This is simultaneously brilliant and intimidating, i’m feeling both inspired and stressed

Makes a lot of sense even after 2 years. You should do a refresher video on this. We would love to see how it has evolved in the last two years.

not me watching this side by side with notion open

Finally a youtuber who gives detailed explanation abt their notion use and does not make it boring 🤍

*2022 Notion Update* : Since the board feature has been updated, let me explain to you how you can work with more than 3 columns again. For me, it took some time to understand how this works, so I hope i can spare you some time. Step 1: Start a new database and choose board view. Step 2: Click the three buttons on the upper right hand corner and choose "Layout". Step 3: Click "group by" and then "status by". Open the drop down menu and swich from "Group" to "Option". Afterwards you click the three dotts again and choose "Properties" and click on "status". Here you can add options to "to do", "in progress" and "complete". Here you can add the headings to your new columns and also add colors. It actually doesn´t matter in which category you put the option, all of them will be displayed next to each other as columns. At the end you can sort your headings if you want to by clicking on the three dotts again and click on "groups". There you click "sort" and change to "manual". You then can drag and drop the options in their right positions. I hope that helped :)

This is the first "second brain" notion video I have found that fully clicked. I now feel I have the knowledge to set on up for myself, so thank you!

IF YOU ARE TRYING TO DO THIS IN 2022 Apparently Notion made an update which causes a minor struggle to follow Liz's great tutorial, I'm going to try to explain how to fix it. If you cant add/change the properties called "Status", you need to: 1. Click a card under any group 2. Under the card's title there will be several properties, one of which is labeled as "Status" - you need to delete that. 3. Once you deleted it, you will now create a new property of type "Select" 4. Name the newly created "Select" as "Status" Hope this helps someone :v

Girl, if this was your first explanatory video, you have everything it takes to be a professor (if you are not already). Congratulations and thanks. It is inspiring to see you're so happy and involved in this work of yours.

My notion board: x+1 = x ☺️ Elizabeth’s board: {3:5} < 99^(6-9)/2 |3| 🧠

I need to sort out my first brain ffs 🤦🏽‍♀️ 😂 sick explanation as always yung filly

Woah! This is so detailed! Would love to see the full workflow of you synthesizing content from a book, transferring the highlight, note-taking and then studying them

Awesome! I love this concept a lot. As someone self-diagnosed with ADD I can be hyper focused on something, then quickly move on to something else, often forgetting the thing I was previously focused on. Having a visual and digital library of concepts that you WANT to remember is both empowering (because I’m putting effort and investing energy into knowledge I want to instill in my life) and comforting (I can refer back to these things without the stress of it knowing where to find them or if I’ll remember them). Thank you again! ❤

This was great, I loved how straightforward and succinct you were. I just started using Notion last week and have been researching the best ways to set up a second brain/zettelkastern, and this was probably the clearest and most helpful tutorial I've seen. Thanks for actually showcasing the process of how you format/use your system, it was really helpful!

Your youtube content is so good! You've quickly become one of my favorite youtubers. I am a getting my Doctor of Nursing practice in psychiatric nursing. I need to work on my second brain in notion!

Inspiring I have never thought of a second brain like this. I had a system in Evernote for more than 10 years. I used a traditional setup of project materials, archives, and knowledge base (for my programming work) that uses tags to organize things by topics or relevance. I always wanted a better way to organize them. As started moving to Notion late last year, it let me reconsider how I organize my life. Now with your video, I’m going to reorganize every thing as I move them from Evernote in a completely different way. Thank you for that.

This is so beautiful! I've been trying to optimise my Notion for Zettlekasten for 2 months, but this is by far the best model I've seen so far!

I don't know why but this is the first short video I watched on building a 2nd brain workflow on Notion that just made sense. That's not to say everyone else's is wrong but probably more a comment on how this is closer to how my own way of thinking works. Thank you for sharing. It would've taken me ages to come up with the workflow you've shown here. You just saved me a ton of time.

Thank you Elizabeth! Would be great to see a "full Tutorial" for example; how you add Articles, how and where you write your Ideas, Quotes etc.. how you categorized it and which apps do you use.. wish you all the best.

