After this BASB cohort, I picked up some new habits. I was able to launch a newsletter and a blog that I have been trying to get off the ground for over a year. I love BASB.

Having an established second brain system has allowed me to become more productive, creative, and valuable than I have ever been before. It has not only allowed me to optimally manage my workflow but has allowed me to become a resource to others. Now, when I’m in conversation with others, or when people have questions on a specific topic, I typically have a note or two in my second brain that I can use to add to the conversation or answer someone’s question.

BASB has brought more clarity, focus and a sense of control. The course helped me organize the data and resources I have, converting them into constructive resources so I can contribute more to society.

There is nothing on the web that will arm you with the perspectives encompassed within Building a Second Brain. This course tackles the paradigms of note-taking as we know it and will completely shift your ability to leverage the digital world with creative force. With exposure to ideas such as manipulating traditional ‘flow’ states, how to become interruption-proof and getting a grip on your projects — the course is comprehensively transformative. Tiago assisted in fundamentally changing the way I operate and interact digitally. Personally, the biggest impact was the creation of a literal ‘second brain’ via techniques of capturing, applying multi-layered summarisation and re-packaging information into intermediate packets of work. These ideas have allowed me to triage my consumption into shareable and productive outputs. Coupled with an *extremely valuable community group*, you are free to experiment with ideas, share and implement techniques and get valuable feedback. Whether it’s a complete mindset shift, a new way to use tools, defining and re-organising your projects, seamlessly capturing information, the ability to use rather than simply consume, or allowing for spontaneous connections — Building a second brain creates a space in your digital life which turns chaos into a bespoke system and approach to the digital landscape which optimises for creativity.

PARA has both reduced the chaos in my mind and helped me with information overwhelm.

From my heart… now, with the BASB framework as a foundation, I approach my day with a playing mindset rather than my former dreading the coming slog mindset, I take joy in the constant rain of ideas. They sprout rather than wither because they have a place where they can wait and even grow until I need them. AND I can find them! Tiago has provided us a physical process that doesn’t suck the life out of our imaginative trips. Obvious as it may seem, for disorganized dreaming scheming ME, the ‘news’ of distinguishing WITH SPECIFICITY between a PROJECT and an IDEA was WORLD grounding, freeing, and FUN.

Now that I have a Second Brain, I have a trusted system to deal with information. It's changed my ability to go from just consuming information, to actually making something out of it.

After taking BASB, I feel 1000X more productive and have a system that gets a lot done for me. I think it is the foundation of a lot of growth for me and I'm excited about it.

High-value knowledge work requires high-quality knowledge resources: abundant working knowledge capital, a reliable knowledge infrastructure, knowledge liquidity, and a differentiating knowledge value proposition, all coherently leveraged to provide a competitive advantage. Building a Second Brain has transformed my relationship to, and understanding of, personal knowledge capture and retention. The value to my business is significant; the value to me personally — immeasurable.

Tiago was great at reminding us that the way we approach BASB is how we approach many other things in our lives. If we want things to be perfect, and put things off generally, that is how we will approach BASB. It gave me the push I needed to get out of my comfort zone and just jump in. This will help not just with BASB but other aspects of my life.

Building a Second Brain has given me the permission to dive deep into my own personal data. The things I know, the things I care about, the things I love. And that I can do it in a way that works for me and my life. There's permission to do it my way -- not the one way that works for everyone.

I am finding this course extremely beneficial and have actively taken a step back from my current projects to re-evaluate how I pretty much do everything (in a good way!!!). If anything, the course might be moving a little too fast as I am still finding flaws in my own unique approach (based off the teachings) to PKM and trying to address them while we are moving to the next phases of this course. But, I love how all of the information and lectures have remained up so I can always go back if I need help or want to re-visit a certain topic.

BASB was a transformative experience for me. It is totally game-changing. I believe that my professional life as well as personal life will be tremendously fulfilling in the future, thanks to BASB.

BASB opened up a whole new world of note-taking. I feel so much more productive and my brain physically feels better! It has changed my entire mindset around knowledge management.

