- The video discusses a technique for creating a second brain using physical books.
- The first step is to capture important information by highlighting and creating a custom table of contents.
- The next step is to distill the information and write down the most important lessons learned from the book.
- The final step is to express the lessons by turning them into actionable advice.
- The transition from paper to digital notes can be done using software like Notion.
- It is important to start with simple tools and gradually move to more specialized ones as needed.

What's the best way to turn any book into a Second Brain of insights you can grab off the shelf anytime? 

In this video, book-reading influencer Alex & Books walks us through his notetaking method for physical books (hardcover or paperback) that allowed him to build a following of over 700,000 book-reading fans.

👉  Follow Alex & Books:  https://basb.io/alexbookscontact
📝  Pick your notes app (4-part series): https://basb.io/notestylevid
🧠  How to remember everything you read: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlWomVta4DU
📲 Get the Second Brain Quickstart Guide: https://fortelabs.ck.page/b0c4d2241a
📗  Buy the Building a Second Brain book: https://basb.io/book

00:00 Is physical notetaking worth it?
00:34 Full notetaking method explained (back & front covers)
02:42 Should you avoid notetaking during active reading?
03:28 How to use digital notes with physical ones
05:29 Most of us pick the wrong notes app

---------------
Building a Second Brain is the proven method to organize your digital life and unlock your creative potential. 

We're on a mission to help you increase your productivity, and lead a more fulfilling life with more ease and less stress. 

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Take our quiz & find out: https://fortelabs.co/productivity-potential

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Take the course: https://basb.io/46g8dG6

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===

🎥 CONTRIBUTORS 
Video Editor: Nikolay Ofitserov 
Producer: Billy Oppenheimer https://twitter.com/bpoppenheimer
Animator: Keshav https://twitter.com/strnmns
Thumbnail Designer: Dillon Toma
Executive Producer: Marc Koenig
Host: Tiago Forte
Guest: Alex Wieckowski (Alex & Books) https://www.instagram.com/alexandbooks_/

A technology where you can't search the text, exporting highlights is painful, and your note-taking space is limited.

But sometimes, reading an actual book simply can't be beat.

In this video, we'll show you the easiest way to create a second brain that lives right on your bookshelf.

A technique taught to us by book reading influencer, Alex in Books, who used this system to read hundreds of books a year and build an audience of over 600,000 book reading fans.

As I read the book, you want to highlight the important information.

If something really resonates with you, sticks out, you want to capture that.

If you open up the front few pages of the book, you have the table of contents.

But what you want to do as a reader is create your own table of contents.

So as I read the book and I find something interesting, not only will I highlight it, I'll go back to like the front cover of the book and then I'll write down the page number and why I found that interesting.

Page 19, how you explain what a common book is.

Page 40, like 3 steps of product management system.

The more impactful a book is, the more life-changing it is, the more notes you're gonna wanna take on it because your brain would just be screaming at you like, hey, this is important, write this down, write this down.

As I'm reading the book, I'm taking down the lessons and then organizing those lessons.

You have your own custom table of contents essentially inside of the cover which is like you said the subjects, the ideas, the observations that you found most impactful and a page number.

If I highlight something and I find it like really important I'll put a star next to it and then I'll add it to the table of contents so it has the star at the end.

So that way I know it's not just important, but super important.

You open up the front cover, you kind of just skim your table of contents, it's like, oh yeah, that quote was on page 77, let me flip through it, and there it is.

As I finish the book, next step would be to distill the information.

So I go to the back cover and on the back left-hand side, I'm distilling the most important lessons I've learned from the book.

Maybe like it's been a few months since you built your second brain and you want to refresh your memory.

You just go to the back cover and you're like, okay, what lessons did I find important or what did I want to apply that I haven't yet applied?

The last step in the framework is to express.

I try to take the lessons I've learned and try to figure out how I could turn them into actionable advice.

On the inside of the back cover, you have your expression, your interpretation, which is how you're gonna apply those lessons Exactly,

and then what I also do on the front cover.

I write down the day I started book and I'm back cover I write today I

finished it and then I could see like how that kind of changed the trajectory of my life You can either look just at those few pages which are kind of a snapshot of who you were and what you found valuable at that time.

Or you could reread it, perhaps jumping around based on your custom table of contents, even see it in a different light and come away with different lessons.

As you're reading, do you stop and then go add something to the table of contents and something to the lessons or do you like batch it into stages?

As I'm reading it I'll wait till I finish the page before I start highlighting because otherwise I kind of find everything interesting.

It is kind of a balance because if I go to write it it kind of breaks the flow of the reading.

So what I'll often do is I'll dog ear mark the page or I'll just like put a star next to it That's super important And then once I finish the chapter that'll take like a few minutes to like just write it down quickly And I'll go back to the reading process

It might depend on the book to write like some books that are intellectually dense if you stop Shit dissolves right Other books are almost like each paragraph is just 1 idea, very simple, and you can almost stop anywhere and just keep going the next time.

So there's probably like a calibration depending on the subject.

How and when does that make the jump into digital?

