Build Your

Second Brain:
Master the Secret to
Managing Knowledge

JD Meier
In/JDMeier
 “Build the brain!”
-- Per Vonge Nielsen
 About This Guide
Your Second Brain is your platform for growth, mastery
and impact.

Your Second Brain simply put is your personal information

management system for all of the wonderful profound
knowledge that you acquire and store.

For me, that’s been everything from quotes to stories of

transformation to collections of frameworks, mental
models, and more.

I’ve been collecting and organizing the world’s greatest

insight and action for more than 25 years and building
knowledge bases to make it easy to browse and use them.

As Tony Robbins puts it:

"Knowledge is not power. Knowledge is only potential

power. Execution trumps knowledge every day of the
week.“

My Second Brains have not just helped me, but I’ve also
created them to help accelerate, share and scale
knowledge across organizations, including Microsoft.

With this guide, I hope to inspire you to a world of better

knowledge and better results and enjoy the journey of
building your own Second Brain to help you in work and life
in exponential ways.
How Building Second Brains Has
Helped Me at Microsoft and
Beyond
Building Second Brains has helped me in ways that is ultimately
priceless, but here are some examples:

• I’ve kept a zero inbox at Microsoft for 25 years and I get and send
email more than most people know
• I’ve used my Second Brains to advance very intellectually
challenging spaces and to empower teams to advance spaces
• I’ve used information models to help product teams create future
features based on deep customer feedback
• I’ve used information models to leapfrog the competition in
competitive studies
• I’ve used Second Brains as a way to help rally high performance
teams around challenging areas like digital transformation,
innovation, sustainability and more
• I’ve used Second Brains to quickly learn and advance spaces
across multiple industries including automotive, banking,
education, health, ,manufacturing, media, telco, cities, sports,
defense, and more
• I’ve used Second Brains to advance areas including mind, body,
emotions, finances, relationships, and more
• I’ve used Second Brains to build high value libraries of proven
practices to help experts change their game

All of this is possible for you, too, and even easier than when I
started.
 What is a Second Brain?

“Building 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 provides a clear, actionable path to creating a “Second
Brain” – an external, centralized, digital repository for
the things you learn and the resources from which they
come.
A Second Brain ultimately expands our memory and our
intellect using modern tools of technology.”
-- Tiago Forte
 The Power of Building a
Second Brain

1."Stand on the Shoulders of Giants"

• Leverage the profound wisdom of legends like Jim Rohn, Earl
Nightingale, and John Wooden.
• Access their life lessons at a moment’s notice.
2."Run with the Titans"
• Store proven methods, best practices, and powerful frameworks.
• Apply their insights to solve challenges and seize opportunities.
3.A Library of Profound Knowledge
• Organize and retain life-changing ideas and lessons.
• Find inspiration for innovation and personal transformation
anytime.
4.Collections of Stories That Inspire Action
• Curate tales of resilience, breakthrough ideas, and transformation.
• Use them to motivate yourself and others.
5.Your Own "Wisdom Vault"
• Build a repository of insights from history’s greatest minds.
• Unlock timeless truths whenever you need guidance.
6.A Toolkit for Success
• Store and adapt frameworks, habits, and methods that drive
results.
• Always have a solution ready for any problem.
 Building Second and Third
Brains at Microsoft
When I first started at Microsoft, I was surrounded by super
experts.

The only way to keep up was to build my personal knowledge base.

I focused on building a library of step by step How Tos. And I

created checklists.

And I collected quotes. I remember every time I heard a life

changing or mind expanding quote, how it would inspire my mind.

I still remember how my body shook the day I read this quote:

"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters
compared to what lies within us.“
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

I ended up creating better and better libraries of profound

knowledge, not just for myself, but for others across Microsoft and
even for customers.
 Build the Brain!
My early manager at Microsoft was famous for saying:

“Build the brain!” -- Per Vonge Nielsen

Whatever big challenge I took on, from security to performance to

architecture, he would say start by building the brain.

The idea was to build a library of profound knowledge that all the
experts could contribute to and advance the space we were
working on at an accelerated pace.

This turned out to be more powerful than I expected.

I ended up with patents in spaces because the information models

created competitive advantage.

In fact, I would say a big advantage I had when I built my

productivity system, Agile Results, is that it’s based on a deep
information model of the productivity space.
What I Learned Building Knowledge
Bases at Microsoft
 Action vs. Reference
I bult many, many knowledge bases at Microsoft.

And talk about getting tested by the world’s best experts.

