You asked, and we listened! An official Building a Second Brain Notion template is finally on the way, built from the ground up using our PARA Method.
Notion is one of the most popular and promising notetaking tools available today, and we’re excited to finally bring you a template that makes it easier than ever to get started with organizing your knowledge and turning information into action.
Right now, members inside the Second Brain Membership are testing the first draft of the template, and we’re fine-tuning it based on their feedback.
Want to be the first to get it when it launches?
Click here to let us know, and we’ll send you a heads-up as soon as it’s available.
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!
This Is How You Reset Your Second Brain (Live Coaching)
I recently coached my friend Raphael through a complete digital declutter.
We went through 4 simple steps to clean up his digital life and then rebuild his Second Brain to capture ideas, set goals, and turn information into action.
Now, you can follow along and do the same...
Your Nervous System Shapes Your World. Learn How to Master It
“We don’t actually experience the world—instead we filter reality through the state of our nervous system.”
As a self-development nerd, this sentence from my friend Jonny Miller had me perk up. I learned that the nervous system is essentially our body’s command center. It influences how we handle stress, how resilient we are in challenging situations, and even how we interact with others.
I don’t know about you, but I was never taught how our nervous system actually works… let alone that I could learn to consciously control it.
I experienced the power of such training when Jonny was in California and generously offered to do a breathwork session for my wife Lauren and me. In about 90 minutes, he led us through one of the most profound and fastest-acting experiences I’ve had, giving me an incredible sense of clarity and groundedness for the whole rest of the week.
Jonny is about to run the next cohort of Nervous System Mastery – a five-week bootcamp that will equip you with evidence-backed protocols to cultivate greater calm and agency over your internal state.
You will learn how to rewire maladaptive stress responses, increase your capacity for focus, and improve the quality of your sleep.
Exclusive for our newsletter subscribers – you can use the code FORTE to save $250! Enrollment closes Feb. 28th and the cohort kicks off on March 10th.
If you’d like an intro to how your nervous system influences your life, check out this excellent video by Jonny.
Thank you to Jonny Miller for sponsoring this newsletter.
Book Recommendation: The Notebook by Roland Allen
I've just finished reading The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper by Roland Allen, a book that moved and inspired me deeply.
If you've been following me for a while, you know that I am a huge fan of history. In my opinion, you can't truly understand any subject, including how the world works today, without knowing how it came to be.
I've long wondered why there was no comprehensive history of the commonplace book (one of the main historical inspirations for my ideas on second brains). I even considered writing one myself at one point.
So when I started reading The Notebook, I was overjoyed to discover exactly the kind of book I'd been looking for and would have tried to write.
You should pick it up if you have any interest in notetaking, knowledge management, creativity, productivity, thinking, the human mind, or history, because the notebook has been and continues to be integral to all of those to a degree I didn't truly appreciate until I read it myself.
