Edition no. 8, March 16th, 2023

Your Second Brain is a catalyst between systems.

In chemistry, a catalyst speeds up or ignites a reaction.

Your Second Brain speeds up communication between systems in life by providing quick access to all of your knowledge.

To understand this, we must see life as a web of relations in between systems. Everything is interconnected into a unified whole.

This is opposed to seeing life as isolated components that come together as different parts of a machine.

Here's an example to illustrate. See if you can spot the difference between the next 2 diagrams:

Diagram 1 presents the Second Brain as a mechanic part of a machine.

Here, your Second Brain is just another step in the sequence of events, with no major information to understand the situation.

When in reality, a Second Brain is more than a small system within the whole, or a bridge between 🤾‍♂️Behaviors and 📈Output.

Diagram 2 presents your Second Brain as a holistic system:

Here, your Second Brain is part of a communication network that extends across all the systems in your life.

This vast interconnected network, where everything informs and impacts all else, is your life.

Being represented through systems thinking, as a living organism.

Your Second Brain both enhances this network access, and acts as an endpoint to access the network.

This diagram is a good introduction, but let me finish with a quick story:

The first time I was drawing the LifeOS diagram (in April 2022), the 🧠Second Brain system was not in the diagram.

I interpreted it as not being an actual system, but rather what I called a system between systems.

After a while, I noticed that the Second Brain needed to be represented in the diagram, even if this meant leaving out its role as a facilitator between systems.

Now, let’s explore the different ways a Second Brain acts as a catalyst for the good functioning of your life: ↓

Here is a copy of the complete LifeOS diagram for easy reference:

💬 4 Quotes

Quote 1

The first system impacted by your Second Brain is your 💭 Thoughts.

Improving your thinking is arguably the most important role of knowledge management.

It's no surprise that a Second brain gives you better tools to think, and consequently improves your ideas and your understanding of reality.

A Second Brain acts as an extension of your cognition.

Quote 2

A central component of a Second Brain is the Read-later app.

A Read-later app improves your information diet (the 📚️Content system).

Its job is to act as a barrier between the constant overload of information you find every day and YOU.

The way you use a Read-later app is:

1. Save anything you want to read into the app.

2. Regularly read what you've saved, if you really want to.

This creates a space between you and:

• Emails

• Newsletters

• Youtube feed

• Social media recs

You are not reading anything that crosses your way, but rather content you really want to read.

Quote 3

🌿 Fulfillment does NOT come from achievements.

Fulfillment comes from looking back at your past and acknowledging your progress.

You can only measure progress by looking backward.

This removes you from the Gap mindset and puts you in the Gain mindset. (More about this concept in later editions, but feel free to study the Gap and the Gain.)

Your Second Brain is the perfect place to see where you were in the past, and measure your wins against the past!

This keeps you motivated! 💪 

Quote 4

This quote is surrounded by uncertainty because Gandhi probably didn't use these exact words.

But this is deeply connected with a Second Brain. Let me show you.

"Be the change", in a way, translates into "create the change”.

And a Second Brain is a creation device.

There, you store knowledge and then create something with it.

The beautiful thing is you can create anything in your Second Brain:

• Sales pitch

• Some code.

• Presentation

• Dinner for two

• And also: create change!

You see, one of the noblest things you can create in life is a positive change.

📄 3 Notes

1. "A Change to Life" is a form of Output

Change is a possible output.

This happens by implementing modifications, preferably positive ones, to different systems in your life.

You could improve:

• 💪🏽 Health with a tiny workout routine.

• 🫀 Emotions with a journalling practice.

• 📚️ Content consumption with a Read-later app.

Diagram 4 presents a good way to understand this concept:

The output comes back into the system to improve specific parts of the process. This is, unsurprisingly, called feedback.

The 📈 Output feeds back into the system, applying specific upgrades (changes) to areas in your life.

A Second Brain will help you organize, understand, and implement these upgrades!

It's useful to categorize these changes into internal and external changes:

• Changes to the Life Systems are internal (part of you).

• Changes to Inputs and Support Systems are external (part of the external world).

2. A Second Brain is part of your Environment.

The LifeOS has a powerfully sneaky system:

• 🏡 Environment.

Your Environment is a huge system for behavior change.

A powerful factor in habit design is changing to your "Environment" (James Clear), or "Context" (BJ Fogg).

Regardless of the term, your environment influences behavior by changing the triggers (prompts) you receive.

A Second Brain is part of your digital environment.

This is a HUGE reason why a Second Brain acts as a catalyst in between systems. It will provide you with opportunities to change your behavior.

• Your Calendar

• A Note Taking app

• Your Phone's Home Screen

All of these are part of your environment and can be used to promote change.

Notice a small subtlety with this system: The Second Brain is not only related to your environment, but it is part of your environment.

This is just another illustration of just how everything is interconnected in life.

Nothing lives in isolation.

You can't clearly point out the boundaries between systems.

3. The Review System - Regulation

Among many examples I could choose to finish this edition, here’s the most interesting one:

• 🧭 Review system

This can live either in your Second Brain (✅) or in physical papers (❌).

Jokes aside, the Review system is an essential system, and works like a charm as part of your Second Brain, inside the note-taking app.

Weekly (or periodic) Reviews are responsible for a very important phenomenon in Systems Thinking, that of Regulation.

Regulation is similar to maintenance.

It's the process of keeping everything in a dynamic balance or homeostasis.

This process usually happens with the help of an external force (system).

• Ecosystems use the regulating forces of nature.

• Banks use the regulating force of central banks.

Your life uses the regulating force of reviews to keep itself balanced.

Regulation is about "balancing out" tendencies, and this is exactly what weekly reviews are for.

It's a time and place (in your Second Brain) to examine your life.

This could go in many directions:

• Continue with good tendencies

• Look out for opportunities to introduce new interactions.

• See if negative tendencies are going out of control, to interrupt them.

Your 🧭 Review system acts as a regulator for the entire LifeOS so that no area (system) is forgotten, and life remains balanced.

And, of course, it lives inside your Second Brain.

🔗 2 Links

Link 1: Building a Second Brain Cohort 17

The next Cohort of Tiago Forte's signature course, Building a Second Brain (BASB), will be happening from April 4th-26th. This will be Cohort 17, one of the next 3 cohorts this year (April, July, and October).

BASB is a life-changing experience that I absolutely recommend to anyone who manages to afford it.

In Building a Second Brain, you'll learn a powerful methodology to unlock your Second Brain as a creative tool.

It will have a very positive impact, regardless of your level of expertise.

The best part about this is:

I will be one of the 8 facilitators in the cohort! I'll be responsible for one of the 4 lectures in the course, Capture, Organize, Distill, or Express, TBD.

It's an honor to extend an invitation to join the course, as I'll give my very best to provide a wonderful experience! (Affiliate Link)

Link 2: Ali Abdal's Second Brain system

This is a GREAT video of how a GREAT mind (Ali) uses his Second Brain system.

It's a great illustration of how a Second Brain comes in as a major facilitator between different systems (aspects) of life.

That's it. Thank you for reading!

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↑ You can also subscribe using the same link. ↑

See you next week, my friend!

Cheers, and remember to move your body,

Fis