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Forte Labs Newsletter

AI That Actually Does the Work

Published 20 days ago • 2 min read

Quick reminder: Tonight at midnight PT, the Second Brain Notion Template goes from $49 to $65.

It's a complete Second Brain system in Notion you can set up in under an hour:

PARA structure, quick capture inbox, task management, daily pages with habit tracking, weekly review, and mobile-optimized views.

You also get walkthrough videos, a migration guide, and built-in onboarding that teaches you as you go.

One thing that's been really fun to see: the template comes with access to our Circle community for direct support from our team. People are already in there answering each other's questions, sharing how they're setting things up, and celebrating their new systems.

Claude Cowork First Look: AI That Actually Does the Work

Claude Cowork is a brand new tool from Anthropic that lets you collaborate with AI on a shared set of files.

Instead of just talking, it can read your documents, do research, ask follow-up questions, and create real deliverables like Word docs, spreadsheets, and summaries.

In this video, I walk you through exactly how it works with two real-life examples: analyzing a 45,000-word book manuscript and planning a family road trip in Mexico.

I also share the dos and don'ts I've learned after using it hands-on.

Your PARA, Your Rules: Experimenting with Labels

PARA stands for Projects, Areas, Resources, and Archives—a simple structure designed to help you organize your digital life.

But here’s the thing: these labels aren’t set in stone. They’re what I’ve found most useful, but that doesn’t mean they’re the perfect fit for you.

One of our readers, Todd, shared how he customized PARA to suit his needs:

“I like that you suggest alternate words for ‘R’: resources, reference, research. For me, the word ‘areas’ doesn’t really feel concrete and connected to its role. Instead, I labeled mine ‘Activities’ because it’s about things that I do, in the most general sense. Language is powerful to me, so this made a big difference in how I connect to the whole structure.”

So here’s my invitation to you: experiment.

While the general meaning of each category—projects being active, areas being ongoing, resources being useful, and archives being storage—is worth preserving, the actual words should work for you. Find labels that click and make the system feel like yours.

By the way, February is “PARA Month” inside our Second Brain Membership, where we’re diving deep into how to structure and organize your information. If you want to refine your system and make PARA work for you, come join us!

Be Featured in Our New YouTube Series

We're looking for Second Brain practitioners to star in our new CODE Challenge series.

Here's how it works: You complete a real project over one month using the CODE method, screen record your process, and join a 40-minute interview.

You'll appear in episodes showing how you Capture, Organize, Distill, and Express.

We need a limited number of participants representing each note-taking style: Architect, Librarian, Gardener, and Student.

What you'll receive:

You'll need 1+ year of BASB experience and be comfortable on camera.

🧠

Start building your Second Brain

​Join BASB Foundation →​

🤩

Create a system for productivity

​Join POP →​

📚

Organize your digital life

​Get the PARA Method →​

Tiago Forte

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Forte Labs Newsletter

Build your Second Brain with Tiago Forte

Level up your productivity and life with new essays, videos, event invites, and other resources every Tuesday. Join 125k subscribers exploring the frontier of modern work, experimenting with new ways of doing more with less, and discovering what it means to fulfill our human potential. 100% free and 100% useful!

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