The big thing I learned is that you can quickly sort the world’s
knowledge into two key aspects:

1. Action: Articles that serve as action guides, like checklists,

how tos, etc.
2. Reference: Articles that serve as great reference information.
They might take the form of information articles or overviews or
conceptual walkthroughs.

If content were code, this would be the firs step to unraveling your
spaghetti and refactoring it into a more useful form.
 Topics and Tasks
Another key thing I learned is that you can quickly sort the world’s
knowledge into Topics and Tasks.

I remember Microsoft HR studying me because they wanted to

learn how I learned.

I was recognized for learning multiple domains faster than they

ever experienced.

I told them the secret was you can learn any domain by breaking it
down into Topics and Tasks.

I shared with them a lot more, things like Pattern Languages, Mind
Maps, Ontologies, Knowledge Areas, Question Maps, etc.

But the big surprise for me, that I learned by comparing super sites
of the world, is that if you can slice a domain or space down into
Topics and Tasks (based on simple language in the space), you’ve
just set the stage to move mountains.

And I demonstrated this by winning competitive assessments and

solving many of Microsoft most difficult challenges in the security,
performance, and architecture space.
 Questions and Tasks
(And Concepts, Too)
The other secret when it comes to breaking down knowledge is
really to organize the knowledge by Questions and Tasks.

While Topics and Subtopics are how you create the buckets or
categories, it’s the Questions and Tasks that help you deconstruct
the most useful insight.

When you know the Questions people ask in a domain, and you
know the Tasks (or Jobs-to-be-Done), for a given space, you really
have a great outline of the knowledge that matters.

The other piece I would say to this is that it also helps to have an
inventory of the Concepts.

If you know the cornerstone concepts, the key questions and the
most important tasks in a space, you’ve basically broken it down
or deconstructed it into the most important knowledge, 80/20
style.

So whenever I go into a new space, I break it down like this, get to

an 80/20 place of diminishing returns, and leverage the community
and domain experts to advance it and flesh it out from there.
 Information Models Turn
Profound Knowledge
into a Team Sport
An information model is a structured framework that defines,
organizes, and standardizes the relationships and attributes of
data to ensure clarity and consistency in how information is
represented and used.

My patents are basically for information models.

And for good reason.

When you design great information models, you turn complex

domains into a team sport, and more people get to play and
advance the space.

It solves the “one leader in the room” challenge by creating a

learning framework.
How I Build Second Brains
 Summary of How I Build Better
Second Brains

I want to start off as simply as possible because it’s all too easy to
get lost in the world of information management and personal
knowledge management.

I collect and organize useful insights and actions into collections:

• Cheat Sheets
• Checklists
• How Tos
• Stories
• Visuals

That’s a subset, but an important subset of my master libraries.

I also collect by Topics. I find that I often have to find information

by topic, so I make it easy to do so.

And I organize information into projects as necessary. In fact, one

of the most important things I do is setup a knowledge base for any
project to make it easier to “stand on the shoulders of giants.”
 The Meta-Pattern of How I Store
Profound Knowledge
Over the years, I found a few patterns for organizing
information and knowledge that has served myself and
others very well.

I organize roughly like this:

• Archive
• Cheat Sheets
• Checklists
• How Tos
• Lists
• People
• Projects
• Resources
• Stories
• Topics
• Visuals
 The WHY Behind My Approach
I need to use my information to solve big challenges.

I want it fast and friction free to find what I need, whether

by searching or browsing (and browsing helps me explore
and remind me what I have and discover or rediscover key
insights.)

I find it helpful to have a place to archive. I also find it

helpful to have quick access to cheat sheets, checklists,
and how tos, as well as visuals.

I like to have a place to quickly put things I get from other

places and sources, so that’s my Resources folder and I
organize it by source.

When I work on projects, I like to have a projects folder

where I create a knowledge base for the myself and the
team.

By default, I tend to store information by topic, so that all

of information on a topic like high performance,
innovation, or leadership is easy to browse, and easy to
add to.
 I Build Collections of High Value
Knowledge
One of my early missions has been a quest for the world’s best
insight and action for work and life.

I’ve collected everything from great quotes to great lessons from

people to inspiring stories of transformation as well as
frameworks, mental models, principles, patterns, and proven
practices.

I build it as I use it, so it’s always a high value and instant return on
investment.

But because I collect, curate and organize it into high value

collections, the value of my knowledge bases and Second Brain
compounds over time.

I find myself using my checklists, how tos, stories, frameworks,

and now my AI prompt library just about every day.

I started small. I simply started just putting quotes and How Tos
and Checklists into notebooks.

I grew it from there.

 Imagine If You Had the World’s
Best Knowledge at Your
Fingertips
I didn’t realize how much my confidence for adding value in a
space comes from having a library of profound knowledge.

