How to Organise your Life - Building a Second Brain

Summary

该视频教你如何通过建立第二大脑系统来解决信息过载问题。整个方法分四步:捕捉有价值的信息和想法;按行动可能性组织信息;提炼信息的精华部分;表达自己的想法与创造力。这个系统可以减轻大脑负担,提高工作效率和创造力。

Takeaways

• 😀 第二大脑系统可以帮助我们解决信息过载的问题,更好地组织和利用信息
• 😊 将大脑用于产生idea,而不是记住idea,这可以减轻大脑的负担,提高工作效率
• 📝 利用数字化的系统来捕获生活中的idea和信息,比如笔记应用程序
• 🗂 利用「行动化」的方式来组织信息,比如按项目来归档,而不是按话题
• ✂️ 通过渐进式摘要的方法,提炼信息的精华,区分重要和不重要的信息
• 📬 表达和分享我们整理后的信息,将其应用到实际生活或工作中,创造更多价值
• ⏳ 通过慢热方式来进行多个项目,逐步聚集相关信息,减轻单一项目的工作量
• 💡 第二大脑系统中聚集的信息,可以帮助我们更容易、更快速地准备演讲、教学等
• 🎯 第二大脑不仅对创作者有帮助,所有知识型工作都可以从中获益
• 📚 建立自己的第二大脑系统需要一定的方法,Tiago Forte的书和课程值得参考

Q & A

这个视频主要讨论了什么主题?

这个视频主要讨论了第二大脑系统,它可以帮助人们解决信息过载的问题,组织知识,提高生产力和创造力。

“第二大脑”指的是什么?

“第二大脑”指的是笔记系统,它可以捕捉我们生活中的想法和信息,从而减轻我们大脑的负担,让大脑有更多空间生成创意思维。

文件系统有什么缺点?

文件系统分类杂乱,不利于检索和使用信息。组织信息的最佳方式是基于信息的行动性和输出价值。

CODE框架包含哪些步骤?

CODE框架包含:Capture(捕捉)、Organize(组织)、Distill(提炼)和Express(表达)四个步骤。

如何自动捕捉信息?

可以使用一些应用程序自动捕捉书籍、文章和播客中的重要部分。这可以大大节省时间并建立丰富的知识库。

“慢烧”和“重量级”有什么区别?

“慢烧”指的是同时处理多个项目,持续小步迭代。“重量级”指的是集中处理单一项目。第二大脑系统有助于“慢烧”,减少单项目的工作负担。

第二大脑系统如何提高教学效率?

第二大脑中汇聚了充分的素材和例证,可以快速准备授课内容,无需从零开始。

为什么要编写博客、视频等来表达自己的思想?

表达可以将个人见解转化为有价值的产出,不仅巩固所学,也可以让更多人受益。

视频中提到的工具有哪些?

视频中提及的工具包括:Apple Notes、Notion、Highlight、Anki等。

如何开始构建自己的第二大脑?

首先要养成主动捕捉信息和想法的习惯,逐步形成数字化的知识管理系统。要根据行动价值组织信息,并通过博客、视频等方式将其表达出来。

Outlines

00:00

📚 构建第二大脑的启示

阿里分享了他面临的一个主要问题——信息过载，以及《构建第二大脑》一书提出的解决方案。他讲述了个人多年来使用该系统的经验，并解释了第二大脑系统如何帮助人们管理信息过载问题。阿里讨论了第二大脑的概念，强调了记录下来任何事情的重要性，并介绍了传统的记录方法，如常见书，并指出了数字化记录的优势。最后，他提到了使用代码框架来构建第二大脑，并承诺将分享他的个人案例，帮助观众了解如何为自己构建第二大脑。