I was creating a lot of concepts, prototypes, ideas, schemes - Notion, Trello, Excel, notebooks, Files, notes. And finally - I found your video. Thank you. That looks like the tool I was searching for many years. Bless you!

Wow.. .... This is an amazing way to take notes. I wish this video existed when I was in university. I always kept taking notes but never found a way to bring together everything in one place. It's never too late though. Thank you so much for sharing this. :D

This was absolutely spectacular. Thank you for making this video; I've been introduced to a new concept that I can identify with so strongly that it has made my entire night. We appreciate you, and I hope we get to hear more from you!

If you'd like to check out the next cohort of my course on this system, you can join me here! elizabethfilips.podia.com/validation-cohort-muse

Everytime I watch one of your video's I am amazed that you have time to get everything you do done. I feel a little overwhelmed and somewhat intimidated, regardless of my feelings, I do love your videos and find them to be very entertaining and informational.

Thank you so much Elizabeth ! I started reading How to take Smart Notes and was really lost when it came to implement it into a Note -Taking app efficiently. So thank you thank you for showing your process and explaining it clearly. All the best for 2022 ! Happy to follow your newsletter to start this year

Yay! I've been looking forward to this. Thanks for putting it out Elizabeth :D

yesssss been waiting for this. This is getting watched properly later - can't wait

I've been looking for an old (10-15 yrs?) article I found about "offloading your brain" by creating one's own personal wiki and adding to and connecting things regularly. It's always seemed like the holy grail of personal reference info storage and organization. This seems like a great new way to handle this and I thank you so much for the detail! Diving in, and see a lot of note taking/organization in my future!

YES! I was searching all week for notion knowledge management set up videos and all I could think was I hope Elizabeth puts up her tutorial soon! Thanks for this!

I felt so overwhelmed the first two times I watched this video but I’ve watched it again and it suddenly makes so much sense! It’s not as complicated as it seems at all 😂 I might not follow what you’ve done to a tee, but this has definitely giving me some much needed inspiration

Just dropping in the comments to confirm this was an UH-mazing walkthrough! - watched the whole thing at 1x speed and fascinated by your “workflow” when reading through books. (Maybe even worth experimenting with a title like - How I remember everything I read) since it’s something myself and A LOT of people struggle with. Thank you for sharing this👊🏼🔥

Yes yes yess I have been waiting for this!! Thank you Elizabeth!!

The way you explained really explains how your brain works. All the points were delivered clearly and easy to understand and I love how you walk us through your thinking process in setting up Notion as second brain. Been taking some notes from your videos and will add it in my drafts too. Thanks for sharing!

This is what I needed to be able to make this process work on Notion.

As some wise man used to say: "Good stuff!" Thanks for sharing your Second Brain workflow in such detail! I think that was the final nudge for me to start my own Second Brain. This feeling of constantly forgetting all the valuable information from books, podcasts etc. really sucks😅 Thanks again for the video!🙌🏻

Hi Elizabeth! Consolidating and connecting my thoughts that have sparked from different parts of my life has been something that I had always struggled with, but I never realised that I could do it so systematically! I absolutely LOVED this video, and I can't imagine how much preparation it took to deliver such a detailed video. Thank you for taking the time to share with us how you use Notion and all the other fun parts of your life!

I enjoy how you organize all these concepts! It feels like it's meant to nurture all the connections your brain was quietly making while reading or consuming media. It's making the 2nd Brain concept click for me! Thank you!

Yayyy I've been waiting for this since your last video on your second brain !!:))

Wow that's impressive and very well detailed !! I think you'll love the Obsidian app, it totally embrace the "link between idees" process. It's way less fastidious to do links and more visual so it's easier to see the link between them. But this videos was exactly what I was searching for to organise my notes, thank you !

Elizabeth - this is unbelievably candid and very inspirational - it truly extends beyond "show your work" to show your life. Great courage and good work! I can imagine myself editing/crypting lines out of this before I would share with the entire world...

Keep the videos coming Elizabeth, great stuff. Documenting and organising notes is very important for reference and also saving time!

Wo... I don’t think I will ever reach that level ever on note taking and building my second brain. I am amazed by how much work has been put on notion and I’m sure the editing the video must be lot of work.

