that requires you to do this kind of stuff."

Setting: office — bright, even, natural light from window and overhead lights

The speaker, a young man with short dark hair, glasses, and a light blue button-up shirt over a white t-shirt, sits at a light-colored desk, gesturing with both hands, palms open and fingers spread, then bringing them together in a controlled, precise motion as he speaks. He looks directly at the camera. He picks up a stack of papers, shuffles them, and places them back down. He then gestures widely with his hands.

"Well, the thing that Tiago argues, and I fully agree with him on this, is that basically every job in the world, these days, involves knowledge work of some kind."

Setting: office — bright, even, natural light from window and overhead lights

A graphic appears showing the text "Knowledge Work" with the word "Knowledge" highlighted in purple. The speaker's voice continues in the background.

"Well, the thing that Tiago argues, and I fully agree with him on this, is that basically every job in the world, these days, involves knowledge work of some kind."

Setting: digital interface — digital

Text: "Knowledge Work"

The speaker, a young man with short dark hair, glasses, and a light blue button-up shirt over a white t-shirt, sits at a light-colored desk, gesturing with both hands, palms open and fingers spread, then bringing them together in a controlled, precise motion as he speaks. He looks directly at the camera. He picks up a stack of papers, shuffles them, and places them back down. He then gestures widely with his hands.

"Bertrand Russell back in the day used to say that a job is moving matter at or above the Earth's surface, which I think is quite funny."

Setting: office — bright, even, natural light from window and overhead lights

A graphic appears showing a black and white photo of Bertrand Russell, with the quote "A job is simply moving matter at or above the Earth's surface, or telling other people to do so" below it. The words "moving matter" are highlighted in purple. The speaker's voice continues in the background.

"Bertrand Russell back in the day used to say that a job is moving matter at or above the Earth's surface, which I think is quite funny."

Setting: digital interface — digital

Text: ""A job is simply moving matter at or above the Earth's surface, or telling other people to do so"", "Paraphrasing Bertrand Russell (1872-1970), British Philosopher"

The speaker, a young man with short dark hair, glasses, and a light blue button-up shirt over a white t-shirt, sits at a light-colored desk, gesturing with both hands, palms open and fingers spread, then bringing them together in a controlled, precise motion as he speaks. He looks directly at the camera. Graphics appear on screen showing arrows connecting "Input", "Processing", and "Output" with icons of a red button, a gear, and a blue envelope.

"In the world that we live in today, there is a third form of job, and that's moving knowledge, moving information. Getting information as inputs, doing something with it, I.E. processing it, and then turning it into outputs of some sort."

Setting: office — bright, even, natural light from window and overhead lights

Text: "Input", "Processing", "Output"

The speaker is shown in a small inset video, while the main frame cuts between two scenes: a male doctor in blue scrubs and a stethoscope talking to a female colleague at a desk, and then the same doctor typing on a laptop. The speaker gestures with his hands, indicating the concepts he is explaining.

"Even something like being a doctor involves information. You're you've got this profound amount of information as inputs, I.E. from medical journals and textbooks and things, that turns into a knowledge bank in your head, but also externally. And then you do stuff with that information and it gives you a result, I.E. tells you what to do with your patient, or what dose of drugs to prescribe, or anything like that."

Setting: hospital — bright, fluorescent overhead lighting

Text: "Welcome to F14"

The speaker, a young man with short dark hair, glasses, and a light blue button-up shirt over a white t-shirt, sits at a light-colored desk, gesturing with both hands, palms open and fingers spread, then bringing them together in a controlled, precise motion as he speaks. He looks directly at the camera. He picks up a stack of papers, shuffles them, and places them back down. He then gestures widely with his hands.

"that turns into a knowledge bank in your head, but also externally. And then you do stuff with that information and it gives you a result, I.E. tells you what to do with your patient, or what dose of drugs to prescribe, or anything like that."

Setting: office — bright, even, natural light from window and overhead lights

The speaker is shown in a small inset video, while the main frame shows a male doctor in blue scrubs and a stethoscope opening a medical cabinet and taking out items. The speaker gestures with his hands, indicating the concepts he is explaining.

