this one step will change the way you think about consuming content forever. Get set up with PARA. Set up the four folders of PARA (Projects; Areas; Resources; Archives) and, with a focus on actionability, create a dedicated folder (or tag) for each of your currently active projects. Focus on capturing notes related to those projects from this

Decide what you want to capture. Think about your Second Brain as an intimate commonplace book or journal. What do you most want to capture, learn, explore, or share? Identify two to three kinds of content that you already value to get started with. Choose your notes app. If you don’t use a digital notes app, get started with one now. See Chapter 3

impactful work—you can always fall back on the four steps of CODE: Keep what resonates (Capture) Save for actionability (Organize) Find the essence (Distill) Show your work (Express)

Wherever you are at this moment—just starting a practice to consistently take notes, or finding ways to more effectively organize and resurface your best thinking, or generating more original and

The practice of building a Second Brain is more than the sum of capturing facts, theories, and the opinions of others. At its core, it is about cultivating self-awareness and self-knowledge. When you encounter an idea that resonates with you, it is because that idea reflects back to you something that is already within you. Every external idea is

The Shift from Consuming to Creating

There’s no need to review or summarize notes on a strict timeline; we’re not trying to memorize their contents or keep them top of mind. When organizing notes or files within PARA, it’s a very forgiving decision of where to put something, since search is so effective as a backup option.

To make this concrete: There’s no need to capture every idea; the best ones will always come back around eventually. There’s no need to clear your inbox frequently; unlike your to-do list, there’s no negative consequence if you miss a given note.

Your Turn: A Perfect System You Don’t Use Isn’t Perfect