Recently I joined Tiago Forte’s build a second brain cohort.

It was a dream to join his course, but the cost was too much for me to take a step. But this year, I have been doing things I never thought I would do. I have joined Ship 30 for 30, captain’s table and now BASB.

What is Build a Second Brain cohort?

It is a course by Tiago Forte to learn how to organize information, tasks, and projects to be more efficient in your day-to-day work. Tiago has used GTD concepts (Getting Things Done by David Allen) as the foundation for building a Second Brain.

This course is already impacting work and life, and I will share my learning with you in the coming weeks.

The foundation of the second brain is a note-taking application that you can rely on daily.

So after signing up for the cohort, I was hit by the difficult choice of which note-taking app to use for building my second brain.

Many good choices exist, such as Workflowy, Obsidian, Evernote, Notion, and Roam. Those are all great apps with lots of credibilities. I have been using Workflowy for the last two years, and I know how great it is. But I was not 100% convinced that Workflowy is a perfect tool for the second brain. Writing long text in Workflowy is not as intuitive.

Following is a summary of my options.

Workflowy — It is a lightweight tool. Somewhat like Roam but without connections. It has an ultra-fast search.

Cons: It is not as intuitive to write long articles.

Obsidian — I love that it is free and stores all documents on the machine.

Cons: It is not as intuitive as Evernote.

Evernote — I used it in the past but ditched it for OneNote. OneNote was free, and I was not ready to pay for Evernote. Now I am paying for Workflowy & Notion and will happily pay for Evernote.

Cons: Wired upload limits and many price plans. Also, data is not local like Obsidian.

Notion — I like it, but it feels slow and clicking at rows in a table is not the same as clicking at a page in Obsidian or Evernote or a node in workflowy.

Roam — I never tried, but I am not into information map, connection and discovery.

I picked Evernote as my note-taking app.

I spent the last two weeks picking the best app for my second brain. After so much consideration, I have decided to follow Tiago. I have selected Evernote as my BASB tool for this cohort.

The following are the reasons why I made this choice.

Tiago uses Evernote. I will copy his folder structure, workflow, and system, allowing me to focus more on my project and less on a tool.

Obsidian is incredible. It saves data on my computer, and sync is possible. DataView is fantastic and very close to how I used to write my software code (I came from a programming background).

But Obsidian is still maturing and has a long way to go. I have been a cheerleader of new products but don’t want to mix it with the most important thing I need to do right now: learn the foundation for my second brain.

Notion is fantastic, and I love it as well. PS. I am a technology lover. I can play with tech for the rest of my life and not do anything meaningful :)

So Notion could be an option, but I am confused about when to use the database and pages. It is too flexible, and I will continue wasting time on customization than work.

Another issue is my office network blocks Notion. I work primarily remotely, but when I go to the office for a day, Notion will not work. That may create a significant issue if I am saving everything in Notion. Evernote keeps a local copy.

Workflowy has been my love for the last two years. But I miss the feel of a real “Note.” Workflowy has nodes that work well, but I feel limited when I want to write longer content.

So for the next few weeks, I will stick to Evernote and try to do my project using it in the hope of organizing my life. I may move to another tool after the cohort, but I made my choice for this cohort.

What next

I am super excited to see where this will take me. I will share my journey and learning with you.

Book of the week

Building a Second Brain by Tiago forte

For the second brain concept, no one is better than Tiago Forte. In this book, he shares his system to organize your digital life.

View on Amazon​

Article of the week

​The PARA Method: A Universal System for Organizing Digital Information by Tiago Forte

What do you think about Evernote as my note-taking app and the thought process I used to pick it up? Please share your views by replying to this email.

That's a wrap.

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Your friend
Vinod

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