Using TheBrain as My Second BrainPreview
Open in TheBrain

How I use TheBrain

  1. Home thought in my personal brain, which stays relatively static
  2. Home thought in my work brain, which is is quite dynamic and focused on the current issues
  3. If you are follower of Tiago Forte’s PARA Method, My PARA structure is embedded as thought types
    1. One thing I learned from using the PARA Method was the value of separating Resources and Areas of Responsibility
  4. If you are a follower of David Allen’s Getting Things Done, I make use of his Context concept as thought tags
    1. View this in the Outline view one level deep to get an overview of all of the contexts
    2. Because everything is in TheBrain, contexts are not limited to tasks in my task list
  5. TheBrain thought shows the value of having multiple parents
    1. TheBrain Technologies is the business that provides the tool
    2. It is on my Subscriptions list to keep track of the subscriptions I need to manage
    3. I have an interest in Productivity & Note Taking, so this tool is a part of that resource library
    4. There are a few software applications I find essential when setting up a new computer. I use the Using macOS thought to keep that list.
  6. I find thoughts by search, by directly mapped links, by explicit backlinks in notes, and by unlinked mentions that TheBrain discovers for me. These 4 ways all me to move easily through the many thousands of thoughts in the brains that I use daily.
    1. You can see the mapped links in the plex connecting related thoughts together
    2. The blue text above are examples of the explicit backlinks I have added into this note
    3. The blue underlined words above are examples of unlinked mentions that TheBrain has discovered for me
  7. Reports are another useful way to move through TheBrain by finding thoughts that match to specific characteristics
  8. Some people like to use the ToDo List feature, that shows all unchecked checkboxes no matter where they are in TheBrain
    1. While I do this sometimes, I more often prefer to use a thought type to hold the actions on my todo list
  9. TheBrain has a built-in connection to OpenAI’s ChatGPT large language model, allowing AI to discover new relevant thoughts. I use this for brainstorming new areas.
    1. Ask for children of the Flux Capacitor thought
  10. TheBrain can also use that built-in ChatGPT connection to enhance Notes
    1. Ask for a summary of Using TheBrain as My Second Brain