How to Build Your Ultimate Productivity System

Summary

The video discusses building a productivity system to help organize your life efficiently. It outlines three 'layers' - the Ron layer for basic life organization (calendar, email, to-do lists, file management), the Hermione layer for consuming content (Kindle, read-later apps, note-taking), and the Dumbledore layer for making connections and building a 'second brain'. The goal is to reduce stress by offloading tasks to a trusted system so your brain doesn't get overwhelmed trying to remember everything.

Takeaways

• 😀 A productivity system helps you use your time intentionally and effectively by offloading tasks from your brain
• 📆 Having a calendar is crucial for remembering commitments and blocking out focused time
• 📥 An email system like 'one touch to inbox zero' helps process emails efficiently
• 📝 A to-do list captures all your tasks so you don't forget things
• 🗂 File management systems like Google Drive provide easy access to all your documents
• 📚 Tools like Kindle and Readwise help capture highlights and insights from books
• 🔖 Instapaper lets you save articles to read later when you have more time
• 📒 Note-taking apps capture random ideas and thoughts for future reference
• 🧠 Building a 'second brain' makes connections between ideas for creativity
• ⚙️ Apps like Todoist, Fantastical, and Roam help implement these systems

Q & A

What are the three types of tasks that our brains handle?

Type 1 tasks are things our brains do best like creativity, enjoyment, relaxation, etc. Type 2 tasks are things our brains can do but systems can handle more efficiently like keeping track of tasks and calendars. Type 3 tasks are things systems should handle like remembering phone numbers and birthdays.

What are the four components of the 'Ron' layer of a productivity system?

The four components are: 1) A calendar, 2) An email management system, 3) A to-do list, 4) A file management system.

What is the 'one touch to inbox zero' system?

It's an email management approach where every email touches your inbox only once. It either goes to your calendar, task manager, note taking app, or read it later app, and then you archive the email.

What app does the author use for capturing tasks and to-do lists?

The author uses Todoist for capturing all tasks and maintaining his to-do lists across devices.

What is the purpose of the 'Hermione' layer of the productivity system?

The Hermione layer contains optional modules for people who consume a lot of media. It helps capture insights and information from books, podcasts, articles etc. so those insights aren't forgotten later.

What are the four components of the Hermione layer?

The four components are: 1) The Kindle app for reading and highlighting books 2) A read it later app like Instapaper 3) An app called Readwise 4) A notes capture app like Apple Notes.

How does the author find interesting articles and content to read?

The author subscribes to various email newsletters, especially Morning Brew, which surfaces interesting business, finance and tech articles. He shares good articles to his read it later app.

What is the purpose of building a 'second brain'?

Building a second brain using apps like Roam Research helps you make connections between ideas and information. It acts like a thought partner for creativity rather than just passively storing information.

What are some benefits of having a solid productivity system?

Benefits include reduced stress and anxiety, prevention of burnout, having to remember fewer things, increased efficiency, and being more intentional with how you spend your time.

What app might the author consider switching to from Roam Research?

The author mentions he might switch to using Obsidian for building his second brain instead of Roam Research.

Outlines

00:00

📆 Setting up a calendar system for scheduling events and time blocking

The first component of a productivity system is a digital calendar app to schedule events, block out intentional time for important tasks, and enable automatic scheduling. A calendar reduces the mental load of remembering commitments and enables focused time on priorities.

05:01

📥 Email management for reducing inbox clutter

The second component is an email management system focused on the 'one touch to inbox zero' method - processing each email just once by either scheduling it, assigning it as a task, or archiving relevant information. This avoids using the strained inbox as a task list or place to store articles.

10:02

✅ A comprehensive to-do list app for task tracking

The third component is a robust to-do list app (like Todoist) to capture all tasks and intentions that would otherwise occupy mental bandwidth. This enables batching tasks without the anxiety of forgetting things that slip through the cracks.

15:03

🗂️ Cloud-based file management system

The fourth component of basic life organization is a cloud-based file management system (like Google Drive) to store information and enable access across devices. This reduces the stress of losing data or struggling to find reference material.

Keywords

💡productivity system

A productivity system refers to the methods, tools and processes someone uses to organize their work and personal life. As explained in the video, a good productivity system takes tasks and responsibilities off your brain so you can focus on creative thinking. Examples in the script include using a calendar, task manager, note taking system.

💡calendar

A calendar app or program is one of the key components of a basic productivity system, according to the video. It enables you to schedule appointments, block off time for important tasks, and get notifications about upcoming events. This removes the mental strain of trying to remember everything yourself.

