How We Organize Our Life in Notion | Second Brain

Want to build your own Second Brain? Get Tiago's full system here: www.buildingasecondbrain.com/...
I had to learn to stop trying to REMEMBER what’s important and start writing those things down instead. And one of the most important places I do that is in an app called Notion.
In this video, I break down how I use Notion to focus on what matters most in my life, my business, and my creativity.
📍Get the FREE Notion Home Operating Manual: fortelabs.ck.page/17ec006d95
CHAPTERS:
00:00 The most powerful thing I've done for my business, life, and, creative work
00:32 STEP 1: How I Manage My Business in Notion
01:00 Standard Operating Procedures (SOP's)
04:07 STEP 2: How We Manage Our Life in Notion
06:08 A Look Inside Our House Systems
08:35 STEP 3: How I Use Notion for Creativity
09:02 Notion’s Kanban Boards for Blog Workflow
11:25 Tiago: "Nothing kills the creative spirit like self-judgment."
11:29 How I never forget the information most important to me
-----------
Building a Second Brain is the proven method to organize your digital life and unlock your creative potential.
We're on a mission to help you increase your productivity, and lead a more fulfilling life with more ease and less stress.
🤓 TEST YOUR PRODUCTIVITY POTENTIAL
If you had a Second Brain, how much more organized, effective, calm, and creative could you be?
Take our quiz & find out: fortelabs.com/productivity-po...
🧠 HOW YOU CAN BUILD YOUR SECOND BRAIN
Order the book: www.buildingasecondbrain.com/...
Join our course: www.buildingasecondbrain.com/...
📬 JOIN THE FORTE LABS NEWSLETTER
Level up your productivity and life with new essays, videos, event invites, and other resources every Tuesday. Join 125k subscribers exploring the frontier of modern work, experimenting with new ways of doing more with less, and discovering what it means to fulfill our human potential.
Subscribe here: fortelabs.com/subscribe
🐥 FOLLOW US ON SOCIALS
Always get the latest updates and insights around Building a Second Brain.
Twitter: / fortelabs
LinkedIn: / tiagoforte
Facebook: / fortelabs

[@TiagoForte]

📍Our Free Notion Home Operating Template Is Now Live!📍 Get it here - fortelabs.ck.page/17ec006d95

[@carolinejoy00]

Ohhh my goodness thank you so much... I love it cannot wait to fill this in 😍 my brain was in overdrive wondering how i was going to create tasks and you both popped up! Thank you💙💕💙💕... Youve made my day whooo🎉😍 thank you xx

[@jacklantic]

FYI this link is kaput :(

[@jonaspipper2701]

this link doesnt work but there is a link in the description fo the video!

[@TiagoForte]

@@jonaspipper2701 Fixed the link!

[@brandonemmanuel5032]

Is it only me or Tiago Forte is Elon Musk on a weight-loss diet?

[@corgikun2579]

they share 3 genes (Wikipedia)

[@hananeqorar2510]

Not alone

[@hebamedhat1517]

Yes🤣

[@biayo79]

dude looks like a "modelling" version of EM

[@alecjordan6100]

DEFINITELY not only you 😂

[@JoshGonsalves]

We need to see more of Lauren! Her presentation and energy is incredible. She looks and sounds super pro on camera.

[@pppinto97]

Tiago seems driven on grabbing attention by INTELLIGENCE AND VALUE CONTENT and Lauren SCREAMS

[@MeetKevon]

Yes more Lauren! And baby possibly! :)

[@lifesrealityis]

Honestly the "home managment section" is a brilliant idea! I will definitely start one for my household.

[@davidrascoe]

Production value is on another level. Kudos to the team!

[@normantran2011]

Kevin Shen doing WORK

[@34ankiss]

I had that exact thought just 20 seconds into the video!!

[@disparato]

This is just wonderful. Part 3 in particular where you've shown how one can systematically execute on ideas and simultaneously be flexible enough to select which piece to work on is a master stroke of genius, it really mitigates what is otherwise a very stress inducing dilemma for me. It's not something I've considered before, a million thank yous Tiago!