05:02

🗂 有效管理信息的策略

阿里讨论了通过捕获、组织和利用笔记应用或第二大脑来管理信息的重要性。他分享了自己使用苹果笔记和Notion应用的经验，并强调记录任何引起共鸣的想法的重要性。通过分享自己如何记录书籍摘要、有趣的引言、会议记录和个人想法，阿里展示了一个有效的信息管理系统。他还提到了自动化捕获信息的方法，并分享了一个竞赛，鼓励观众提交视频想法以换取奖金。最后，他强调了捕获信息的手动和自动方式，以及如何利用这些信息来提高个人生产力和创造力。

10:06

🔄 信息的组织与表达

阿里解释了如何通过行动性来组织捕获的信息，而不是按来源分类，以提高信息的可用性和实用性。他分享了自己如何根据项目而不是主题来组织信息，以及这种方法如何帮助他更有针对性地处理信息。通过讨论如何将信息整理成精华，并最终通过表达（如创作视频、书籍或演讲）分享这些信息，阿里展示了整个系统如何帮助个人更有效地利用他们的知识和创意。他还分享了使用第二大脑系统带来的个人益处，包括如何通过缓慢进行的项目和高效的教学工作来提高生产力和创造力。

15:08

🔗 第二大脑与生产力系统的整合

阿里总结了如何将第二大脑系统物理和数字地整合到他的生产力系统中，以及这一整合如何帮助他更有效地管理信息和创意。他鼓励观众订阅频道，并提供了进一步探索构建个人生产力系统和深入了解第二大脑概念的资源。

Keywords

💡信息过载

信息过载指一个人获得的信息量超过了他们处理和吸收信息的能力。视频中讲到我们每天会消耗大量信息,这会导致信息过载。一个“第二大脑”系统可以帮助我们组织和处理这些信息,减轻信息过载。

💡共同写作簿

共同写作簿指的是一个笔记簿,艺术家和创作者会在里面记录灵感、笔记和草稿。视频中提到很多伟大的艺术家如达芬奇都有自己的共同写作簿。一个数字化的共同写作簿可以是我们的“第二大脑”。

💡知识工作

知识工作指的是依赖信息输入、处理和输出的工作。视频中认为现在几乎所有的工作都包含一定程度的知识工作,都需要处理信息。所以“第二大脑”对任何工作都有帮助。

💡大脑的作用

大脑的作用应该是产生想法而不是记住想法。如果我们能将想法记录在外部“第二大脑”系统中,大脑就能更好地进行创造和联系。

💡捕捉

捕捉指将我们遇到的好的想法、引文、故事等记录下来,存入我们的“第二大脑”系统中。这可以通过手动笔记或自动化应用程序完成。

💡组织

我们应该按照这些想法和信息的行动性来组织它们,即我们可能会如何使用这些信息,而不是简单地按照它们的来源排序。

💡提炼

对捕捉到的信息和想法进行层层提炼和总结,提取其核心要点。这可以帮助我们理解信息的本质,也为之后表达做准备。

💡表达

使用我们的“第二大脑”知识库中的信息,创造一些有价值的输出,比如演讲、文章、视频等。这是收集所有这些信息的最终目的。

💡缓释与重重击

“重重击”指需集中工作完成的大项目。“缓释”指可以并行缓慢处理的小项目。第二大脑系统支持缓释,让多个创作项目持续进行。

💡教学工作

视频中讲到第二大脑系统可以极大地帮助教学工作。收集、组织好的信息让准备教学内容变得简单快捷。

Highlights

我们每天消耗34GB的信息,相当于174份完整的报纸

大脑是用于产生思想,而不是用于储存思想

所有工作实际上都是知识工作

数字化的共同笔记本就是第二大脑

第二大脑系统有助于解决信息过载问题

代码框架的4个部分:收集、组织、提炼和表达

根据行动能力而不是主题组织笔记

渐进式总结有助于识别重要信息

第二大脑减轻了创作的负担

第二大脑有助于平衡多个项目

第二大脑使即兴演讲更加轻松

共同笔记本有助于创造力和灵感

知识工作占了现代工作的很大一部分

大脑擅长产生思想而不是记住事物

共享想法是构建第二大脑的关键

Transcripts

Ali (00:00): 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, but I end up 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 distil and discuss highlights and

summaries from some of my favourite books.

