Burak Dönmez is a university marketer and PARA enthusiast.

He works in marketing for a university and is about to start his master thesis in entrepreneurship and innovation management. His 2nd Brain will be a great help for him.

Brain Unveiled is his passion project because he is convinced that everyone needs a 2n Brain for less stress, better focus, increased productivity, a calmer mind and more self-confidence.

As he was struggling with constant productivity and occasionally found Tiago Forte's video on PARA and got hooked. He immediately watched Tiago's PARA playlist, ordered the books, and inhaled them. This led him to David Allen's GTD method, which is the basis of PARA. Since then, his productivity has skyrocketed.

The paradox for him is that because he is more productive, he also has more time for other things and gets more done at work, with his family, and in his free time.

Threads > https://www.threads.net/@bidi.xyz
Brain Unveiled > https://www.brainunveiled.com

Brain Tour

PARA extends GTD and makes many things easier to find. In his opinion, PARA is very minimalist. It doesn't rely on tags, and he's never liked using tags.

Those are his apps:

• Obsidian for taking notes

• Things 3 for maintaining tasks

• iCloud Drive to store large files

• Drafts is perfect for taking quick notes throughout the day - he appreciates the Apple Watch app

• mymind for saving stuff he stumbles across and wants to dive into later

• Readwise for taking book notes on Kindle

• 1Password is for storing passwords, sensitive documents like ID and license codes

  
  

• Fantastical to maintenance his calendars

Q&A

What is your number one tip for building a 2nd Brain from the ground up?

Not sticking to the rules when using a method. You can make your own adjustments, nothing is set in stone. The important thing is to follow the basics. For example, the PARA method recommends creating new projects every week. However, I have set the recurring projects and tasks as recurring and don't have to worry about them every week.

What features in one of your 2nd Brain apps have you found most beneficial?

The Serendipity feature of mymind. It helps me to rediscover forgotten items and declutter my saved stuff by removing things I no longer care about in a playful way.

What was your biggest challenge while creating your 2nd Brain?

This overlaps with the answer to the first question. I always thought too much about whether what I was doing was right. The most effective thing for me was just to do it and keep adapting the method to my needs. There is no perfect method in my opinion.

How do you manage to keep your 2nd Brain up-to-date?

Through weekly and monthly review and planning. The weekly is mainly for planning day-to-day stuff like projects. The monthly review is for the big picture, like milestones. For example, I check if I have read my goal of 2 books per month and how many I want to read the following month.