The King of Second Brain Shares His Productivity Tools

One of the GOATs of productivity alongside David Allen is Tiago Forte, better known as the creator of the Second Brain concept offers wisdom on how to build an external brain that can be managed with note-taking applications optimised for a Second Brain reality.

Let's explore Tiago Forte's personal productivity tools and explore why he uses them.

Tiago Forte's Email Pick: Superhuman

Superhuman

A premium email experience designed for busy professionals handling lots of emails.

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Premium Email Management

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Email ClientsAI Productivity ToolsRemote Work Productivity Apps

Handling emails fast is key for Tiago Forte, with little ones running around and a growing team too, Second Brain creator needs something fast and fluid. Superhuman is touted to be one of the fastest email apps alongside others, this is Tiago Forte's email app of choice.

Tiago Forte's Tasks App: Things 3

Things 3

Manage tasks and projects with a beautiful, minimal to-do app that works with GTD.

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Best Minimal To-Do List

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To-Do List Apps

Reliable and solid, Tiago praises Things 3 and their development for continuing to keep the to-do list application simple, yet effective. He plans and organizes his projects in here and keeps track of his day-to-day list management too. We unpacked this in a video.

Tiago Forte's Calendar Pick: BusyCal

BusyCal

BusyCal is a customisable calendar application popular with business users.

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Best For

Calendar Organisation

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Calendar Apps

Tiago uses BusyCal for calendar event management. This is a good tool for managing multiple calendars and comes as alternatives to tools like Fantastical 3. Calendar apps in general are much easier to move thanks to anchors like Google Calendar, Outlook and iCal that help you to move base much more easily than tools like note-taking apps.

Read our full guide on how to pick the best productivity tools here if you wanted.

Second Brain Apps: Tiago Forte's Pick

The creator of Second Brain uses a few note-taking applications to manage his productivity and his workload. There are hundreds of note-taking apps and also a selected list we've created for note-taking applications optimised for SB that you can explore on Tool Finder.

Notion for Second Brain

Notion

An all-in-one workspaces for notes, projects, tasks, documents & lots more.

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Passionate All-In-One

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All-In-One Productivity ToolsProject Management SoftwareAI Productivity Tools

Tiago uses this to manage his home operations manual and helps too for content planning, something we've seen as common system uses for Giulia of Studytme and Byte Review. Notion has become one of the staples of most productivity tool workflows.

Using Evernote as a Second Brain

Evernote

A general all-around note-taking app, including light tasks and calendar abilities.

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Best For

Traditional Note-Taking

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To-Do List AppsNote Taking AppsAI Productivity Tools

Evernote has been a long-time note-taking app of Tiago Forte and he continues to store into it, despite exploring tools like Milanote. He uses systems like PARA to manage and organize his Evernote in the Second Brain structure. Evernote has been going through a strange patch with new AI changes and evolutions.

He also uses Readwise too for collecting articles and pieces across his day for later.

Team Productivity Apps: Tiago's Team Picks

For work tools, Tiago uses tools like Google Chat and Google Drive for management of team documents and team communication but for managing projects he uses ClickUp.

What is ClickUp?

ClickUp

A place for all-in-one project management, great for smaller teams.

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Best For

Small Teams

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Type of Tool

Project Management SoftwareAI Productivity Tools

That's everything. All of Tiago Forte's best productivity apps and the ones he chooses for managing his productive workflow with 2 kids, a home and a team to manage.