And the whole idea is that this system, the 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.

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.

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.

Ali (00:41): 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 dozens and dozens, 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.

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.

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.

Ali (01:21): 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.

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.

This is the sort of thing that the great artists in our time, 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.

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 a standard part of the creative process for so many people.

Jerry Seinfeld (01:55): I know you think people are going to be interested

in this, but they're not.

Ali (01:58): Even back in the day, people like Leonard

DaVinci 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.

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 doing it in an analogue system is pretty inefficient.

You can't search.

You can't organise.

It's a bit of a faff.

And so thanks to this tech-enabled world that we live in, instead of making an analogue

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, 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.

Ali (02:45): Internally, it might be a random musing that

you have, or you're in the shower and you think of something or 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.

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?

What is the point of writing all this stuff down?

Now, again, if you are 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.

Ali (03:19): 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.

But the question is, what if you're not?

What if you're one of those people that does not want to be a "content creator" in some

capacity, you'd have no aspirations of writing a book or starting a podcast or a newsletter

or anything obviously creative that requires you to do this kind of stuff.

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.

Ali (03:56): 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 it's quite

funny.

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.

Are you processing it and then turning it into outputs of some sort?

Even something like being a doctor involves information.

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.

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.

And that's basically what every single job involves.

Ali (04:39): 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, you want to get the book, any of that kind of stuff.

Ali (04:56): Now, 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.

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, rather than having to remember what was on my calendar, what's on my 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.

Ali (05:36): And 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.

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.

If you're interested, that 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, 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.

And basically, the idea is that anything that feels resonant, anything that resonates with

me personally, is something I'm going to write down.

Ali (06:11): 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.

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 I 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 an author or

a creative friend, often we talk about interesting stuff and often I'll just think, you know

what?

Pause for a second.

That was 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.

Ali (06:43): And if you submit an idea and we make the

video, we will pay you $100, either in U.S. 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 envelope.

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?

And one of the learnings that I've picked up over the last couple of years is really

recognising that my own perspective is actually quite valuable.

And now that I'm, for example, writing a book, I'm coming across thoughts that I saved into

my note system a year ago, two years ago, and thinking, oh, this thought was actually

pretty reasonable, and this could actually form the basis of a few paragraphs or even

a whole book chapter.

Ali (07:26): 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.

Within capturing so far, we've talked about manual ways of capturing stuff, like 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 capturing highlights from books and articles and podcasts, and I use

that as well.

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.

Ali (07:58): And that's been incredibly valuable for, again,

my own book project, but also for me thinking, 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.

And people often ask, Ali, how are you so productive, et cetera, et cetera.

How do you seem to do the things without worrying about it so much?

Oh, to be honest, 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.

Ali (08:31): All right.

So the next step of the code framework is organised.

Now the idea here is now that we've captured all this stuff into this big-ass inbox, we

now want to organise it in some capacity.

Now, the wrong way, as Tiago says, the wrong way to organise notes is in terms of where

you found them.

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 we don't have that much time

in our lives to revisit the stuff that we once thought was useful.

Instead, what Tiago suggests, and he talks about it extensively in the book, which kind

of gives a whole system for this, is to organise things by actionability.

Where will I potentially use this information?

Ali (09:11): So I've taken this onboard, 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 bother categorising 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, 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

organisational system.

I'm, at the moment, really interested in the idea of longevity, really interested in how

do we live longer?

Ali (09:47): And so I've been reading books like Lifespan

by David Sinclair, listening to David Sinclair's podcast, listening to Huberman Lab's podcast,

and initially, I was tempted to organise it by topic.

Oh, these are my notes about health or about longevity.

But I know that's not particularly useful.

Instead, I'm organising 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-Ageing, and as I'm reading stuff, it's going into that particular project, which

means it's organised 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.

And even if I never end up making the thing, the fact that I'm organising it based on that

project rather than based on a topic means that I'm far more likely to be more targeted

in my approach.

