Developing a “Second Brain” as a Repository for all your Knowledge — Issue 9
Morning,
About 3 years ago I started documenting my leadership journey by taking notes, and since then I haven’t stopped. Its become a bit addictive. I have moved from notebooks to digital apps to a digital workspace.
Here are some things I make notes on:
- Inspiring quotes
- Things I have learnt
- Notes from books
- Talking points for customers
- Feedback from other leaders
- Messaging for certain situations
- Inspiration
- Advice from mentors/coaches
- Ideas or improvements
- Journal
- Yearly evaluations
- Goals
- Winning list
Why make notes?
Retaining information and things you read, learn and experience into long term memory is not always possible and you forget it over time.
If you read something and apply it every day it will stick. On the other hand if you read a 300-page book over the course of a month and come across 20 ideas or ways to be a better a leader, chances are the ideas will never reach your long term memory. It’s likely to drop out of your short term memory before you know it as you are not actively applying it.
We absorb so much information and content in our current lifetime, it can be impossible to retain it all. How can we retain and preserve all the lessons, inspiration and knowledge we acquire over the days, weeks, months and years of our life?
By creating your own Personal Knowledge Base.
This Knowledge Base is not only for preserving those ideas and lessons but turning them into reality. It’s a digital repository of your journey and work in progress with a view to applying it to your role, environment and life.
I originally started with Google Docs but found it difficult to file and systematically keep things in order. Where the game changed is when I started using Notion. Notion allows you to effectively store and file notes. It has loads of great templates to help with Digital Notes, Task Lists, Journaling, Tracking Habits and Goals.
Some refer to this methodology as a “Second Brain”, but whatever you call it, start building a system to compile your notes, lessons and things you have learnt. You’ll find it quite comforting to look back retrospectively to how much you have covered and learnt in such a short period of time.
Building your own Personal Knowledge Base and referring to and contributing to it daily will accelerate your learning, help you stay organised and dramatically improve your cognitive and emotional intelligence.
All the best.
David
Resources Of The Week
App — Notion — in the event that you skip straight to the good stuff in the “Resources” section, see read out above for a description.
App — uDemy — this is an online training platform where you can take courses in almost any subject. I have taken around 3 courses and found the quality and instructors to be great. You can usually find good Leadership courses in the promo reduced to £10-£20. Excellent value for a course to sharpen your skills.
Book — The Coaching Habit by Michael Bungay Stanier — I came across this book a few years. If you want to become a better coach where you speak less and listen more, this book is for you. I found it very easy to read with great practical steps you can apply straight away.
Quote of the Week
“Leadership is not a position or a title, it is action and example.” — Cory Booker
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