Your secret ally to create sooner (and higher) content material
In the event you’re a content material creator seeking to construct your second mind, then this text will present you the way.
The time period “constructing a second mind” has been democratized by Tiago Forte, a productiveness freak.
Whereas many individuals discuss second brains on-line, just a few know what they’re speaking about. After being within the trenches of taking notes and information administration for a number of years, let me inform you this:
A second mind is nothing else then a catchy time period that refers to constructing a private information base.
Often, you may create this data base in note-taking instruments like Evernote, Roam, or Obsidian (simply to say a number of.).
Many individuals assume that their concepts come out of the blue. The inspiration hits, and bam, they’ve an excellent concept that they will share.
However that’s not true.
All our concepts are a mixture of what we’ve encountered prior to now. Might or not it’s a video we watched, a guide we learn, or an expertise we had in actual life. You might not be conscious of it, however each single thought you’ve gotten comes from someplace.
And let me inform you this: good concepts don’t come out of skinny air. You want uncooked materials to course of and set off pondering.
And as a creator, your foreign money is concepts. You specific these concepts inside your content material. Regardless of which format you’re utilizing: could or not it’s textual content, video, or audio.
So you may’t afford to let your thought technology to randomness. As you place cash in a protected place, all of your concepts should be saved someplace.
Why? As a result of our mind is sort of a sieve.
We neglect a lot of the info we encounter. Need an instance? What in regards to the final 365-page bestseller you’ve learn? Are you able to bear in mind a couple of or two large concepts?
In all probability not.
Despite the fact that you spent 5 hours studying and highlighting it. That is the dilemma all of us should take care of. We neglect.
And you understand what?
Retrieving info sucks out a number of psychological bandwidth and power.
Because the inventive course of is all about retrieving concepts, and pondering, you want a technique to make this course of simpler.
As a mechanic placing all his instruments into his toolbox, your instruments as a creator are concepts. And your concepts have to be contained someplace the place you may entry them rapidly.
Second brains are obligatory for creators. Why? Just because there so are many advantages of constructing one.
On a giant scale, you can say that the principle profit is {that a} second mind makes creating content material simpler.
Now, let’s simply look beneath the microscope and see how this occurs precisely.
Numerous anxiousness is attributable to not having the ability to retrieve info quick.
First, it offers you peace of thoughts and fast entry to your information.
Why? As a result of info is centralized.
Which means that if you wish to pull out a quote from a guide, or reference an perception sparked from a TedTalk… you don’t want to return to the unique supply and lose your self within the rabbit gap. You possibly can immediately return to your second mind and pour out what you have to re-use inside a number of seconds.
Open your second mind, search, copy, paste, accomplished!
One of the vital widespread objections to beginning getting critical about creating content material is that it takes a number of time. It’s because creating entails pondering, writing, enhancing, and so forth.
And when you’ve gotten the precise course of, a second mind is likely one of the greatest methods to create content material sooner.
Why? Since you’re drafting out your upcoming items of content material whereas dumping concepts into your second mind.
Let’s assume you got here throughout an fascinating quote. You open your second mind, copy and paste the quote, and rewrite it in your personal phrases. You have already got a primary draft that you need to use for future content material.
And since you’ve gotten all the things beneath one roof, you can begin pondering of your notes as completely different constructing blocks. Like legos, you may combine and match between them and easily begin creating sooner than ever earlier than.
Competitors on the web is impolite.
And if you wish to stand out, you have to degree up your content material. You’ll be able to’t get observed with mediocre content material. Your content material has to face out. And guess what? Constructing your second mind can assist you create higher content material.
Right here’s how:
Dumping a continuing move of concepts into your second mind will aid you construct an enormous assortment of concepts. Now that you’ve got an enormous assortment of concepts, you may simply mix and see the relationships between them.
As a result of right here’s the factor: Creating nice content material is about arising with helpful insights and concepts that others didn’t provide you with. That is how one can differentiate your self from the gang.
In brief, constructing your second mind the precise method makes you cease being a parrot and begin turning into a frontrunner in your area of interest.
Ever struggled with author’s block?
Perhaps it’s since you rely an excessive amount of on the second’s inspiration. In the event you’re not impressed, you don’t have concepts. So you need to use your second mind as a strong immediate machine and easily begin navigating by way of it. After 5 minutes of navigation, you’ll begin ideating. Assured. It’s like leaping into the pool. You’ll be going to swim if you would like it or not!
I can’t do justice to all the advantages of constructing a second mind, however these I’ve talked about are, in my biased opinion, sturdy sufficient to start out constructing one… at present!
Constructing a second mind doesn’t should be difficult.
In truth, it’s extra a behavior than a sophisticated 56-step course of utilizing 41 completely different plugins and doing splits along with your fingers by a mixture of Hashtags and keystrokes. Many individuals exhibit their difficult workflows however let me inform you this: it doesn’t should be that method.
In truth, the extra difficult one thing is, the extra it’s prone to break. So that you wish to begin small.
The primary behavior you wish to develop is to jot down down your concepts and the insights you come throughout your day. The objective right here is to unload your mind with info and get them on (digital) paper as quickly as potential. For that, you need to use a fast seize device in your telephone or your pc.
When writing issues down, you additionally wish to apply the Feynman method. It’s nothing greater than rewriting each info you encounter in your personal phrases. This offers each be aware a singular private twist, helps you deeply internalize the perception, and defend you from plagiarism
As Jon Searle says:
“In the event you can’t say it clearly, you don’t perceive it your self.”
Then, relying in your note-taking methodology, you can begin classifying or linking your notes between them.
I discuss that course of intimately inside my free 7-day e mail course.
Nice query, easy reply: Every part that you just discover helpful. Don’t neglect that it’s your private second mind. And the solely guidelines are the one which you outline.
You recognize this sense whenever you detect an thought after which really feel the spark. This insights must be captured. Are you going to re-use it or not? It’s too quickly to know the reply. The most secure wager is to save lots of, and see the connection you’ll make out of it afterward.
After which, let your second mind do the magic.
Begin dumping your information, let the information base develop… and see the outcomes for your self:
Now comes the query: what device do you have to use to start out constructing your second mind?
The reply is… it relies upon.
It is determined by what setting you’re working in:
👉 Are you solely engaged on Apple gadgets?
👉 Or Home windows and Android?
👉 Or perhaps do you’ve gotten a Mac however an android telephone?
Then come different questions like:
👉 What note-taking methodology are you utilizing?
👉 What options are you on the lookout for?
👉 How’s your tackle privateness?
👉 Would you like your notes to be synced or not…?
So many individuals neglect the Private side of Private Data Administration.
Which means that you could undergo the method of constructing your system relying in your wants and aspirations.
And whereas there isn’t a one-size suits all answer, there are widespread greatest practices I like to recommend when constructing your second mind as a creator.
I’ve devoted a complete free e mail course to that, so be at liberty to test it out on the finish of this text.
Since I do know you’re ravenous for some instruments, listed below are a few of the hottest instruments utilized by creators to construct their second mind:
- Obsidian
- Notion
- Roam Analysis
- Mem.ai
- Evernote
- Remnotes
- Logseq
- Apple Notes
- Bear Notes
- And the listing goes on..
However earlier than leaping into the obtain frenzy, let me warn you: Instruments are solely nearly as good as you understand how to work with them. In the event you don’t know what you’re doing, any software program can do the trick.
So step one on the subject of constructing your second mind as a content material creator is to arrange the precise foundations: Understanding easy methods to construct your system, what to anticipate from it, and easy methods to leverage it in a method that you would be able to earn compound curiosity in your concepts.
So what are you ready for?
