Building a Second Brain

— Tiago Forte

Personal notes on the book. Not a summary — just what stuck.

The CODE Framework

Capture

Save only what resonates, not everything
Ask: does this inspire me, is it useful, is it surprising, is it personal?
Your notes are not a library — they’re a collection of things that matter to you

Organise — PARA

Projects — active work with a deadline
Areas — ongoing responsibilities (health, finances, career)
Resources — topics you’re interested in
Archives — inactive stuff from the other three
Organise by where you’ll use it, not what it is

Distil

Progressive summarisation: bold the good bits, highlight the best bits, write an executive summary
Each pass should make future retrieval faster
You’re not summarising for now — you’re leaving a trail for your future self

Express

Notes only matter when they become something
Intermediate packets: reusable chunks of work (an outline, a draft section, a reference list)
Ship early, iterate — “just-in-time” over “just-in-case”

Other things that stuck

The goal is a system that reduces friction, not one that feels productive to maintain
Your brain is for having ideas, not storing them
Return on attention: measure what you consume by what it enables you to create