As summer closes at the end of July, I find myself preparing for school. I,a public school teacher in Kansas, am always at work even when I am “off”. In order to provide my students with the education they need, I go beyond the school approved curriculum, though staying within the subject matter designated appropriate for their grade level, I read a variety of topics. I teach ancient history and am particularly fond of it. Learning about Alexander the Great, the Emperors of Rome, the ancient pharaohs of Egypt are all endlessly fascinating to me. I read Barry Strauss, Adrian Goldsworthy, Edith Hamilton, Philip Freeman and many other fantastic historians and authors. I prepare for my students, profiles on famous figures of antiquity. Using my resources, I throw together a slideshow featuring renaissance artwork and tell the story of Hannibal or Alexander or Spartacus. 

Used to, students would claim P.E. or lunch or recess as their favorite school subject but I had heard from a few students that my ancient history class had become their favorite. This should bring me great joy and it does but I feel that I could do even better. How could I possibly do better? By preparing better. How can I prepare better? By taking better “notes”. 

With the research that I put into my profiles, I listen to hours upon hours of audiobooks, Great Courses Lectures, and reading on my Kindle or paperbacks. Though I feel like I have a good memory and I try to stay sharp, I am getting older and with that my memory won’t be as good as it was. It is why I found the book Build a Second Brain by Tiago Forte such an interesting book. I have read a few productivity books to assist me in my chosen career but this one provides guided instruction on how to set up your “second brain”.

Tiago Forte is the founder of Forte Labs and really wants to push humans to their creative heights and his solution is to create a “second brain”. Essentially, the method uses technology to capture all the thoughts and ideas that you have and organize them in such a way that they are easily accessed, while freeing up your brain from that information that could be forgotten, misremembered, or misinterpreted. In this day and age of misinformation, this is a viable solution for those who are concerned with presenting information correctly whether in personal or professional settings. 

I found the audiobook to be very well narrated by narrator André Santana. His clear, crisp voice really helped me visualize what Forte was presenting. I will say, an audiobook is a fine option for most media, but those of you reading might want to pick up a paperback or even digital copy of the book for better understanding and annotation. I’m sure the author would recommend a digital copy and employ other apps to sync your notes and highlights with your chosen “second brain” app. 

The book presents a very modern take on note taking which I can use for myself and can employ in my classroom to a small degree. Though my students are still young, they are in a transition period in their life in which some of the tools presented in the book, especially syncing common ideas and thoughts across multiple platforms to complete a project, will serve them well for the remainder of their academic career, if not for life. 

The author is very thorough with his explanation of his process, explaining each step with minor anecdotes to drive home that point. Forte’s books reads/listens easily and you will find yourself nodding along with him. Perhaps some of what he presents in this book you do already. Maybe you carry a notebook, or jot down endless notes on post-its and group them together for later review. Whatever method you use, you can still continue to do so but the end result will be adapted so that you can have a clean desk, a clean mind, and a database of your own creation to improve your productivity and lower your stress. Wildly bold claims I know but I am excited about what his method can do for me during this school year. 

In closing I can recommend two more things for you to check out to explore more of what the author is talking about after reading his book. First his Resource Guide provides you with app recommendations and even suggests pairing of apps for specific careers. Though these are just suggestions, there are a variety of options to choose from. Second, YouTuber Red Gregory is a wonderful creator who uses the Notion app to create a variety of databases and even has a video specific to setting up Notion like a second brain according to what Tiago Forte presented in his book. A follow up to this publication is called The PARA Method will be out on August 15th.

Tiago Forte is really onto something and especially in my career, I can see using his methods for better information management. I know using it with fidelity will allow me to free my mind so that I can focus on other things when the time calls for it.