"tells you what to do with your patient, or what dose of drugs to prescribe, or anything like that. If you're working in a more normal job, like, I don't know, investment banking or consulting or anything that involves making loads of PowerPoint slides, it's really all about information, input, processing, and output."

Setting: hospital — bright, fluorescent overhead lighting

The speaker, a young man with short dark hair, glasses, and a light blue button-up shirt over a white t-shirt, sits at a light-colored desk, gesturing with both hands, palms open and fingers spread, then bringing them together in a controlled, precise motion as he speaks. He looks directly at the camera. Graphics appear on screen showing arrows connecting "Input", "Processing", and "Output" with icons of a red button, a gear, and a blue envelope.

"If you're working in a more normal job, like, I don't know, investment banking or consulting, or anything that involves making loads of PowerPoint slides, it's really all about information, input, processing, and output. That's basically what every single job involves. We're now going to talk about the four parts of the methodology for building a second brain, which is the CODE system, C, O, D, and E."

Setting: office — bright, even, natural light from window and overhead lights

Text: "Input", "Processing", "Output"

The speaker is shown in a small inset video, while the main frame shows hands writing "CODE" with a green marker, below a diagram of the CODE framework on a printed manuscript. The speaker gestures with his hands, indicating the concepts he is explaining.

"We're now going to talk about the four parts of the methodology for building a second brain, which is the CODE system, C, O, D, and E. And once we've done that, I'm going to share with you some of my personal use cases so you can see what effect a second brain has had in my life, and then you can decide if you want to build one for yourself, if you want to get the book, any of that kind of stuff."

Setting: office — bright, even, natural light from window and overhead lights

A graphic appears showing a camera icon, with the text "Capture" below it. The word "Capture" is highlighted in purple. The speaker's voice continues in the background.

"And once we've done that, I'm going to share with you some of my personal use cases so you can see what effect a second brain has had in my life, and then you can decide if you want to build one for yourself, if you want to get the book, any of that kind of stuff."

Setting: digital interface — digital

Text: "Capture"

The speaker, a young man with short dark hair, glasses, and a light blue button-up shirt over a white t-shirt, sits at a light-colored desk, gesturing with both hands, palms open and fingers spread, then bringing them together in a controlled, precise motion as he speaks. He looks directly at the camera. A book cover for "Getting Things Done" by David Allen appears on screen.

"And the key insight here is a quote from David Allen from the book Getting Things Done, amazing productivity book, which is that your brain is for having ideas, not for holding them."

Setting: office — bright, even, natural light from window and overhead lights

Text: "Getting Things DONE", "The Art of Stress-Free Productivity", "David Allen"

A graphic appears showing a black and white photo of David Allen, with the quote "Your brain is for having ideas, not for holding them." below it. The words "having ideas, not for holding them" are highlighted in purple. The speaker's voice continues in the background.

"Your brain is for having ideas, not for holding them. We spend so much of our kind of mental brain space trying to remember random stuff. Whereas, if we were able to capture all that random stuff into a note-taking app or a second brain or into even pen and paper, any kind of system, it frees up our own brain to do the important things like be creative or make connections or self-care or relaxation or just having fun, like rather than having to remember what was on my calendar, what's on my to-do list."

Setting: digital interface — digital

Text: ""Your brain is for having ideas, not for holding them."", "David Allen"

The speaker, a young man with short dark hair, glasses, and a light blue button-up shirt over a white t-shirt, sits at a light-colored desk, gesturing with both hands, palms open and fingers spread, then bringing them together in a controlled, precise motion as he speaks. He looks directly at the camera. He picks up a small black phone, then a dark red journal, and places them back down. He then gestures widely with his hands.

"We spend so much of our kind of mental brain space trying to remember random stuff. Whereas, if we were able to capture all that random stuff into a note-taking app or a second brain or into even pen and paper, any kind of system, it frees up our own brain to do the important things like be creative or make connections or self-care or relaxation or just having fun, like rather than having to remember what was on my calendar, what's on my to-do list."