Building a Second Brain is life-changing. I feel more organized. I know where everything goes. It's cleared up my information hoarding and replaced it with buckets for distilled work. One example of how it's helped me: I had a meeting with a team about an upcoming presentation. I discussed my thoughts, recorded them during the meeting, distilled the content, pushed it to my VA. She drafted a presentation that took 15 minutes to edit! BAM!

BASB has provided me with clarity and focus in my personal knowledge management practice. The energy from everyone was amazing and I felt really privileged to be able to attend. The delivery was very polished and smooth. Well done!

Building a Second Brain has been a complete f**king gamechanger. It's given me actionability at the centre of my workflow. Now I can match my mood with my work. I've now got a solid foundation that I can build my entire life off of.

BASB gave me solutions for problems I didn't even know I was struggling with, but which were big frictions in my work. Having a Second Brain has freed me from brainfog. I have a precise view of my projects and an amazing system of not just „getting things done“ but „GTD with a happy brain!" I am happy to be part of this amazing community.

I came into the course thinking that BASB would be teaching a cookie cutter method, one size for all. But it was a pleasant surprise how it focuses on building a system that works for you. I love how Tiago would bring in the high-level concepts/principles, and show his way of going about it. The mentors would also show their perspective, this really was gold. I absolutely loved BASB. The biggest impact is how it triggered a reflection on my existing systems and patterns, not just to notetaking, but on a broader perspective. BASB has been so much more than another PKM course.

This was my 2nd time through the program and I am again blown away! The principles Tiago shares are really life-changing and priceless for peace of mind and creative expression. I am such a fan and highly recommend the BASB program to anyone searching to have for organization and clarity.

BASB has greatly impacted my life and given me new found hope that I can take years of frustration around productivity and creativity and turn it into the joy of completion and expression. I am deeply grateful to Tiago, his team and the mentors for providing so much air that we can use to lift ourselves on our own.

Building a Second Brain taught me how to translate knowledge and insights into action. It showed me how to sift through a lot of stuff to get to the gold. And it showed me how to make starting points that can actually grow into a full project. It will save me hours of time spent on researching and reading that went nowhere.

BASB has made me feel more organised. I wish I was doing this all my life.

For YEARS I had searched for an outlet, some way to store, collate, manage, keep track of all of my thoughts, ideas, tabs (!), work and personal notes, and it was all-consuming and overwhelming. BASB was truly a godsend and a life changer for me.

‘Building a Second Brain’ was just the class I was looking for to help me take my work in education philanthropy to the next level. Not only did I learn how to build a system to organize my sources and notes, but I also learned a technique to process this information to keep it alive. Now I know how to add value by growing the resources I collect into actionable ideas to take back out into the field.

BASB taught me how to think more critically about my knowledge management approach and has given me the tools to overcome my biggest hurdles that were preventing me from getting more out of my previous PKM system.

As a long-term collector of information that often sat unread and unused, BASB has changed my approach to information and the possibilities are just beginning to unfold. This was life-changing.

This is the best investment I’ve made in improving my personal output, productivity, and knowledge management. All of the materials taken together are phenomenal, and I’m really happy with what I’ve learned from the course.

BASB has confirmed and consolidated my knowledge. It’s giving me a ‘honed’ approach. It’s made me more rigorous. It’s even given me a sense of intention and confidence. I think, above all, it’s going to make me more creative.

BASB has made me feel much more confident in the projects and life goals I am pursuing. I used to feel overwhelmed by the amount of information on the internet but now feel like I have the tools to capture, organize, and distill that information.

The BASB course has made me more confident in handling what life throws at me and being more effective in expressing myself. It will continue to be part of my overall productivity kaizen.

I rarely complete my personal projects and I really couldn't understand why until BASB. It clicked that as a recovering perfectionist, I had never risked failure. BASB has totally reframed "failing" for me and I'm now excited about it lol! The live sessions and Q&A were my favorite part. I loved when Tiago crowd-sourced answers from the chat. There was so many awesome suggestions!