Ali (10:23): This is the advice I give to students at university

and students in school of 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 how do you know?

What are you going to do?

What are you going to work on?

It's really hard to figure out what that means.

But if you organise your notes in the sense of, 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.

Ali (10:58): So it's the same concept, organised by actionability

rather than by topic.

It can sound pretty complicated.

It's sort of hard to explain this in a video, but you can get the book.

That'll be linked down below, if you want it.

At this point, we have captured loads of stuff.

We've organised it by actionability, but now we're left with this mess.

There's 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, which is

basically highlighting, but highlighting on steroids.

Loads of us used to highlight in stuff when we were in school.

It's not particularly effective for retention in your own personal brain, but it is effective

for flagging up the areas which are particularly important.

Ali (11:35): And in the book, he's got a bunch of specific

examples about how to do this.

He also talks about this in his 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.

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.

I am converting my knowledge of personal knowledge management and reading this book and my favourite

highlights and stuff from this book into a video.

This is me expressing, this is me showing my work.

But if I wasn't making a video, if I wasn't a YouTuber, there are loads of other ways

to express work as well.

And really, that's the whole point of this second brain system, at the end of the day.

It's all well and good, hoarding ideas and keeping them in a note-taking app.

Ali (12:13): 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.

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.

That is your output from all of that information you've inputted and then you've then processed.

If you're an investment banker, you are creating something like your trading strategy.

If you're a musician, obviously you're creating stuff.

An artist, a writer, or a photographer, you are creating these tangible units of output.

Ali (12:48): And that's the whole idea behind this whole

framework, capturing, organising, 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.

Ali (13:09): 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 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.

Before I discovered this system, when it came to making YouTube videos, for example, or

when it came to working on any kind of project, at the time I was working on a bunch of publications

that I was trying to go for, because I was applying for medical specialty training, et

cetera, et cetera.

Ali (13:33): I used to think of those things as a very

heavy lift project.

It was like, okay, I need to sit down and make a video this week.

What's the video going to be?

All right, let's do it.

I need to sit down and bash out this presentation I'm doing for the European Society for Gynaecological

Oncology, and figure out what I'm saying about this thing.

But one of the things that the course taught me, and he talks about this in the book as

well, is the idea of slow burns.

What you can do is work on multiple projects in parallel.

So right now, I've got about eight video ideas that I'm slowly tinkering with and working

on.

I've got various book chapters that are in various stages of completion.

Back in the day, when I was in medicine, I had a bunch of medical projects that were

at various stages of completion.

Ali (14:06): And the idea is as I'm going through my life,

as I'm coming across interesting information that I can put into these projects, it's going

into my system and it's going into the projects, and therefore, all of the projects are on

a bit of a slow burn and they sort of simmer away and get slowly, progressively more cooked

over time, which means when it comes to sit down and actually turn it into a book chapter

or turn it into a video or turn it into a presentation or a poster for a medical conference,

it means most of the work has already been done.

And now, my job is to just assemble things.

And secondly, the system has also really helped with my own teaching work.

I enjoy teaching.

Teaching is my jam at the end of the day, whether it's making videos or going on podcasts

or doing workshops in real life.

Ali (14:40): The other day, I was doing a real-life talk

for 100 students of a part-time YouTuber academy.

And I had about, I don't know, two minutes to prepare the talk.

And I just went through my app thing.

Off the top of my head, I came up with a few bullet points, found some supporting evidence

in the second brain, and now the talk was ready within two minutes, while I was in an

Uber on the way to the conference venue.

And if you like this video, you might like to check out this over here, which is my long-form

interview with Tiago Forte on my deep dive podcast.

That'll be on the deep dive YouTube channel.

Or, alternatively, if you're interested in building your own productivity system, you

should check out this video over here, where I break down how mine works and talk about

how second brain physically and digitally ties into that productivity system.

So thank you so much for watching.

Do hit the subscribe button if you're not already, and I'll see you in the next video.

Bye-bye.