Setting: office — bright, even, natural light from window and overhead lights

The speaker is shown in a small inset video, while the main frame cuts between three scenes: a man in a white robe dancing in a room with a hot tub, a screen displaying a video game, and hands writing in a notebook next to a laptop. The speaker gestures with his hands, indicating the concepts he is explaining.

"like be creative or make connections or self-care or relaxation or just having fun, like rather than having to remember what was on my calendar, what's on my to-do list."

Setting: various — warm, soft lighting in spa, bright office lighting

The speaker, a young man with short dark hair, glasses, and a light blue button-up shirt over a white t-shirt, sits at a light-colored desk, gesturing with both hands, palms open and fingers spread, then bringing them together in a controlled, precise motion as he speaks. He looks directly at the camera. Graphics appear on screen showing icons and text for "Calendar" and "To-do list".

"Now, the easy way of solving this problem for most people, and this is sort of the standard part of any productivity system, is to have a calendar and a to-do list so that you don't have to remember what you're supposed to be doing at any given minute of the day. And you also, you don't have to remember what all those random tasks were, your shopping list, that kind of thing. That would be a real faff to remember in your head."

Setting: office — bright, even, natural light from window and overhead lights

Text: "Calendar", "To-do list"

The speaker is shown in a small inset video, while the main frame cuts between two scenes: a man typing on a laptop in a cafe, and then hands typing on a tablet with a keyboard case. The speaker gestures with his hands, indicating the concepts he is explaining.

"But one step beyond that, which is what the second brain talks about, is about how we should capture any kind of idea that resonates with us and put it into this note-taking app."

Setting: various — bright, natural light in cafe, bright office lighting

The speaker, a young man with short dark hair, glasses, and a light blue button-up shirt over a white t-shirt, sits at a light-colored desk, gesturing with both hands, palms open and fingers spread, then bringing them together in a controlled, precise motion as he speaks. He looks directly at the camera. Graphics appear on screen showing icons and text for "Apple Notes" and "Notion".

"If you're interested, the app that I use these days is actually Apple Notes. I use Apple Notes for most of my second brain use cases. I use Notion for all the team-based stuff when it comes to making videos, and podcasts, and things, because it's very good for team collaboration. But Apple Notes is my second brain. I just capture everything. Anytime I have a thought, it just goes straight into Apple Notes."

Setting: office — bright, even, natural light from window and overhead lights

Text: "NOTES", "NOTION"

The speaker, a young man with short dark hair, glasses, and a light blue button-up shirt over a white t-shirt, sits at a light-colored desk, gesturing with both hands, palms open and fingers spread, then bringing them together in a controlled, precise motion as he speaks. He looks directly at the camera. Graphics appear on screen showing icons and text for "Highlights from a book" and "An interesting quote".

"And basically the idea is that anything that feels resonant, anything that resonates with me personally, is something I'm going to write down. So this could be highlights from a book, for example. It could be an interesting quote that I've come across on a podcast or in real life."

Setting: office — bright, even, natural light from window and overhead lights

Text: "Highlights from a book", "An interesting quote"

The speaker, a young man with short dark hair, glasses, and a light blue button-up shirt over a white t-shirt, sits at a light-colored desk, gesturing with both hands, palms open and fingers spread, then bringing them together in a controlled, precise motion as he speaks. He looks directly at the camera. Graphics appear on screen showing icons and text for "A website" and "Notes from a meeting".

"It could be a website that I've liked and I'm like, oh, this is a sick website. I really want to remember this website or really want to remember this blog post from this website. Let me just save it into Apple Notes. It could be notes from a meeting. So for example, anytime I have a coaching call, or if I have lunch with like an author or a creator friend, often we talk about interesting stuff,"

Setting: office — bright, even, natural light from window and overhead lights

Text: "A website", "Notes from a meeting"

The speaker, a young man with short dark hair, glasses, and a light blue button-up shirt over a white t-shirt, sits at a light-colored desk, gesturing with both hands, palms open and fingers spread, then bringing them together in a controlled, precise motion as he speaks. He looks directly at the camera. He points to the bottom of the screen.

