The OFFICIAL Notion Second Brain Setup

I'm Julia Saxenna and I've been building my second brain since [music] 2020. And for the last four years, I've been working with Thiago to teach this system [music] to thousands of people across the world. Stay with me for the next 20 minutes and [music] by the end you can either build the second brain yourself in notion or use [music] our template that sets it up in just 5 minutes. Here's what I'm going to show you. How to capture any thought in about under 30 seconds and [music] plan your day in just 5 minutes. how the power method works and connects your task notes and read later so you can really focus on getting things done. And finally, [music] how to maintain it all with a 30 minute weekly ritual. When I open my second brain in notion, this is the page I land [music] on. And this homepage is split in a few sections and I'm just going to show you what those are. So, let's start here. On the left side, we have our quick capture buttons, a place where I put my priorities for this month's, useful pages like a quick reference guide, our notes, read later, and then we have our weekly review checklist. [music] On the bottom here, some admin items that I can easily hide. And then on the right side here are my daily pages, my task management system, and my power system divided [music] into projects, areas, resources, and archives. So, one of the biggest lessons I've learned over the years is that for a second brain to actually work, you need to be able to capture things quickly and with as little friction as possible because if it is takes too long to capture something, you just won't [music] do it. You'll tell yourself you'll remember it later, but you won't. And that's how things start to fall through the cracks. I try to abolish friction completely in this system. So to solve this, I built a separate page which is fully optimized for mobile viewing [music] and it's right here. Everything is organized in one single column with your action buttons at the top followed by my task management parah and then useful pages and weekly review underneath it. So watch this. I've simply added this page to my favorites so I always open it in the notion mobile app. So, let's say you want to just quickly capture a new task [music] here on my mobile page. I'm just going to click quick capture button for task. Set myself a reminder that I want to check in for my flight. [music] And I'm just going to set a deadline here. And done. So, the second way to quickly capture into your second brain in notion is [music] via a web clipper. And the one I recommend is the save to notion web clipper which is really the easiest um to set up and operate. So I've set it up in a way that I can either capture a note or as an item that I want to read later. So let's say here I'm on this page of the art of accomplishment podcast and they just published a new podcast on the topic of perfectionism which I should definitely learn more about. And I'm [music] going to save this to my read later database. So, I'm just going to click here and [music] just going to save the page and it's I can choose if I want to open this page now in notion and it's automatically saved into my read later database. [music] Now, let's say I have something here. I'm training currently for a half marathon [music] and I want to save this training plan. I can again use my web clipper and this time I'm going to save it [music] as a note. So here I can assign this to my Toronto half marathon training project. But capturing is only half the battle. You also need to know how to use what you captured. And that's where my morning ritual comes in. So what do you do as a first thing when you sit down at your computer in the morning? [music] You may be jumping right into your emails or Slack. Maybe you read the news. But how you start your day is incredibly important because you can set yourself up for success or failure. [music] So to ground myself, the first thing I do is open my daily page, which has been automatically created for me through a recurring template [music] here in my daily pages database. The first thing I do is rename the page and I also track my sleep. And you can see here that I'm also tracking um a couple of other items. And that's how this daily pages database actually functions as a great habit tracker as well. Then I work through my startup checklist which are a few items that take just about maybe 5 to 10 minutes and which helps me get settled for the day and make sure I'm not forgetting anything. And as I'm going through all of these uh different uh places and tools, I apply the 2minut rule. [music] That means if there's anything to be done that takes 2 minutes or less, I will do it straight away. and just get it off my plate. But if it takes longer, then I'm just going to add it to my task list. [music] So, the final item here is really checking today's to-dos. And to do that, I have a view of my [music] task manager here that's set to today. So, I can see what tasks are already assigned [music] to this particular day. I can also see this this week to see what else is coming up this week. I can see which items where I'm waiting on someone else. um and even see like a whole calendar view or even add other views as well. Also, I have a toggle with my active projects. [music] So that way I can also see what's currently on my plate. Which projects do I want to work on today? What's a priority right now? Further on this page, I just have an open space for notes. So usually I like to keep this page open [music] in a different tab. So that