Awesome (BASB) Building a Second Brain

A curated list of resources for Building a Second Brain.

Inspired by the awesome list thing.

Browse the rendered list at awesome.lvtd.dev.

See CONTRIBUTING.md for contribution guidelines.

Contents

• Articles
• Books
• Official Hubs
• Courses
• Videos
• Guides
• Curated Lists
• Templates and Examples
• Tools and Apps

Articles

• Building a Second Brain: The Definitive Introductory Guide - Canonical overview of the BASB method, including capture, organization, distillation, and expression.
• How to take smart notes: 10 principles - Practical principles for turning reading and research into reusable notes.
• Progressive Summarization: Part 1 - Introduces progressive summarization as a way to make saved notes easier to rediscover.
• Progressive Summarization: Part 2 - Uses examples and metaphors to clarify how progressive summarization works in practice.
• Progressive Summarization: Part 3 - Adds guidelines for applying progressive summarization without over-processing notes.
• The PARA Method: A Universal System for Organizing Digital Information - Explains the Projects, Areas, Resources, and Archives structure for organizing digital material.
• One-Touch to Inbox Zero: How I Spend 17 Minutes Per Day on Email - Shows how BASB-style workflows can reduce email capture and processing friction.
• The 4 Levels of Personal Knowledge Management - Frames PKM maturity from simple storage toward creative output.
• The 9 Biggest Myths and Misconceptions about Building a Second Brain - Clarifies common misunderstandings about BASB, tools, and note-taking discipline.
• Introducing The AI Second Brain - Explores how AI can extend second-brain workflows for retrieval, synthesis, and creation.
• Building a Second Brain: The Illustrated Notes - Visual notes that summarize core BASB ideas in an accessible, skimmable format.
• What Is a Second Brain? A Pragmatic Guide to Modern Personal Knowledge Management - Grounded introduction to second-brain systems from a practical PKM perspective.
• Building Your AI Second Brain: A Practical Guide for the Overwhelmed Knowledge Worker - Walkthrough for using AI to capture, organize, and reuse knowledge work.
• A Second Brain with Capacities - Capacities-specific explanation of building an object-based second brain.
• My custom second brain setup, part 1: Why go custom? - Rationale for building a custom second-brain system instead of relying on one app.
• My custom second brain setup, part 2: How it works - Follow-up that explains the mechanics of a custom second-brain implementation.
• How to Build a Second Brain in Obsidian: Complete Setup Guide + Free Templates - Obsidian-focused setup guide with templates for implementing a second brain.
• My workflow for my public second brain - Example workflow for maintaining a public second brain and digital garden.
• Second Brain Case Study: Progressive Summarization in the Intelligence Community - Case study showing progressive summarization in a high-information professional environment.
• Second Brain Case Study: Teaching Progressive Summarization in an Undergraduate Classroom - Classroom case study for teaching note distillation and knowledge reuse.
• When You Should Switch Your Second Brain App (And When You Shouldn’t) - Guidance for deciding whether tool-switching will improve or distract from the system.
• Peeking Into People’s Second Brains: 6 Videos to Inspire Your Second Brain Setup - Curated examples of real second-brain setups for inspiration.
• Test-Driving a New Generation of Second Brain Apps: Obsidian, Tana, and Mem - Compares modern note apps through a second-brain workflow lens.
• How to Increase Knowledge Productivity: Combine the Zettelkasten Method and Building a Second Brain - Compares BASB and Zettelkasten ideas for more productive knowledge work.
• Evergreen notes - Andy Matuschak’s working note on writing atomic, concept-oriented, densely linked notes that accumulate across projects.
• How People Manage Knowledge in their “Second Brains”- A Case Study with Industry Researchers Using Obsidian - HCI research paper studying how industry researchers build, retrieve from, and maintain Obsidian-based personal knowledge bases.

Books

• Building a Second Brain (Book) - Book-length introduction to the full BASB framework and CODE workflow.
• The PARA Method - Focused book on organizing digital information with Projects, Areas, Resources, and Archives.

Official Hubs

• Building a Second Brain Resource Guide - Official resource library for BASB articles, tools, and supporting material.
• Building a Second Brain Podcast - Official podcast feed covering BASB, productivity, and knowledge work topics.
• Second Brain Membership - Community and membership hub for people practicing the BASB methodology.
• Tiago Forte YouTube Channel - Video channel with BASB, PARA, productivity, and knowledge-work tutorials.