💡to-do list

A to-do list app, like Todoist as mentioned in the video, allows you to capture all your tasks and action items in one place so you don't forget things. By writing things down, you can process tasks more efficiently without the anxiety of remembering everything in your brain.

💡file management system

The video advocates using a cloud-based file storage like Google Drive so all your documents, photos, and other files are securely stored and accessible from anywhere. Good search functions mean you can easily find what you need without getting overwhelmed.

💡email management

Email can be a source of distraction and overload. The video recommends strategies like unsubscribing from junk, using one platform for all email, and processing emails quickly using the "one touch" method - either act on it, file it, or archive right away.

💡building a second brain

This refers to creating a knowledge management system that helps surface ideas and insights from all the information you consume. By taking good notes and then connecting concepts in tools like Roam or Obsidian, you can stimulate creativity rather than just passive consumption.

💡highlighting

Highlighting passages in Kindle books or articles is a way to capture key insights, quotes and ideas that you want to save and potentially revisit later. Rather than just passively reading content, it enables you to extract value from books and articles.

💡read it later app

Apps like Instapaper allow you to save articles and links into a reading list for later, removing the distraction of wanting to read something right away. This helps avoid going down internet rabbit holes when you should be focused on important tasks.

💡capture app

A capture tool like Apple Notes lets you quickly jot down ideas, notes, and other information you want to save as you move through life and work. Easy capture prevents creative thoughts from being forgotten.

💡burnout

Highlights

A productivity system helps us do meaningful things efficiently without wasting time or getting stressed.

Your brain is for having ideas, not for storing them.

A calendar takes the stress off by tracking events instead of trying to remember everything.

Unsubscribe from random emails to avoid spam in your inbox.

A to-do list captures tasks so your brain doesn't have to remember everything.

Cloud storage like Google Drive lets you access files anywhere and not worry about hardware failures.

The Hermione layer helps capture insights from books and media to remember key ideas.

Kindle's highlighting feature lets you easily save key passages to revisit later.

Instapaper separates reading articles from finding them so you don't get distracted.

Morning Brew newsletter conveniently aggregates daily business and tech news.

Readwise automatically saves highlights from various apps to a central hub.

Apple Notes is a simple way to capture random notes for later search and review.

The Dumbledore layer builds connections between ideas to spark creativity.

Building a Second Brain surfaces old insights at the right times to generate new ideas.

Good systems reduce anxiety by offloading things from your brain that don't need to be there.

