Using a Second Brain to Track Tasks and Studies

Your mind should be a place for having ideas, not for storing them. — Tiago Forte

Introduction

For a long time, I found myself forgetting things I read, ideas that popped up, and even important daily tasks. Reading books wasn’t part of my routine until a few years ago, and when I started, I quickly realized how easily I forgot everything over time.

The amount of information we consume today is overwhelming, and relying solely on memory is simply unsustainable.

That’s when I started looking for methods to improve my retention and organization. The turning point came after reading a specific chapter in The Pragmatic Programmer, which talked about the practice of journaling for personal and professional development.

In this article, I’ll show you how I built my second brain and how it transformed the way I study, work, and think.

What is a Second Brain?

Simply put, a second brain is an external system (digital or physical) where you store ideas, references, tasks, learnings, and any other information you don’t want (or can’t) keep in your mind.

This concept became popular through the book Building a Second Brain by Tiago Forte. The central idea is to reduce mental overload and have a reliable place where you can retrieve anything whenever you need it.

Tools like Notion, Obsidian, and Evernote became extremely useful in this process due to their ease of organization, search, and idea interconnection.

My Journey So Far

It all started when I tried to implement this concept in Obsidian, attracted by the graph connections and structural freedom. I solved the free sync issue with a plugin that made automatic GitHub commits (which worked great, by the way).

I customized it, added plugins, created automations… but it just didn’t flow. Something wasn’t clicking for me.

Then I turned to Notion, which I had tried before but only superficially. I downloaded some templates, started using it… and it fit perfectly into my workflow. The visual simplicity and ease of connecting information won me over.

How I Structured My Second Brain in Notion

Currently, my setup revolves around four main pages:

Goals

• Organizing yearly goals and objectives.
• Tracking achievements (certifications, projects, books, etc.).
• Using the SMART methodology for clear goal setting.
• A Trello-style dashboard to monitor progress.

Studies

• Organizing everything I study: courses, topics, and materials.
• Each course has a template with modules, useful links, and review notes.
• This helps me maintain context across different subjects.

And here’s how it looks inside…

Daily and Weekly Planner

• My main dashboard where I manage daily, weekly, and monthly tasks.
• In my daily page, I log:
  • How my day went;
  • What I learned;
  • Useful snippets;
  • Problems solved;
  • Reflections and personal improvements;
  • The TODO list for the next day.

Books

• A database with:
  • Books I’ve read;
  • Books I want to read;
  • Notes, summaries, and insights from the books I’ve read.
• I recently started taking more structured notes, inspired by creators like Tina Huang and Matt D’Avella.

My Full Stack

• Notion: My main digital brain (tasks, studies, ideas, projects, books).
• Nebo: App for freehand writing, drawings, mind maps, and handwritten notes (especially useful when studying algorithms and data structures).

What I Learned Using a Second Brain

• Drastically reduced mental overload.
• Huge ease in retrieving information.
• Significant increase in knowledge retention.
• More consistency in studying and projects.
• Every idea, insight, solution, or even a startup idea goes there (even if it seems silly at the moment).

Conclusion

If, like me, you feel that your brain can’t handle everything, I strongly recommend trying this approach. It not only boosts your productivity but also helps you grow personally and professionally.

If you want to chat more about it, ask for tips, or even exchange templates, reach out to me on LinkedIn.