Tiago Forte
Productivity writer · Building a Second Brain
Founder of Forte Labs and author of Building a Second Brain and The PARA Method, both about keeping a searchable store of what you learn outside your head. He teaches systems rather than tools: PARA for filing, progressive summarization for compressing notes, a weekly review to reset. The annual review of his own year goes back to 2008. These days he works from a small town in Mexico and publishes mostly on YouTube.
- Entries
- 33
- Does
- 24
- Recommends
- 8
- Discusses
- 1
Apps
9 apps in this stack
- AppDoes itFREE, no cost
Notion
Runs the Forte Labs editorial calendar in Notion, and keeps the YouTube studio operating document there as well, a shared page anyone on the team can update as gear changes. He draws a line between that and note taking: building a dashboard costs far more time and energy than writing a note.
Source: fortelabs.com: How to Build Your Personal Productivity StackVisit notion.so (opens in a new tab)On record from 3 of 62 tracked people: 3 do it - AppDoes it$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.
Adobe Premiere Pro
Edits in Premiere and pays for it inside Adobe's annual Creative Cloud subscription. His reason is not the feature list, which he calls bloated and hard to learn, but compatibility: staying on the industry standard means formats and plugins keep working. Free editors exist, he adds, though he cannot vouch for them.
Source: fortelabs.com: My Complete Gear Kit for Filming a Personal DocumentaryVisit adobe.com (opens in a new tab)On record from 2 of 62 tracked people: 2 do it - AppDoes it$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
ChatGPT
Ran seven experiments trying to get ChatGPT to write a book summary for him, and published the prompts and replies. Feeding it excerpts he had already saved helped most. His verdict stayed modest: a result about half as good as one he would write himself, for maybe 20 to 30 percent less effort.
Source: fortelabs.com: How to Summarize Books Using ChatGPTVisit chatgpt.com (opens in a new tab)On record from 2 of 62 tracked people: 2 do it - AppDoes it$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Evernote
Evernote is the notes app he says he uses and recommends, picked for simplicity and for the range of sources it will take. Everything he captures across a week, about 15 to 30 notes, gets filed into notebooks in one batch when he sits down for his weekly review.
Source: fortelabs.com: The One-Touch Guide to Doing a Weekly ReviewVisit evernote.com (opens in a new tab)On record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 does it - AppDoes it$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Fitbod
Lets the app generate each day's session instead of programming his own training, and credits the variation it builds in for keeping him going. He says he loves it and recommends it, and used it to track a year of lifting.
Source: fortelabs.com: My 2025 Annual ReviewVisit fitbod.me (opens in a new tab)On record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 does it - AppDoes itFREE, no cost
Instapaper
Anything worth reading but not right now goes to Instapaper as he clears email, one of four places he sorts messages into during a weekly review.
Source: fortelabs.com: The Weekly Review is an Operating SystemVisit instapaper.com (opens in a new tab)On record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 does it - AppDoes itFREE, no cost
NotebookLM
Loaded his entire reading highlight archive into it, 594,379 words across 719 sources by his own count, then asked it to draw connections across the lot. He is careful about the limit: the reading and the saving were still his to do, and so is turning what it returns into a finished piece.
Source: fortelabs.com: Will Artificial Intelligence Replace the Need for Second Brains Entirely?Visit notebooklm.google.com (opens in a new tab)On record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 does it - AppDoes it$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Things
Names Things as his task manager, singling out one feature: a keyboard shortcut that captures a task from anywhere and keeps a link back to the email it came from.
Source: fortelabs.com: One-Touch to Inbox ZeroVisit culturedcode.com (opens in a new tab)On record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 does it - AppRecommends$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Readwise
Points at it for anyone who wants Kindle highlights landing in their notes app on their own instead of exporting them by hand each time. He states plainly that he has no affiliation with the company beyond liking what it does.
Source: fortelabs.com: The Complete Guide to Saving Your Kindle HighlightsVisit readwise.io (opens in a new tab)On record from 4 of 62 tracked people: 3 do it, 1 recommends it
Gear
6 pieces of gear in this stack
- GearDoes it$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.
Kindle e-reader
From every finished ebook he pulls the highlights and files them in his notes app, including books with no obvious use yet, on the reasoning that he can resurface them later and find a connection. Pulling them out is a step in his monthly review.
Source: fortelabs.com: The Monthly Review is a Systems CheckView item: Kindle e-readerOn record from 6 of 62 tracked people: 6 do it - GearDoes it$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Lavalier microphone
Midway through filming his documentary he switched to a wired lapel mic running straight into the phone, a 16-foot double-headed PoP voice cable he describes as impossible to mess up. Before that he ran a Rode SmartLav+ into a separate recorder. Audio is the one thing software cannot repair later, he writes.
