Building a Second Brain in Notion - Full Step-by-step Guide (2024)

in this video I'm going to show you how to build your own second brain template in notion for you to organize your entire life in one Central notion system I will start from a completely blank page to creating a simple yet powerful second brain system inside of notion where you can manage your tasks your projects all your notes and resources all organized by the different areas of your life so by the end of this video you'll have your own second brain notion template ready to use and as I'm going to guide you with a clear stepbystep building process you'll know how to properly build and customize anything you want in notion but first what is a second brain well if you're not sure what a second brain is think of it as a digital system that acts like an extension of your mind and that helps you organize and access unlimited information effectively it's inspired by the work of productivity expert Thiago Forte and his book building a second brain which also introduces the para productivity method that we're going to be using here now this is going to be a pretty basic version of the second brain system I personally use and for many of you this will be a great starting point with notion but if you want a more advanced second brain system to organize your entire life by areas capture all your ideas and notes instantly plan your projects and daily tasks build a powerful knowledge Hub to access all your notes resources and documents seamlessly and even track your goals track your daily habits build a personal CRM and a lot more for better productivity and Clarity in your life then you should check out my Advanced system called the notion second brain 2.0 thousands of people have already got this template and their feedback is just amazing so you might want to check it out the link to the template is in the description of this video now here is a quick tour of the simple second brain template we're going to build in a minute and as you can see everything's going to be calze into one main dashboard we'll have a menu section here with all our databases plus a few buttons to quickly capture and add projects Tasks and notes to our system there'll be an inbox section here which is a great way of viewing your recently added tasks or notes before processing them and this is inspired by the GTD getting things done methodology and then four different sections to manage everything in your second brain your areas of life with dedicated dashboards for each of them your projects with different options to view them by status or in a timeline your tasks with a very practical planning system here and all your saved resources and notes and before starting to actually build our circum brain here is our template structure where we can see the different databases we're going to build and all their properties now this is something I really recommend you to do before starting to build anything on notion it is is to kind of map what you're willing to achieve and list your databases and the different properties they're going to have plus the different relations between them so for our second brain notion template we're going to create four databases areas projects tasks and resources and all of these are going to have different properties and are going to be connected to each other thanks to relations all right now it's time for us to build our second brain template so let's start with a brand new page on notion and we're going to name this one simple second brain like that going to click on ENT page and we're going to make this page full width now we can give it some space and we're going to start by creating our databases to do so we're going to type slash dat and select database inline we're going to name this first database these areas then we are going to create second one that we're going to call projects then we're going to create a third one for tasks and lastly we're going to create a fourth one for resources now I'm going to delete those tags properties here as we don't need them for now so let's do this here here again and here so we now have our four databases for us to create their properties so we're going to start with the areas database and we're going to add a text Simple Text property to kind of describe our area so this is going to be just a text description and we're going to add a checkbox here that's going to be the one we want to check whenever we want to Archive these areas so we can add an icon here and then we're going to leave it like that for areas and move on to the projects database and for this one we're going to create a status property first then a date property for due dates and then we're going to create a rollup property that we're going to name progress and as we need to set relations between the databases first we're going to configure this property a bit later next we're going to create a checkbox property and we're going to call this one archive for the same purposes as the first one we did for areas then we're going to move to our tasks database and here we're going to create again a date property for due dates here we're going to create a select property for priority so we can have multiple options like low priority and medium priority and also high priority like that to kind of organize our task and we can select a few different options for color here and there we go next we're going to create a checkbox again that we're going to call complete this time and this is going to be our way for us to check our task and mark them as completed next we're going to create a simple created time property and this is going to be useful for sorting our tasks later moving on to our resource let's create a status property and here we're going to change a few options let's first create an inbox status then we're going to change this one to to review and lastly we're going to change this one to saved so we can now have an inbox a t riew status and a saved status next we're going to create a type property but instead of creating creating a Select Property first we're going to use a little trick here and use a text property and let's create this one let's name it type and here we're going to type our options simply like that so let's enter Note book article website document social