Imagine if any challenge comes up and you could turn to your

library of profound knowledge to find the right framework or the
right checklist or the right step by step how to.

It’s life changing. It’s work changing. It’s game changing.

I think one of the greatest achievements so far in my life is having

built high value knowledge bases that turn insight into action and
empower people to learn better, faster, easier, and to advance any
space with skill.
 Master Maps
(The “Big Map” for a Domain or
Space)
This is an example of
one of my Master Maps
for productivity.

I know you can’t see the

details, but that’s not
the point

The point is that you see

how I have a balcony
view of the productivity
space and can instantly
zoom into any area and
quickly know what’s
important.

That’s the big idea!

 Types of Knowledge
I learned to appreciate “types” of knowledge:

• Book Summaries
• Canvases
• Cheat Sheets
• Checklists
• Frameworks
• How Tos
• Lessons Learned
• Mental Models
• Patterns
• Prompts
• Quotes
• Scenarios
• Stories
• Techniques
• Templates
• Videos
• Visuals
 Strategic Types of Knowledge
I learned that some types of knowledge can be more strategic than
others.

For example, when I built collections of code examples for

different technologies, this was a game changer.

I also led early How To projects at Microsoft to make it easy to get

started with technology by creating step by step article libraries.

When you create a deep library of How Tos organized by topics and
subtopics, you have a huge advantage in terms of ability to execute
with confidence.

I created many libraries of strategic content types from checklists

to how tos to videos.

People used to challenge me on this, and I would simply ask, have

you noticed how Google organizes the world’s knowledge into
types: images, videos, news, forums, etc.
Tiago Forte on Building a Second
Brain with CODE and PARA
 CODE Method
The CODE Method by Tiago Forte is a framework
for organizing digital information as part of his
Building a Second Brain methodology.

It provides a structured approach to managing

knowledge and turning information into actionable
insights.

CODE stands for:

1. C: Capture
2. O: Organize
3. D: Distill
4. E: Express
 1. C: Capture

Collect interesting, valuable, or relevant information from

various sources.

Focus on capturing only what resonates with you or is

actionable, avoiding information overload.
 2. O: Organize

Sort the captured information into categories or systems that

reflect how you’ll use it.

Use the principle of “Just-in-Time” Organization, where you

organize information only when it’s needed for a specific project or
goal.
 3. D: Distill

Refine the information into its most essential and useful

parts.

Summarize or highlight key insights, eliminating excess

detail to make the information easier to reference and act
upon.
 4. E: Express

Use the distilled information to create something

meaningful, such as a presentation, article, or decision.

Focus on turning knowledge into action and sharing it with

others.
 PARA Method

The PARA method by Tiago Forte is a simple, powerful

framework for organizing digital and physical information.

It’s a central concept in his Building a Second Brain

system and stands for:

1. P: Projects
2. A: Areas
3. R: Resources
4. A: Archive

The method ensures that everything you keep has a place,

and it’s especially effective for knowledge workers,
creatives, and anyone juggling multiple priorities.
 How PARA Works

1. Universal Framework: PARA applies across all

platforms and tools (e.g., Google Drive, Evernote,
Notion).

2. Dynamic System: Information flows between the

categories as its relevance changes.

3. Ease of Use: By limiting everything to these four

categories, you can manage complexity without
feeling overwhelmed.
 1. P: Projects

Definition: Short-term efforts with a clear goal and a

deadline (e.g., "Write blog post," "Launch marketing
campaign").

Purpose: Focus on actionable tasks that contribute to

achieving specific outcomes.
 2. A: Areas

Definition: Long-term responsibilities or areas of ongoing interest

that don’t have a specific deadline (e.g., "Health," "Finances,"
"Career").

Purpose: Organize resources and information related to the major

aspects of your life and work.

Examples: Subfolders for categories like "Personal Development,"

"Family," or "Fitness."
 3. R: Resources

Definition: General reference material on topics of

interest that may be useful in the future but aren’t tied to a
specific project or area (e.g., "AI Research," "Travel Tips").

Purpose: Serve as a library of knowledge for inspiration or

future use.

Examples: Articles, PDFs, tutorials, or any non-actionable

materials.
 4. A: Archive

Definition: Completed or inactive items from the other

three categories.

Purpose: Keep your active system clutter-free while

preserving historical information.