"often we talk about interesting stuff, and often I'll just think, you know what, pause for a second, that was a really good point. I'm just going to write that down. And then I open up Apple Notes and I write it down. Oh, and speaking of capturing, quick thing. If you have any video ideas that you'd like me to make on this channel, you can submit them in a form that's linked down in the video description."

Setting: office — bright, even, natural light from window and overhead lights

The speaker, a young man with short dark hair, glasses, and a light blue button-up shirt over a white t-shirt, sits at a light-colored desk, gesturing with both hands, palms open and fingers spread, then bringing them together in a controlled, precise motion as he speaks. He looks directly at the camera. He points to the bottom of the screen.

"And if you submit an idea and we make the video, we will pay you $100 either in US dollars or in Bitcoin, depending on whichever one is easier to send to you, depending on where you are in the world. So $100 for video ideas, little competition down below."

Setting: office — bright, even, natural light from window and overhead lights

The speaker, a young man with short dark hair, glasses, and a light blue button-up shirt over a white t-shirt, sits at a light-colored desk, gesturing with both hands, palms open and fingers spread, then bringing them together in a controlled, precise motion as he speaks. He looks directly at the camera. He claps his hands together.

"The other thing that I capture as well is, for example, my own thoughts. So often, if I'm on a train journey, I'll just bust out the iPad. I'll open up Apple Notes and I'll just think, okay, what are some thoughts I've had in the last week that I just want to write down."

Setting: office — bright, even, natural light from window and overhead lights

The main frame shows a man in a gray hoodie and glasses sitting on a train, typing on a tablet with a keyboard case. He looks out the window, then back at the tablet, then starts writing in a small, dark red journal. The speaker from the main video is shown in a small inset video, gesturing as he speaks.

"So often, if I'm on a train journey, I'll just bust out the iPad. I'll open up Apple Notes and I'll just think, okay, what are some thoughts I've had in the last week that I just want to write down."

Setting: train — natural light from window

The speaker, a young man with short dark hair, glasses, and a light blue button-up shirt over a white t-shirt, sits at a light-colored desk, gesturing with both hands, palms open and fingers spread, then bringing them together in a controlled, precise motion as he speaks. He looks directly at the camera. He picks up a small black phone, then a dark red journal, and places them back down. He then gestures widely with his hands.

"And one of the learnings that I've I've picked up over the last couple of years is is really recognizing that my own perspective is actually quite valuable. And, you know, now that I am, for example, writing a book, I'm coming across thoughts that I saved into my note system like a year ago, two years ago, and thinking, oh, this thought was actually pretty reasonable. And this could actually form the basis of like a few paragraphs or even a whole book chapter. And I completely forgot that I had the thought. It wasn't in my first brain because my brain is bad at remembering things. It was in my second brain. It was in my note-taking system, and then I could expand on that and it could become kind of material for my book."

Setting: office — bright, even, natural light from window and overhead lights

The main frame shows hands typing on a tablet with a keyboard case, displaying a note-taking app with text. The speaker from the main video is shown in a small inset video, gesturing as he speaks. He looks directly at the camera.

"And, you know, now that I am, for example, writing a book, I'm coming across thoughts that I saved into my note system like a year ago, two years ago, and thinking, oh, this thought was actually pretty reasonable. And this could actually form the basis of like a few paragraphs or even a whole book chapter."

Setting: office — bright, even lighting

The main frame shows a man in a pink t-shirt and glasses typing on a laptop. The speaker from the main video is shown in a small inset video, gesturing as he speaks. He looks directly at the camera.

"And I completely forgot that I had the thought. It wasn't in my first brain because my brain is bad at remembering things. It was in my second brain. It was in my note-taking system, and then I could expand on that and it could become kind of material for my book."

Setting: office — bright, even lighting

The speaker, a young man with short dark hair, glasses, and a light blue button-up shirt over a white t-shirt, sits at a light-colored desk, gesturing with both hands, palms open and fingers spread, then bringing them together in a controlled, precise motion as he speaks. He looks directly at the camera. He points upwards with his right index finger. The main frame shows a screen displaying a list of books and articles in a note-taking app. The speaker from the main video is shown in a small inset video, gesturing as he speaks.

