Are you only using your second brain tool for basic note-taking? There are so many creative ways to use a second brain for productivity, personal growth, and digital organization.
In this post, I’ll share five unconventional second brain uses that go far beyond simple notes—plus tips on how to implement them, in your favorite personal knowledge management (PKM) tool.
These techniques are especially interesting if you’ve just begun using a second brain and feel a little lost.
Key Takeaways
Beyond Just 10K Steps: My Story
Let me tell you a personal story of how I used a second brain for personal growth. First of all, I highly recommend reading this article if you don’t know what a second brain is.
Back in June, I decided to join the popular challenge of walking 10k steps a day for a month. I had tried to do it before but every time, after the first two weeks, I got lazy and abandoned it.
This time, however, I decided to make a task in Brainfo, the personal knowledge management tool that I use, to help me stay motivated and get over the finish line.
Most will think that this is something to be done with a smart watch. And that is correct. But your smart watch cannot be your journal as well. This is where Brainfo comes in.
With Brainfo I:
This process was what kept me motivated and interested in this challenge and got me over the finish line.
Now, let’s learn some more unconventional ways you can use your personal knowledge management system.
Build a Dynamic Habit Tracker
Forget about the myth of 21 days to develop a habit. According to a study published on PubMed Central, the actual time is 66 days.
Your second brain tool can help you develop good habits and break bad ones with a dynamic, personalized approach.
Idea:
Your second brain tool can help you develop good habits and get rid of bad ones.
Why it’s different:
It’s not just a checklist, it’s a comprehensive system in which you can add different things to create a multimodal space that can serve several functions.
How to do it:
Benefits:
This method gives you creative freedom and deeper insight into your progress, making habit-building more effective and enjoyable.
Create a Decision Making Journal
It’s not something nerds do, it’s what great people like Benjamin Franklin did as well. Journaling your decisions and thinking process is an old and time-tested method for making better decisions.
Idea:
Use your second brain to make better, more-informed decisions.
Why it’s different:
It lets you see things from an outside perspective, with pros, cons, and other relevant data. You wouldn’t have to juggle several things in your brain anymore.
How to do it:
Create a template that has “Pros”, “Cons”, “Options”, “Consequences”, “Final Decision”, and “Review After X Months”.
Fill this template in whenever you want to make a decision and then decide.
Benefits:
Helps you make better decisions and creates a log of your decision-making process to be reviewed later and identify mistakes or biases or even strengths, improving the process.
Manage Your Personal and Professional Relationships
Making friends at work is not just about fun, it will also make you more productive. And if you want to make deep and meaningful relationships you need to know when is your coworkers wedding anniversary, or when their child will have their birthday, etc.
Idea:
Manage your personal and professional relations with your second brain tool.
Why it’s different:
You are not just storing contacts, you are building a network of people and adding details about them that helps your interactions with them.
How to do it:
Benefits:
You will become a more thoughtful friend, family member, or coworker, someone that knows the people around them and remembers details about them.
Create a Hub for Project-based Learning
Project-based Learning (PBL) is shown to be more effective at long-term knowledge retention and applying knowledge in new contexts. That’s why you need a solid method to document and track your learning.
Idea:
Use your favorite second brain tool to boost your learning and collect everything in one, searchable, and structured place.
Why it’s different:
Second brain tools are amazing for learning and personal growth and are distinct from note-taking apps in that they give you a lot more structure and options to organize your data, instead of just collecting a load of information.
How to do it:
Create a project and fill it with resources, training material, a schedule and set of tasks, and a report or note section.
Benefits:
Having a plan and structure boosts your learning. Learning alone and at home is notoriously difficult. Because we like to be in a learning environment and work with other human beings.
This method keeps you disciplined and efficient on your learning journey and at the end you will have a special synopsis or even a course that you’ve made during the journey and can refer back to anytime you wanted for a quick refresh.
Make learning an active process instead of passive consumption of data.
Build Your Personal Idea Factory
According to Steven Johnson, popular author and theorist, most people don’t get new ideas from Eureka moments, rather, it’s what he calls the “slow hunch”. It’s all the little things that you learn slowly and over time that lead to significant discoveries or breakthroughs.
Idea:
A digital brain is not just for storing ideas, it can connect them together and help you generate new ideas as well.
Why it’s different:
Your second brain can be the creative boost you need to conjure up new ideas. When it’s written down and/or visualized in front of you, with connections being made and everything being searchable, you can infer and develop new ideas without having to do all the hard work in your brain.
How to do it:
Review your notes regularly and draw connections between them and use second brain tools to create graphs and see everything at a glance.
Benefits:
This practice helps you generate new insights and see things that you most likely would have missed.
Conclusion
Apart from all the note taking and task management, you can use your second brain in unconventional ways such as:
While you can use your second brain software to implement methods such as Zettelkasten for note taking, and PARA or CODE for project management, you can also use it in other ways for productivity.
I strongly recommend picking one of these five uses and trying it for a while to see how it’ll change the way you do things.
If you are new to second brains and would like to try the next generation of digital thinking tools make sure to sign up for our waiting list to be among the first users that test our pioneering tool, Brainfo.
FAQs
1. What are some unconventional ways to use a second brain beyond note-taking?
There are many unconventional second brain uses that go far beyond simple note-taking. You can use your second brain for habit tracking, decision-making journals, managing personal and professional relationships, project-based learning, and as an idea factory for creative thinking. These creative ways to use a second brain help you boost productivity, improve personal growth, and organize your digital life more effectively.
2. How can a second brain help with personal growth and productivity?
A second brain for personal growth and productivity acts as a digital extension of your mind. By organizing your thoughts, tracking your habits, and documenting your learning, you can identify patterns, set and achieve goals, and make better decisions. Personal knowledge management (PKM) tools like Brainfo allow you to structure your information, making it easier to reflect, plan, and grow both personally and professionally.
3. Which second brain app or tool is best for habit tracking and decision-making?
When it comes to habit tracking and maintaining a decision-making journal, it’s important to choose a second brain app that offers customizable templates and easy organization. Tools like Brainfo are designed specifically for personal knowledge management (PKM) and can also be used for tracking habits, journaling decisions, and managing projects. These features make it easier to stay consistent and organized in your daily routines.