media and that's it for our different type of resources and then we're going to edit that property and change the type to the a select property and here you're going to see that all our options are already transformed and have the same format in our Select Property next we're going to create a simple URL property and we're going to finish with a checkbox property here again that we're going to call archive change the icon and we're good to go for all all our properties so next what we want to do is create relations between our four databases and the way we're going to do that is by creating relation properties like so and we're going to select which database we want to create a relation for this area's database and first we're going to select project and here we're going to actually activate this option so we're going to create a a two-way relation between those two databases let's click here and then we're going to do the same thing for creating a relation with tasks again show on tasks and finally we're going to do this a third time with resources so let's select relation let's select our resource database and follow the same process all right now let's move on to our project database and we can already see here that we have a relation with the areas database and this is just what we created a few seconds ago so now we're going to create a new one and relate this Project's database with tasks we're going to follow the same process add relation and lastly we're going to create again a relation property select our resources database and there we go so now we can replace this one here and we can see all our relations between our database and basically here we're done because as we created two rate relations our task database already have the relations and the resources database already have the relations as well so next what we're going to do is we're going to add examples to our databases so that will help us visualize exactly what we're working with so let's start with areas and create a family and friends area we're going to add a quick descriptions like that so there we go next we're going to create a health area adding a quick description good practice and exercises to stay healthy and finally let's create a finances area and add a description okay great let's move on to our projects we're going to create project one here project two and project three let's do the same with tasks so task one task two and task three let's add a few dates here here and also a few priority options okay also let's add some dates for our projects so let's create this one and for this one I'm going to create an end date as well so we have a kind of time frame and let's add the last one here okay lastly we're going to create resources so Resource One resource 2 resource three going to give them some type and next what I want to do is actually create actual relations between those entries so let's go to our projects and say that this project One belongs to the family and friend area second one is for health and third one is for finances next for tasks we're going to say that task one is related to project one then task two with project two and task three related to project 3 and let's do the same with resources uh project one project two and project three great so now we have a good set of example data to play around with and this will help us actually visualize the different views we're going to create after and better understand what we're building but before we move on to creating database views we're going to kind of clean a bit our pages and Order and hide properties and to tell you what I mean I'm going to open this area page and you can see all these properties here and we're going to kind of order them and actually change the way they appear on our page and for all the relations we're going to show as minimal like that and then we can see those relations here instead of above this page is clean so let's do the same with projects so we're going to reorder those properties let's put areas on top let's put the status next then the date property and maybe the progress we're going to see here and we're going to show as minimal those two relations and by the way I think I forgot to change a few options for this status property of the project database so let's change that into inbox and create another one for Planned we're going to change the order here and we're done also I forgot to configure this progress property so let's do that now so this is a rollup property and what we want to do is is to select the task database select this complete property and what we want to do is actually show a percentage that is checked and then we can edit the property and decide how we want to display this percentage and we can decide to have a bar or a ring like that so let's choose this one and so now what happens is whenever you complete all the tasks from a project the progress will update and you can see what happens when I click the task one or the task two and we're done with this progress property so next we're going to edit our task page so let's put the area first project second date and priority and let's do the same for resources areas first projects status next type maybe the URL and let's keep the archive option at the bottom okay so now we're completely set for creating database views and before we do so we're going to turn those databases into individual pages and that will help us better understand what we're creating and not have one single page with all those different views and all those different tabs for the four databases so let's do that and then we're going to open this database page maybe choose an icon and and we're going to rename this first tab to all we can reside this archive property so this is just showing the checkbox and next we're going to hide for this view those relations next we're going to create new view and choose Gallery we're going to change a few options here like card preview we're going to wrap all properties and we're going to open pages in s peek let click done and we're going to name this tab active we can decide to show our description property here we can also add a few icons to our different areas like so great and now what I want to do is actually say with a filter that I only want to display areas that are not archived