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5 actionable ideas for building a knowledge database that supports your writing
I have an abundance of topics I’m curious about, but in the past, it often felt
There would always be a million ideas flying through my head, and my scattered brain wouldn’t
“If you try to do everything, you won’t do anything”, author and philosopher Ryan Holiday writes
During my deep dive, I stumbled upon a book that intrigued me: Tiago Forte’s Building a
The idea of “building a second brain” just seemed a little out there for me
However, soon after starting the book, I realized I had massively underestimated its applicability, and I’ve
Here are a few of the practical tips I’ve gathered from Tiago Forte’s Building a
It just means you don’t yet have enough raw material to work with
Too often I’d want to jump right into a story because of the energy and passion
This unhealthy pattern led to a lower quality of writing overall, and it actually resulted in less
To reference Ryan Holiday again, “There’s no such thing as writer’s block (just insufficient research)
Now we collect knowledge building blocks and spend our time imagining the possibilities for what they could
When I first started writing, I’d usually just come up with a story idea randomly, search
With the knowledge block approach, I’ve found that I’m finding more connections between the different
For example, I collected all of the quotes in this article while reading Building a Second Brain,
Realizing I already had a database of my favorite ideas to go back to, all that was
In today’s world, people spend more time consuming content than ever before
And, most likely, the content you’re consuming is something that you enjoy
Maybe it’s watching sports, scrolling through Financial Twitter (FinTwit), or watching cooking tutorials on YouTube
), there’s a good chance you’ll thank yourself when it’s waiting there for reference during
No wonder I couldn’t remember the main points only a few months later! With this in
While it has taken some getting used to, the benefits of being able to highlight passages that
and this allows me to review the ideas I found most significant on a regular basis
“All the content you consume online and through all the different kinds of media you have at
As I mentioned, I often have too many different ideas at once, and writing requires attacking only
Therefore, the majority of ideas need to be saved for a later date
After acknowledging this, I adjusted my system and mindset to one where I documented ideas that resonated
This way, an idea for a new article about AirTags wouldn’t take up some of my
“Thinking doesn’t just produce writing; writing also enriches thinking
Now, this doesn’t necessarily have to do with building a second brain, but it does have
I hadn’t thought of this idea before I read it in the book, but I have
And armed with a second brain system for capturing these ideas, I now have the tools for