Transcripts

in this video we are talking about how

to build a productivity system and the

first question to start with is why do

you in fact need a productivity system

and really the main reason is so that we

can do the stuff that we want to do we

can do things that are meaningful to us

in an efficient way without wasting our

time and so that we're less stressed out

doing it because then we don't have to

rely on our brain to do things that it's

not designed to do and we can almost

think of this as like a bit of a venn

diagram where we've got the brain and

we've got our system and broadly we can

categorize tasks into one of three

things so type one tasks are things that

our brain itself does best these are

things like creativity and enjoyment and

relaxing and living in the present

moment and all that fun stuff connecting

with other people all of this stuff

totally cool if our brain does the thing

then we've got type 2 types of thing

which is stuff that like we often use

our brain for but that our productivity

system or some kind of system can

probably do a little bit more

efficiently for example things like

keeping on top of tasks keeping on top

of calendars keeping on top of emails

having to use our brain to remember all

of that stuff is really taxing and quite

stressful especially if you have a lot

of stuff to be doing and then thirdly

there is the type 3 stuff the stuff that

we definitely should be using some kind

of system for this generally involves

kind of remembering information that is

not directly connected to the things we

actually care about so for example

memorizing phone numbers is a bit of a

waste of time in a way memorizing a lot

of people's birthdays a bit of a waste

of time you can just outsource that to a

system like a calendar and so really the

idea of a productivity system is well

productivity is using our time

intentionally and effectively and so the

point of having a system for it is so

that our brain doesn't have to do so

much work so anyway in this video we're

going to talk about kind of three

different layers of a productivity

system that you can choose to build if

you feel that it helps you with your

life it certainly helps with mine and

we're going to split that into layer 1

which is ron layer 2 which is hermione

and layer 3 which is dumbledore

so the wrong layer i.e layer one of the

system is all about keeping your life in

order and there are really four things

four different components that you need

in a productivity system in my humble

opinion to kind of get to a place where

your life is reasonably in order let the

feast

begin the first one is a calendar now it

is amazing how many people i know who

don't live their lives based on a

calendar and who are trying to remember

in their own heads all of the

information for like events that they

need to attend a friend invites you for

a birthday party two weeks from now oh

it's cool it's fine i won't write it

down i will just try and remember oh

i've gotta have dinner with my mum next

week it's fine i'm just gonna remember

like our brain is so bad at remembering

these things and one of the quotes that

i always come back to is from david

allen who is one of the world's biggest

productivity gurus who says that your

brain is for having ideas not for

storing them and one of the principles

of productivity that i always come back

to and i have done over the last five

years is that my brain is a dumbass i

want my brain to not have to remember

things that it doesn't need to so feel

free to use a physical calendar if you

really want to but basically everyone in

the world these days uses some kind of

digital calendar usually some kind of

app on your phone apple calendar is good

google calendar is good there are a

bunch of different third party

alternatives the one i personally use is

fantastical this is for example what my

fantastic health looks like earlier

today breakfast with osama and sharina

dashoom same page meeting with angus

table read for this video podcast q a

for the podcast video filming video

filming and then i'm going to cambridge

for some talks this evening i have an

orthodontist appointment tomorrow i've

got this whole retreat thing that i'm

going to in the evening and basically

for the last several years i have been

running my life based on my calendar and

this is amazing this like takes an

enormous amount of stress off my

shoulders because if something is not in

the calendar then it doesn't exist like

as soon as a friend says to me hey do

you want to do this thing on this date

i'll look at my calendar and be like let

me have a look yep and i'll just add it

there there and then so that i'm not

trying to remember like what was that

thing that like catherine invite me to

et cetera et cetera so a calendar is

really good for remembering stuff that

you need to do but it's also really good

for actively intentionally blocking out

time for the things that you actually

want to do so for example for me i know

that every morning i want to block out

three hours to work on my book and so

there's a blockchain in my calendar and

then i know that oh okay cool when i get

to the morning at nine o'clock this is

the thing that i'm doing i block out

time for exercise i block at times for

sports event for social events friday

nights i want to host a dinner therefore

i'll block that timeout in my calendar

and then the third and final really good

reason to use a calendar is that you can

then use automatic scheduling apps like

calendly or tinycal or savvycal or any

of these others and what that does is it

generates a link and that link connects

to your calendar and then if you want to

arrange a meeting with someone or a zoom

call with someone you met on the

internet or even a hangout with friends

you could if you wanted to save the

whole back and forth of scheduling

especially if it's with email especially

if it's a work thing by just sending

them a calendar link and then they'd be

able to kind of book a time in your

calendar now i use this a lot for kind

of booking interviews for book research

and all this kind of stuff and it's just

super super helpful and it saves a lot

of time and again means that my own

brain doesn't have to kind of do the

work in arranging all these things all

right the next thing every productivity

system needs at the wrong level is some

kind of system for email management most

of us use something like gmail that's

totally fine you can use an app like

apple mail i use an app called

superhuman which is very good but it's

expensive you have to pay for it but

it's it's pretty solid now there's an

