Is a Notion Second Brain Worth it for Students?
Is this strategy worth it, or is it a waste of time?
July 2023. That’s when I first heard the term “Second Brain.” As keen as I was on productivity frameworks, it immediately caught my attention. I watched some videos from Tiago Forte, who is probably the best-known person in this subject. After these videos, I started listening to the audiobook version of Building a Second Brain (which I should probably read in paper, too). I enjoyed it and learned about the PARA method, the idea of intermediate packages, and distilled highlighting, among other things.
After finishing the book, I started building my own Second Brain. I used Notion because I was already familiar with it and could find guidance to go through the process. On July 31st, my Second Brain was finished.
Now, I’ve had it for approximately 7.5 months, which I feel is a long enough time to write a review or assessment.
Before getting into the positives and negatives, I want to note that I don’t consider myself an expert on the topic. Also, I probably haven’t extracted the full potential from my Second Brain, so some of my opinions might be influenced by a lack of knowledge. However, my story can serve to illustrate an average student experience—someone who might not use it for work and for whom making the construction of a Second Brain isn’t a top priority.
The Positives
Memory Delegation
A Second Brain allows you to store information, so you don’t have to trust your physical brain to remember everything. This frees up and allows you to focus on more important things that only YOU can do. Not only that, but it’s also much more reliable. You know Notion won’t forget or alter the information you store.
This is a vast and undervalued technological advancement that many don’t take advantage of. Forgetting things should be a thing of the past. Some might argue you don’t need a Second Brain for this. Let’s move on to the next point, where I’ll explain how pairing memory delegation with proper structure is critical.
Structure
Having your information stored is worthless unless there’s some structure that links the different pieces together. The PARA method within the SB helps a lot with this. This method is a simple way to organize your tasks and information into four categories: Projects, Areas, Resources, and Archives. I won’t get into the details, but I recommend you read this article to learn more.
You can associate each piece of information (a resource) with one or more areas of your life. In addition, you can have different projects related to different areas, and you may want to link resources to your projects. Finally, information that is no longer useful go to the archive. This way, we free up some visual space, but we can still access the information if we end up needing it.
For example, I might have as a project to gain 10 pounds of muscle. This project would be linked to the “Health” area. Different resources (recipes, workout routines, articles, updates) would be created and linked to this project. This way, once I go into Notion, I know where to find them easily.
This structure provides us with visual clarity and makes finding information much more manageable.
Readily Accessible
Because your Second Brain is on the cloud, it can be accessed from any device (as long as you have Notion or whatever software you’re using available). This allows for easy and quick access.
You can get to the content from your phone when you don’t have your computer available or want to add a quick note, for example. There’s no dependence on one device that might not always be at our convenient disposition.
The Negatives
Hard to Turn Into a Habit
One of the main reasons why I haven’t extracted 100% of the Second Brain’s potential is that I haven’t been able to turn it into something automatic. As James Clear said in Atomic Habits, habits are better adopted when acting on them is easy and free of significant friction.
For example, most of my school projects require me to create a Word, Excel, or PowerPoint document. I can’t create any of these documents within Notion, so if I want to use them as a resource in my SB, I have to go to that document, make sure it’s uploaded to OneDrive, then go to Notion and create a page for it within a project or area, and then copy that link in that page. Even after doing that, the document will still open in a different tab. '
On the other hand, if I want to find that document without Notion, I can just start typing its name on the search bar, and I will quickly find it. Those extra steps needed to have those documents in Notion create friction, making this habit difficult to adopt.
This might be Notion’s fault, though. Maybe there’s a different tool that overcomes this barrier. If that’s the case, please let me know!
Can Get Too Crowded Easily
Even if you keep everything well-structured and archive what you don’t use anymore, an SB can get crowded and be hard to navigate after some time collecting resources and creating projects. Also, since making it a habit can be challenging, everything can become messy if you don’t always keep it clean and organized. This creates a snowball effect that ends up making the maintenance of the Second Brain overwhelming.
However, Notion’s new AI function Q&A can help solve this problem. It is like a Notion Chat GPT. You can ask it about a piece of information, and it will give you a description and link you to its page. It’s still in beta, and I’m pretty sure using it will mean an additional charge for users, at least those using the free version.
Note: If you’re a student, you can get Notion Plus for free by creating an account with a .edu email!
So, Is It Worth It?
The answer depends on the person. I would definitely recommend that everyone give it a try. It’s definitely a good tool that I’m happy I created, and I think it’s beneficial for those who struggle with information management or want to become more organized.
As a student, it helps me keep school notes and projects organized, as well as structure data from “side projects,” health and travel, for example.
However, it’s not perfect. If there was some way to integrate it with the operating system so that one could save files directly from a directory to a Notion page, a Second Brain would be much easier to maintain. I don’t know if this is possible and how hard it would be, but it would for sure attract more users to this framework.
As I mentioned earlier, my opinion is affected by a lack of knowledge. I’m not a guru on the topic, and I’m open to feedback and ways to learn! Leave a comment or message me on X, Instagram, or Facebook, and we can chat! Thanks for reading!
See you later!