Building a Second Brain is Tiago Forte's system for capturing, organizing, distilling, and expressing the information you consume — turning scattered notes and saved articles into a reliable creative and professional resource. This guide walks through the CODE method step by step.
The Cornell note-taking system is a structured page layout dividing notes into three sections — a wide right column for notes, a narrow left column for questions and cues, and a bottom summary box — designed to make review and active recall built into the note-taking process itself.
The Feynman Technique is a 4-step learning method for achieving genuine understanding: study a concept, explain it in simple language as if teaching a child, identify gaps when the explanation fails, and return to source material to fill those gaps. It surfaces the difference between familiarity and real understanding.
GTD (Getting Things Done) for knowledge workers is David Allen's five-step system for capturing every commitment out of your head, clarifying what each item requires, organizing it by context, and reviewing systematically — so nothing gets dropped and your attention can focus on what matters now.
The Johnny Decimal system is a number-based file organization method that assigns a unique two-part decimal number to every folder — limiting you to 10 areas of life and 10 projects per area — so any file can be located in seconds without using search.
Maps of Content (MOCs) are special notes that serve as navigational hubs for related notes in a personal knowledge system — linking to a cluster of notes on a topic without imposing a rigid folder hierarchy, so your note network stays flexible while remaining navigable.
The PARA method is Tiago Forte's four-category organizational system for all your digital information — Projects, Areas, Resources, Archive. It organizes everything by actionability rather than topic, so information is always findable in the context where you need it.
Progressive summarization is Tiago Forte's layered note-highlighting technique for distilling captured content to its most essential insights — bolding the best passages, then highlighting the best of those, then writing a brief summary — so notes become more useful every time you return to them.
SQ3R is a five-step active reading method — Survey, Question, Read, Recite, Review — developed by Francis P. Robinson in 1941 to improve comprehension and retention by turning passive reading into an active engagement with the text.
The Zettelkasten method is a note-taking and knowledge management system that builds a network of atomic, interconnected notes — designed not just to store information but to generate new ideas through the connections between notes. Developed by sociologist Niklas Luhmann, it's the favorite system of serious researchers and writers.