"Within capturing so far, we've talked about manual ways of capturing stuff, like, you know, writing things down, but there's also automatic ways of capturing stuff. I've got a video up there about five apps that changed my life, and that talks about an automated way of getting capturing highlights from books and articles and podcasts, and I use that as well."

Setting: office — bright, even, natural light from window and overhead lights

Text: "The 5 Magical Apps That Changed My Life"

The main frame shows a screen displaying a list of books and articles in a note-taking app, scrolling through the list. The speaker from the main video is shown in a small inset video, gesturing as he speaks. He looks directly at the camera.

"And so, over the last, I don't know, many, many, many years, I've built up hundreds, if not thousands, of highlights from all of the books and all of the articles that I've ever read. And that's been incredibly valuable for, again, my own book project, but also for me thinking, you know, I read this book about this thing, and I know I want to apply some of the insights from that to my life, but I can't remember what those are, so let me revisit my highlights from that."

Setting: office — bright, even, natural light from window and overhead lights

Text: "The 5 Magical Apps That Changed My Life"

The speaker, a young man with short dark hair, glasses, and a light blue button-up shirt over a white t-shirt, sits at a light-colored desk, gesturing with both hands, palms open and fingers spread, then bringing them together in a controlled, precise motion as he speaks. He looks directly at the camera. He picks up a stack of papers, shuffles them, and places them back down. He then gestures widely with his hands.

"You know, and people often ask, you know, Ali, how are you so productive, etcetera, etcetera. How do you seem to do the things without worrying about it so much? Oh, to be honest, like a big part of it is having a decent productivity system, having a way to capture things into a digital system so that my own brain does not have to remember it. And when you can free your own brain up of having to remember all the crap in your life, then it really kind of reduces your own stress levels."

Setting: office — bright, even, natural light from window and overhead lights

The speaker, a young man with short dark hair, glasses, and a light blue button-up shirt over a white t-shirt, sits at a light-colored desk, gesturing with both hands, palms open and fingers spread, then bringing them together in a controlled, precise motion as he speaks. He looks directly at the camera. A graphic appears on screen showing a hierarchy icon, with the text "Organise" below it. The word "Organise" is highlighted in purple.

"All right, so the next step of the CODE framework is organize. Now, the idea here is now that we've captured all this stuff into this big ass inbox, we now want to organize it in some capacity. Now, the wrong way, as Tiago says, the wrong way to organize notes is in terms of where you found them."

Setting: office — bright, even, natural light from window and overhead lights

Text: "Organise"

The speaker, a young man with short dark hair, glasses, and a light blue button-up shirt over a white t-shirt, sits at a light-colored desk, gesturing with both hands, palms open and fingers spread, then bringing them together in a controlled, precise motion as he speaks. He looks directly at the camera. Graphics appear on screen showing icons and text for "Book Notes", "Podcast Notes", and "Lesson Notes".

"So people will be tempted to be like, I want to have a book notes folder. I want to have a podcast notes folder. I want to have a lesson notes folder. And the problem with that is that it's just not particularly useful. Unless you decide one day, I just want to happen to look through my book notes. You're probably not going to look through your book notes because like we don't have that much time in our lives to revisit the stuff that we once thought was useful."

Setting: office — bright, even, natural light from window and overhead lights

Text: "Book Notes", "Podcast Notes", "Lesson Notes"

The speaker, a young man with short dark hair, glasses, and a light blue button-up shirt over a white t-shirt, sits at a light-colored desk, gesturing with both hands, palms open and fingers spread, then bringing them together in a controlled, precise motion as he speaks. He looks directly at the camera. He picks up a stack of papers, shuffles them, and places them back down. He then gestures widely with his hands.

"Instead, what Tiago suggests, and he talks about it extensively in the book, which kind of gives a whole system for this, is to organize things by actionability. Where will I potentially use this information? So I've taken this on board, and now anytime I come across anything at all, whether it's a quote or a blog post or a podcast or whatever, and it's relevant to the book that I'm writing, it goes straight into my book project folder."