so I'm going to select archive is unchecked then what I can do is actually duplicate this one name this new view archive and then change the filter here and say here I want to display the areas that are actually archived and when I open an area and click the archive button you can see that the area is now displayed in this tab all right let's move on to projects and add an icon here again let's choose maybe this one we're going to reorder this first view change a few options here for statuses again resize this property maybe put the area here resize this one too and hide those two properties I'm going to rename this view all and then I can create a new view and I'm going to to create the inbox View and this inbox is going to have this icon and I'm going to filter the data here to only show the projects that have the inbox status and also I don't want to see archived project so I'm going to add another filter here like so and then I can create a third View and this time I'm going to create a board view to display my projects by status I can decide to show the dates and maybe the progress here and there's one little thing I want to modify and there's one little thing I want to modify here because the in progress property is showing at the end and this is because none of my projects have this status set so I'm going to click the three dots here select group and change this option here I don't want to hide empty groups and now I have all my options in order in a nice board view where I can drag and drop my cards like that next I need to add another filter where archive is not checked and I can duplicate this View and change the layout to timeline again here I can decide to view a few different options in a few different properties so let's check this one and this one too and from here you can see that you can change the dates of the project change the timeline as well and it will automatically show up and update on all those other views and lastly we're going to duplicate this all view to only show our archive projects so we're going to Simply add our filter like so so now we have all our database views for projects all inbox by status a timeline view where you can actually as I said play around with the dates like that and there's one little thing I could do here is actually sort these entries by date ascending so we can see the projects that start first on top there we go so now we can go back to our main page and open and open the task database to create more views for this database so now we're going to edit a few things so we can resize this checkbox property and put it at the beginning then hide this property and we're going to rename that view all of course we're going to sort these by date ascending and we can add another option here to sort by priority so we see our next and most important task first then we're going to add a filter to display only tasks that are unchecked and next we're going to add a new view and this this one's going to be our inbox view we're going to make it a list for this time and we're going to decide to display the projects and the priority and the checkbox of these tasks and here I decide that a task will leave the inbox as soon as it has a date no matter if it's linked to a project or not so what I'm going to do is actually create a filter here and say date is empty so I can only see tasks that don't have dates and I'm going to add also another filter saying that the complete checkbox is unchecked I'm going to change the icon here and then I can duplicate this view to create a similar layout for other tasks like upcoming tasks for example so let's choose an icon for this one and let's of course change a few filters we're going to change the date filter saying that the date is on or after today and we're going to say we still want to see tasks that are upcoming but already completed then we're going to sort these tasks by date ascending and lastly we're going to group those tasks by date and keep these options date by relative sort oldest first and hide empty groups so here we can see that our next tasks are showing first on the list now I can also duplicate this view one last time for of two tasks I'm going to change the icon here and I'm going to change a few filters starting by adding one saying I don't want to display tasks that are complete I want to only show tasks that are before to today and I'm going to change the order to descending and for this one I'm going to change this sort option to newest first next I will create a calendar view of our tasks and display the complete property checkbox here and lastly I'm going to duplicate this first view to only show completed tasks or done tasks and change the icon and of course I'm going to change the filter here saying I only want to show tasks when complete is checked and I will remove this priority sorting option here and change the date to descend so let's check everything works fine so if I check those tasks they all appear in the done section then we can go back to our main page to create views for our resource database so let's open this one let's choose an icon and we're going to place this status property first maybe decide to see our areas here we can hide this URL property move this one here and make this archive property smaller now we can obviously rename that view and of course we're going to say that we don't want archived resources to display here and one property we could add here is is to actually have the last edited time of these resources and this is going to be useful to sort our resources to have the most recently updated resource at the top of the list so we can now sort those Resources by last it is at time descending and that way we'll have the most recently updated resources at the top of the list so if I change an option here you'll see that Resource number one comes on top as I just changed the status now we can hide this property and we can open the page and hide the property inside the page as well okay so now we're going to add another view and we're going to add a list view as we did for tasks and we're going to display a few properties here and let's see our last edits time and status and maybe the type and we're going to reorder those options here great I'm going to rename this one inbox give it the right icon and I'm going