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Weaver

"One key to learning and success is the willingness to try something new, and feel momentarily incompetent. That’s when most people quit. But then we get through, and if we know something more than we used to know,  we move onto the next moment of feeling incompetent” - Seth Godin

Learning Journey

Personal Knowledge Management 

Building my second brain 

To help make sense of all the information I collected throughout the Master's, I have tried a range of techniques to store and reflect on this information, in order to make the connections I need. 

Building a Second Brain is a concept that really resonated with me when I first heard of it from personal productivity specialist Tiago Forte who has written a book and developed a programme of the same name.  

This builds on the fact that our brains can only store a few thoughts at any one time. Our brain is for having ideas, not storing them. Forte's second brain concept is an approach to digitally store, not only the information we gather, but also the ideas, inspirations, insights, and connections we’ve gained through our experience.

Neuroscience tells us it is important to increase this focus and spotlight these insights to help develop them. This was a key learning that has stayed with me from the Neuroleadership Institute Brain Based Coaching course I did in 2018.  Insights are new connections our neurons are making. They are connecting information together for the first time and are delicate to start with. These need to be noticed and strengthened with increased focus and development of the thought. There was such an overwhelming amount of information and insights I was taking on board that I needed to find some way to capture them all so I could give them due focus at the right time. 

I have not followed Forte's methodology strictly as I came across it in earnest around halfway through the programme. However, throughout the Master's I have been using this concept of a "digital brain" to capture my thoughts and ideas etc. throughout the programme. This has helped me follow the advice of my first advisor Lisa Traill; not force the narrative, instead gather the threads and let them form and weave together as you go. I also know this is how my brain likes to work. I have come to realise and own the fact that I am a "dot collector". I have always had a talent for gathering a wide range of information that I will often piece together in a way others would never think of. (It also comes in handy for pub quizzes) I wanted to make sure that I had the opportunity to capture all these threads to weave something really special and unique. 

This section talks about some of the different ways I have tried to distil insights and capture information throughout the programme.  These are techniques I have found very valuable and am not carrying across into my corporate role as well. I have also captured a range of insights along my journey in my blog. These can be found in the blog section here. 

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