Benefits for productivity

If you've ever had a job in industry or another professional setting, you know that building on past work is not only acceptable but encouraged in most cases. Being able to borrow creativity from multiple sources and then adding your own unique elements is much more efficient than starting from scratch.

Similarly, the second brain system behaves as your own personal library of knowledge ready to be further expanded upon, so you never have to start with a blank page.

We just spent a good portion of the rFEvidence-Based Learning Techniques” section explaining that our brains are not very good at storing information without deliberately repeating revisions. Although a proper study plan allows us to do this with important 41

school topics, it is much harder to do this for ideas we randomly encounter throughout the day.

 

Therefore, getting in the habit of capturing ideas into our second brain system ensures we never lose valuable information and frees up space in our brains to generate new ideas.

Let's take a look at an example

A few months ago, one of my cousins was learning how to play the goalkeeper position in soccer. Having played at a high level for my entire childhood, I went out to his training session and assisted with coaching.

 

He was struggling with how to approach breakaways, and I tried to teach him while detailing my previous game experiences. However, I had a difficult time simplifying the techniques in a manner he could understand. Therefore, after 60 minutes of coaching, he had no improvement and his confidence was noticeably hurt.

When we had gotten home, I remembered learning that skill through a YouTube channel which actually served as a phenomenal resource throughout my playing days. I got very excited and ran to my computer to try rediscovering the channel only to be met by unfamiliar creators in the search results.

 

At that moment, I desperately wished I had created my second brain in high school, because it would have served well in my cousin's player development.

 

In other words, we never know when we will need to recall old information. In addition, it is very difficult to reenter the beginner mindset, especially after having worked on a skill for years. If I had included the links to the videos along with my feelings, thoughts, weaknesses, and questions, I could have better coached my cousin.

Please try creating your second brain now because you'll be thanking yourself later.