to add a filter saying I only want to show resources that are not marked as archived and of course I only want to show resources that have this inbox status then I will sort by last edited time descending and we're good to go for this one we can duplicate it name it to review give it another icon and once again we're going to change the filter to status is to review and finally we can duplicate this all view and change the name to Archive give it the archive icon and change the filter to say I only want to show archived resources here and again if I click on the archived checkbox here this resource appears in the right tab great now the hard work is done and we can start building our main dashboard so let's go to our main simple Signum brain page here and we're going to start by dragging and dropping those databases first here and we're going to create a few sections for our page starting with two columns one for a menu section so we're going to turn that into a heading to and I'm going to copy and paste it right here and change the name to inbox I can then resize those columns like so and here I'm going to mention our areas database and then turn it into a heading two and I'm going to do the same thing for our projects turn it into heading two same thing again for our tasks database there we go and let's do it again for our resources database and now we have all our page sections and the fact that we mentioned those databases here let's just click them and it will open the database page next we're going to create linked views of these database to fill out those sections so let's start with our inbox section and what we're going to do here is slash linked view of database and this will allow us to display a view of our database and we can select the data source to be our tasks database then we can select which view we already created we would want to display here so we can select inbox we can rename this one to tasks this is our tasks inbox we can decide to hide hide this database title and we're going to do the same thing for our resources let's choose inbox to rename it to resources and we can change the icon and finally hide database title and also change the icon for tasks like so and there we have it our inbox for our tasks and resources so we can create an inbox task here and it will stay here as long as it doesn't have a date set next we can take those databases here and move them to the menu section which we're going to edit in a few minutes but first let's create a linked view for our areas database so again linked view areas and we're going to display our active areas here we can hide this database title create a new view area AR iive this time and again hide database title so we have both our active and archived areas accessible here now we can move to the projects section and again let's do a linked view of database let's select our data source to be projects and let's select our by status view we can hide the database sttle here and I also like to have our timeline view for projects here great same process for tasks here so linked view of database let's select our task database and we're going to select the calendar view here we can rename the tab title to months and choose to display a bunch of other properties here like the priority and maybe the project and we can reorder those ones here to have something pretty useful then we can duplicate this calendar view to have a weekly calendar and we're going to show this calendar as week now we can move our tasks change the date mark them as complete very easily and what I want to do next is have another linked view of database for our tasks database and this time I'm going to display our inbox view I'm going to hide this database title then I'm going to add our upcoming view for tasks and again our overdue view like so and I could also add our all tasks here so now what I can do is whenever I want to schedule a tasks that is in my inbox I could just take it here and drag it to my calendar and I could do the same with upcoming tasks if I want to reschedule them I can put those back here and to make sure I understand what I can do here I'm going to add a call out block and say drag your tasks to schedule them for the week or month and I'm going to change the icon let's say this one all right so now we can move to the final part of our main dashboard and this is going to be a linked view of our resources again same process we're going to select our resource database and decide to display our inbox view we're going to hide this title add another one that's going to be our view named to review and lastly all our resources like that and now we can add our final touch to our main dashboard which are quick actions buttons and we're going to add those to this menu section here so first I'm going to hide those databases into a toggle block like so so I could make it a little beautiful and take those databases and hide them inside this block and below that I'm going to create a button and the way I do that is by slash button I can select the option here and from here I can create a button that will trigger an action first let's do new project I can change the icon here and I'm going to add an action I have a bunch of options here to select and I'm going to go with the add page two and we're going to add a page to our project database and after that we can add another step and we're going to say we want to open the page which is created so we're going to open the new page added and we're going to say we want to display it in side Peak we can click done and now whenever we want to create a new project we can just click this button and we can just easily create one like that and what we're going to do next is duplicate this button to create this one a new task so I can rename the button I can change the icon and I'm going to add a page to a different database this is going to be our tasks database and everything's going to stay the same for the rest now I can click the new task button and add a new task like that I can change a few options and it will automatically display in my inbox finally I will duplicate this button again and create a button for new note I will change the icon here and these notes are going to be added to our resources database so we can select it here but we also want