[@al3xj]

Tiago, I'm new to discovering your material, however I'd like to compliment you in your presentation style, your calm, clear, appropriatness in how you speak and share - it projects space, the ease and confidence in your own workflow (which is clear here), and how your face brightens when you discuss home or family and of course carrying your child in this video. Very inspirational as all inspirational Teachers are - they embody what they teach so even in simple gestures, it is projected and via that special type of osmosis shared - Gratitude for your sharing 🙏

[@manytinyprojects3803]

Loved seeing Lauren in the video, clear explanations and now I'm motivated to update my notion home pages

[@GaelyneGasson]

As someone who is self employed and the sole owner of my home - part two was extremely helpful. At one point I used Evernote for some of this info but you and your lovely wife have really got a fantastic resource happening.

[@sullivx]

Tiago, I just started reading your Building A Second Brain today and watched Ali Abdaal's breakdown on the 10 concepts. Ali's video is outstanding. It's all making sense. DEEP gratitude for all that you do Tiago and for having created these materials for people to have!! I'm not a very anxious person, but in the times I have experienced it, it stems from the overwhelm on how to keep up with information overload in our day and age that is not going to slow down. Since discovering your method, I am feeling PROFOUND RELIEF to discover ways to manage not only information relating to my work, but information relating to what you say in the book PKM Personal knowledge Management. Deep deep gratitude for all that you are and create in the world.

[@robertb.5429]

This is such a great video! I've only been using Notion for the past 3 months, and already, I feel more organised and crucially, less stressed about my workflow. I real game changer! More content please! 👍

[@makbuldaian]

I love the way you explain everything slowly and confidently since I don't speak and understand English so much. I personally use Notion for my personal life, college, and work. I can use Notion to store everything I need in my life without feeling overwhelmed by the database feature. In fact, the database I've built is kinda complicated to operate. Thanks for explaining this app for me. I definitely gonna watch more videos from you.

[@plastelina_ytb]

Thanks for this. The part towards the end about things stalling and how you handle that mentally hit home with me. I'm just starting my second brain journey after ages of taking and collecting millions of notes, but only intermittently completing the projects. Looking forward to trusting the process and seeing where it leads me. Cheers -

[@liammakesphotos]

New studio is looking badass. Well done on that project, worth it! Looking forward to more content soon!

[@ryanmc8583]

Originally being from a smaller town in New Jersey, it always weird hearing recognizable people live so close. I have probably watched a billion second brain videos realizing that the basically mostly stem from you. Glad I landed here and looking forward to continuing to learn.

[@SolLeeYT]

I’d heard of BASB and would catch a stray tweet of yours here and there, but this is my first time actually watching a video of yours. I love how level-headed and information-focused you are! I’d pushed off the kaban board for my creative work for a while, but I’ll go ahead and make one right now.

[@tabbywarrior]

U seriously need more subscribers. I don't say that lightly; your quality is nearing the levels of Matt D'Avella, which is insane!

[@tabbywarrior]

@@TiagoForte np, you deserve it!

[@kaitlinborncampcpantp1250]

Super validating to hear that running a house as complicated as running a business.. i feel that!

[@keepproductive]

This is super, you've really inspired us to get our gear up - super look! Francesco :)

[@oponder]

I just wanna add that Kanban is not just for tracking the progress of an item across multiple stages, but crucially for spotting and improving bottlenecks in a process. If you aren't trying to optimize a process, then Kanban is a nice way to get an overview of everything and the stage it is and that's fine if that's what you use it for. I think for creative work items like blog posts that just one person is working on that makes sense. But theres a an extra layer of information and usefulness that you can get out of it if you are trying to iterate on and improve the process of moving items from left to right.

[@shuhuimok3814]

Home management and kanban creativity process are genius!

[@DeyBwah]

Love to see power couples that work so well together. Keep up the great work team. I just picked up Ultimate Brain and Content Creator's Bundle from Frank Thomas, and learned about your work. Excited to implement the PARA Method into our organization.

[@stuartsw]

Great, clear presentation. I came to it off of the Forte labs website, and thus having read the intro material on P.A.R.A.. At this stage of my life (retired, a leadership position with a volunteer emergency preparedness team, extended family in the area, an avid sailor, a Wisdom student/facilitator) I am more a librarian with a student approach to new topics. After reading the PARA material, I instantly gravitated towards both Apple Notes for projects and Evernote, and that was before seeing this video.

[@brian_akhtar]

The most incredible thing from this video is the fact the previous owners gave you that massive stack of files. So lucky I would've loved to have that when I got my house. I think I'll do that for whomever owns this house next

[@tdsram22]

Do not underestimate the women who need help organizing home life. Your house organization was superb info. Thank you!