approach to email that i really like

from my friend thiago forte who is again

productivity expert and it's called one

touch to inbox zero and basically the

idea behind this method is that every

email touches your inbox only once if

it's something that requires a calendar

event then it goes into your calendar

and then you archive the email if it's a

to-do if it's something that needs

action it goes into your task manager

more on that in a minute and then you

archive the email if it's information

that you need to reference at some point

you put it into a note-taking app and if

it's an article or something that you

might want to read it goes into your

read it later app and we'll talk much

more about those further in the video

there's a few general tips that apply to

emails as well which again are

completely game-changing for

productivity if you haven't done them

already the first one is to just

unsubscribe from all these random emails

like amazon or like sales or like shops

and like all of this stuff is pretty

unnecessary we don't want to treat our

inbox like kind of this place where any

kind of marketer from any kind of

company can just spam stuff into it one

thing that you can actually do and this

is what i do is that i've created a

smart filter in gmail which searches the

content of every email for the word

unsubscribe now if the word unsubscribe

is in an email it is probably not an

important email because no one

no real person is going to email you

with the word unsubscribe in their thing

whereas if you're getting like a

marketing communication or a newsletter

or whatever and it has the word

unsubscribe in it you can just

automatically make it skip your inbox so

it doesn't kind of clog up the inbox the

other thing you should do is that

ideally only have one place to deal with

all your email so for example when i was

at university i forwarded all my

university email to my personal gmail

and also all my personal gmail to my

personal gmail because gmail has just

way better features than whatever hermes

app that cambridge university was using

but really the main point is that we

want to avoid using our inbox our email

inbox as a place to find articles to

read or even worse using our email inbox

as a to-do list which brings us on to

component number three of a decent

productivity system and that is to have

some kind of to-do list now again david

allen's advice from getting things done

comes in here your brain is for having

ideas not for holding them and if you

don't write something down in a to-do

list your brain is very unlikely to

remember the thing you could do this on

pen and paper if you really want to i

sometimes do like my daily planner i use

my essentially productivity part-time

productivity notebook and in that i ask

myself one question which is what is the

most important thing i need to do today

that's my daily highlight and every

every day i try and fill the end to be

like okay today the single most

important thing i want to do is x and

then i have a my to-do list this is just

stuff that i might do later in the day

and i like calling it a might do list

because it just takes a little bit of

the pressure off me and it means i don't

have to stress too much if i don't get

all those things done so that tends to

be what i do on a kind of day-by-day

basis when i figure out what am i doing

for the day but the actual app that i

use to track all of the other stuff is

todoist i've tried a bunch of different

apps over the years so essentially what

i do is that if i need to add a task to

my to-do list then usually i'll input it

on my phone or on my macbook if i happen

to be on my macbook and you'll see on my

iphone that i've literally got todoist

as like one of the primary things in my

dock so if i do think of anything at all

anytime a task pops into my mind i think

okay this is not gonna happen until i

write it down and i just open up to-do

list and i write down whatever the task

is so for example i know right now i

need to find bow tie

from cambridge flat cool now that's

written down now i i will get to it at

some point similarly i use this for

shopping list i use it for any thank you

emails i need to send as soon as

anything pops into mind it just goes

straight into the to-do list app either

on my phone or on my macbook and then

whenever i've got some time where i feel

like you know what i'm gonna batch go

through my to-do list because i've got

half an hour and nothing better to do

then i'll just go through and just bang

my bang i'll delete the ones that are no

longer relevant like oh should i get all

plant smoothies probably maybe not screw

it doesn't need to go i'll just take

that off or delete it but for something

i actually need to do it's great because

then i can batch and do these things

like i need to send a bunch of thank you

emails and so i've just batched them all

into todoist knowing that at some point

i'll get around to sending all these

emails in one go something i like to do

is sort of got this someday maybe list

for like you know work stuff someday

maybe it's like personal stuff these are

things i'd like to do at some point

rollerblading archery hunting glamping

mountain biking treehouse clamping

retreat all these different things like

when i have an idea for something cool i

just chuck it into the someday maybe

list this is again a tip from david

allen and that means that i know at some

point when it comes to planning my next

holiday i'll just be able to look at

that and think you know what the idea of

kite surfing sounds pretty cool let me

google and figure out where i can

potentially go kite surfing now at this

point the mistake that the vast majority

of people seem to make with their to-do

list at least from all the people that

i've coached in productivity is actually

not having 100 coverage so for example

if you have a to-do list and it only

covers 90 of your things rather than 100

you're going to get into one of these

problems i can't remember what i've

forgotten so like the point of the to-do

list is so that you don't forget things

but if 10 of things are in your brain

you won't know what that 10 is and so

you're always going to be stressed

thinking i know my to-do list has most

of the things i need to do but it

doesn't have all the things i need to do

therefore i still need to remember my

brain to do stuff and then it just adds

this sort of low low level tension and

stress to every single thing that we do

in life anyway final thing in our wrong

level of productivity system is some

kind of file management system again

this is like super basic stuff but again

