The King of Second Brain Shares His Productivity Tools

Second Brain wizard Tiago Forte explores what productivity tools he uses to manage his Second Brain and managing his personal and team productivity too.

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 building an external brain that can be managed with note-taking applications optimised for a Second Brain reality.

1. Superhuman Email

Tiago's go-to email app

Superhuman

Superhuman Email is a email app used by busy professionals for inbox management.

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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.

2. Things 3

Tiago's app for tasks

Things 3

Things 3 is a minimal to-do list application designed for iOS and macOS users.

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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.

3. BusyCal

A macOS calendar app

BusyCal

BusyCal is a customisable calendar app popular with business for handling events

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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

Notion is an all-in-one workspaces for notes, projects, tasks, documents & calendar.

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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.

Evernote

Evernote is a note-taking application with tasks, calendar and AI features inside.

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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 Picks

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

ClickUp

ClickUp is a project management software designed for teams to collaborate & work.

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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.