I spent three weeks of my life—actual hours I will never get back—learning how to “link” notes in Obsidian. I felt like a god. I had a graph view that looked like a glowing digital galaxy. I had back-links. I had folders inside folders. I also had absolutely no idea what I was actually working on. It was a total waste of time.
We have been sold this lie that if we just find the right app, our brains will suddenly become these hyper-efficient engines of output. It’s a scam. Most “Second Brain” content is just productivity porn for people who like making lists more than they like doing work. If you’re spending more than ten minutes a week “organizing” your system, your system is broken. Period.
The night I realized I was a digital hoarder
It was a Tuesday night in March 2021, around 11:45 PM. I was sitting at my desk, eyes bloodshot, trying to figure out why my “Map of Content” for a blog post about gardening wasn’t properly syncing with my “Daily Notes” template. I had spent four hours that evening just moving text around. I hadn’t written a single sentence of the actual article. I was just… grooming the data. I felt like a librarian in a library where the librarian is on permanent strike and the books are all blank. (That’s one of the few metaphors I’ll allow myself today because it’s exactly how it felt.)
I looked at my screen and realized I had 1,400 notes. I had used exactly zero of them in the last six months. I was hoarding digital scraps like a packrat. I deleted the app that night. I didn’t even export the data. I just hit uninstall. It felt better than any “breakthrough” I’d had using the software.
Why Notion is actually the worst
I know people will disagree with this, and the cult of Notion is very real, but I’m going to say it: Notion is a trap. It is the most distracting piece of software ever designed for “work.”
The problem is the infinite customization. You start out wanting to track your reading list and three hours later you’re designing a custom database with color-coded tags and relational properties for “Mood when reading.” Who cares? Just read the book. I actively tell my friends to avoid it if they actually want to finish a project. It’s slow, it’s clunky on mobile, and it encourages you to play “office” instead of doing the work. I refuse to recommend it. I don’t care if every YouTuber with a ring light says it’s the future. It’s a glorified spreadsheet that makes you feel productive while you’re actually just procrastinating with emojis.
The system I actually use (it’s embarrassing)
What I mean is—actually, let me put it differently. You don’t need a system. You need a bucket.
I tested 4 different “methods” over 18 months and tracked how many ideas actually turned into finished projects. The results were depressing. When I used Obsidian, my conversion rate was about 5%. When I switched to a plain text file and a physical notebook, it jumped to 40%. Precision matters, so here’s the breakdown: out of 50 ideas recorded in a $2 spiral notebook, 20 became something real. Out of 200 ideas recorded in my “Second Brain” app, only 10 survived the friction of the interface.
Here is my entire “Minimalist Second Brain” setup:
- Apple Notes: For things I need to remember while I’m out (grocery lists, a random thought while walking the dog).
- A physical $2 notebook: For actual thinking. There is something about the way a pen moves that keeps your brain from checking Twitter.
- One “Big List” email: If I find a link I want to save, I email it to myself. If I don’t look at it within 48 hours, I delete it.
That’s it. That’s the whole trick.
The best tool is the one that gets out of your way the fastest. If you have to think about where to put a note, the tool has already failed you.
The part nobody talks about
I used to think I needed to save everything. I was wrong. Most of what you read or hear isn’t worth saving. We’ve become obsessed with “capturing” information, but we’ve forgotten how to filter it. A real second brain shouldn’t be a storage unit; it should be a filter.
Anyway, I once tried to apply this “capture everything” logic to my physical life and tried to organize my spice rack using a decimal system. I ended up putting cumin in my coffee because I was looking at the labels instead of smelling the jars. I digress. The point is, your brain is actually quite good at remembering things that matter. If you forget it, it probably wasn’t that life-changing to begin with.
I might be wrong about this—maybe some people genuinely need a 5-tier tagging system to function—but for most of us, we’re just building digital junk drawers for our thoughts. We feel a little hit of dopamine when we hit “Save,” and then we never look at it again.
Stop trying to be “organized”
Search is better than folders. This is the only technical advice you need. If you use Apple Notes or Google Keep or whatever, stop making folders. Just write the note and use the search bar later. Folders are where ideas go to die. They require you to make a decision every time you save something: “Does this go in ‘Ideas’ or ‘Projects’ or ‘Writing’?” That decision is friction. Friction kills creativity.
I have one folder. It’s called “Notes.” I have 800 notes in there. When I need to find something about “tax returns,” I type “tax” into the search bar. It takes 0.5 seconds. I spent zero seconds organizing it.
Efficiency is a lie.
How to start (without buying anything)
If you want to actually build a system that works, do this tomorrow:
- Delete the fancy app you pay $10/month for.
- Open the default notes app on your phone.
- Write down one thing you actually want to do this week.
- Put your phone away.
I know this feels too simple. We want it to be complicated because if it’s complicated, we have an excuse for why we aren’t getting things done. “Oh, I can’t start my novel yet, I haven’t perfected my character relationship database in Notion.” Shut up. Write the novel on a napkin if you have to.
I still struggle with this. I still get tempted by new apps with pretty landing pages and promises of “bi-directional linking.” But then I remember that Tuesday night in March and the red eyes and the blank gardening article. I’m not sure if I’ll ever be a truly “productive” person in the way the internet wants me to be, but at least I’m not a librarian for blank books anymore.
Just buy a cheap notebook and start there.