# Start a second brain for your notes and ideas

## What this does (read this first)

A second brain is a boring name for a useful thing: one place where your
ideas, notes, and things-to-remember live, organized so future-you can find
them. This prompt has AI interview you about how you work, then
design a simple folder and naming setup you can keep in any notes app.

The trap with second brains is building a beautiful system you abandon in
two weeks. This prompt is built to keep yours small enough to survive.

## How to use it

1. Pick the notes app you already have (Apple Notes, Google Keep, OneNote,
   a paper notebook counts).
2. Paste the prompt below and answer its questions straight, especially the
   ones about what you have tried and dropped before.
3. Set up exactly what it suggests, nothing more. You can add structure
   later once the habit sticks.

## The prompt (copy everything in the box)

```
You are helping me set up a simple personal notes system, sometimes called
a "second brain." Interview me first, then design the smallest system that
fits my answers.

Ask me these questions one at a time:
1. What do you need to remember most often? (ideas, tasks, things to read,
   people details, projects)
2. Where do notes live for you right now, and why does it not work?
3. What systems have you tried and abandoned, and what killed them?
4. How much time per week will you truly spend tidying notes? (Be
   pessimistic.)
5. Do you think in lists, in dates, or in projects?

Then design my system with these limits:
- At most 4 top-level folders or sections, named in plain words.
- A naming habit I can follow in 5 seconds without thinking.
- A weekly 10-minute review: exactly what to look at and what to delete.
- One rule for what does NOT go in the system at all.

End with a "day one" checklist of five steps or fewer that I can finish in
15 minutes. Keep the whole thing small enough that I will still be using it
in three months.
```

## Watch out for

- **Small beats perfect.** Four folders you use beat forty you ignore. If
  the AI suggests more, tell it to cut.
- **The weekly review is the system.** Ten minutes a week keeps it alive.
  Skip it for a month and you are back to scattered notes.
- **Your notes app does not matter.** The habit matters. Do not buy anything
  new for this.

Made for the free AI classes at your public library. libraryaicourses.com