to edit another property for that we can click here and say let's change the type and say this is going to be a note let's click done and now when I click new note I can create a new note here and you can see that it has this note type added and there we go we have our full second brain system working with all our sections here now we could stop here as we have a perfectly working and beautiful second brain system but we want to go to the next level to make it really useful by building database templates this will allow us to have individual dashboards automatically created for every area or projects we add to our second brain and these areas dashboards and project dashboards will only show their related information for example an area dashboard will only show projects task and resources that are related to this specific area so for now when I open a database page here let's say health I can see that it might have some related projects resources and tasks but we don't see them in a useful way in that page and this is what we're going to create we would want to have a full dashboard for our health area and to do so we're going to go to this blue button here click new template and we can open this in full page make it full width and here we're going to say this is a new area template and within this page we're going to create a first section that's going to be called area projects like so and we're we're going to use again our linked views of database and we're going to select our project database and say we're going to see by status we're going to hide this database and in order to only show projects that are related to this new area we're going to add a self referential filter and say areas must be this new template here new area and then we have it next we're going to do the same thing with another view of projects let's select the timeline view let's remove that title and add this same self-referential filter here great now we can create another section for area tasks and again let's create our linked view of database let's select our tasks database and let's select our all view to keep it simple remove this title and here as we know which area we're on we can hide this area property and again we are we going to add our filter areas is new area let's add another view for done tasks hide this title and delete this property and add this same filter here and lastly let's create the same thing for area resources we can do our linked view of database select our resources database choose to display our all view hide this title hide this property add our filter area contains new area and add one last view for archive resources again let's hide this property and add our filter new area and there we have it our beautiful area template to have an area dashboard for every new area we create we're can to click here we can go back and we're going to set this template as default for All Views in areas so whenever you create a new area this template will be added added to the page and now we can load this template to this already created area so click new area here and the whole template and dashboard is created for this area and it will only show relevant information within this dashboard now what we're going to do is pretty much the same thing for projects so let's do it again click here on the new button click new template say this is going to be a new project template we can add an icon here and we're going to make this page full width again and again we're going to start by creating a section that we're going to call projects tasks next we're going to add a bit of space and create a link view for our task database we're going to select this View and hide title again we can hide this Project's property as we already know which project we're on and we're going to add our self referential filter for this new project template next we're going to add our calendar view for tasks and we're going to add our self referential filter again and finally we're going to create a last view for our done tasks let's remove this title and add our filter awesome and now let's add a second section for project resources and again same process let's add a linked view of our resources database let's select our all view remove this title add our filter like so add another view for resources again and we're going to choose our archive view hi to title and add one last time our self referential filter great now we also have a completely automated dashboard for every new project we're going to create so we can go back and back again and don't forget to add this new template as default for All Views in projects like that one last thing we would want to check is to go to this new project button here and say that whenever we add a page to projects we want to have this new project template added automatically so that's already the case and when we click on this new project button bam we have our full new project template and dashboard automatically created with only relevant information within this dashboard and now we are finally done with our second brain template where we have area dashboards like that where we have projects dashboards again let's load this one here we have our nice task scheduling system here where we can drag and drop our tasks mark them as completed like so and we have our useful resources section at the bottom of the page so there it is you now have your personal second brain system on notion I hope you enjoyed this tutorial now if you want to level up your organization even more you can get my full second brain 2.0 template it includes many useful features to help you manage your entire life inside of notion we offer customer support to make sure you'll make the most out of it and we're currently running a pretty cool discount so go check it out again the link is in the description and that's it friends don't forget to like And subscribe if you enjoyed this video you can also drop all your questions in the comment section below I'll be happy to answer you until then enjoy your new notion s brain and I'll see you in the next video cheers

Channel: Notion Everything

Views: 21,673

Keywords: Notion, Second Brain, Building a Second Brain, Notion tutorial

Id: EZXumCgT_l8

Length: 43min 6sec (2586 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 15 2024