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How My Personal Knowledge System Transformed My Life

Life can sometimes feel like a complex puzzle, especially for someone like me with autism. It’s akin to trying to assemble a jigsaw puzzle without all the pieces, which can make organizing my thoughts a real challenge.

I tend to absorb a lot more information than neurotically people, which means I can get overwhelmed more easily. Despite these difficulties, I’ve persevered. However, in 2023, Something happened that forced me to confront my limitations directly.

After just four months into my job as a developer, I found myself facing a tough reality check: I was let go.

This news hit me hard, and my initial reaction was a mix of anger and frustration. I felt like I had failed as a developer, and doubts crept in about my ability to ever become a great one.

However, I took the right step by seeking feedback on why I didn’t succeed, even though my technical skills were up to par. During a stressful period, I struggled with time management and had difficulty handling constructive feedback in a productive manner to fuel my improvement.

The root cause of my challenges lay in my thinking patterns. I often found myself getting lost in the details, losing sight of the bigger picture.

After this wake-up call, I embarked on a mission to better understand myself. I realized that I was missing a way to keep track of everything in my life. I hadn’t quite mastered the art of staying mindful and organized, so life often took me by surprise.

I needed to change how I saw myself and start thinking more actively. This would help me go after my dreams and goals with strong determination.

It was during this period that I stumbled upon a book that would prove to be a game-changer: “Building a Second Brain” by Thiago Forte.

Thiago advocated for the need to efficiently file, recall, and recombine information, thereby freeing our minds for profound thinking and creativity.

I understood that becoming more effective in life was the key. If I could find a way to eliminate, delegate, or automate repetitive tasks and concentrate on high-impact projects and tasks, I could outperform most people.

I simply needed a system that would enable me to filter out less important information, capture what was most crucial, and use a well-structured framework for managing projects, goals, and tasks so I could achieve more.

“It is remarkable how much long-term advantage people like us have gotten by trying to be consistently not stupid, instead of trying to be very intelligent.” — Charlie Munger

In this article, I invite you to join me on a journey through my transformation. I’ll share how Notion, inspired by the principles in Thiago Forte’s book, became my trusted ally.

C-O-D-E

The Second Brain’s power lies in a simple acronym C-O-D-E.

Each letter stands for one of four steps for building a second brain:

• Capture
• Organize
• Distill
• Express

These are the principles Thiago uses to guide his decision making process no matter how complex the problem.

You can think of the code methodology in two parts:

The problem-solving phase:

• Capture
• Organize

The solution-generation phase:

• Distill
• Express.

Both parts require different type of thinking. So try not to mix things up.

Divergent and Convergent thinking

When we talk of divergent thinking, we usually mean brainstorming; coming up with possible alternatives. In other words, It’s about using creativity. So you need to question the established ways of doing something. Usually we do things based on dogma or false assumptions. We have to dig deeper to get to the principles.

Convergent thinking is the reverse. We start to prioritize and select the paths best taken. Then use logic, discipline and habits to execute.

Step 1: Capture

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We’re surrounded by information inputs, both external — like quotes, images, articles, meeting notes — and internal, like memories, musings, and insights.

However we are limited by our attention.We should try to capture only information that sparks something inside us. It might help to think of the pieces of information you want to capture as knowledge assets. They’re more than a fact or an observation. They’re solutions, time savers, sparks of inspiration, perspective shifters.

Let’s take a practical example. Imagine you’re using a digital tool like Notion to manage your tasks and notes. Tasks are what you need to do. Notes are information sources. Here’s how you can streamline your capture process:

1. Create Two Databases: In Notion, set up two databases, one for tasks and one for notes. These serve as your capture inboxes.
2. Immediate Input: Whenever you come across something you need to remember or act upon, place it in your tasks or notes inbox. This immediate input ensures you don’t forget important items, whether it’s a to-do task or a valuable insight.
3. Time Limit: Set up filters or rules so that items in your capture inboxes don’t stay there indefinitely. For instance, you can configure them to automatically move or delete items after a day. This ensures you regularly review and process the information you’ve captured.
4. Centralized Digital Space: Ensure that all your modes of capture, whether it’s through your phone, web browser, or any other tool, export and automatically update everything to that one central digital space (in this case, Notion). This consolidation simplifies your workflow and keeps everything organized in one place.

This is one implementation of many.

The general idea is to have one place digital or analog where you capture all the necessary information.

Step 2: Organize

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Ever heard of the cathedral effect?

With the next step, Organize, it’s time to start building them into a cathedral, that will inspire awesome thinking.

