 Hello, hello writers. I'm Christine Kiefer, author of fantasy fiction and creative writing resources And you are listening to the well-sturried podcast where I share insights, encouragement and actionable advice designed to help you craft Sensational novels and build your best writing life, always in 30 minutes or less, so you can get back to writing of course Ready for the show? Let's get talking Alright writers, today is Thursday, August 26th, 2021 Once again, my name is Christine Kiefer and I am your host for the well-sturried podcast And if you are anything like me, if you are anything like most creatives, then today's episode is for you because there's a good chance that you have a pretty messy, chaotic mind Full of all sorts of ideas and information related to your creative work And today we are talking about how writers can organize their creative work using a second brain If you have no idea what the concept of a second brain is all about No worries. We are covering it all in today's episode As always today's episode translates the latest article from the well-sturried blog into audio So if you would like to read along as you listen in, you can visit well-sturried.com slash life to find the corresponding article Now without any further ado, let's dive in Creatives are prone to messy minds We are knowledge workers relying upon information and ideas to create fantastic work So it's no wonder that our heads are often in the clouds mulling over new story ideas and research notes Brainstorming plot events and planning out the next steps we'll take to produce pitch and market our projects As knowledge workers, we also spend a lot of time consuming content produced by other creatives in our field We turn to books blogs and podcasts like this one to teach us about the writing craft and publishing industry book marketing and beyond To salvage some peace of mind in all of this Most of us have tried to store this information in multiple ways We have scrivener files and word documents browser bookmarks notebooks and note-taking apps voice memos emails and probably a few scrawled words on napkins too All of this note-taking means that our brains no longer have to remember every idea and piece of information we've wanted to preserve Instead it has to remember where we've preserved them So how can we find a way to wrangle all this chaos? That's where intention comes into play writer By taking the time to create a unified system for knowledge management We can organize our creative work and get serious about writing with clarity and focus To get started allow me to break down my preferred knowledge management system and why I love it Harnessing the power of a second brain Second brain is a term coined by tiago forte one of the world's foremost productivity experts To describe a system of personal knowledge management That helps one collect store and organize ideas and information Curating a second brain can help free up the mental energy you need to create with focus and efficiency Because it allows you to stop scrambling to keep hold of all the data slowly sifting through your brain More importantly, you can reference the information you store in your second brain to develop and complete creative work with ease Who can benefit from creating a second brain? Anyone In fact, most people already do Anytime you write a to-do list Save a recipe on Pinterest or track a workout in an exercise app You're storing information outside of your physical brain In a second brain if you will for future reference However, if you're anything like most people then you don't have an efficient second brain system in place Instead you store information in various disconnected ways Some of your notes might be digital while others are physical Whatever the case few are easy to find or reference That's why creating an intentional system for knowledge management can be such a game changer As a writer you can use a second brain to capture and organize all sorts of information Including research notes and references new story ideas world-building notes writing exercises Notes from the books blogs and podcasts you consume Pre-writing work such as outlines and character sketches revision notes publishing and marketing plans passages from the stories that you love and maybe want to study Books you'd like to read and even all those small sources of inspiration such as historical fun fact that you find really interesting Or notes about a hobby that you'd like to work into a future book You can also use a second brain to track various aspects of your writing life Such as your writing habit Your book listings and important information about queries or magazine submissions With all of this said how can you create a unified second brain? Since most of us use computers to complete creative work It makes sense to create a digital second brain Especially one that can sync across platforms and devices for easy access and collection No matter where you are or what you're doing That's why I love Notion The note-taking and knowledge management app that I first mentioned in my article and episode on habit tracking earlier this year In fact, I love Notion so much That I even created a free writing habit tracker template in the app that you can download by visiting well-storied.com Slash tracker that habit tracker is also available as a pdf download if you aren't interested in using Notion at this time That said one of the great things about Notion is that it's free for personal use It also boasts a customizable interface and robust features That allow you to store and view information in a variety of formats Including calendars databases lists conbound boards galleries and more Notion also frequently introduces new features that expand the app's capabilities Without impacting its usability Notion aside, you could also create a second brain system in apps like Evernote Microsoft OneNote or Joplin Though each of these popular apps requires a small monthly subscription Alternatively, you could take your system offline and use binders or file boxes to host your second brain No matter the tool you use to set up your system an effective second brain meets three standards one simplicity An effective second brain is streamlined It's a single system or simple series of tools that makes stored knowledge easy to organize and access two flexibility An effective second brain is adaptable It's easy to modify and reorganize as your writing life evolves over time and three practicality The most effective second brain is the one that you use It's tailored to meet your needs and preferences and it's easily accessible in your daily life With these three standards in mind consider which app or physical tool might work best for you Then let's talk about establishing and organizing your second brain Within the personal knowledge management or pkm community There are various popular methods for organizing information in a second brain Many articles tout the advantages of one method over another as this one will However, the best method is once again the one that works for you Before discovering Tiago Forte's work earlier this summer I hadn't heard of personal knowledge management or the concept of a second brain I organized most of the information and ideas in my life in notion using a method of my own making And while that method worked well enough I have since streamlined my second brain using Forte's paramethod P-A-R-A of organizing information Rather than storing notes and data by topic as most traditional knowledge management methods do The paramethod organizes information based on its action ability Forte breaks the concept of action ability down into four categories Projects, areas, resources and archives