Afterpage · week card
Building a Second Brain
Tiago Forte
Key ideas
- Capture what resonates.
- Organize by action, not topic.
- Distill to the essence.
- Express what you know.
- Intermediate packets.
The week
| Day 1 | Read the summary. Five key ideas and where the book overreaches. |
| Day 2 | Pick one place. Choose one notes app as your second brain and move ten recent notes, links, or highlights into it. Bad day: Move three recent notes or links into one app. |
| Day 3 | Set up PARA. Create four folders, Projects, Areas, Resources, and Archives, and sort your notes into them. Bad day: Create the four folders and move one note into Projects. |
| Day 4 | Distill one note. Take one note you'll use soon and bold the key passages, then highlight the most important lines within those. Bad day: Bold the three most important lines in one note. |
| Day 5 | List your favorite problems. Write a list of ten open questions you keep coming back to, and save it in your second brain. Bad day: Write three questions you keep thinking about. |
| Day 6 | Make an intermediate packet. Turn notes from your second brain into one small reusable piece: an outline, a short summary, or a set of slides. Bad day: Write a three-bullet outline from one of your notes. |
| Day 7 | Share something. Share one piece of work built from your notes with a colleague, friend, or audience. Bad day: Send one useful note to someone who'd benefit. |
Free week by email at getafterpage.com/books/building-a-second-brain