Courses

• Effortless Output in Roam - Course focused on turning Roam notes into consistent written output.
• Building a Second Brain - Official BASB course site and program overview.

Videos

English

• Building a Second Brain: Start Here - Starter playlist for learning the BASB framework through video.
• Organize Your Digital Life With The PARA Method - Playlist focused on applying PARA to digital organization.
• How to Use and Master Your Second Brain in 2019, by Tiago Forte at ProdCon - Conference talk on using a second brain for creative and professional output.
• How to Build a Second Brain, with Tiago Forte - Video introduction to BASB concepts and implementation choices.
• How to Progressively Summarize a Digital Note - Short demonstration of progressive summarization on a digital note.
• Stop Highlighting Blindly: The Progressive Summarization Secret - Video explanation of turning highlights into more useful note layers.

• [Tiago Forte

  Building a Second Brain

  Talks at Google](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y86GOtc1KNo) - Talks at Google presentation introducing BASB to a broad professional audience.

• How I Capture and Process Using Readwise and Obsidian - FromSergio walkthrough for turning reading highlights into processed Obsidian notes.
• Readwise + Logseq Tutorial: Importing Book Notes into my Second Brain - Demonstrates a Readwise-to-Logseq book-note workflow for moving highlights into a second brain.

Russian

• Building a Second Brain at Knowledge Conf 2019 - Russian-language conference talk covering BASB ideas for knowledge workers.

Guides

• PARA Method in Workflowy - Workflowy help guide for structuring projects, areas, resources, and archives.
• How to Build a Second Brain in Notion - Notion implementation guide for applying BASB inside a workspace.
• How to Build a Second Brain With Evernote - Evernote guide for adapting BASB capture and organization workflows.
• A Guide to Building a Second Brain in Mem - Mem-specific walkthrough for creating a second-brain workflow.
• PARA Method in Anytype - Anytype documentation for building PARA-style note organization.
• Use this Notion second brain template to get organized - Zapier guide for using a Notion template to organize second-brain material.
• How to Build a Second Brain in Notion - The Eudaimon - Independent Notion walkthrough for setting up a second-brain system.
• Public Second Brain with Quartz - Guide to publishing a public second brain with Quartz.
• The Beginners Guide to Building a Second Brain - Beginner-friendly guide to starting a practical second-brain system.
• How to build your Second Brain using LogSeq - Logseq-focused walkthrough for implementing second-brain workflows.
• LifeOS - Building my second brain with Obsidian - Obsidian forum example combining PARA, periodic notes, and calendar workflows.
• My Complete Obsidian Workflow to Manage My Life - Detailed Obsidian workflow for personal organization and knowledge management.
• Using PARA to Organize Your Notion Workspace - Practical guide to applying PARA inside a Notion workspace.
• Turn Tana Into the Best Bookmark Manager for Your Second Brain - Tana workflow for capturing and organizing bookmarks as second-brain inputs.
• Backing up Your Obsidian Vault on Github (for free!) - Step-by-step backup workflow for protecting an Obsidian-based second brain.
• Building a second brain for writing - with Obsidian - Writing-focused Obsidian workflow for collecting and developing ideas.
• How I use the Logseq Readwise plugin in my Zettelkasten - Example of routing Readwise highlights into a Logseq/Zettelkasten workflow.
• Building A Second Brain With Google Keep - Lightweight Google Keep workflow for second-brain capture and retrieval.
• Building a Second Brain with Google Keep, Drive, and NotebookLM - Google ecosystem workflow that connects capture, storage, and AI-assisted review.
• The PARA Method: The note-taking and organisation system I’ve used for years - Practitioner account of using PARA as a long-term organization system.
• How I mixed Johnny Decimal and Second Brain to organize my documents - Example of combining Johnny.Decimal with second-brain document organization.
• Second Brain-ing My Apple Notes - Apple Notes workflow for adapting second-brain ideas to a default notes app.
• How to organize your notes and folders using Johnny.Decimal and PARA - NotePlan guide to combining Johnny.Decimal numbering with PARA folders.
• S.P.A.R.T.A. system for organizing my life and work - Community thread describing an alternative life/work organization system adjacent to BASB.
• Personal Knowledge Management Workflow for a Deeper Life - Detailed Obsidian workflow connecting Second Brain, PARA, Zettelkasten, GTD, and review practices.
• Ernest PKM Personal Knowledge System Workflow - Long-form practitioner workflow covering input sources, inboxes, distillation, execution, expression, and tool choices for a personal knowledge system.
• Build a Second Brain in Emacs with Org Roam - System Crafters guide for setting up Org-roam nodes, links, backlinks, and plain-text note storage in Emacs.
• How I use org-roam as a second brain - Practitioner workflow showing daily notes, weekly compaction, permanent notes, tagging, and review routines in Org-roam.