BASB proved to be an amazing linkage between true brain dynamics and a system that increases the likelihood of connecting ideas and creative thinking. This new version of BASB builds on the already highly useful system. Connecting ideas in a framework external of the brain is difficult, but this system gets as close to how the brain functions as I’ve ever found. Learning how the brain connects ideas has been a lifelong quest of mine. I’ve wanted to create an opportunity to connect more ideas by how I organize physical data and ideas outside the brain. Using this system has greatly increased my ability to efficiently connect ideas and bring more creativity to my thinking. This new version is a positive iteration on an already awesome system.

I’ve got some big ambitious goals….I feel like I’ve got the tools to be able to take on longer-term projects and have them persist over a long period of time, and allow for that incubation period, and allow for serendipity, allow for ideas to marinate, allow different perspective… opening up that wheel and making progress every single day, has been very fulfilling and really just a life-changer as far as overall happiness goes.

Building a Second Brain has allowed me to have more clarity of thinking, more discernment about what I want to use my time for, and helped me acquire powerful tools to harness my productivity and creativity so that I can transcend them and simply live a joyful life.

Having a Second Brain has saved my behind. My parents passed away, and it has helped me immensely as the executor of their estates. I love this program and its amazing impact on my life.

I started this course to achieve 2 things. One, somehow collect all the stuff I consume daily to an easily accessible place. Two, use these to produce new content. I love how easily can I make new content using progressive summarization. Feel less overwhelmed and ready to be consistent with creating content.

I'm more confident in synthesising my learning and sharing my ideas. I want to emerge as a thought leader in my field. Building a Second Brain has allowed me to distill and express my thoughts in order to achieve my goals, and my Second Brain ensures I always have the building blocks ready to explore any idea. I used to read a lot, but now I know how to use my learning better.

@fortelabs thank you tiago , now i have perfect second brain 🧠🥳🤩 You have changed the concept of how humanity deals and manages with knowledge, you are a great man What you're doing is revolutionary 🙏

@gregoryjhickman @fortelabs All joking aside, if @fortelabs lets you give him money, you should do it. BASB totally changed how I store and access knowledge and I can’t even begin to calculate what that’s been worth to me.

Tiago has completely shifted the way I think about learning in a digital world. After taking the class, I have a reliable system to actually retain, organize, and use the best of what I read rather than just relying on memory alone. Former “needle in a haystack” tasks like topic research and tracking down citations now feel like child’s play. The community is well-curated with thoughtful discussions from a wide variety of professional experience — I learned almost as much from the other participants in the class. Have taken quite a few online courses and Building a Second Brain stands up to any that I’ve done in terms of value delivered per dollar and hour spent.

The Building a Second Brain course helped me accomplish many things, including how to start new projects, organize information, and manage complex creative projects. Organizing is no longer overwhelming, I have more space in my calendar and brain, and the projects I'm excited about are now "both and" instead of "either or". I can now fully trust my personal knowledge management system.

My favourite part of BASB is being in a community with other lifelong learners. Every time we interact on social media or in Circle, I learn something new. I'm learning that the true value of the course is the relationships you gain while learning with together.

I’ve really loved the course. It’s been a great accelerator for me. It made me feel more deeply connected to my purpose. And at a time when I really needed that. THANK YOU!

The sensation of certainty – that I knew that whatever had peaked my interest, I could capture it so easily – and there was a well thought out framework where it ended up, just waiting to be used towards achieving my dreams – that sensation was a real feeling of having gotten smarter. This in turn gave a noticeable boost in self-confidence and energy towards working on my projects. It’s hard to understate the sense of growth of who I am – of what I’m capable of achieving. It has profoundly altered my outlook on life and what I dare to aspire to.

I have much greater confidence in what I'm storing, how I'm storing it, and more importantly how to put it to use. The Building a Second Brain course has given me clarity on what a project is, and how to stay focused on it.

Building a Second Brain gave me the tools to create a system that works for me. It has showed me the potential of using such a system with regards to creative output. It was a wonderful experience and I’ve not only made major changes to my life in terms of how and where I spend my time, but I’ve also been able to impact my clients in a greater way as well.

I'm receiving so much value already from the course. I had a hunch that I needed this skill but I never knew how badly I need this skill in my work and personal life. I have started building systems in my work but this is the conduit or connective tissue I need to propel those systems forward. Thank you for this gift of catalyzing my self-actualization pursuit in reaching my God-given potential to execute on my purpose in life. You all are the best.