[@salmaquiroga8091]

Lauren is so creative, smart and cute! I loved her segment

[@Tovkal]

Found Part 2 about organizing the household very interesting. Great work 👏

[@FrancoPhysique]

Thank you! Excited for the next cohort starting April 12!

[@AlexandruGolovatenco]

Very cool to see more on KZbin from you Tiago, great video!

[@jeremyrounds]

Oh my gosh; I subscribed JUST be cause your voice is sooooooo soothing and nice to listen too!

[@rq2872]

Tiago thank you Part3 is brilliant! I haven't watched parts1 & 2 though. I use Notion for my meal planning

[@RamyWahid]

I loved this video, I gained a lot of valuable information from this video !! Thank you

[@robhubar]

Thank you for this video. It’s given me a lot of ideas and help towards my creativity.

[@bobhancock3984]

Thank you for putting in the time and effort in making this video. Best Regards,

[@sarahvazquez3694]

Love this topic of using Notion in a household!

[@venamind]

Love the home maintenance databases, will definitely be using that

[@icugab]

WOW...love the home manual information

[@kabdu.]

A very useful video for everyone diagnosed with ADHD

[@OneManArmy48]

Excited for the book! Preordered on day 1

[@a.little.lifeish6295]

First I clicked this video thinking Elon Musk too uses Notion and later I got to know that it's Tiago!! 🕺

[@katr2773]

This was super interesting. I like the team perspective and the family one too!! Thank you for sharing! Do you have a notion for your family and one for your team? How do you split the two?

[@pabawicky]

Until now I've been doing mostly to do lists. Writing new ones often, especially when different projects I do (academic, work, random ones) are at different stages. This is such an efficient system and I am so excited to try this out! Thank you so much for this!

[@t-roy1605]

How in the WORLD do you only have 30.5k subs? Your content is worth so much more than what the KZbin algorithm thinks, in my opinion.

[@TiagoForte]

Thank you! We only really cranked up the effort 2 months ago, we'll get there 😉

[@senseibas8199]

Thank you verry much! Cant wait for your book

[@v1adko_]

Your investment into the team, studio, and equipment was definitely worth it - the video and audio quality are amazing. You definitely have the potential to reach huge audiences. Have you thought about doing shorter video bites for TikTok?

[@jonathandeleon3991]

This was so helpful! I manage our rental property for the homeowner, and it can be overwhelming to keep track of everything. Would love a copy of this template if possible! 😉 Thanks for making great content, Tiago

[@hugoschmitt1772]

Found the second segment super interesting - even though is hard to keep that up-to-date. How would you make sure to run the procedures that happen every 1-5 years? Notion reminders, calendar events (duplication of course) or something like a "yearly review" catches those?

[@robbien.3964]

That's what I was wondering. I have tasks in my task manager that go forward as far as 2035.

[@Swyftboi]

So so good. I love this content on Notion--I've tried it a number of times and have always felt overwhelmed by it's capabilities while not seeing its practical advantages over Evernote. I appreciate these outlines of the app's daily use as a second brain, as well as the video quality, which really helps me to stay focused on the content, integrating it more readily. Thanks to Tiago, Lauren, and the production crew you for all of your hard work!

[@Swyftboi]

🙏 A friend of mine loves to say "Simplify :: Amplify"

[@miguelangelhernandez6938]

@@TiagoForte dejaste de usar evernote ?

[@ot4627]

Starting my own notion page!

[@dinbali]

Thanks alot for this video Tiago. So good

[@RafaelSilva1980]

Excelente vídeo Tiago!

[@Dany-em6xi]

I just started the journey to improve my productivity and I'm so happy that I found your video, you have a new Subscriber. Is my first time with Notion and I was wondering where can I get the "Home Operation Manual" template; also are you considering to translate your book in Spanish or Italian? Thank you!

[@kitchenko]

excellent level of production and presentation of information, I really enjoyed getting to know the topic 👍

[@TiagoForte]

Thank you!

[@Rekke_yt]

This is incredible.

[@dorchy12]

Appreciate that. Thank you

[@lovefrom1987]

Helpful video of how you use Notion as second brain. It's a powerful app for sure.

[@kaymann8007]

I hope everyone sees that the reason Tiago can be so creative is because Lauren is so organized. Looks like Lauren is the second brain here.

