005 - Elizabeth Filips
Elizabeth Filips is a medical student in London. She has a podcast and creates content on YouTube about productivity and learning. In addition, she enjoys writing and painting when she has the time.
Check out her YouTube videos about productivity and learning here.
Brain Tour
Elizabeth's system is based on the Zettelkasten method. She has been building her 2nd Brain for a decade using Notion.
Her first step is to capture everything in her inbox that is new, shocking, or resonating with her.
She has structured her inbox into Unprocessed, Sources, Studies, Medical Studies, Rules, and Articles.
When she finds something to highlight in such as a book or article, she captures only the most important parts and takes notes. She cites the source at the bottom and includes what the note means to her.
When that's finished, the highlight goes to her sources section.
If she doesn't know where her notes fit in, it stays in the unprocessed section in the inbox.
The second step is to create her real 2nd Brain, which is related to the inbox from the first step. She organizes it into a table with topics such as Life, People, and Productivity. Each topic has sub-topics related to it.
A real-life example would be:
Topic X: Life.
Sub-Topic Xa: Minimalism.
Sub-Topic Xb: Decision Making.
Followed by:
Primary Sources are directly related to the topic itself.
Secondary Sources are relevant but not directly targeted to the topic, they have a loose connection.
Tertiary Sources directly contradict the main point of the topic or are barely relevant.
Studies are for the case someone asks her for studies about the topic, so she doesn't have to look them up elsewhere.
Anecdotes are stories about the topic.
Art is when she finds something inspiring related to the topic, she links the image/graphic.
That's what her 2nd Brain looks like.
Q&A
How do you manage to keep your 2nd Brain up-to-date?
Every time I find a source, I go through all of my notes to see if it fits anywhere and add it.
What is your number one tip for building a 2nd Brain from the ground up?
The system gets better the more you fail. Failing is guaranteed, for example when someone is lazy, procrastinating, or not sticking to schedules.
Where have you seen improvement with your 2nd Brain?
It has provided me with connections on topics that I would not have made without it.
Disclaimer: This edition was created by analyzing and summarizing videos by Elizabeth Filips.
Elizabeth Filips is a medical student in London. She has a podcast and creates content on YouTube about productivity and learning. In addition, she enjoys writing and painting when she has the time.
Check out her YouTube videos about productivity and learning here.
Brain Tour
Elizabeth's system is based on the Zettelkasten method. She has been building her 2nd Brain for a decade using Notion.
Her first step is to capture everything in her inbox that is new, shocking, or resonating with her.
She has structured her inbox into Unprocessed, Sources, Studies, Medical Studies, Rules, and Articles.
When she finds something to highlight in such as a book or article, she captures only the most important parts and takes notes. She cites the source at the bottom and includes what the note means to her.
When that's finished, the highlight goes to her sources section.
If she doesn't know where her notes fit in, it stays in the unprocessed section in the inbox.
The second step is to create her real 2nd Brain, which is related to the inbox from the first step. She organizes it into a table with topics such as Life, People, and Productivity. Each topic has sub-topics related to it.
A real-life example would be:
Topic X: Life.
Sub-Topic Xa: Minimalism.
Sub-Topic Xb: Decision Making.
Followed by:
Primary Sources are directly related to the topic itself.
Secondary Sources are relevant but not directly targeted to the topic, they have a loose connection.
Tertiary Sources directly contradict the main point of the topic or are barely relevant.
Studies are for the case someone asks her for studies about the topic, so she doesn't have to look them up elsewhere.
Anecdotes are stories about the topic.
Art is when she finds something inspiring related to the topic, she links the image/graphic.
That's what her 2nd Brain looks like.
Q&A
How do you manage to keep your 2nd Brain up-to-date?
Every time I find a source, I go through all of my notes to see if it fits anywhere and add it.
What is your number one tip for building a 2nd Brain from the ground up?
The system gets better the more you fail. Failing is guaranteed, for example when someone is lazy, procrastinating, or not sticking to schedules.
Where have you seen improvement with your 2nd Brain?
It has provided me with connections on topics that I would not have made without it.
Disclaimer: This edition was created by analyzing and summarizing videos by Elizabeth Filips.
005 - Elizabeth Filips
Elizabeth Filips is a medical student in London. She has a podcast and creates content on YouTube about productivity and learning. In addition, she enjoys writing and painting when she has the time.
Check out her YouTube videos about productivity and learning here.
Brain Tour
Elizabeth's system is based on the Zettelkasten method. She has been building her 2nd Brain for a decade using Notion.
Her first step is to capture everything in her inbox that is new, shocking, or resonating with her.
She has structured her inbox into Unprocessed, Sources, Studies, Medical Studies, Rules, and Articles.
When she finds something to highlight in such as a book or article, she captures only the most important parts and takes notes. She cites the source at the bottom and includes what the note means to her.
When that's finished, the highlight goes to her sources section.
If she doesn't know where her notes fit in, it stays in the unprocessed section in the inbox.
The second step is to create her real 2nd Brain, which is related to the inbox from the first step. She organizes it into a table with topics such as Life, People, and Productivity. Each topic has sub-topics related to it.
A real-life example would be:
Topic X: Life.
Sub-Topic Xa: Minimalism.
Sub-Topic Xb: Decision Making.
Followed by:
Primary Sources are directly related to the topic itself.
Secondary Sources are relevant but not directly targeted to the topic, they have a loose connection.
Tertiary Sources directly contradict the main point of the topic or are barely relevant.
Studies are for the case someone asks her for studies about the topic, so she doesn't have to look them up elsewhere.
Anecdotes are stories about the topic.
Art is when she finds something inspiring related to the topic, she links the image/graphic.
That's what her 2nd Brain looks like.
Q&A
How do you manage to keep your 2nd Brain up-to-date?
Every time I find a source, I go through all of my notes to see if it fits anywhere and add it.
What is your number one tip for building a 2nd Brain from the ground up?
The system gets better the more you fail. Failing is guaranteed, for example when someone is lazy, procrastinating, or not sticking to schedules.
Where have you seen improvement with your 2nd Brain?
It has provided me with connections on topics that I would not have made without it.
Disclaimer: This edition was created by analyzing and summarizing videos by Elizabeth Filips.
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Explore how others achieve productivity
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Explore how others achieve productivity
Subscribe to the newsletter to get inspired every Sunday.