My fav second brain app, More ChatGPT use-cases, Essential Mac apps

Today’s menu

• My fav second brain app (Logseq)

• A YT video about non-obvious ChatGPT use-cases

• A list of essential Mac apps

Building a second brain

Tiago Forte popularized the concept of BSAB (building a second brain) back in 2017. He often refers to this quote:

A Second Brain is an external system that stores and organizes information, boosting creativity and problem-solving by freeing up mental resources.

Essentially, you collect any valuable information or thoughts you encounter into a digital system, so you can recall it when you need it.

This way, you can focus all your brain power on connecting the dots, rather than storing loads of information that you’ll likely struggle to recall.

Who can benefit from a second brain?

If you rely on information and knowledge to do your work, this can be very useful to you.

Looking back, this would have been powerful when I was working as a Product Manager.

As a PM, you need to piece together a lot of information to make decisions. Data is everywhere and it’s not connected.

Keeping a second brain would have allowed me to better synthesize the information and connect the dots.

Now that I’m creating content, it’s a game changer. I slowly collect little nuggets in my daily life, online and offline. I’m an information hoarder.

When the time comes, I just search some of the keywords I used, and it shows me everything to make writing effortless.

My problem with note-taking systems

When a system requires me to think about which folder I need to put a note in, or come back and review my notes at a later stage to organize them, I’m out.

Tiago Forte’s system is a bit like this. You jot everything down into an ‘inbox’ and then have to come back later and sort it into the right folders.

This doesn’t work for me. I don’t go back and diligently organize my notes into the right folders.

I take notes in Apple Notes which is now just a long list of random stuff. It’s very hard to find anything back.

Enter Logseq

Logseq is a free open-source knowledge management system. That’s quite a mouthful, I know.

What I love about it is that it’s simple, minimalistic, and works in a similar way as my brain is wired.

You start from a blank journal page each day. You don’t have to worry about where to write something down. Only how you tag it.

Each bullet point is a block that you can link to other blocks by adding tags.

When you add a tag like [[recipe]] below, it forms a two-way connection between other blocks with the same tags.

This makes search super powerful. As time goes on, you’ll see a network of notes, ideas, and thoughts start to form.

Tools like Notion always tempt me to make everything super beautiful with the perfect icon and layout. Which (in my case) leads to productive procrastination.

Logseq kills this with simplicity. It’s just about what you write and how you tag it, nothing else to procrastinate on.

I’m only just scratching the surface with the tool but loving it so far.

If I sparked your curiosity, check out this video below for a more visual overview and download Logseq here.

More ChatGPT use-cases

I’m always on the hunt for more ways I can incorporate AI into my life.

Some use cases I like in the video below:

• A copy editor to check your writing for style and grammar

• Generating unlimited prompts for Midjourney

• Get ideas on how to improve an existing business

PS: Matt Wolfe is a great resource on Youtube to stay up to date about generative AI. I highly recommend subscribing to him.

Essential Mac Apps

I just received my new Macbook. Here are some (potentially) non-obvious apps I install straight away after turning it on for the first time:

• Raycast - A more powerful spotlight search. I replace the hotkey of spotlight search with Raycast (CMD + Space)

• Spectacle - Better window management with keyboard shortcuts. It’s like Magnet, but completely free.

• Quickshade - Control the brightness of the external monitor from the Mac menu bar. Amazing when you work at night.

• Dropover - Acts as a shelf to drag files into before you find the final destination you actually want the file. Super useful.

• Rocket - Slack/Notion-style emoji selection. Just type a semicolon, type your emoji and it will auto-complete, in any app.

• Cron - My go-to calendar app. Also, it shows me my next appointment in the Mac menu bar and gives me a link to join the call.

• Arc - My new browser of choice. The link is an invite with 5 uses. Last time I added a broken link, this time it should work.

As for screenshots, I’m still using the Mac native screenshot tool. Happy to hear your recommendations if you have any. I’m eying CleanshotX 👀

If you enjoyed this email, please share it with a friend. It really helps :)

Cheers,

Arjen