# Building a "second brain" - The plan

I have been thinking of building a second brain where I can put my writeups, to-do list, career plans, thoughts, ideas, goals and any thing that strikes my brain. 

I have tried few of the best options available out there in this space:
> Notion
> Obsidian
> Google keep
> Google docs as a second brain
> Microsoft To-Do

But its hard to set a system in these. 

1. Notion
- I feel the look is great, it allows to write but too many distractions. I waste my time in just setting up things. I am not able to write, instead I am focusing on resolving the clutter by organising better. It's kind of like a chaos. I like clean minimal infrastructure for my usage: cause for me the most important thing is time.

2. Obsidian
- A total waste of time for someone like me who has less patience in the setup. The setup is time consuming process and confusing. I am not a fan of a tool that requires too much configuration. Its good for someone who like to tweak and build a system within an existing infrastructure.

3. Google keep
- One of the best tools among all in the above list. Simple, less distracting and user friendly. Only thing that limited my use was that it didn't have features of better note taking. It was more like a combination of short notes and to-do list maker. It can be used as a reminder. I felt hard to integrate it to the my work flow, where I juggle around different activities.

4. Google docs
- Easy to use, great formatting and pageless doc feature is really great. But maintaining an infrastructure and an information management system within it is not hard. 

5. Microsoft To-Do
- Just a to-do app. But good at what it says it would do. It didn't match my requirements.

After all this trials, I decided I would use the most basic principle of folder structures. I have recently been reading about commonplace books/journals and will be implementing these principles for my second brain set up. I would be using plain Notepad and Wordpad for my notes and all things doing inside it. For now I will be using the Google Drive as a cloud, with its desktop capabilities to incorporate the second brain.