How to Build a Second Brain
Get it out of your head and onto paper.
It's the age-old advice that reminds you that your brain only has so much capacity.
So if you're feeling forgetful, if things are slipping through the cracks, or you're just feeling overwhelmed with all that you have to remember, getting it onto paper is one of the best things you can do.
But what happens when those notes become another source of overwhelm?
When you write something down only to not be able to find it later?
No one teaches you what to do with everything once you've gotten it out of your head.
Where do you put it, how do you keep it organized, how often should you review it, and what's actually important to write down and save in the first place?!
Well, I have an idea for you.
It's one I took from a book I read earlier this year called Building a Second Brain: A Proven Method to Organize Your Digital Life and Unlock Your Creative Potential.
You can read it if you want, but I'm going to teach you the most important concepts here, so...
What I want you to think about is essentially creating the container for things you might want to reference or refer to in the future.
This holding place will become your second brain. Kind of like an external hard drive for very important documents.
Think about the last time you had to write a letter or create a presentation or put together a spreadsheet or report. The first step is always to just create the blank document.
To open up a new PowerPoint, google doc, or excel sheet, title it, and save it.
Just creating a home for this future deliverable unlocks something in your brain. It makes the eventual deliverable real and tangible and jumpstarts your brain to start thinking about it.
The document is there, and then as you have 15 minutes here and 30 minutes there, you can open it up and start to add notes, ideas, research, and images.
So to create a second brain - a place to store all of the notes, reference items, ideas, and links you want to reference or use in the future - you have to start by creating the home / the blank document so to speak.
I use OneNote, a digital notebook where I can divide things up by category. But there are tons of other options, including a paper notebook or binder!
Before you try to turn this into an overwhelming project where you have to create a home for all of the potential categories you might want to have, I want you to start with just one topic.
Something that's been top of mind lately.
For example, most kids just started back to school this month or last. You could start a doc, page, or section dedicated to important school information and start compiling:
Student ID number
Link to the school calendar
Teacher contact information
Main office number to call when your child is sick
Scans of completed back to school forms
Think about storing anything that will make life easier for your future self. You're creating a one-stop location for school details that, bonus(!), you can share with your partner so you don't have to be the keeper of all the information.
A second brain can be a great way to share household responsibilities by making information readily available. With a shared school second brain, any adult in your household can call your child in sick or send an email to the teacher with a question about that project that's due!
Here are some other categories or notebook pages that I'm in the process of creating (just to give you some ideas):
Christmas gift ideas (starting that now so I can add ideas as I have them)
Home gym - links to things I want to add in the future but don't have the budget for now
Health Insurance - one-stop shop for everything about our health insurance including logins, deductibles, HSA contribution amounts and more so my husband and I both have access at all times.
Birthdays - making sure we have idea lists for each of the kids and track what we've spent on previous birthdays and how we've celebrated.
You don't have to build your entire second brain at once. You can start one topic at a time as they come up.
What's top of mind right now? What are you thinking about or planning for? What's the last contact number or piece of information that you had to go searching for and what if you created a dedicated home for it?
I can tell you that my second brain is a work in progress and probably always will be.
But I'm so glad I started it because the more I use it and come to rely on it, the more confident I feel and the more I want to add to it.
You have my permission to start with one page, one notebook, one topic and build from there.
Just start. Everyone needs a second brain because there's just too much to hold without feeling overwhelmed or forgetting.
What will you start with?
Building your second brain is the perfect thing to bring to a Planning Intensive. Together we can outline the most impactful categories that you'll need to feel like you know where everything is and don't have to go searching ever again! And we'll probably even have time to set up a couple of other systems and routines in your life. Book your session today because the end of the year is coming and you're going to want to be organized!