Setting: office — bright, even, natural light from window and overhead lights

A graphic appears showing the text "Where will I potentially use this information?" with the words "use this information" highlighted in purple. The speaker's voice continues in the background.

"Instead, what Tiago suggests, and he talks about it extensively in the book, which kind of gives a whole system for this, is to organize things by actionability. Where will I potentially use this information? So I've taken this on board, and now anytime I come across anything at all, whether it's a quote or a blog post or a podcast or whatever,"

Setting: digital interface — digital

Text: "Where will I potentially use this information?"

The speaker, a young man with short dark hair, glasses, and a light blue button-up shirt over a white t-shirt, sits at a light-colored desk, gesturing with both hands, palms open and fingers spread, then bringing them together in a controlled, precise motion as he speaks. He looks directly at the camera. He picks up a stack of papers, shuffles them, and places them back down. He then gestures widely with his hands.

"So I've taken this on board, and now anytime I come across anything at all, whether it's a quote or a blog post or a podcast or whatever, and it's relevant to the book that I'm writing, it goes straight into my book project folder. And then I don't I don't bother like categorizing and tagging and doing all of that crap. I'm pretty messy in the way I do things. I just chuck it into the book folder, knowing that it will be resurfaced whenever I need it. And knowing that, you know, the nice thing about a digital system is that I can always use control F or command F if I need to. I can always search. And search is now so good these days that you almost don't need a specific hierarchical organizational system."

Setting: office — bright, even, natural light from window and overhead lights

The speaker, a young man with short dark hair, glasses, and a light blue button-up shirt over a white t-shirt, sits at a light-colored desk, gesturing with both hands, palms open and fingers spread, then bringing them together in a controlled, precise motion as he speaks. He looks directly at the camera. A book cover for "Lifespan" by David Sinclair appears on screen, then a screenshot of David Sinclair's YouTube channel, then Andrew Huberman's YouTube channel.

"I'm at the moment really interested in the idea of longevity, really interested in like how do we live longer. And so I've been reading books like Lifespan by David Sinclair, listening to David Sinclair's podcast, listening to the Huberman Lab's podcast."

Setting: office — bright, even, natural light from window and overhead lights

Text: "Lifespan", "Why We Age - and Why We Don't Have To", "David A. Sinclair PhD", "David Sinclair +", "Huberman Lab"

The speaker, a young man with short dark hair, glasses, and a light blue button-up shirt over a white t-shirt, sits at a light-colored desk, gesturing with both hands, palms open and fingers spread, then bringing them together in a controlled, precise motion as he speaks. He looks directly at the camera. Text appears on screen, overlaying the speaker, showing bullet points related to anti-aging and longevity, and then fades away. Graphics appear on screen showing a green checkmark next to "Project" and a red X next to "Topic".

"And initially, I was tempted to organize it by like, you know, by topic. Oh, these are my notes about health or about longevity. But I know that's not particularly useful. Instead, I'm organizing it by actionability. So I'm working on the script for a video called How I'm Trying to Live Forever, the basics of anti-aging. And as I'm reading stuff, it's going into that particular project, which means it's organized by this unit of output, the fact that I'm making a video about it, or I might be writing a newsletter or sharing a blog post about it."

Setting: office — bright, even, natural light from window and overhead lights

Text: "Why should we care about ageing?", "Okay, I'm sold that ageing is bad. But isn't it science fiction?", "Project", "Topic"

The speaker, a young man with short dark hair, glasses, and a light blue button-up shirt over a white t-shirt, sits at a light-colored desk, gesturing with both hands, palms open and fingers spread, then bringing them together in a controlled, precise motion as he speaks. He looks directly at the camera. Graphics appear on screen showing a green checkmark next to "Project" and a red X next to "Topic".

"This is the advice I give to I give to students at university and students in school writing essays. It's actually not very helpful to think, I'm going to study philosophy today or I'm going to study biochemistry today because it's like like, how do you know? Like, what are you going to do? What are you going to work on? Like, it's it's really hard to figure out what that means. But if you organize your notes in the sense of, I need to answer the question of what is the structure and function of the sodium-potassium pump?"