Was so excited for this after watching your previous video on a second brain! Thanks Elizabeth 😊💕

This is incredible. I used to just read and write notes in dozens of notebooks and never look back at them. I will definitely try this, although I am quite traditional in a pen and paper approach, this is just seems so practical and fun. Thank you for sharing !

I feel like I've always needed this, but I didn't know how to practically do it. The development of your second brain is mindblowing. Thank you sooo much!!!

I really like the idea that you connect your thoughts to different categories. I think it enriches the way you view things in life and helps to see new ways of looking at topics/ideas that may on the surface not appear to be connected at all. I wish I could work on my notes after I've finished a book, but I find it hard to have that same level of clarity of the thought that came to mind when something stood out to me after the fact. Because of that I tend to allow myself to write out my thoughts as they hit me while I read, even though it unfortunately takes me so much longer to actually finish a book. :/

honestly the best video about notion setup! You're amazing Liz

I came across this video this evening... so thrilled to finally see someone giving a detailed overview about their Notion set up. I'm going to use this framework for my writing.

Woohoo! This is the video I've been waiting for!

When she adds a property (column) to the Slip Box table (at 6:20), the Name column has been moved over to be the 2nd column. The 1st column is then “Topic” (7:03). A Name column, by the way, cannot be deleted and it is the primary way that individual rows within a database can be cross-referenced. The icon in a Name column’s header is “Aa”. The Topics in the first column are for organization of the coded sub-topics that are in the Main Cards column (the one with the column header beginning with “Aa”). She’s using the classic Luhmann coding system of Num-Alpha-Num-Alpha to mark Topic, Sub-Topic, and Sub-Sub-Topic. The Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Sources are all related to the same Database, which is “Drafts 2” in her example. “Art”, “Rules,” “Studies,” etc. are different databases (not “Drafts 2”) in her Notion setup. Judging from the icon (or lack of icon) before the Code of each of her Main Cards, she doesn’t write notes inside the Main Cards. Instead, she is using them as an index of Keywords. So, instead of cross-referencing the Sources in her Drafts 2 database (which is what Luhmann did with his “permanent notes”), in her customized version, the Sources are tethered to the Main Cards. The benefit of her customization is the emphasis on engagement with the notes and their organization. She diverges from Luhmann’s focus, which was on generating writing. That said, it would be totally possible to, say, populate the Main Cards with texts that draw on the linked sources. Of all the videos out there on the slip-box, this is the only one I’ve found of a Slip-box that is (1) in actual use; (2) it seems to work for her needs; (3) she can trust her own system.

This is one of the most simplistic workflow explanations of the Second Brain. Fatnastic job Elizabeth, I've been capturing and organizing a lot of stuff but my second brain needs an elevated dashboard with the right linking - gonna use your setup :D

Thank you so much, Elizabeth! I have been running in circles from devising to revising then to deleting my notion page for making study notes for exams, capturing ideas, quotes and artworks from different sites (and god knows how maaannnyy bookmarks and folders i still make to keep things organized) because it doesn’t just work. Thank you for being generous with your “systems” and going an extra mile to explain them! Just wanna say this: I think one of my blessings this year is stumbling upon your channel after going through a bunch of videos that could potentially provide some emotional lifting and soothe my discouraged self after a chemistry exam which I remember had me questioning my decision of entering a health-allied program. In your stances and thoughts on productivity, philosophy and laziness, I have found some sort of rationalization of how i approach and do my studies and even my work ethic :)) I‘m still young (but not much younger to be fickle about it) and I can see myself emulating your approach and practices in life.

You're the only youtuber that I could click with in every single way possible. I've always had the concept of second brain and used mostly sticky notes on my phone and laptop to store these, but I never fully knew how to integrate the things in one place, that I wanted to store from other places like digital books, physical books, audio books, etc. I've always been a nerd too with a creative side of me and a logical side of me, a software engineer as well as an artist. I just found you recently, and I am able to relate everything you say on another level, with every single video of yours I watch. I'm so glad I found you. Your videos are just the next level. Thank you so much for this.