Examples: Past projects, previous job materials, or

outdated reference documents.
Tiago Forte's 12 Steps to
Building a Second Brain
 Tiago Forte's 12 Steps to
Building a Second Brain

The Second Brain system is a method for organizing your

digital notes, managing knowledge, and turning insights
into action. Here’s how to build yours:

1. Decide What You Want to Capture

2. Choose Your Notes App
3. Select a Capture Tool
4. Set Up the PARA Framework
5. Identify Your Favorite Problems
6. Automate Ebook Highlights
7. Practice Progressive Summarization
8. Experiment with Intermediate Packets
9. Focus on One Deliverable
10.Use a Weekly Review
11.Create a “Knowledge Portfolio”
12.Share What You Learn
 1. Decide What You Want
to Capture

Start by identifying 2–3 types of information you find

valuable or actionable.

Examples: Ideas, quotes, research, project notes, or

personal reflections.
 2. Choose Your Notes App

Select a tool that matches your workflow and needs.

Popular options: Evernote, Notion, OneNote, Obsidian,

or Apple Notes.
 3. Select a Capture Tool

Use apps like Pocket, Instapaper, or Raindrop.io to save online

content for later.

Ensure your tools allow easy collection of text, images, and links.
 4. Set Up the PARA Framework

Organize your notes into four universal categories:

• Projects: Short-term, goal-driven efforts.
• Areas: Long-term responsibilities and interests.
• Resources: General knowledge and reference
material.
• Archive: Completed or inactive items.

This system works across apps, devices, and contexts.

 5. Identify Your Favorite
Problems

Create a list of “12 Favorite Problems” or questions you

enjoy exploring.

Use these as a guide to filter what you capture and focus

your efforts.
 6. Automate Ebook Highlights

Use tools like Readwise to sync your highlights from

Kindle, iBooks, or other reading apps into your notes.

This ensures your best insights are readily available.

 7. Practice Progressive
Summarization

Simplify your notes step by step:

• Highlight key sentences.
• Bold the most critical points.
• Create summaries for quick reference.

This makes your notes more actionable and

accessible.
 8. Experiment with
Intermediate Packets

Break down large projects into smaller, standalone chunks

of work, called Intermediate Packets.

These are reusable pieces of knowledge you can apply to

various contexts.
 9. Focus on One Deliverable

Use your Second Brain to complete a specific,

tangible outcome, such as:

• Writing an article.
• Designing a presentation.
• Creating a project proposal.
 10. Use a Weekly Review

Spend time each week reviewing and organizing your

notes:

• Archive old projects.

• Reorganize areas and resources.
• Identify actionable next steps.
 11. Create a “Knowledge
Portfolio”

Think of your Second Brain as an investment.

Over time, it becomes more valuable as you:

• Add insights.
• Refine your system.
• Use it to create meaningful work.
 12. Share What You Learn

Turn your knowledge into tangible outputs like blog posts,

videos, or frameworks.

Sharing your ideas helps you refine them and build

credibility.
10 Ways to Improve How You
Manage Information

(My Tips to Help You Master

Information Management)
 1. Factor reference
from action.

Carve out action items, To Dos, and tasks from your

incoming streams of information.

If it’s not an action, it’s reference.

I first learned this practice when I was dealing with

information overload as a support engineer. I ended up
cementing the idea while working on our Microsoft
Knowledge Base.

The Knowledge Base is a vast collection of information,

where each article tends to be optimized around either
action or reference.
 2. Create lists.

Make a new To Do list each day and use it to organize your

key action items for the day.

Create checklists for your common routines.

 3. Create collections.
Put things into collections or think in terms of
collections. Consolidate your notes into a single collection that
you access quickly, such as in a personal notebook, a Word
document or etc.

Consolidate your thoughts or ideas into a single collection.

Consolidate reference examples of your heroes or stories you

can use for inspiration.

Consolidate your “ah-has” into a single collection.

Note that by single collection, I don’t mean you have it all in a

single document, although you can. Instead, I’m thinking of
collections of items, much like a photo album music collection.

By stashing things of a similar type, such as “idea” or “note” …

etc., you can determine the best way to arrange that collection.

Maybe it’s a simple A -Z list or maybe you arrange it by

time. For example, when I keep a journal of my insights, and
each time I get an “ah ha”, I write it down under the current
date. This way I can easily flip back through days and see my
insights in chronological order. While I could arrange them A –
Z, I like having my most recent ideas or inspirations bubbled to
the top, since chances are I’m finding ways to act on them.
 4. Put things where you look
for them.

Wherever you look for it, that’s where it should be. If you
keep looking for something in a certain place, either just
put it there when you find it or add some sort of pointer
to the actual location.

While you might logically think something belongs in a

certain place, the real test is where you intuitively look
for it.
 5. Keep things flat.

Out of sight, out of mind holds true for information. Avoid

nesting information.