Imagine if you organized your kitchen by food. It wouldn’t work. Kitchens are organized by process and outcome — pots in the cupboard above the stove, a dish rack next to the sink, and so on.

To make your second brain outcome-oriented, organize your knowledge assets in order of actionability.

The PARA method:

This is where the next framework comes in called PARA

PARA stands for Projects, Areas, Resources, and Archives. It’s a system for organizing information.

The idea is to divide your information into four categories:

• Projects: things that require multiple steps to complete
• Areas: broad categories of responsibility or interest
• Resources: information you want to keep for reference
• Archives: information you want to keep for posterity

I use PARA and Notion to create a powerful system for managing information and staying organized. Here’s how I use them:

Projects:

In Notion, I have a database for each project I’m working on. This database contains all the tasks, deadlines, and notes related to the project. Using the properties feature in Notion, I can easily filter and sort the tasks by due date, priority, or status.

Try to limit the number of projects you focus on. Let’s say 3. I like to focus on 6 months projects and 2 weeks experiments.

Areas:

I have a database for each area of responsibility or interest, such as personal development, finances, and health. These databases contain projects, resources, and tasks related to each area.

Resources:

I use Notion’s bookmark feature to save articles, videos, and other resources I want to refer to later. I also have a database of templates I’ve created for common tasks, such as writing blog posts or creating project plans.

Also for books I read I keep track of all the notes and make a short summary

Archives:

I use Notion’s archive feature to move completed projects and tasks out of my main workspace. I can still access them if I need to, but they’re out of sight and out of mind.

Step 3: Distill

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We’re surrounded by more information, and as a result, we’re forced to make more decisions.

However,

More decisions != desired outcomes

We need to manage the flood of information by focusing our attention. But how, exactly?

We need awareness around what enters our mind. Think of all the distractions like social media, the news, endlessly scrolling on our phones,…

Your brain is most effective when it can focus on a few things.

That’s why the most productive people get so much done.

So the next step in the CODE system — Distill — is all about subtracting. Working in layers, you identify, extract, and distill key information.

The more layers, the more potently distilled your knowledge assets can become. The more effective we can be in handling the flow of information.

Here’s what four layers of distillation might look like in action.

• First, you save an article that sparks your interest.
• Second, you read through it and highlight key passages.
• Third, you bold key ideas and phrases within those passages.
• Fourth, you write an executive summary of those key ideas — no more than a few sentences.

Eliminate all irrelevant information, find the principles and get the minimum effective dose so have the biggest ROI

Step 4: Express

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This step is pretty self-explanatory. You’ve built a working second brain. You’ve gathered information, organized it, and distilled it into key takeaways.

Now, it’s time to put that knowledge to use: create new deliverables at work, action fulfilling personal projects, get side hustles off the ground, and innovate new solutions to nagging problems.

If a task seems to large use intermediate packets.

What are intermediate packets? They’re small, actionable chunks of a larger process.

Think of Lego — the more pieces you have, the more intricate and awe-inspiring constructions you can create. In just the same way, you’ll be able to pull off astoundingly big and complex projects if you just break them down into discrete, achievable steps.

It’s nicely summed up by the 18th century philosopher Giambattista Vico:

verum ipsum factum

That’s Latin for: we only know what we make.

We can’t truly understand something, until we’ve gotten our hands dirty.

When you use the knowledge and insights you’ve gathered to create something new — that’s when you can truly consider yourself an expert.

It’s important to automate or delegate things. Try to build high-impact habits to get the results and then use continuous improvement to get better.

Summary

“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems. Your goal is your desired outcome. Your system is the collection of daily habits that will get you there.” — James Clear

• Building a second brain boils down to action-ability. We capture, organize, distill and express information towards getting a desired outcome.
• Our lives are determined by the quality of our choices. Since information is what drives decisions it’s better to manage the flow information.
• Less is more. Keep things simple stupid. Only focus your efforts on finding the principles that guide your decisions. According to Ray Dalio, principles cut the amount of decisions you make by a factor of 10 000.
• Ruthlessly prioritize.Go from planning to the action phase early and don’t get stuck in analysis by paralysis. Recognize that a bad decision is better than indecision. We don’t need “perfect” information just “enough” information.

• Continuous improvement is what drives performance. Gradually improve and repeat every step. You don’t need perfect execution. That’s simply not possible. We all have our strengths and weaknesses. It’s better to focus on seeking out better results and if something doesn’t work, change the plan. See your plan as an experiment.