What is the bridge between the paper world and the digital world?

might want to wait a few days just to cool off and then kind of go back to it and revisit the back cover where it's like the lessons and actionable device.

If you read a book like Atomic Habits, you can't just apply 20 habits at once.

Let me just find like 3 lessons and 3 pieces of actionable advice and that's kind of like my goal with every book I read.

Usually I write the newsletter like every Thursday or Friday, open up a new email doc, I'll look at my book notes and just try to think okay what are like the 3 biggest takeaways I had from this book?

Once I'm done with that, it's trying to figure out, okay, now that they know these lessons, how could you possibly apply them or how could you take this information and turn it into knowledge?

Once the newsletter goes out, Then I usually copy and paste it and then upload it to like notion

from the moment you read the book I bet part of your brain is thinking about the newsletter the audience what they're gonna think what they're gonna expect, right?

So it's like you have a reason to keep going and like a like a filter for things it takes serious time effort energy you have to say no to things to say yes to books.

It's a really cool point to like build an accountability to your life and not just assume you're gonna on a regular basis decide oh I'm gonna write I'm gonna read a book now.

I love that Tim Ferriss question like what would this look like if it was easy and you talk about this in your books like you never want to start with a blank page.

if I read this book and I take notes on it, I have those notes, I'm not starting with a blank page.

So this newsletter, I could write it in less than an hour, like the

So the structure of the newsletter mirrors the structure of the steps of your note-taking process.

Sound like you're having to do a lot of re-organizing.

So recently, been trying to figure out how can I digitalize my notes to kind of make it easier to find, easier to search, and just bring up old notes or old books that I haven't touched in a while?

It makes sense to digitalize my notes to make it easier to find.

I just keep a simple Notion doc, where I have the book title, the author, the read-in progress, if I finish the book or how the note-taking process is going, the rating of the book, what genre the book falls in.

I'll use Apple Notes, but then usually I'll graduate to another system.

Once you hit the ceiling and the system breaks, like for Twitter, I'm not gonna write Twitter threads in my Notes app because I can't see the format of it.

The Notes app is like the high school of where you want to keep your notes.

And then if they graduate, then you move them to like a certain college or specific app or a certain area of that.

So you want the Notes app as your foundation.

And then once the system breaks or it can't handle it, or you need more features, then you go to the next app.

But for now, just stick to the basics if it works and then if you need something better, there's always an option out there.

And I'll talk to people, oh yeah, I wanna write a book 1 day.

What is the ultimate book writing platform?

What is the best, most powerful video editing software used by Hollywood studios?

Hollywood editors, they worked up to that.

They started, I think, usually with informal, general purpose tools that are not highly specialized.

And then as you actually hit the ceiling, Only then do you move to the next solution and even then you just go to the minimal next stage.

It's like you are from high school to college, then your master's, then your PhD.

If it's too complex, if it's too fancy, you're never gonna use it.

Which app or like technique am I more likely to use and if it works that's the 1 I'm sticking with simplicity over complex.

To learn more about how to incorporate digital and physical notes together watch this video.


Speaker 0: This is a book. A technology where you can't search the text, exporting highlights is painful, and your note-taking space is limited. But sometimes, reading an actual book simply can't be beat. In this video, we'll show you the easiest way to create a second brain that lives right on your bookshelf.

Speaker 1: Are you guys seeing this?

Speaker 0: This is incredible. A technique taught to us by book reading influencer, Alex in Books, who used this system to read hundreds of books a year and build an audience of over 600,000 book reading fans. Alex's first step is capture.

Speaker 2: As I read the book, you want to highlight the important information. If something really resonates with you, sticks out, you want to capture that. If you open up the front few pages of the book, you have the table of contents. But what you want to do as a reader is create your own table of contents. So as I read the book and I find something interesting, not only will I highlight it, I'll go back to like the front cover of the book and then I'll write down the page number and why I found that interesting.

Page 19, how you explain what a common book is. Page 40, like 3 steps of product management system. Page 43, the code framework. The more impactful a book is, the more life-changing it is, the more notes you're gonna wanna take on it because your brain would just be screaming at you like, hey, this is important, write this down, write this down. As I'm reading the book, I'm taking down the lessons and then organizing those lessons.

Speaker 1: You have your own custom table of contents essentially inside of the cover which is like you said the subjects, the ideas, the observations that you found most impactful and a page number.

Speaker 2: If I highlight something and I find it like really important I'll put a star next to it and then I'll add it to the table of contents so it has the star at the end. So that way I know it's not just important, but super important. The book becomes the notes themselves. Oh, what was that really great quote? You open up the front cover, you kind of just skim your table of contents, it's like, oh yeah, that quote was on page 77, let me flip through it, and there it is.

As I finish the book, next step would be to distill the information. So I go to the back cover and on the back left-hand side, I'm distilling the most important lessons I've learned from the book.

Speaker 1: In your own words, do you write them? Yep. Brilliant.

Speaker 2: Perfect. Maybe like it's been a few months since you built your second brain and you want to refresh your memory. You just go to the back cover and you're like, okay, what lessons did I find important or what did I want to apply that I haven't yet applied? The last step in the framework is to express. I try to take the lessons I've learned and try to figure out how I could turn them into actionable advice.