way I can just add just random notes that I might want to take throughout the day. just it's a space for me just to return to to get to get grounded before I start maybe another another task. And finally, you also see like a little shutdown checklist here, which helps me wind down at the end of my workday. So, when you start your day like this, you're being proactive instead of just reactive. And by the way, everything I'm showing you here is included in our second brain notion template. If you want this exact setup, link is in the description. Now, you might be wondering where do all these tasks and notes actually live. So that's where PARA comes in. Parah is the central organizational system that makes the second brain work. Tasks, [music] notes, and read later are separate databases that all link to your projects, areas, or resources. So I'll let Thago himself explain what parah is. >> Projects. These are the short-term efforts in your work or life that you're working on now. Areas. Areas are long-term responsibilities you want to manage over time. Resources. These are topics or interests that may be useful in the future. Finally, archives. These are inactive items from any of the other three categories. >> And don't worry if you didn't remember all that immediately. We have a reference guide built in that reminds you of the definitions of how power works together with your task, notes, and read later items. And it also includes a quick decision tree to help [music] you decide where to save the information when you're getting started. But you'll notice that it all becomes second nature pretty quickly. Now, let me show you what that actually looks like in practice. Okay, so these are my projects. When you open a project page, at the very top of the page, you see different tabs for the task, notes, and read later items um assigned to this particular project. Every project has a status that you can change from not started to inactive [music] to done and archived. You can of course set a deadline or like a time frame when this project is taking place. And I've assigned it to the area of travel because it's a trip that I'm I'm taking. And then in the lock page of a project, you will see here a [music] space where you can just add brainstorms, you can add checklist, any other notes you want to take about this project. [music] And here at the top, you have the different tabs with a task assigned to this project with the notes assigned and with a read later items. So for example, for [music] this trip, I have still two YouTube videos that I want to watch which might have interesting information that I want to capture. So just to show you also a different project. This was a personal one. Now looking at a more work focused project is the one that we're launching as the second version of this notion [clears throat] template here. Again I have my quick links notes uh in the log page. And I also want to point out that we have the project kickoff checklist here which I find always really helpful to remind me of the different items [music] and to-dos that help me get started with a project successfully which is like capturing my current thinking already reviewing existing notes which I can link to this new project so I don't start from [music] scratch and creating an outline and a quick project plan. And I also have a project completion checklist which helps me make sure that I mark this project as complete that I archive it and that I capture any any learnings and items from it that I want to keep. In our view of projects we have different views of the same database. Here at the very first view is our active projects. So this is really what I'm working on right now. Then I have my inactive projects which are projects that I have already started [music] but which are currently let's say on hold or there's just like nothing to do right now and that's why they're inactive and I don't want them to clutter up my my active project [music] list. I have also someday maybe projects which I might get to at some point and I have some projects which are done. Okay, now let's look at our areas. [music] So to give you an example of what my areas are do look like. For example, I have an area craft maga, which is a self-defense [music] technique. And I use this page basically to cover my notes around the different techniques, the curriculum that I'm teaching at our school, our schedule, um, and so on. So, this is a page I revisit very often and that's why I'm keeping them always in my favorites. So, it's really easy for me to access it. [music] Another area that I use often is travel. And you can see here that I have of course the current upcoming trip assigned to this area. You can also see here again at the top you have the same [music] tabs. I have the notes that I have assigned to this area and also some read later items as well. Next let's look at resources. [music] So you'll see that I have a a lot of different topics here in my resources. And this is all stuff that is sort of like interesting to me that I want to capture content around that I want to capture notes around. For example, this can also include uh courses that I've taken. So for example, two years ago I took two um improv classes. And you [music] can see again here that I have the notes from these classes um um just saved here. If I ever pick up improv again, I just can easily like look in here and and find those. Another topic I'm really interested in is sleep. And you'll see that I have a couple of notes here. I also have a read later item here around sleep. This is a video