Tiago’s course provides profound insight into managing your thoughts using a system. Prior to this course, my system was undefined, but after taking the course I am confident I have the tools to enable me to think bigger, organize my thoughts, and achieve more.

Building a Second Brain has given me the tools to have less stress and anxiety. Having a system of finding things means I don't have to switch context and I'm now a producer more than a collector. My tasks now take 1/3 or 1/4 of the time and I'm able to have weekends, Friday mornings, and evenings free for my relationship, family and friends. I'm even enjoying my hobbies like cooking more!

BASB has already impacted my life in more ways than I could have imagined. Now, I feel like an authority and I am not worried about expressing myself. My biggest win was participating as a moderator and getting to learn more about the leading practices at Forte Labs. It has allowed me to witness the hard work and attention to detail that goes into creating an exceptional experience.

This course offers a highly adaptable method for building your own digital brain. What? Yes. How? PARA + constraints. Why? Tiago offers a loose set of standards which you can start extracting long term, compounding interest on all of your work. I’ve never explicitly valued my attention, but I found myself regretting how much I’ve forgotten about the 100s of articles I read monthly — 100s of hours of attention, wasted! At work, I couldn’t easily find materials for my current projects — much less my previous projects. My attention was scattered. Tiago’s system strikes isn’t complicated or strict, which allows you to grow your very own personalized digital cortex. Now I can match my work to my mood and add value to my projects no matter what the week throws at me. In the two months since starting, I’ve produced three blogposts, planned three backpacking trips, decluttered my room, created an enterprise workshop, and got admitted into a developer conference. All using the *SAME* system! I’m living the PARA lifestyle now, and I’m never going back. This way lies not just productivity, but happiness and ease of mind. I started with no experience with GTD. I didn’t understand constraints. I never used a notetaking tool. I used my inbox as my todo list (starred messages). In other words, a total productivity degenerate. Take this course to start to feel agency in the world of infinite information and filter failure!

The Building a Second Brain course was life changing! I've been more mindful to capture, organize, distill, and express information. It helped me get aligned with my goal to balance information consumption with production.

BASB got me from 0 to a knowledge management system that makes me more effective by the day! As I learn new skills, write tutorials and blog posts, and record presentations, my second brain keeps that knowledge around long after my first brain forgets. This is almost an unfair advantage!

I want to put in a huge thumbs up for Tiago Forte’s online course Building a Second Brain. On the surface it’s a course about the art of capturing, organizing, and retrieving digital notes — which is perfect for anyone (like myself) who makes their living researching and utilizing large amounts of information — but under the surface it’s a course that will change your life in many profound ways. Tiago’s class deeply changed my life in at least two ways: I now have a working system for keeping endless emails, overwhelming numbers of research notes, and confusing writing projects clearly organized and searchable; and for the first time in my life I have a clear understanding of what it means to be a “knowledge worker” and “content producer” in a rapidly changing world where those are powerful ways to make a living. Tiago is a formidable and highly respected thinker whose insights into productivity and creativity are having a huge impact. His class was generous, warm, and personal, and well worth every penny because he shares so much and is completely available for questions and insights that matter to you.

BASB has set me on a path where I feel less overwhelmed and more hopeful about organizing my digital life and producing high-quality outputs more easily. The inspiring people I met and the community that continues well after the course is over are no doubt among the highlights of the program, too.

I absolutely LOVED the course. It’s changed the way I think. You have a gift of articulating thoughts & ideas…Your slides and visuals are amazing. The diagrams communicate the ideas and mental models at a totally different level. I’m a very visual person, and the visuals have been an invaluable aid in the learning. My biggest takeaways are the mental models that you shared. It’s changed the way I look at the world. It’s given me a completely different perspective on absorbing information, learning and creating. I now give more importance to information throughput and creating. My views on Deep Work have changed. I often got anxious on the seemingly infinite information out there. And I used to deal with it by shutting off sources of information. But with the mental model of stream thinking, I’m now less anxious about information overload. As long as I’m chasing what excites me and creating, the rest will fall in place.