[@toolsforthought625]

Soo good! Keep up 👏🏻👏🏻

[@dsuthapong]

LOVE this new studio and production!!! Music is a tad too loud but other than that I really enjoy the video :D

[@dsuthapong]

​@@TiagoForte Hi Tiago! I felt like it's a bit too loud at the beginning of the video (up until .30 mark) and it was a bit hard to hear you. Please take this with a grain of salt though. It could just be me ☺ I really love this new production vibe that's very friendly and warm. Your big fan from Thailand 🇹🇭 ✌🏻

[@sualehfarhan]

Thank you for such a helpful video. Can you please advise which monitor are you using in this video?

[@Morrosoy28]

We use the SOP model in all levels of the military

[@aadiinmotion]

What an impressive video

[@AndrewBurchfield]

Loving these videos! Do you write long form in Notion now too?

[@GregDBrown]

Thanks, Tiago and Lauren! Was wondering for years how I might get my wife involved in the home management. These questions come up all the time. I am a Notion user, any chance you might share the Notion database? Keep sharing more practical applications of the 2nd brain. Great stuff!!!

[@laurenvaldez4]

Actually we are thinking of leading a workshop for helping people build the home management system in Notion.

[@mkl5672]

@@laurenvaldez4has this been created yet? I’ve been looking for something similar

[@calenlaughlin3132]

Every time I've moved the previous tenant provided me with a binder containing colour pallets, recommended furniture locations and pet suggestions. It was so hard to remember. Thank you.

[@happypeter1983]

This is interesting, been trying do document all my DIY projects and interior setups in JavaScript for quite some time myself.

[@FeliksTrzymalko]

Thanks for a great video, the keyboard you use is a regular apple keyboard or something different? Can you please share?

[@toxicavenger270]

Great!

[@JordanCarroll]

Tiago! Thanks for this overview. I'm a 2nd brain alum and it was the most life changing courses I've ever taken. I've been thinking about how I can use Notion for SOPs so this video is very timely. When I took BASB, you were very bullish about Evernote. I'm wondering how you distinguish between what goes into Evernote and what goes into Notion based on the actions required for what you're saving? And one of the biggest pieces I think I am still struggling with is a task manager. i.e. Task management in Evernote is still very new and doesn't have great team capability. What are you using for actual task assignments for your team members (Asana, Clickup, Monday...) and how does it connect with Notion/Evernote if it's something different?

[@shuhuimok3814]

Could you make a video on how you use Notion for blog posts writing? I love the kanban process that you shared in this video. But would love to see a deeper dive into that. Do you include all your research findings in the notion cards during the research phase? Thanks!

[@mossgatherer_]

Tiago we need more Lauren please! She's fantastic.

[@armondgilmore6589]

Just came across this video and love the home operating dashboard! Do you have this as a template for download?

[@dineshvkumarangapandu07]

Thanks 👍

[@MrKwdyer]

Great video! I would love to see how you apply your framework to Team Project Management. Now that you have a team a people, I'd be interested in learning more how you manage your team's work.

[@PrashantKumardaniel]

Very well!

[@wesleytullisjr]

Is there a working link for the productivity quiz? I got a "Page not found" error on mobile and desktop. Also, the link for the 5 week course goes to a landing page to pre-order the book (which I've already done). Love these systems! Super helpful.

[@trongkhoadt4]

this video is great. it is very useful for my life. As I was born 2nd

[@soerenkoehnsen]

Hello @TiagoForte, great video! Thank you for the ideas and suggestions! I'm also working with your PARA method and sometimes reach limits where I'm not sure how to continue. For example, I have the Area Haus for my own house. And I have an area for insurance. Now if I have insurance that affects my home, how do I best classify or allocate it? To both? I'm generally not sure about the structure either. If I have the Cats area, there is also the Cat Breeders area. Is this then a resource that is part of the Area Katzen? I love structure and order, but I'm sometimes insecure and lost here. Do you have that too? Can you perhaps make a video about your organization and structure in which you go through it in detail with examples? At best in Notion.

[@robertosalvatore1211]

Do you have a video anywhere about your desk setup? What monitor are you using to hook your MacBook Pro up to? Thank you.

[@silverblackmember]

Looks great Question I want to set up for myself and my wife to use and have access do I need the Notion Plus level or will the free work?