that I wanted to watch on that topic. And once I've watched the video and maybe taking some notes, [music] then it's moving from my read base into into my notes and also gets assigned [music] back to this resource here. The beauty of Power is that it's so flexible and the items need to be able to move fluidly between those four categories. [music] For example, you'll see here that I have an area called apartment. This used to be a project. So, I moved into my apartment just this past year. And at this point, this was a project, but as soon as I moved in, it became an area because it's now something that I need to maintain. There are notes that I want to still keep around. So, what I did was just switch the category from project [music] to area. I could also easily make this a resource if I wanted to. Finally, the archives to show you how the archive works. Let me go into my projects which are done. And I'm still keeping those around because I might still want to revisit them. I've just completed them very recently. But let's say I'm just fully done with this. Um, this is not very necessary for me anymore or not very useful. So I can go into my project and [music] then simply change the status to archived. And that's how it will move down here into the archive. That way it's out of sight, out of mind, but still it's easily accessible. If you ever want to revisit it and let's say suppose I ever want to start my glucose tracking again, I can [music] restart this project or maybe I will I'm going to make it an area this time. It just moves to the different part of parah where I actually need this information. So now that you understand how parah organizes everything, let me show you the three databases that connect to it [music] and those makes the second brain in notion a true all-in-one tool to manage your life. So this is a task manager inside our second brain in notion. It's a separate [music] database just dedicated to tasks and it mimics the functionality of dedicated task management tools. But the great thing is that it's actually much more flexible because you can set up the different views and properties just exactly as you need it. First, we have our task inbox. These are the tasks you just quickly captured and that don't have a dou on date, a deadline, and aren't assigned to a project or area yet. So, if I want to process tasks [music] in my inbox, for example, I might just have to assign them to a project area. You can see now it's gone out of the task inbox. So you might be wondering why are there two different dates here? You're probably familiar with a deadline. That's when the task needs to be completed at the latest. For example, when you need to like hand in a report, but when you only assign a deadline, you could easily miss a task until it's way too late. Sound familiar? So that's why you have a due on date, which is a date you actually want to work on the task. So, next to our task inbox, we have our today view, which are all tasks that are assigned with a do date or deadline for today. You could also assign a tag to your task, which helps you distinguish if, for example, it's a personal task or it's something for work, if it's something you're doing online and offline. And you can customize it much further if you want, and create all different types of tags [music] to let you um filter your task even more. So often it happens that you're waiting on someone else for input or for feedback or you've delegated a task to someone else and there's also a way to capture that. So for example, for this task I'm waiting on Thiago which I've captured here and then let's suppose I've gotten the feedback or the input from Chiago that I needed. I can just quickly press this button which is going to clear this field and also change the status [music] to in progress now from waiting on. I also want to walk you just quickly through the different uh views that I've set up here within the task management. [music] So there's of course the this week view showing you all the tasks where the deadline [music] is within this week or which are also overdue of course. We have a separate view for any waiting on items. We have a view by that [music] groups everything by the status. You could also group it by par so by the project in different areas. You [music] could see your task group by the different tags. You could also see them in a calendar view [music] if you prefer that. You can also see them in a timeline view. Notion has made it really easy to set up recurring tasks. Recurring tasks in Notion are basically just templates of pages which are set up to recur at different intervals. [music] Let me create a new one. Let's say I want to set myself a reminder to what are my plans and I want this task to repeat [music] every week. Let's say I want to do this every Saturday. [music] I'm going to save this and I'm going to make sure also that the do on date it's set as today [music] when date went duplicated. And all I have to do is close this. So now [music] this template is set up. As soon as the next Saturday comes around, this task will pop up in my today view. So, now we've covered the task management system. But what about note-taking? Ever had a brilliant insight, saved it somewhere, and never found it again? The notes database is where your knowledge lives. [music] Here you save the information and ideas you want to keep. First, you'll see your notes inbox. [music] This shows all the notes that haven't been processed yet. You can assign a note to multiple different projects, to areas, or to resources. For example, this one