That's where we get P-A-R-A or PARA So in projects you store information that is relevant to active projects In areas you store information that is relevant to ongoing areas of responsibility in your life In resources you store information that might become relevant in the future And in archives you store information that is no longer relevant or potentially relevant So let's take a look at how you can set up your second brain using the PARA method Step number one is to establish your PARA categories To implement the PARA method first create each of these four categories in your second brain Projects, areas, resources and archives In Notion I've created a page for each level of action ability in my sidebar Alternatively you could create four notebooks in Evernote or use four physical binders or binder sections for your second brain system Step number two is to create relevant subcategories After establishing your PARA categories it's time to create the folders, tabs or sections for relevant subcategories So in projects you're going to create subcategories for each of your active projects This is your novels, short stories, maybe some upcoming book launches and so on In areas create subcategories for each area of responsibility in your writing life These areas might include research, world building, social media and book marketing, among other possibilities What's the difference between a project and an area? Projects have clear deadlines or end points whereas the areas section is for ongoing responsibilities For example, you might not know the exact date when you'll publish your novel but you do know that you'll finish the project one day Therefore the novel has an end point making it a project Book marketing on the other hand is a lifelong endeavor for writers This makes marketing an area of responsibility rather than a project In the resources section you may wish to create categories for interesting topics that aren't yet relevant in your writing life So for example, you could make a section for notes on publishing if you haven't yet finished writing your debut novel Alternatively, you could wait to create subcategories in the resources section until you have information you're ready to input After all, sometimes we don't know what we're interested in until we see it And finally, in archives, you might consider adding subcategories to organize any retired information in your second brain This isn't necessary by any means but it can be helpful Personally, I enjoy having business and personal subfolders in my archives which I then further categorize by project or topic Step number three to creating your second brain using the PARA method is to add relevant information So after establishing your PARA categories and subcategories you can actually begin to add relevant information to each section of your second brain So think research notes, plot outlines, story ideas, all of those things we mentioned earlier Anything goes If you aren't sure where to put a piece of information, consider it's usefulness Let's say you've taken notes on an article about developing a successful book launch If you're currently planning for an upcoming book launch then that's an active project in your writing life If you actively market your books but you don't have a launch coming up soon then this information will help you manage an area of responsibility in your writing life And finally, if you're still drafting your debut novel and aren't anywhere close to launching it then marketing isn't yet a project or area of responsibility for you So store this information in resources instead If you ever decide that you're done launching books then you would move this information to your archives Your notes would still be accessible if you needed to revive them but they'd no longer clutter your more useful information If this is the first time you're setting up an intentional second brain system then you probably have notes and information all over the place Story ideas in the notes app on your phone A voice memo containing dialogue on your iPad Several journals full of handwritten notes from craft books you've read And let's not forget the research links that you've emailed to yourself over the years In putting all of this information into your second brain may feel overwhelming It can certainly be a time-consuming project I've been there myself, which is why I can also tell you that the effort will be well worth your while when you have an organized, searchable second brain at your fingertips Knowing that I can access all of my ideas and anything I've learned about writing, publishing, and marketing with ease is incredibly powerful And I've already seen a boost in productivity and focus since implementing this system over the past few weeks Now let's talk about curating new information to add to your second brain To make full use of your second brain, you'll find it helpful to also have a system for consuming, curating, and inputting helpful information It's easy enough to add your ideas to your second brain, of course especially if you're using a digital system that syncs across devices But what about potential notes from all of those books and blogs and podcasts and even YouTube videos that you consume? I like to use several apps to easily add this information to my notion The first is Air with two Rs This app allows you to take notes and save audio clips as you listen to podcast episodes So that's pretty awesome The only downside is that Air is currently only available for iOS but they are creating an Android version that will hopefully be out soon The second app is Instapaper which is an app and a website that allows you to save articles to read later then highlight and take notes as you read And finally, I like to use ReadWise which allows you to import notes, highlights, and saved social media posts from various desired sources including the aforementioned Air and Instapaper as well as your Kindle highlights from the ebooks that you read and then ReadWise automatically exports all of this information to Notion or Evernote or some of the other personal management apps out there If you would like to check out any of these apps, Air, Instapaper, or ReadWise I have links for them included in today's episode transcript at well-storade.com slash life Your own method for gathering and curating information might look much simpler For example, you can make a habit of jotting down book or article notes directly into your second brain I do this with physical books that I get from the library and that method works just fine The point is to have a system for regular learning and information capture that helps you develop your knowledge of the craft then put that knowledge into practice on a whim Combine this system with one that also enables you to capture all of those wonderful ideas in your head and you'll never lack for clarity, inspiration, or focus in your writing life Thank you for listening to today's episode of The Podcast Writer I hope you found it helpful to your writing journey If so, make sure to subscribe to the podcast so you never miss a new episode and to give the podcast a quick rating or review Doing so goes a long way toward helping the podcast reach new writers and lets me know that you're enjoying what I'm creating You can also give me a shout out directly on instagram at christen underscore keeper For additional guidance as you work to craft sensational novels and build your best writing life be sure to head on over to www.well-storied.com where I share blog posts, workbooks, e-courses, and other helpful resources for writers Again, that's w-e-l-l-s-t-o-r-i-e-d.com Thank you again for tuning into today's episode, my friend Until next time, happy writing!