Setting: office — bright, even, natural light from window and overhead lights

Text: "Project", "Topic"

A graphic appears showing the text "What is the structure and function of the sodium-potassium pump?" with the words "structure and function of the sodium-potassium pump" highlighted in purple. The speaker's voice continues in the background.

"I need to answer the question of what is the structure and function of the sodium-potassium pump? At that point, when you do your reading, it's very targeted. You're looking for stuff around the sodium-potassium pump, it goes into that particular essay. And now, as you're doing that, you're building up a mental map of the subject as a whole within this specific niche, rather than thinking, I'm going to study physiology."

Setting: digital interface — digital

Text: "What is the structure and function of the sodium-potassium pump?"

The speaker, a young man with short dark hair, glasses, and a light blue button-up shirt over a white t-shirt, sits at a light-colored desk, gesturing with both hands, palms open and fingers spread, then bringing them together in a controlled, precise motion as he speaks. He looks directly at the camera. He picks up a stack of papers, shuffles them, and places them back down. He then gestures widely with his hands.

"At that point, when you do your reading, it's very targeted. You're looking for stuff around the sodium-potassium pump, it goes into that particular essay. And now, as you're doing that, you're building up a mental map of the subject as a whole within this specific niche, rather than thinking, I'm going to study physiology. So it's the same concept, like organized by actionability rather than by topic."

Setting: office — bright, even, natural light from window and overhead lights

The speaker, a young man with short dark hair, glasses, and a light blue button-up shirt over a white t-shirt, sits at a light-colored desk, gesturing with both hands, palms open and fingers spread, then bringing them together in a controlled, precise motion as he speaks. He looks directly at the camera. He picks up a stack of papers, shuffles them, and places them back down. He then gestures widely with his hands.

"So it's the same concept, like organized by actionability rather than by topic. It can sound pretty complicated, sort of hard to explain this in a video, but um, you can get the book, that'll be linked down below if you if you want it."

Setting: office — bright, even, natural light from window and overhead lights

A graphic appears showing a chemistry flask icon, with the text "Distill" below it. The word "Distill" is highlighted in purple. The speaker's voice continues in the background.

"It can sound pretty complicated, sort of hard to explain this in a video, but um, you can get the book, that'll be linked down below if you if you want it."

Setting: digital interface — digital

Text: "Distill"

The speaker, a young man with short dark hair, glasses, and a light blue button-up shirt over a white t-shirt, sits at a light-colored desk, gesturing with both hands, palms open and fingers spread, then bringing them together in a controlled, precise motion as he speaks. He looks directly at the camera. He picks up a stack of papers, shuffles them, and places them back down. He then gestures widely with his hands.

"At this point, we have captured loads of stuff. We've organized it by actionability. But now we're left with this mess. This like, you know, random quotes, random highlights, random blog posts. How do we know what the important essence of that thing is? And that's where distilling comes in. Basically, Tiago talks about this whole method called progressive summarization,"

Setting: office — bright, even, natural light from window and overhead lights

The speaker, a young man with short dark hair, glasses, and a light blue button-up shirt over a white t-shirt, sits at a light-colored desk, gesturing with both hands, palms open and fingers spread, then bringing them together in a controlled, precise motion as he speaks. He looks directly at the camera. A graphic appears on screen with the text "Progressive Summarisation" with the word "Progressive" highlighted in purple.

"Basically, Tiago talks about this whole method called progressive summarization, which is basically like highlighting, but like highlighting on steroids. Loads of us used to highlight in stuff when we're in school. It's not particularly effective for like retention in your own personal brain, but it is effective for flagging up the areas which are particularly important."

Setting: office — bright, even, natural light from window and overhead lights

Text: "Progressive Summarisation"

The speaker, a young man with short dark hair, glasses, and a light blue button-up shirt over a white t-shirt, sits at a light-colored desk, gesturing with both hands, palms open and fingers spread, then bringing them together in a controlled, precise motion as he speaks. He looks directly at the camera. He picks up a stack of papers, shuffles them, and places them back down. He then gestures widely with his hands.