Source: fortelabs.com: My Complete Gear Kit for Filming a Personal DocumentaryView item: Lavalier microphoneOn record from 2 of 62 tracked people: 2 do it - GearDoes it$$$Expensive: Several hundred dollars and up.
Home studio
Forte Labs remodeled their two-car garage in Long Beach into a studio where cameras, lighting and sound stay rigged, and brought in a studio design consultant to improve the setup. He breaks the spend down as $50,000 on the remodel, $30,000 on cameras and equipment and $20,000 on consultants, about $100,000 in all. A 2024 move to Mexico ended his easy access to it.
Source: fortelabs.com: The Road to 300,000 Subscribers, a YouTube RetrospectiveView item: Home studioOn record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 does it - GearDoes it$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Portable audio recorder
Bought a Zoom H1n on a videographer friend's recommendation and paired it with a lav mic so he could record audio wirelessly. He says he would use it again, then flags his own error: trusting the auto-levels left the opening seconds of many clips peaked and distorted, which he says you can only partly fix after the fact.
Source: fortelabs.com: My Complete Gear Kit for Filming a Personal DocumentaryView item: Portable audio recorderOn record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 does it - GearDoes it$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.
Teleprompter
Reads his scripted YouTube pieces from a teleprompter. Sounding natural while doing it turned out to be the hard part: he says talking to a camera demanded a level of energy that years of writing online had not prepared him for.
Source: fortelabs.com: The Road to 300,000 Subscribers, a YouTube RetrospectiveView item: TeleprompterOn record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 does it - GearDoes it$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.
Travel tripod
For interviews and any fixed shot he carried a Vanguard VEO 235AB, picked because it folds down small enough for a suitcase. A UBeesize mini tripod covered the days he left the big one behind and filmed off a table. What actually grips the phone is a Glif clamp, since tripod heads take camera screws.
Source: fortelabs.com: My Complete Gear Kit for Filming a Personal DocumentaryView item: Travel tripodOn record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 does it
Books
5 books in this stack
- BookRecommends$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Building a Second Brain
The book he wrote about keeping one trusted place outside your head for the ideas and insights you collect, so you can put them to work rather than hunt for a note you were sure you saved. David Allen and Daniel Pink are among the people quoted on its page.
Source: buildingasecondbrain.com: the bookVisit buildingasecondbrain.com (opens in a new tab)On record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 recommends it - BookRecommends$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
How to Take Smart Notes
Of everything he has read on the subject he rates this the most useful, and says it broke his usual way of summarizing a book, because there was almost no filler to strip out. He was struck by how closely it matched what he had worked out on his own.
Source: fortelabs.com: How To Take Smart Notes, 10 principlesView item: How to Take Smart NotesOn record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 recommends it - BookRecommends$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
The Bullet Journal Method
Picked it up while writing his own book, expecting to learn nothing, and credits Ryder Carroll with changing how he thinks about notes, journaling, productivity and what a good life looks like. For him it is a method for clarifying what you value that happens to live in a paper notebook.
Source: fortelabs.com: What I Learned From The Bullet Journal MethodView item: The Bullet Journal MethodOn record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 recommends it - BookRecommends$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
The PARA Method
Shorter follow-up, also his, covering the four folders and nothing more. Its page pitches getting the system up across computer files, cloud storage and a notes app in seconds, and makes a point of saying the setup does not have to be perfect to be worth having.
Source: buildingasecondbrain.com: The PARA MethodVisit buildingasecondbrain.com (opens in a new tab)On record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 recommends it - BookDiscusses$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Deep Work
Calls himself a proponent of deep work and a reader of Newport's blog, then pushes back on the book in his review. Treating every network tool as pure distraction is too simple, he argues, because weak ties and online reach open doors the book does not account for.
Source: fortelabs.com: A Review of Cal Newport's Deep WorkView item: Deep WorkOn record from 6 of 62 tracked people: 5 recommend it, 1 has discussed it
Protocols
9 entriesStructured routines and practices with a defined method.
Lifting is the one habit he says he could never make stick, flagged as his weakest area in review after review. In 2025 he logged 52 sessions and more than 500,000 pounds moved, and he reports he can no longer reliably get into deep focus on a day he has not trained.
Source: fortelabs.com: My 2025 Annual ReviewHe got training to stick by taking the decisions out of it: a nanny hired for the afternoon school run, a second car so a session costs him neither work time nor family time, and a gym that is empty at the hour he prefers. He frames those as irreversible choices that spare his willpower.
Source: fortelabs.com: My 2025 Annual ReviewAt the close of each year he writes a gratitude list, works through a dozen questions about the twelve months just gone, then answers a second set about the year ahead. He calls the exercise a rearchitecture rather than planning, because what gets adjusted is the narrative he lives by.