is about sleep, and [music] I'm going to assign it to my sleep resource. And as soon as I do it, it's out of the notes inbox and now in my active notes view. Notes also have a status. [music] Uh there are raw notes which you might have just taken quickly but they are not refined yet. Then we have polished notes. It's notes that you have [music] maybe potentially progressively summarized. And then if you don't need a note anymore, if it's not relevant anymore, you can also archive it. So the key is that notes aren't just floating in isolation. They're connected to the projects, areas, resources, and tasks that matter right now for you. So, next to a task management and note-taking system, we've also built a full read later functionality into notion. So, we come across so much interesting content on a daily basis. But rarely should we consume that content right the moment we find it. You probably don't want to interrupt your workday to listen to a podcast episode you just found in a newsletter, right? So, what do you do? You save it to a week later. So what makes this different from notes [music] is that it's content that you haven't consumed yet. So this database is for capturing all the podcast, YouTube videos, articles, books, TV series, [music] and any other content that you want to consume later. You can select the type of content, [music] the status, if it's something that you haven't started yet, that something you're consuming right now, or if you if it's already done. You can, [music] of course, add the link here. There's a field for who it was recommended by a date you finished it and then of course the relation and the link to your notes database to power to maybe a task. You can also filter this database by [music] the type. You filter it by all the items that are currently that you're done and you can see all of them. And of course you can set up your own views [music] if you want different ones. You've now seen the complete system. There's just one piece left. How do you actually maintain all of this without maintenance? your second brain will get messier and messier and at some point you won't want to spend time there anymore because it's just cluttered and confusing. But the good news is 30 minutes or less a week is all it takes to reset your digital world even beyond your second brain in notion. So [music] you can start each week with a clean slate. And the habit to achieve this is called a weekly review. And I've built it right into the second brain notion template. [music] So this five-step checklist walks you through the entire process. All you're doing is clearing the inboxes where important information has been collected over the previous week and then you're preparing to take action [music] on it. So when you follow this process, you'll finish each week with a sense of completion, finality, and fulfillment. And you can start the next week with a sense of clarity and purpose and not based on some wishful thinking, but on some thoughtful preparation. So, personally, I've blocked time on my calendar every Sunday evening for my weekly review. But you could easily do it also on a Friday to close off your workday or on a Monday as like the first thing in the morning. So, if you want to find out exactly how the weekly review works, we published an entire video on it [music] and you will find the link below. You now have a solid starting point to build this yourself from scratch. You have two options. [music] You could screenshot the databases, figure out the relationships, set up all the views. It's totally doable, but it would also take time. And honestly, that's a time you [music] really could be spending on actually using the system instead of building it. So, if you want the shortcut, basically everything you just saw ready to go, taking just 2 minutes to set up, then we've [music] made the official template available for you. Plus, we also include a mini course that walks you [music] through the methodology so you understand the why behind each piece. And look, whether you want to build it yourself or use a template, the most important thing is that [music] you actually start using a second brain system because when you have a trusted place to capture, to organize, [music] and to find your ideas, again, really things start shift. If you have any questions, drop them in the comments below. I read all of them and I'll answer what [music] I can. Thanks again for watching and I'm excited for you to get started. [music]

📘 Get the Second Brain Notion Template: https://bit.ly/4bEVnXG Meet Julia Saxena, our General Manager at Forte Labs. Julia has been building her Second Brain in Notion since 2020, and for the past four years, she's worked with me to refine this system with thousands of students. This 20-minute guide dives into the updated Second Brain Notion Template. She shows you how to capture any thought in under 10 seconds, plan your day in five minutes using PARA, maintain it all with one 30-minute Weekly Review and much more. ☑️ Tiago's Weekly Review: https://youtu.be/zjKUX7sHEGI 00:00 - 01:18 Homepage Tour 01:18 - 02:25 Quick Capture on Mobile 02:25 - 03:31 Quick Capture with Web Clipper 03:31 - 06:04 Morning Ritual 06:04 - 07:00 PARA Explained 07:00 - 09:20 Projects 09:20 - 10:08 Areas 10:08 - 11:38 Resources 11:38 - 12:26 Archives 12:26 - 15:58 Task Management 15:58 - 16:57 Notes Database 16:57 - 18:08 Read Later 18:08 - 19:21 Weekly Review 19:21 - 20:28 The Second Brain Notion Template ----------------------- 💌 Join our weekly newsletter for more tips and resources: https://fortelabs.com/subscribe/