Keep it flat and simple where you can.

Think in terms of iTunes or a playlist. A well-organized playlist is

easy to jump to what you need.
 6. Organize long lists or
folders using A-Z.

When you have long lists or big collections, then listing

things A-Z tends to be a simple way to store things and
to look things up fast.

Once a list gets long, A-Z or a numbered list is the way to

go.
 7. Archive old things.

When information is no longer useful for you, consider

archiving it to get it out of your way. This usually means
having a separate location.

I’m a pack rat and I have a hard time letting things go, so I
tend to archive instead.

It let’s me get things out of the way, and then eventually

get rid of them if I need to.

Archiving has really helped me get a ton of information out

of my way, since I know I can easily rehydrate it if I need to.
 8. Bubble up key things
to the top.

When you have a lot of information, rather than worry

about organizing all of it, bubble up things to the top.

You can effectively have a quick, simple list or key

things up top, followed by more information.

Keep the things up front simple.

This way you get the benefits of both exhaustive or

complete, as well as simple.

Whenever you have a large body of information, just add

a simple entry point or key take aways or summary up
front.
 9. Know whether you’re
optimizing for storing or
retrieving.
Distinguish whether you are storing something because you
will need to look it up or refer to it a lot, or if you are simply
storing it because you might need it in the future.

For information that I need to look up a lot, I create a view or I

make it easy to get to the information fast. For example, I
might use a sticky note since I can quickly put it wherever I
need to. For a lot of information, you simply need a quick way
to store it.

What you don’t want to do is have to work to hard, each time

you need to file a piece of information.

This I is where having a place for things, using lists, and

organizing information in a meaningful way comes in handy.

For most of my reference information, I organize it either by A-

Z or by time. This way I don’t have to think too hard. I don’t
create a bunch of folders for my email. Instead, I just store it
all flat so it’s easy to search or browse or sort. For example, if
I need to find an email from somebody, I simply sort my email
by their name.

Just by asking the question whether you’re optimizing for fast

filing or for fast lookup will get you improving your information
management in the right direction.
 10. Create views.

Create views for the information that you need to

frequently access. For example, you might put sticky
notes of information that consolidate just the key things.

As an analogy, think of your music store versus your

playlists.

You store might be a large collection organized A-Z, but

your playlists are views that are more focused or have
themes. You can apply this metaphor to any of your
information collections.
Getting Started Building Your
Second Brain
 Getting Started Building Your
Second Brain
I find the best way to get started is to build one useful collection.

For me it was really Quotes.

When I built my Quotes collection, it helped me think better, faster,

and “stand on the shoulders of giants.”

It put wisdom of the ages and modern sages at my fingertips.

It helped me explore a topic with depth and perspective and

expand my thinking.

So if you pick one topic you care about, and if you gather a great
collection of quotes for it, you will have very immediate impact
from your efforts.

Then just rinse and repeat that for other interesting types of
knowledge, like checklists, or cheat sheets, or how tos.

From there, you might get excited to build your collection of book
summaries or maybe even frameworks.
 An Alternative Way to Start
Building Your Second Brain
Lists are powerful.

They help you organize your thoughts, prioritize and execute

tasks.

You can practice building better lists to take better action.

For example, you can build a list of all your ideas, organize it A
to Z, and start by creating better titles for your ideas.

One trick is to name your ideas as if they were a headline for a

press release. By creating a better name for each idea, you
can now scroll through a list of press release headlines. You
can now start to see the potential value of each idea.

Imagine how much better you can sort and prioritize your
ideas if they are well worded press release headlines.

If you master this, not only can you get better at your own
backlog of ideas, but you can help teams organize and mange
their ideas.

This can be an existing and very powerful way to start your

Second Brain.
Conclusion
 Final Thoughts: Unlock the
Power of Your Second Brain
Building a Second Brain is more than organizing
information—it’s amplifying your ability to think, create,
and achieve.

By capturing valuable insights, organizing them with

purpose, and turning them into action, you create a
personal system that works for you, not against you.

This is a life-changing tool to free your mind, focus on what

matters, and consistently produce meaningful work.

With your Second Brain in place, you’ll have a trusted

companion for working through complexity, unlocking
creativity, and achieving your biggest goals.

The true power lies not in the system itself, but in the
opportunities it enables you to seize.

So start building today, and let your Second Brain guide

you to your best work and your brightest future.
Become a Better Leader,
Innovate Better, Make
Greater Impact
For more proven practices for high
performance, innovation, and
leadership follow me:

JD Meier
In/JDMeier

Unleash Your
Greatest Leadership Impact!