Source: fortelabs.com: The Annual Review is a RearchitectureDeveloped the four-folder system over more than a decade of his own experimentation, teaching thousands of students and coaching professionals, he says. Filing goes by what a piece of information is useful for right now, which project or area or resource, rather than by the subject it sits under.
Source: fortelabs.com: The PARA MethodAdds a bolding layer to a note only when he happens to be reviewing it for something else, so the summarizing uses attention he was already spending. He says he works to no explicit criteria, just whatever reads like the core of the idea.
Source: fortelabs.com: Progressive SummarizationSat a ten-day vipassana course in California with no talking, reading or writing, waking at 4am for the first of about eleven hours of meditation a day. He wrote it up afterwards as a lesson about attention rather than as a spiritual account.
Source: fortelabs.com: 10 Days of VipassanaCapture, organize, distill, express. He teaches the four steps as the cycle a note system runs on, and argues most people already do a rough version without having named it.
Source: fortelabs.com: Building a Second Brain, the definitive introductory guideCoined the term for the small reusable chunks a project breaks into: notes from a team meeting, a list of research findings, a slide deck. Instead of trying to move a whole project at once, he advises ending each work session, whether it ran fifteen minutes or three hours, by finishing one packet and saving it for reuse.
Source: fortelabs.com: Building a Second Brain, the definitive introductory guideKeep about a dozen open questions live in your head and test everything new against them, he suggests, crediting an account of how Richard Feynman worked. It doubles as the filter for deciding what is worth saving in the first place.
Source: fortelabs.com: 12 Favorite Problems
Habits
4 entriesRecurring behaviors recorded in public statements.
Once a year rather than daily. He lists everything from the past twelve months he is grateful for, usually 60 to 90 items, and calls it his longest standing yearly ritual, kept every year since 2008.
Source: fortelabs.com: The Annual Review is a RearchitectureFive items on a digital sticky note in the corner of his screen: email, calendar, desktop and downloads, notes, tasks. Same steps in the same order whether he is coming off a quiet week or back from three weeks away, and he puts the whole thing at about 30 minutes.
Source: fortelabs.com: The One-Touch Guide to Doing a Weekly ReviewTwenty years of writing goals down with a target date attached, starting at 20 with one about a student government seat he was almost certain to win. Looking back, he says he cares less about which ones he hit than about who he became by aiming at them.
Source: fortelabs.com: What I've Learned From 20 Years of Goal-SettingOldest email first, one decision each about where it goes, calendar or task manager or notes or read-later, then archive. By his own time tracking that came to 17 minutes a day, roughly 7 percent of his working hours over a year.
Source: fortelabs.com: One-Touch to Inbox Zero
In their own words
Checked word for word against the linked source
“Fundamentally, our brains are for having ideas, not storing them. Building a Second Brain is a methodology for saving and systematically reminding us of the ideas, inspirations, insights, and connections we’ve gained through our experience.”
fortelabs.com: Building a Second Brain, the definitive introductory guide (opens in a new tab) · 1 May 2023 “I spend 17 minutes per day on email, or 7.43% of my total work time over the past 12 months.”
fortelabs.com: One-Touch to Inbox Zero (opens in a new tab) · 28 Dec 2015 On Inbox zero
“It doesn’t matter if I’m checking in after a couple calm days of work, or returning from 3 weeks of vacation. I follow the same steps in the same order.”
fortelabs.com: The Weekly Review is an Operating System (opens in a new tab) · 26 May 2017 “This is my longest standing yearly ritual, which I’ve done every year since 2008. It’s also the simplest: I sit down and I make a list of every single thing I’m grateful for from the past year”
fortelabs.com: The Annual Review is a Rearchitecture (opens in a new tab) · 7 Jan 2018 “According to my exercise tracking app, Fitbod (which I love and recommend), I lifted over 500,000 pounds this year, across 52 workouts, mostly in the latter two-thirds of the year. That is definitely the most consistently I’ve ever exercised, and I’m now in the best shape of my life by far.”
fortelabs.com: My 2025 Annual Review (opens in a new tab) · 12 Jan 2026
Episodes from the feed
Show archive, The Building a Second Brain Podcast (opens in a new tab)Last fetched . A title without a link is an episode the feed publishes no page of its own for.
- The 9 Biggest Myths about Building a Second Brain (opens in a new tab) · 6m
- Myth: I haven't built a Second Brain yet (opens in a new tab) · 9m
- Myth: A Second Brain means tediously overhauling and restructuring my entire digital life (opens in a new tab) · 13m
- Myth: A Second Brain is just a bunch of random 'life hacks' for knowledge work (opens in a new tab) · 7m
- Myth: Building a Second Brain is just self-help for note-taking nerds (opens in a new tab) · 7m
Stack notes are paraphrased. Anything in quotation marks is a short excerpt copied from the transcript it links to. Not medical advice. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or reviewed by anyone listed. How this works.