[@munkyguitar]

Airlines (Not specifically Airline Crew) but operations will use exactly this format to manage tasks. All good companies will set up SOPs to manage tasks

[@PaulDickson7]

Thanks Elon....I mean Tiago, great video ;)

[@JurajMartinka]

@TiagoForte I know you also use Evernote a lot. Do you have a video explaining the differences in use and how you combine them together? It seems there might be a quite a bit of overlap in content? Do you perhaps sync the content between these two apps?

[@florianjacob1505]

How do you tie in the blog post kanban into a general PARA setup for the business side in notion? I assume there is a master PARA database with the four categories. Is ‘Blog’ an area with a separate related table inside to the master data table where only projects are shown, with a separate tag on top to track the progress?

[@guimaraesalysson]

great video

[@aryanpandey8563]

Elon Musk is good productivity guru!, You should try obsidian for note taking. & Notion Only for project management.

[@caseyburgess8138]

For the house manager e.g. cleaning x every 2 years - does it remind you to do this or would you only know by going into it?

[@vrijpatel6561]

Awesome Video! Do you still use Things in your workflow or has notion completely taken part of your workflow over?

[@ainbrisk545]

very cool

[@musikamusiko682]

New subscriber here. I was brought here by ali abdaal channel lol. Lots of things to learn in this channel

[@iamjayakumar]

@tiago SOP and Part-2(HOM) go under Area or Resources in the PARA method?

[@jacobr402]

Can you make/share a template for your home’s manual? Seems very useful

[@peaklifebrandon]

Great video. I am slowly becoming convinced to really start using Notion. I would love your thoughts on the longevity of having such an extensive database that relies on Notion staying usable and above water for the next 5-10 years? As an Engineer, I have been burnt more than once on using a super helpful tool that ends up effectively nerfing itself or being bought out.

[@stevewalther7259]

👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼This is a huge question, and why I’m apt to deal with the obvious limitations of using something like Apple Notes assuming they’ll be around in a few years. I’ve used too many cool tools that wound up getting acquired and sidelined, or developed away from my intended use.

[@williamrgrant]

This. I'm placing my bets on Obsidian. Even if they die, everything is just markdown (text) files on your local machine. The huge variety of plugins, and the ability to make your own to create your exact workflow is incredibly powerful.

[@williamrgrant]

@@rytif true. But if the feature provided is useful enough, somebody will step in and fix it. That is the beauty of open source. Especially now that Obsidian's API has reached a stage of maturity. My comment has already proven itself true. At work, I can't install Obsidian. But VSCode is approved. And with the Foam plugin, Obsidian functionality is largely recreated. Since the notes are just markdown files, the program used doesn't even matter. Notion is disallowed here as well. So if I had put my eggs in that basket, I would have to learn a whole new system. My use case is just mine though. To each their own. I have to say I love the portability of just files though.

[@inspiringmorning587]

I had tried all the productivity tools and system, but nothing stuck with me!I had tried to do list,calendar, note taking, goal setting,habits ,GTD,pomodoro,Evernote,Notion,Asana,Keep,Mindmapping,OneNote,Excel, Word and on and on.I read so many books from Atomic Habits, GTD,Goals by Brian Tracy, you name it.Can you give an advice on this issue? Thanks

[@kumag1989]

I love notion but it doesn't have a full offline mode. Do you think this hurts the usability of the app?

[@yaaqoubeliyyahu5783]

Have you looked into Obsidian & Logseq? If yes or no, why? Thank you

[@tljstewart]

How did you make your Kansan board? I did need it!

[@stevewalther7259]

It’s 2/19/2022 and right now the book isn’t available, and the course is also not available. The link to the course returns a 404 error. Can we get access to the course recordings somehow?

[@RameshKumar-ng3nf]

Hello Tiago, Please help me in understanding "meeting" notes, which folder it is supposed to be ? . Is it in AREAS or PROJECTS ? I am working on a particular PROJECT eg: Building a software , which is in my PROJECT folder. And i have regular weekly team meetings on it , so i keep my "meeting notes" inside the PROJECT folder. But "meetings" is a on-going thing as well which is supposed to be in AREAS folder. I am very confused on this. Do i need to duplicate meeting notes in both PROJECT and AREAS ? Please share your thoughts . Thanks !

[@omarjabar173]

Nobody: Elon Musk on side quests Great content💥 👍