Curated Lists

• Awesome PARA Method - GitHub list collecting PARA articles, tools, and implementation resources.
• Digital Gardening Tools and Resources - Broad index of digital-garden tools, examples, and publishing resources.
• Public Zettelkastens / Second Brains / Digital Gardens - Collection of public second brains, Zettelkastens, and digital gardens for reference.

Templates and Examples

• PARA Examples - Official examples showing how PARA can be structured across tools and contexts.
• The Official Second Brain Note Template - Template for capturing notes in a BASB-friendly format.
• The Official Second Brain Notion Template - Official Notion template for implementing the BASB system.
• PARA Method Template for Notion - Notion template for organizing projects, areas, resources, and archives.
• Template for using Obsidian for P.A.R.A. - GitHub template for setting up PARA inside an Obsidian vault.
• Building a second brain - Workflowy template - Workflowy template for organizing BASB notes and projects.
• Obsidian AI Second Brain - Open-source Obsidian example that combines second-brain structure with AI workflows.
• PARA Starter Kit - Obsidian forum starter kit for implementing PARA in a vault.
• Second Brain: Crafted, Curated, Connected, Compounded - Public second brain example with visible structure and linked notes.
• obsidian-second-brain - GitHub template for an Obsidian-based second-brain vault.
• PARA Template for your Second Brain in Tana - Tana template for organizing a second brain around PARA.
• second-brain-obsidian-template - Obsidian template repository for a second-brain setup.
• Logseq Second Brain Template - Logseq template repository for setting up a second-brain workspace.
• PARA Workspace - Open-source workspace template for applying PARA to files and folders.
• Paratag - Minimal Obsidian vault template that combines PARA folders with a lightweight tagging workflow and Quick Add note templates.
• Minimal Second Brain - Minimal Obsidian vault template with Inbox, Projects, Knowledge folders, AI-readable manifests, and optional maintenance automation.

Tools and Apps

Free

• Obsidian - Local-first Markdown notes app commonly used for second-brain and PKM workflows.
• Joplin - Open-source note app with sync, clipping, and Markdown support.
• Foam - VS Code-based personal knowledge management system built on Markdown and links.
• claude-obsidian - Tooling for connecting Claude-assisted workflows with an Obsidian vault.
• Logseq Plugin: Quickly PARA Method - Logseq plugin for quickly creating PARA-style pages and structure.
• para-shortcuts - Shortcut collection for creating and navigating PARA folders.
• agent-second-brain - Experimental open-source project for agent-assisted second-brain workflows.
• second-brain-cloudflare - Cloudflare-based project for hosting and querying second-brain content.
• Readwise Official Obsidian Plugin - Official plugin for syncing Readwise highlights into Obsidian; requires a paid Readwise subscription.
• Obsidian Progressive Summarization - Obsidian plugin that supports progressive summarization workflows.
• Simple Note Review - Obsidian plugin for resurfacing and reviewing notes at your own pace using flexible note sets.
• org-roam-second-brain - Emacs/org-roam package that adds structured note types, semantic search, and proactive surfacing for local second-brain workflows.
• File Organizer Skills for Claude Code and Cowork - AI-assisted PARA file-organization skills with inbox reviews, proposed renames, audit trails, and reusable folder templates.
• Project Cornelius - Claude Code and Obsidian knowledge-management system with local semantic search, agent-assisted workflows, and connection discovery for second-brain vaults.
• SilverBullet - Open-source, self-hosted Markdown knowledge base with wiki links, queries, tasks, and Lua automation.
• Lurnby - Open-source active-reading app for highlighting, categorizing, reviewing, and remembering web articles and EPUBs.
• matryca-plumber - Local-first Logseq daemon for semantic indexing, link hygiene, tag suggestions, and safe AI-assisted note maintenance.

Paid

• RoamResearch - Paid outliner and networked note-taking tool often used for connected PKM systems.
• Screenpipe (GitHub) - Open-source, capture-oriented screen and audio recorder with paid plans for feeding raw observations into a second-brain workflow.