The programme teaches you actionable principles and habits on capturing, organising, synthesising and making use of knowledge. The biggest win for me was connecting the things I have to get done (deliverables, tasks) with the information needed to make these happen. As a result, I now have a system in place for moving the needle forwards on my projects with really effective ways of collecting and making use of knowledge that I capture (or create)! Before the programme I was half-heartedly implementing GTD and managing knowledge, leading to a lot of time spent trying to sort things out and never actually moving the projects forwards. With the new systems I set up during BASB I feel I can dig deeper in my projects and produce even better quality results, with less stress/effort.

It's been a few months since BASB has ended but I'm still reaping the benefits of having this system. Having a Second Brain is so, so, SO important. Just the other day, I misread a deadline for some case studies, and it was already 9:30am!!!! But since I had a Second Brain, I was able to whip one up because I already had my testimonials, social proof, and screen shots all in one place. Funny enough, I was commended because my case study submission was apparently super clean and well thought-out. So this is what you meant when you said people will think you're some sort of "genius", when really you just know how to manage the stuff in your head.

BASB is the best online course I've taken so far. It's helping me sort through all my mental, emotional, spiritual blockages.

BASB gave me a fresh start which was just what I needed.

The Building a Second Brain program brought me into contact with the exact people I was hoping to meet. It has been a phenomenal experience. Diving deeper into BASB's CODE methodology helped me identify and troubleshoot bottlenecks in my workflow, and helped me complete multiple projects concurrently. I believe wholeheartedly in Building a Second Brain.

Building a second brain has given me new skills to gain deeper understanding and make sense of things, in a quicker and more organized way than before.

I feel like this is going to change everything. Moving forward, I can't wait to see where all this takes me!

BASB has given me a roadmap of where I want my life to go. It's sparking some creativity in all my endeavors.

I’m halfway done with @fortelabs’s BASB Foundation course and it was life-changing. 💫

Building a Second Brain gave me the confidence to kickstart things I've had in my mind but was never able to move forward. Originally, I was looking for a way to store things for systematic retrieval. After the course, not only did I learn a way to capture and express myself, I have also gained understanding about how my struggle in the learning process reflects how I approach things in life.

After taking the BASB course, everything has changed for me. It really helped with note readability. I used to capture a lot and some of the notes weren't easy to understand. The concept of progressive summarization and intermediate packages has helped with this immensely. This system is GENIUS and I'm so excited to read the book!

BASB has had a huge impact on my life. It has been one of the best decisions I've made in the last few years. The support of the course and the community will allow me to continue on a great path.

I feel much less overwhelmed than when I started Building a Second Brain. I believe I will be much more productive with my scientific writing in particular this year as a result of taking it.

I got much more than my money's worth before I even started the Building a Second Brain course. One of the biggest benefits I've received has been about connecting with so many amazing, super smart people from around the world including the mentors and peers. The Circle is easily one of the best resources for tapping into high-quality peer-created and curated content that I will continue to use for years to come.

BASB has opened up my mind to new possibilities. The pearls of wisdom that Tiago sprinkled throughout the course --not directly related to notes or productivity -- were golden.

Tiago is a downright master at breaking down the challenges of knowledge work. Ever since college, I fumbled with incorporating something like “Progressive Summarization” into my notes and reviews — I never felt like I could trust my digital systems. With each lesson, Tiago gave me context and terminology to actually understand my problems and design meaningful improvements to my approach. The only reason not to take the course is if you’re allergic to “Aha” moments. Seriously.

BASB has made me feel more confident with information and being in the environment. Now, I can take action to create tangible things to share.

Being able to catch ideas as they come to you is one of the most important things you could perfect…I will be building my second brain every single day for the rest of my career. This is not a static database but is rather a living, breathing system of information and knowledge management.

BASB has changed everything for me.

The BASB course has helped me with my creative output. It allowed me to generate new business and has given me a clear process that is oriented towards output, not just input.

I feel like I finally have my arms around the massive amounts of information that comes my way each day. I didn't fully understand the goal toward "expressing," when I started the Building a Second Brain course. But I now have a completely new perspective on the purpose of my Second Brain. Yes, it is a repository of information, but it is also a tool for helping me develop my creative ideas and for preparing those ideas to be shared.

