Start creating your Apple digital second brain

If you want to create your second brain system - note-taking system - knowledge base - PKM, etc… there are so many tools to do it in 2022. What I wanted to share with you today is the simple system you can start building right now if you are in the Apple ecosystem.

Start with Apple Notes

It is the native note-taking app by Apple. An integrated app with all features you need to start building your digital brain.

Very often the problem is not the tool but how humans use it. The solution is to start with good practices. I will share some, step by step.

You want to take a note

Very easy! In your iPhone control center, you can activate an icon to click on to create a new note!

Open the control center, click on it, and start your note, 💥 boom.

Now some good practices:

you write a note for your future self so please do what is needed to help him recover it!

A note is not just a note. It is also a moment (date), a part of a concept, a subject, a project, etc… if you take a note, you create like an atom of a molecule of something bigger

To recover it easily, you need to put this note in the right folder and add the right tags to it

For example, if I am reading an article that gives me inspiration for a project - I know it is an inspiration for a project so I can put the note in the project folder and add the tag « inspiration ».

A note is an atom of a molecule of something bigger.

Never forget this sentence. If you start writing a note and you realize your note is more than one idea exploration maybe you can split this note into smaller notes.

Splitting notes and adding the good tags on them will help you recover quickly an idea. Too many ideas and concepts in a big note are harder to find back.

You want to search and find back a note

If you follow the first step, each atomic note has a folder and tags associated. You can now search instantly in your project or concept folder or by tags or both.

In Apple Notes, you can also create « smart folders » if you prefer folders to organize your mind. You choose some rules to define the smart folder content and you are sure to find in it what you are looking for in the future.

Some people stopped using classical folders, they only use tags systems and smart folders.

But in Apple notes you can share a folder with other people so they are very useful if you want to collaborate on notes with « family », « Company » or « team » for example. Each time someone creates a note in the folder it is accessible to all people connected to it. Easy to share and work with people!

You want to do something with your notes

Taking notes is great to understand better what you learn but it is also material for the future.

If you used the previous good practices to organize your notes using folders, smart folders, and tags it will be very easy to create groups of atomic notes to generate molecules.

A « molecule » can be an article, an essay, newsletter content, a video script, or a book!

Use a smart folder for example with tags associated with your book and you can find in the same place all notes you want to use to write your book.

All I introduced here is possible in Apple Notes

Are you sure you need a more complex tool like Notion, Roam, Obsidian, or Logseq anymore?

Yep, you don’t have backlinks and [[page]] or ((block)) integrations yet in Apple Notes but do you need it to start building and organizing your second brain?

If as a bunch of people you come from the Google docs world, I am sure you will love to find what you missed: the tags system and smart folders. Maybe you need no more to organize your mind!

You don’t like Apple Notes but want an as simple app? You can try Bear, IA writer, and Obsidian (these are just examples, there is so much more out there)

Do you prefer to write in an outline? Try Logseq or WorkFlowy.

(If you don’t know yet what is outline writing it is for another article)

I hope you enjoyed this note written in…Apple Notes! If you want more don’t hesitate to contact me and show me your second brain growing on Apple Notes or another app. You can also follow this newsletter for more content coming!

Let’s see you soon to talk about outline writing and another curious subject about mind, body, or soul!