Speaker 1: On the inside of the back cover, you have your expression, your interpretation, which is how you're gonna apply those lessons Exactly,

Speaker 2: and then what I also do on the front cover. I write down the day I started book and I'm back cover I write today I

Speaker 1: finished it and then I could see like how that kind of changed the trajectory of my life You can either look just at those few pages which are kind of a snapshot of who you were and what you found valuable at that time. Or you could reread it, perhaps jumping around based on your custom table of contents, even see it in a different light and come away with different lessons. When do you do this? As you're reading, do you stop and then go add something to the table of contents and something to the lessons or do you like batch it into stages?

Speaker 2: As I'm reading it I'll wait till I finish the page before I start highlighting because otherwise I kind of find everything interesting. It is kind of a balance because if I go to write it it kind of breaks the flow of the reading. So what I'll often do is I'll dog ear mark the page or I'll just like put a star next to it That's super important And then once I finish the chapter that'll take like a few minutes to like just write it down quickly And I'll go back to the reading process

Speaker 1: It might depend on the book to write like some books that are intellectually dense if you stop Shit dissolves right Other books are almost like each paragraph is just 1 idea, very simple, and you can almost stop anywhere and just keep going the next time. So there's probably like a calibration depending on the subject. How and when does that make the jump into digital? What is the bridge between the paper world and the digital world? Usually after I finish a book, I

Speaker 2: might want to wait a few days just to cool off and then kind of go back to it and revisit the back cover where it's like the lessons and actionable device. If you read a book like Atomic Habits, you can't just apply 20 habits at once. So I just came up with like a rule of 3. Let me just find like 3 lessons and 3 pieces of actionable advice and that's kind of like my goal with every book I read. Let me just get 3 and 3.

Usually I write the newsletter like every Thursday or Friday, open up a new email doc, I'll look at my book notes and just try to think okay what are like the 3 biggest takeaways I had from this book? Share a few sentences about it. Once I'm done with that, it's trying to figure out, okay, now that they know these lessons, how could you possibly apply them or how could you take this information and turn it into knowledge? Once the newsletter goes out, Then I usually copy and paste it and then upload it to like notion

Speaker 1: from the moment you read the book I bet part of your brain is thinking about the newsletter the audience what they're gonna think what they're gonna expect, right? So it's like you have a reason to keep going and like a like a filter for things it takes serious time effort energy you have to say no to things to say yes to books. It's a really cool point to like build an accountability to your life and not just assume you're gonna on a regular basis decide oh I'm gonna write I'm gonna read a book now.

Speaker 2: I love that Tim Ferriss question like what would this look like if it was easy and you talk about this in your books like you never want to start with a blank page.

Speaker 1: So

Speaker 2: if I read this book and I take notes on it, I have those notes, I'm not starting with a blank page. So this newsletter, I could write it in less than an hour, like the

Speaker 1: whole thing. So the structure of the newsletter mirrors the structure of the steps of your note-taking process. Lessons, action, all advice. Sound like you're having to do a lot of re-organizing.

Speaker 2: Exactly. So recently, been trying to figure out how can I digitalize my notes to kind of make it easier to find, easier to search, and just bring up old notes or old books that I haven't touched in a while? I do want to write a book 1 day. It makes sense to digitalize my notes to make it easier to find. I just keep a simple Notion doc, where I have the book title, the author, the read-in progress, if I finish the book or how the note-taking process is going, the rating of the book, what genre the book falls in.

Speaker 1: What made you choose Notion for this?

Speaker 2: 1, it's a free software. 2, it's pretty easy to use. I'll use Apple Notes, but then usually I'll graduate to another system. Once you hit the ceiling and the system breaks, like for Twitter, I'm not gonna write Twitter threads in my Notes app because I can't see the format of it. So then I move it to TypeFleet.

The Notes app is like the high school of where you want to keep your notes. And then if they graduate, then you move them to like a certain college or specific app or a certain area of that. So you want the Notes app as your foundation. And then once the system breaks or it can't handle it, or you need more features, then you go to the next app. But for now, just stick to the basics if it works and then if you need something better, there's always an option out there.

Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, I love this point. And I'll talk to people, oh yeah, I wanna write a book 1 day. What is the ultimate book writing platform? Oh, I want to make a video. What is the best, most powerful video editing software used by Hollywood studios?

Hollywood editors, they worked up to that. They started, I think, usually with informal, general purpose tools that are not highly specialized. And then as you actually hit the ceiling, Only then do you move to the next solution and even then you just go to the minimal next stage.

Speaker 2: It's like you are from high school to college, then your master's, then your PhD. Don't go from high school to PhD. If it's too complex, if it's too fancy, you're never gonna use it. That's the way I look at it. Which app or like technique am I more likely to use and if it works that's the 1 I'm sticking with simplicity over complex.

Speaker 0: To learn more about how to incorporate digital and physical notes together watch this video.

See all Tiago Forte transcripts on Youtube

Taking Book Notes (How to Start)