BASB has encouraged me to create material in areas that I would previously have approached passively as a consumer (e.g. writing a review about Hamlet instead of just reading the play). BASB was an enriching experience. It provides a framework in which 'write about what you read/watch/hear/see' becomes operational and integrated with life more widely.

BASB has given me a sense of peace and comfort to know it's easy to find things without remembering where I put them. I plan to attend future cohorts to keep learning and applying what I know.

BASB has given me one of the best skills in my life and that is a living system that I can control. I am not overwhelmed anymore and I'm now more organised.

The Building a Second Brain course was a game-changer. In the past, all I did was collect and lose information. Now I have a system! Data is not isolated anymore and everything connects. I can feel how my creativity flows freely and my delivery is not only faster, my content is more complex.

Tiago has been at the forefront of discovering, and sharing, better ways of interacting with work and life for awhile now. As a participant in his BASB course, I finally learned the practical steps needed to implement his discoveries into my own workflow. The results have been profound, and immediate.

I feel as though I have increased my IQ by 20 points. Of course this isn't true, but it feels this way because I am thinking so much more clearly and with so much more relaxation and concentration. I am no longer improvising my knowledge capture as much, making it all up as I go along. The consistent techniques make my PKM habits more effortless by getting them out of my way so I can focus and think about the actual information.

I have to say this has been an amazing immersion and experience. BASB is very dense but worth 10X the investment. Without a doubt. After so many years of GTD practice and intense productivity management, I thought I was a “productivity ninja.” Well, BASB has questioned and challenged all my stuff on productivity and it’s taking it to a next level. PARA is game changing and it’s adding massive clarity and order to my stuff across all the platforms I use. Key differentiators of this program versus others out there that I think provide a competitive advantage, include: the merging of deep philosophical concepts with the pragmatism of the program; incorporation of randomness and serendipity to the process — for example, via random notes; and the merging of divergence and convergence.

I’ve tried various knowledge management systems but the ones taught in Building a Second Brain are the only ones that I’ll definitely stick with. It’s simple yet it’s the most effective at helping me generate value from my knowledge repertoire.

BASB is the answer to information and project overwhelm. You aren’t here to ‘do tasks’ – you are here to create and accomplish. Most productivity systems are about better managing your to-do list which predictably lend themselves to expediting the easy over the important– i.e. send email over, write book. But at best, that only serves us to make us more and more efficient at lower value work, if we can even call it that. BASB is about making the information you consume your own so you can better do what only you can do: create. It’s something you might not even fully realize you want or should do until you see it. A true gamechanger. If I could put it more simply, BASB is NOT an ‘organization’ system, it’s a THINKING system.

Building a Second Brain is helping me create mental clarity and focus in a cluttered digital environment. Practically speaking, it's helping me prepare to start a business and train for a new career.

The BASB community and the Forte Labs team are amazing. They've inspired me to take on challenges I've never thought were possible. You've done it again Forte Labs team! This is the best cohort yet! Thank you for all your passion and hard work to make this a wonderful experience.

BASB has reduced my stress levels. I now feel less scattered and more directed.

Because of the Building A Second Brain Course, I’m less anxious and have tools to manage my relationship with information.

BASB has made my mind feel lighter. Now, my email doesn't scare me. My thoughts and ideas aren't just nebulous things I want to put out into the world but never get around to doing it. Now, I'm actually doing the things I said I would. I loved BASB so much after just one week, I upgraded my membership to premium because I wanted even more. The mentors inspired me so much that I want to be one too.

BASB is more than just tools, it's a real life concept. I was looking for tools and process and I've discovered a real concept that I'm applying to my life!

Imagine being able to recall all the really interesting things you’ve ever read, seen and done. How good would that be? Any problem, any piece of creative work boosted with a library of relevant material right there at your fingertips. That’s powerful. Well, this course helps you do just that. It’s fast-paced, expertly taught and full of examples, exercises and discussion that help you organise all the really interesting, useful stuff in your life into a system that allows easy access. I wish I had done it years ago.

BASB has made a tremendous difference to my life. I switched from a passive consumer of information without purpose to consuming information more selectively and with purpose.