there are so many people who have

literally coached in productivity who

don't have a decent file management

system generally what you want is some

kind of cloud storage now the one that i

use even though i'm an apple fanboy for

absolutely everything i still use google

drive as my cloud storage system of

choice i've got my personal google drive

and i've got the business google drive

and i've got the folders on my mac so

for example i can look in my drive i can

look at all of my business stuff all of

my med school stuff let's look at

pre-clinical medicine let's look at

first here these are all the notes that

i had in first year across all my

different subjects let's look at home

that's physiology essays examples

documents all of this stuff it is all in

my google drive and i you know my my

whole life is basically on google drive

photos memories files all of the things

on google drive so that if i ever lose

my computer if my hard disk discover

goes if it ever gets stolen if i want to

upgrade computers it's so easy i know

every single thing is on google drive

and these days like searching functions

and these things are so good that

if i know that i need to find a certain

file i'll just search my google drive

for it because i know it's probably in

there somewhere all right so that was

the wrong layer of the productivity

system for essential life management the

four components that in my humble

opinion every single person needs to

survive in this world that we live in so

that your brain is not super super

stressed out trying to remember all

these random details the next layer up

of the productivity system is an

optional extra and this is for people

that consume a lot of books honestly

don't you two read and this is where the

hermione level of the productivity

system comes in and basically the idea

here is that it's a layer above it's

like additional modules that you can add

to your basic productivity system if you

want if you consume a lot of media media

meaning books or audio books or podcasts

or videos or anything like that that you

might want to remember later this layer

of the productivity system is about

taking notes it's about capturing

information that resonates with us from

the stuff that we consume and again this

is for people who you know if you've had

that feeling where you read all these

things or you listen to all these things

and you have all these insights but you

don't write them down and then like two

months later you've forgotten what you

read in that book that potentially

changed your life that's the point of

this level of the productivity system

and here we have another four modules of

the system so the first one is the

kindle app yes there are other ways to

read there's apple books and stuff but

like to be honest i've tested them all

and i found the kindle app to be by far

the best one you don't even need to have

a physical kindle although that's one of

the most life-changing products i do

recommend yeah the kindle app is

absolutely sick i tend to read most

things on ebook format rather than

physical book format but it's not just

reading that i can do on the kindle app

it is also highlighting and highlighting

on the kindle lab just is an absolute

breeze and what i can do is that once

i've read a book i can always look at my

highlights in the kindle notebook and

then if i need to revisit things that i

learned from a book or a quote from a

paranormal romance book that i

particularly enjoyed i can just open up

my highlights and i can see everything

that's previously resonated with me

alright so that was the kindle app next

we have a read it later app now the one

that i've been using for the last

several years is called instapaper it's

free and essentially the point of

instapaper is that anytime you're

reading something or you want to read an

article on the internet if you don't

want to read it there and then on your

phone or on your browser you can just

share it into something like instapaper

and then it will just show up on your

list and now again when i have a spare

moment if i'm commuting if i'm on a tube

or whatever i'll just open up insta

paper usually on my phone and i'll just

flick through some of the articles and

instant paper and i'll be like oh okay

cool this one looks interesting i'm

improving ourselves to death this is a

bit of a critique about self-help and i

can look through that article i can

highlight stuff as well it's all very

handy and it's just a great way of

separating the reading of articles from

coming across the articles because often

i find that you know if i'm on the

toilet for like three minutes and i'm

scrolling through twitter and i come

across an interesting article if i read

it there and then it might take 10

minutes and then i'm on the toilet for

three hours and that's not very good or

if i'm in the middle of something and

someone recommends an article i know i

want to read it at some point but i know

i don't want to read it there and then

i'll just send it straight to insta

paper and trust that at some point i

will get around to reading that article

and again this separation from

separation of things like if i'm trying

to focus on something that i genuinely

care about but then i get i get derailed

by an article recommendation and go down

this wikipedia rabbit holes trying to

figure out all these conspiracy theories

that ends up actually taking time away

from the thing that i actually care

about and kind of stopping me from kind

of being productive and being

intentional with how i'm spending my

time and because time is our most

valuable non-renewable resource it's the

only thing we can't make more of it's

like it always felt a bit like oh i know

i've carved out this time to work on

this thing that's important to me but

i've just been stolen away by being

distracted by this article insta paper

or something like that completely solves

that problem now when it comes to

actually finding articles and

interesting things to read that will

level up your life and like things you

actually care about people always ask me

like how do you find stuff to read and

for me it's because i subscribe to a

bunch of email newsletters and one of

the main ones that i read every single

day is called morningbrew who are very

kindly sponsoring this video now

morningbrew is a completely free daily

email newsletter that lands in your

inbox every morning or in your read it

later app if you've set up a forwarding

rule which is what i've done basically

it gets you up to speed on what's

happening in the world of tech and

