The modern knowledge worker is bombarded with sources of information. It’s never been more important to build a workflow around how you consume content.
I use the concept of Building a second brain as my framework. It helps you manage the sources of your information, bringing them into one central place. There, you can review, process and draw upon the information to apply in the real world. It helps you remember and make value from what you consume.
This is what it looks like for me
- I read all my books on a kindle, and highlight the key points.
- I manage a list of article sources using Feedly. I mark a subset for reading later, using Instapaper. While I read, I highlight the key points.
- With sources like podcasts, I take my own notes.
- I pull all these together, into a central note taking system. For me thats Evernote.
- I use the progressive Summarization process across my imported highlights, and mark up with my own thoughts.
This is a great workflow, but there is a gap. It’s difficult to pull your highlights from multiple sources, and put them into a single note taking system.
There is a service called Readwise that does this, but it costs $8 a month, of which most the features I don’t need. So instead, I built my own. It’s called SecondBrainSync.
It started life as a command line programme written in python, that I just used myself. With all the spare time I had over Covid19 Lockdown, i built it into a service so that others can use it.
It’s still very new, and i’m still working out all the kinks. If you find any, or would like me to add any new features, please do let me know.