A person living today receives more information on a single day than a medieval peasant in her entire lifetime.
To be honest, I have no way to prove this popular statement, but it is undeniable that many persons today suffer from information overload.
We are getting bombarded with new information constantly. Filtering out the essentials and having an efficient note-taking system in place is, therefore, a crucial skill for today’s knowledge workers.
Here, a concept called Second Brain comes into play.
In the last years, it was popularized by the work of Tiago Forte who defines it as follows:
… a Second Brain is a methodology for saving and systematically reminding us of the ideas, inspirations, insights, and connections we’ve gained through our experience. It expands our memory and our intellect using the modern tools of technology and networks.
With today’s technology, the job of your brain is not to store information, but rather to produce ideas by finding unconventional connections between ideas you have stored in the past.
Tools like Notion or Roam are allowing you to store an unlimited number of notes and media, while also supporting you in finding them when you need them. However, if you want to avoid your second brain becoming an information dumpster, you require an efficient system of organization.
Like the one used by Tiago Forte called PARA method which stands for:
- Project
- Areas
- Ressources
- Archive
Let’s have a quick look into the definition for each of the four items:
A project is “a series of tasks linked to a goal, with a deadline.
An area is “a sphere of activity with a standard to be maintained over time.â€
A resource is “a topic or theme of ongoing interest.†This could be anything from topics you need for your studies like architecture or pharmacology, to private interests like coffee tasting to scuba diving. It includes books, movies or courses you have consumed in the past.
And lastly, archive includes all “inactive items from the other three categories.â€
Table
The Supreme Second Brain by iNotion
With his Supreme Second Brain Template young creator James Ebringer aka iNotion attempts to deliver an all-encompassing second brain system based on the PARA method for Notion.
Is this the ultimate second brain template for Notion? Let’s have an honest look inside:
First Impression of the “The Supreme Second Brain Template†for Notion
The template directly leads you to an upsell.
Here I would object, that it is not clear why a buyer of the Ultimate Supreme Second Brain should now purchase the Greatest Supreme Second Brain. According to iNotion the upsell mainly includes the Building A Second Brain course. This could be useful for many users, but I don’t think that the value of the upsell is communicated properly.
The design of the template is pretty straightforward and offers a high recognition value. It resembles the look of the cover of Tiago Fortes’ book â€Building a second brain†but is not a direct copy of the original design.
The dashboard is navigation friendly. If you are already experienced with the PARA method you should have an easy time navigating the different workspaces.
Newbies would probably need some minutes to orient themselves. An onboarding process could be of great help here.
Projects and Tasks
This is basically a simple Project Management Template. You can create tasks and link them to a project. A progress bar is showing you the number of completed tasks for each project, allowing you to always monitor your overall progress.
Update recommendation: When clicking inside a project it would be good to see the filtered tasks related to the specific project.
Areas
All projects can be linked to areas. Contrary to projects, areas don’t have deadlines. For example, health would be an area, while running a Marathon would be a project linked to the area of health.
But Areas can also be linked to resources. So, if you planning to run a Marathon, you would relate books you are reading in preparation or apps you are using to track your running workouts to the Marathon Project and Health Area.
Knowledge
This area provides 4 databases for apps & tools, books, courses, and a knowledge hub for storing notes. In my opinion, this database could become pretty overwhelming when you are storing a lot of notes inside. It could be interesting to embed my Zettelkasten Template for Notion, which allows you to connect notes with each other and build a knowledge web with time.
Notebooks
This is a basic note-taking area. It comes with the preset areas: Education, Work, Business, Family
Trackers
This area allows you to create habits, define yearly goals and set life visions
How does the Template work on Mobile?
The template works flawlessly on mobile phones.
For whom is it a good Notion template?
The Supreme Second Brain is a great template for knowledge workers and students.
Would I use the Notion template?
When I started with Notion in 2020, I would have loved to know such a template. Instead, I used August Bradleys System, which quickly overwhelmed me.
The first rule of every template should be:
Keep it simple.
If a process becomes too complicated, it will not work for a long time. Therefore I really enjoyed that this second brain template offered all the important aspects to implement the PARA method into Notion, without overcomplicating the system
As a result, this template is a good framework for everybody who wishes to start building a second brain dashboard in Notion.
Ratings
Usability 5/5
Easy to use and navigate. Works well on Mobile
Creativity 4/5
The template is making use of the PARA Methode by Tiago Forte but is not reinventing the wheel
Aesthetics 4/5
The aesthetics of this template looks great, but in my opinion, is too similar to Tiago Forte’s corporate identity. Personally, I would have preferred it, if the template came with a more unique look.
Overall Rating for the Template 4.34/5
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