"And in the book, he's got a bunch of specific examples about how to do this. He also talks about this in his like really expensive online course. I took this course and I was a mentor on that course. I'll put a link down below if you want it."

Setting: office — bright, even, natural light from window and overhead lights

The speaker, a young man with short dark hair, glasses, and a light blue button-up shirt over a white t-shirt, sits at a light-colored desk, gesturing with both hands, palms open and fingers spread, then bringing them together in a controlled, precise motion as he speaks. He looks directly at the camera. A graphic appears on screen showing a megaphone icon, with the text "Express" below it. The word "Express" is highlighted in purple.

"And then the final method of the CODE framework is E for Express. And the idea basically here is you want to show your work. Now, what am I doing? Here I am expressing. Like, you know, I am converting my knowledge of personal knowledge management and reading this book, and my favorite highlights and stuff from this book into a video. This is me expressing, this is me showing my work."

Setting: office — bright, even, natural light from window and overhead lights

Text: "Express"

The speaker is shown in a small inset video, while the main frame shows hands holding a tablet, scrolling through a digital library of books, then scrolling through a note-taking app in dark mode. The speaker gestures with his hands, indicating the concepts he is explaining.

"It's all well and good like hoarding ideas and keeping them in a note-taking app, but unless we're expressing those ideas in some way, unless we're sharing those ideas with the world, unless we're using them to create something or make something of value, they're kind of useless. I mean, I guess you could just sort of hoard the knowledge and then you could apply it to your own life, but it's way nicer if you can share it with other people."

Setting: digital interface — digital

The speaker is shown in a small inset video, while the main frame shows a diverse group of people in an office meeting. A man with gray hair and glasses is presenting on a whiteboard, gesturing with a pencil. The speaker gestures with his hands, indicating the concepts he is explaining.

"And basically, the point that Tiago makes is again, almost every job involves expressing in some capacity. If you're a management consultant and you're making a PowerPoint slide deck, you are expressing, you are creating something. You're, you know, that is your output from all of that information you've inputted and then you've then processed."

Setting: office meeting room — bright, even lighting

The speaker is shown in a small inset video, while the main frame cuts between two scenes: a man in a white shirt and red tie wearing a headset, looking at multiple computer screens displaying stock market data, and then a young man with headphones playing an electric guitar. The speaker gestures with his hands, indicating the concepts he is explaining.

"If you're an investment banker, you are creating something, I.E. your trading strategy. If you're a musician, obviously you're creating stuff, an artist, a writer, a photographer, you are creating these tangible units of output. And that's the whole idea behind this whole framework."

Setting: various — bright, artificial light in office, natural light in studio

The speaker, a young man with short dark hair, glasses, and a light blue button-up shirt over a white t-shirt, sits at a light-colored desk, gesturing with both hands, palms open and fingers spread, then bringing them together in a controlled, precise motion as he speaks. He looks directly at the camera. He picks up a stack of papers, shuffles them, and places them back down. He then gestures widely with his hands.

"And that's the whole idea behind this whole framework. Capturing, organizing, and distilling ultimately helps us express. It helps us show our work. It helps share our creativity, share whatever the thing we've been working on with other people. And being able to do it with a digital commonplace, a second brain, a digital note-taking system that brings all the ideas together, makes it way easier, way less friction, and way less stress to do all of that stuff, which is an important part of our jobs anyway."

Setting: office — bright, even, natural light from window and overhead lights

The speaker, a young man with short dark hair, glasses, and a light blue button-up shirt over a white t-shirt, sits at a light-colored desk, gesturing with both hands, palms open and fingers spread, then bringing them together in a controlled, precise motion as he speaks. He looks directly at the camera. A graphic appears on screen with the text "How my Second Brain has helped me" with the words "Second Brain" highlighted in purple.

"I want to now just share a couple of ways in which the second brain has really helped me in terms of helping me be more productive, but also like be more creative and help my life become basically a lot less stressful. And the first one is the idea of slow burns versus heavy lifts."