Thank you soo much for this video! Always love to improve my second brain workflow. Idk what mic you use, but Suggestions I give is EQ your audio, cut off the lower frequency and increase slightly on the high frequencies, add a bit of saturation or compression, your voice will sound sweeter. If you want I can do it for you, if you send the audio to me, I'll send it back processed. More Love to you Elizabeth ❤️ I know it sounds cliche, to be typing the same thing everytime, every comment, but I truly mean it.

Here's a guide for making this board with the new Notion: 1. Make a board 2. -> Options 3. -> Properties 4. Create new property 5. Call it "Tag" or whatever, make it a select/multi-select, and name them after Elizabeth's Status names (Pre-Processed, etc.) 6. -> Options 7. -> Layout 8. -> Group by 9. Select "Tag" or whatever you named the new property 10. In "Group By" you can also select to not show "Without tags"

Just looking you made this video is already made Notion better for my life.

Ah I’ve been waiting for this! Thanks for sharing the setup :)

Watching your video on the second brain while I am studying the embryology of the nervous system... Notion's Brain embryology is much simpler

This is such a good video! Most of the videos out there talks only about the uses of having a second brain and never about how to put it together or how it works in real time. Tbh notion was always confusing to me and I never understood why people said it was better than all other note taking apps but I'm starting to see its use, thanks to you!

Saw a lot of these Second Brain setups and note systems. This is by far the most straight forward, easy to navigate and clever! Good job!

I saw many videos about creating a second brain, but this was by far the most approachable one. Kudos to you!

Thank you for sharing your system! I have been looking at how to sort of my captures on Notion and found this highly inspiring! It is almost as if you are in the process of building ideas for you own books! I have been enjoying your content a lot! I'll be there for the next video, it would be great to have even more details or examples of your current system 🤍

Yesssss I need to sort out my second brain🧠 great video!

Thanks for the simple explanation. I've been holding off on using Notion for a while but this definitely helps me get started.

I watched this so many times to wrap my head around the process steps (mainly cus I was doing something else while it played) All of that to say THANK YOU I finally got it, and now have a system that I don’t have to think up my own one!

Exactly what I was looking for! Thank you sooo much! ❤️

Wow! This something I've been waiting for.. very nicely explained.. it's a lot to process actually. I think it would really help to throw in some slides with pictographic representation of what u r talking about ( like mind maps , arrow diagrams, flowcharts, something that is visual.) For example, Ali made a video on 5 apps that changed his life. It has a simple arrow diagram which still I remember clearly.. hope I made sense here. Loved your content as always ❤️

I have looked at so many peoples Second brain ideas and yours is the only one that truly made sense. Well done and it was clearly explained.

"Don't believe everything you thinks." For an overthinker myself, the last word is so powerful! Thank you Elizabeth for sharing the process of managing own thoughts. Seems more manageable than my current way, telegram & google drive. Ecspecially linked the different sources.

Great video! I started using notion because I realized that I was forgetting so much information about books or videos or podcasts. So I wanted to use it as an extension of my brain. I heavily agree about the importance of linking pieces of information together. Your process of storing the information is really creative and smart. I was currently thinking about making folders about different topics (e.g. productivity, neuroscience, social life) and then dropping my information there (e.g. book review deep work, dopamine scheduling). But the board view that you use, looks very clear and organized. It also looks better when it comes to accessibility of the information. However, dividing everything into chunks of a single piece of information seems like a lot of work, especially for books. I'll have to sleep on it a couple of nights before I decide how to organize it. Thanks for sharing :)

Definitely adding this to my media database in my Notion!

Well done! Best clear, precise and actionable explanation of how to use Notion to get up and running with a second brain, that I’ve seen on KZfaq. I’m now up and running. Thanks

Just amazing. Thank you for making this. Never used Notion before, but have always wanted to find a way to connect many different ideas in a neat tidy way that wasn't merely up in my head, or spread across too many different folders on my laptop, and this seems like such a brilliant way of doing it. The various connections among different topics and having sources be shared between them is such a marvellous way of going about it (and very much how our mind would like to have it anyway), I find it simply fantastic. Dividing stuff into primary, secondary and tertiary sources as well (each with the goal of either adding directly, in parallel or to even contradict the main topic) is also a beautiful way to keep yourself curious and critical about both old and novel concepts, and/or open to new ways of describing similar concept/points (old or new). As long as my second brain doesn't start experiencing cognitive dissonance, this should be great. Amazing. Thank you, Elizabeth