finance and business and if you care

about those three things like i do then

it's just a fantastic newsletter and

it's also completely free so you might

as well sign up it takes most people

around five minutes to go through it and

catch up to date with the news usually i

skim through in about two and a half

minutes flat while i'm waiting for my

morning coffee to brew and if there's

any interesting articles from that i'll

send those articles directly to my read

it later app as well and then usually

read them later on in the day on the

toilet and that means every day i'm up

to date on these things that i care

about like tech and finance and business

and a lot of those topics then generate

interesting content ideas that i can

talk about in the podcast or in youtube

videos or anything else or just

generally keeping up to date with

interesting things in the world it's

also great because it gives you

interesting and in-depth coverage around

weird things like elon musk how he's

financing his twitter buy or like the

recent crypto crash which is massively

affected by encrypted portfolio but i've

got the information from morning brew

because i trust them as a legit non-fake

news source and all it is is take out a

few minutes out of my day to read these

interesting articles rather than be

keeping up to date with the whole 24

hours news cycle so yeah if you're

interested in tech finance business any

of that kind of stuff then you might as

well subscribe to this newsletter it is

completely free they don't charge a

single penny for it completely free

check check out the link in the video

description and it'll help support the

channel as well so thank you so much

morning brew for sponsoring this video

and for making my personal life much

better alright component 3 of the

hermione layer is an app called read

wise i'll put an affiliate link down

below they're not sponsoring this video

but if you click the link you'll get an

extra two-month trial rather than just a

one-month trial and i'll get a bit of a

kickback if you sign up i've been

recommending read-wise for the last like

three years now read wise is incredible

it's like this little hub that takes in

details like it takes in your kindle

highlights and your insta paper

highlights and a few other sources and

it puts them all in one place and it

means you can then export those

highlights to apps like notion or rom

more on those in layer three and it's

really handy because now all of this

stuff gets automated anytime i see a

passage in kindle or an instant paper

that resonates with me where i think oh

i want to save this passage all i have

to do is highlight it and i trust i just

trust that read-wise will behind the

scenes sort it all out again before read

was existed before we had this kind of

thing what we'd have to do is if you

found a passage that resonated with you

you'd have to write it down you have to

highlight it you'd have to store it

somewhere you have to figure out where

you're trying to store it it becomes a

real faff and again coming back to a

point what is the point of a

productivity system people always ask

it's to get [ __ ] off of your own brain

like i now don't need to remember all

these things because the system is

remembering it for me and then i trust

that the system will resurface it as and

when i need to access those highlights

again and then finally the fourth

component of this sort of system is some

sort of capture app for notes now again

i've tried a bunch of systems over the

years but actually the one that i've

come back to most often is actually

apple notes and essentially anytime i

need to remember something for example

if i'm taking a note while i'm on the

toilet or if i'm on the train and

listening to an audiobook and i want to

take notes on something i'll just open

up apple notes and i'll write it down

and i'll trust that if i need to

resurface that thing sometime further

down the line it will always be in my

apple notes and it will always be

something that i could potentially

search for at this point honestly i've

got hundreds and hundreds and hundreds

of notes in my apple notes and then i

just trust that they're there like i

know i don't need to worry about doing

stuff with them as soon as they come in

i don't need to worry about an elaborate

system for this what i care about is

having the minimum viable level of

organization the minimum viable level of

systems and structure to again reduce my

own strain reduce my own stress even

often ask like oh how do you seem to not

burn out how do you manage like honestly

like having a decent system is a massive

cure for burnout because you just trust

the system you trust the system to do

stuff you don't have to again have that

low level of anxiety running in your

actual brain all right so that was the

hermione layer of the productivity

system and now the final layer that if

you want to layer on top of that you can

if you really want to is the dumbledore

layer which relates to a concept called

building a second brain you might have

heard me talk about building a second

brain before it is a book it is a system

it's a course written and done by my

friend thiago forte and it's like a

pretty game changing productivity system

because the idea like level one the run

the wrong layer level whatever you want

to call it was about just being able to

organize our life and kind of get by

level two was about capturing insights

from all the stuff that we read and

consume and level three this dumbledore

level is all about making connections

and in a way using our productivity

system for creativity rather than just

for storage and in a way if you can

actually build your own second brain

this ends up acting as a thought partner

for you i've been using this system

since like mid 2019 now it's been three

years and i've found so many ways in

which particularly for writing my book

but also for creating content and for

writing newsletters and for doing

podcasts the information i've captured

into my second brain using an app called

rome the one i use these days although i

might switch to obsidian more on that

later but capturing all this information

into an app called rome research means

that it just sort of resurfaces and if

you want to find out more about this

dumbledore level then check out this

video over here which is my book club

episode all about breaking down the

c-o-d-e component of the building a

second brain system and that will give

you a step-by-step guide on how to apply

it in your own life so thank you so much

for watching check out this video over

here and i'll see in the next one