
A 5 Minute Overview Of
Building a Second Brain
A Proven Method to Organize Your Digital Life and Unlock Your Creative Potential
About the Author
Tiago Forte is the founder of his own productivity consulting firm, Forte Labs. He has worked with multiple organizations including Genentech, Toyota Motor Corporation, and the Inter-American Development Bank. His work has also been featured in the New York Times, The Atlantic, Harvard Business Review, and other publications. Tiago Forte previously worked as a course designer for Skillshare.com, as instructor-in-residence for Startup Advisor, and as a project manager and teacher. He is a graduate of San Diego University.
The Main Idea
The sheer amount of information that floods your brain every day is staggering. Rather than ignoring everything (information overload), a better approach is to develop your own personal knowledge management system or PKM. If you can do this effectively, what you end up doing is building a "Second Brain" — a method for organizing your digital life, and unlocking your creative potential.
A simple, intuitive process for creating and building a Second Brain is called C.O.D.E. and involves four steps:
Instead of trying to optimize your mind so that it can manage every tiny detail of your life, it's time to fire your biological brain from the job, and give it a new one: as the CEO of your life, orchestrating and managing the process of turning information into results. We're asking your biological brain to hand over the job of remembering to an external system, and by doing so, freeing it to absorb and integrate new knowledge in more creative ways. Your Second Brain is always on, has perfect memory, and can scale to any size. The more you outsource and delegate the jobs of capturing, organizing, and distilling to technology, the more time and energy you'll have available for the self-expression that only you can do.
The C.O.D.E Method
1. What is a Second Brain? A Second Brain is your personal knowledge management system, where you store and organize for recall all the information that you acquire. It's kind of like a combination study notebook, journal, personalized encyclopedia, idea laboratory, and sketchbook. It is digital note-taking and organization on steroids. Your Second Brain will give you superpowers, and be the world's best personal assistant.
2. The C.O.D.E. method for building a Second Brain. The C.O.D.E. method is the four steps to remembering what matters most, and making it searchable and useful in the future. C.O.D.E. is really just the creative process which has stood the test of time, updated for the digital era. The steps are:
3. Making the right things happen. Building a Second Brain is all about standardizing the way you work, store, organize, and use the information you have and acquire. It's about putting digital tools to work so that your brain can do its best work, as you imagine, invent, innovate, and create.
Key Takeaways
Every day you get exposed to an avalanche of new information. Rather than ignoring it, store what resonates with you using digital tools. If you do this, it's like building a second brain, which will give you superpowers.
Instead of trying to optimize your mind so that it can manage every tiny detail of your life, it's time to fire your biological brain from the job, and give it a new one: as the CEO of your life, orchestrating and managing the process of turning information into results. We're asking your biological brain to hand over the job of remembering to an external system, and by doing so, freeing it to absorb and integrate new knowledge in more creative ways.
With the power of a Second Brain behind you, you can do and be anything you want. Everything is just information, and you are a master at flowing and shaping it toward whatever future you desire. There is no single right way to build a Second Brain. Your system can look like chaos to others, but if it brings you progress and delight, then it’s the right one.
Summaries.Com Editor's Comments
Hey, second book in a row on a building theme. This book is markedly different though. In BUILDING A SECOND BRAIN, productivity guru Tiago Forte sets out the case for developing your own personal knowledge management system or PKM. He suggests digital technologies such as clipping apps now allow people to get serious about organizing and then optimizing all the digital information you take an interest in. His central idea is if you put together an intuitive system for storing and organizing your digital information, you in effect build a second brain which for you can act as the world's best personal assistant.
I mean, I really like the concept. I also like the point he makes you're not trying to create something that is publication-ready for the world at large. Rather, this is your private knowledge collection. It's a combination study notebook, journal, personalized encyclopedia, digital note-taker, idea laboratory, and sketchbook. I can't speak for you, but to me that idea sounds really appealing. I certainly wish I have kept and categorized in some way all the great ideas I've ever been exposed to. That would be awesome.
The other good thing about this book is it's very hands-on and practical. Tiago Forte's method for building a second brain is C.O.D.E. — Capture, Organize, Distill, and Express. Very smart. Great ideas. Start building your second brain today.
Want in-depth 30-minute summaries?
In addition to this 5-minute overview, Summaries.Com has a premium 30-minute summary of this book and 1,000+ more, to help you advance your career and business.
Check Out Summaries.com Premium Plans Today!Want more 5-minute Snapshots?
To get a new 5-minute business book snapshot each week, sign up for the Summaries.com free plan.
Sign Up for the Summaries.com Free PlanDigital Smarts Collection
If you enjoyed this summary, here is a collection of related business book summaries, to help you get ideas and strategies that will give you an edge over your competition.
This mini-course will give you ideas on personal knowledge management systems.
Buy Digital Smarts Collection (5 x 30-Min Summaries)
Building a Second Brain
A Proven Method to Organize Your Digital Life and Unlock Your Creative Potential
by Tiago Forte

Teach and Grow Rich
Share Your Knowledge to Create Global Impact, Freedom and Wealth
by Danny Iny

The Knowing-Doing Gap
How Smart Companies Turn Knowledge Into Action
by Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert Sutton

Smarts
Are We Hardwired For Success?
by Chuck Martin and Peg Dawson

Rookie Smarts
Why Learning Beats Knowing in the New Game of Work
by Liz Wiseman