This is my kind of nerdy maniacal. I have a gratuitous, color coded note taking system for paper books and for audiobooks, but they are not integrated and I can feel the lost psychological potential of not taking the second step to connect them. I have an intuition that this video is going to change my life for the better. Thank you for making this and sharing your nerd wisdom with the world! Also total tangent, loving the drop shadow on the circular video of yourself in the corner. Nice little bit of aesthetic differentiation from other explainer videos. Cheers! -CP

I’ve started working on my second brain. I hope I’m consistent to eventually see some progress in a months time

I've been searching for an intuitive way to manage files & information for later recall for a very long time. This is just what i'm looking for!

I've seen a lot of videos on Notion but this is the best video that I've seen so far. Thanks! :)

Amazingly detailed!! Loved the content. Would love it if you can make another video pertaining specifically to medschool 😅

That was pretty much to the point, simple and clear.. not at all intimidating as other notion set-up walkthrough videos are... Thank you.

I have been watching this video all day! it toook me six hours but I finally figured it out 😂 thank you so match for making such an amazing detailed video this is absolutely brilliant!

Thank you so much, Elizabeth, you just improved my life. I heard about Notion before but wasn’t completely convinced… now I don’t think I can keep living without it any longer 😋 I’m a learning freak, and a creator, and, thanks to you, I can see how Notion is gonna help me bridge the two 🙏🏼

Thanks so much!. I think now my second brain is ready to kick life.

Thank you so much for this! This is so helpful 😍

Looovee you ! You are amazing! Please, never stop your channel! I learn so much from you. And you are so unique! Thank you for existing!

I've been waiting for this video!

nice series. waiting for your video on third brain

Love this!! As a person who has lived unorganized and never thought to capture things I read or learn, this is mind blowing and you’ve simplified the process so well! Now just have to start and develop the habits!

I just started using notion a few weeks ago and this is the best video I have seen so far. I really like this idea of a second brain, I am going to try it out.

Thank you for sharing this concept and how-to! I have unknowingly been searching for this my entire life! There are so many cross-functional connections between art, music, history & culture or sports, music, flow & communication I would love to capture somehow and this is exactly that somehow! Already started inputting the things swirling in my mind and feel so much lighter not having to remember everything!

I thought my notion setup was good but this... 🤯 Wow!

Thank you sooooo much for this video!!!! Omg... thank you.

When you spoke about the second brain before i really needed this❤ Thank you so much!!

Thanks for this video. As I was getting ready to comment, "This feels like a Zettelkasten process," I saw the video was tagged with it. I really appreciate getting to see how you incorporate the raw material from the sources into a larger framework. I also like your comment that it takes time. I have spent a lot of time taking notes on individual sources. But the notes have always only covered the one source I'm taking notes on. In the last six months, I've been looking for ways to find intersections. Your system with "primary," "secondary," and "tertiary" is REALLY interesting. It's like a layered Zettelkasten! Thanks for taking the time to share this!

Love the video funny how I commented on your second brain video saying if you could give us a tour/template ❤️

Well done! Great video =) Would never have guessed you haven’t been a KZfaq creator for a long time!

Thank you so much, like many comments, this is the first video I see about note taking that resonates with me and my upcoming project (thesis)

Thank you! I've been using Notion, this past week, and finally spent enough time to see some advantageous use from it --after downloading it ages (months) ago. Thank you for giving such a look at how you actually use it. Cheers!

i’ve only seen the second brain concept with obsidian and I find it hard to get a handle of the software. i work with notion much easier and i really appreciate this notion second brain approach and i might just make my own in the morning 😊

You could change your property of "Topic" from a "text" property to a "Status" property and have tags for every main topic. It's just a piece of free advice. Nice video by the way!!!

This is insanely helpful. I was able to quickly follow along and set up Notion for my second brain. Thank you so much Elizabeth!

Absolutely love this! Collecting my notes (which are scattered around atm) en putting them into this system. Will take some time but I believe it will be worth it! Thank you soooooo much for sharing!