How Do I Distil a Management Note?

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The distill is the step most people miss. It basically means when you're looking at a note or a collection of notes, you have to take the time to refine those notes. You want to essentially boil them down into the most important points that are actually going to be used in whatever you're trying to accomplish. And that is kind of a radical filter, right? I might have 5,000 words of notes on a book. But then if I look at a specific situation, like let's say I have someone on my team that I'm having some issue that I'm dealing with, there might be only 1% or 5% or something of all those notes that are actually relevant

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What is a "commonplace book"? What traits are desirable in "second brain" tools? What are some common mistakes people make in note-taking? What should we take notes about? What are some useful methods of organizing, distilling, remembering, and taking action on notes? How much information should we hold in our brains and how much should be offloaded to a second brain? What are creative convergence and divergence?

Tiago Forte is the founder of Forte Labs and one of the world's foremost experts on productivity. He has taught more than 20,000 people worldwide through his programs and writes and speaks on how technology can help knowledge workers revolutionize their personal effectiveness. Tiago's online course, Building a Second Brain, has produced more than 5,000 graduates from over 70 countries. In a previous life, he worked in microfinance in Latin America, served in the Peace Corps in Ukraine, and consulted for large companies on product development in San Francisco. He lives in Long Beach, California, with his wife Lauren, son Caio, and dog Ximena. Lear more about him at buildingasecondbrain.com or follow him on Twitter at @fortelabs.

By the way: We've summarized this episode's key takeaways in a Thought Saver card deck to help you remember these ideas forever! You can explore the deck here: https://app.thoughtsaver.com/share/MT6EwJ82pO

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