Training Example: Forte Labs – Review the Data, Give Your Score & Compare to the Real AI Evaluation

[H1] What's Your Productivity Potential?
This short quiz will help you reflect on the daily practices that impact your productivity and reveal which area would benefit from improvement. TAKE OUR QUIZ
[H5] AS SEEN IN
[H2] Hi, I'm Tiago Forte
I’m the founder of Forte Labs, and the question that drives me is, “How can humans reach their creative potential?”To answer that question, I teach and write about new ways for you to thrive in our connected, digital world.Over the last decade, I’ve helped thousands of people build a Second Brain.It’s a trusted place outside your head where you can collect and organize your most important ideas and insights, and use them to do your best work.The ultimate goal of building a Second Brain is to help you lead a more fulfilling life with more ease and less stress.New to Forte Labs? Start here →
[H2] A Proven Method to Organize Your Digital Life
And Unlock Your Creative Potential
[H2] Read the Best-Selling Book
Get the step-by-step guide to building a fully functional digital Second Brain. Order your copy now and get an exclusive bonus. Get the Book
[H2] Get the Actionable Guide
Organize your digital life in seconds with the PARA Method. This is the simple, intuitive system to find any information right when you need it. Get the Guide
[H2] Join Our Self-Paced Course, BASB Foundation
Absorb the fundamentals of the BASB methodology on your own time and in the most distilled, easy-to-understand way. Join BASB Foundation
[H2] Get the Blueprint for Modern, Digital Productivity
Our new self-paced course will provide you with powerful tools and habits so you can start every week with the focus you need to do your best work. Join Pillars of Productivity Success Stories
[H2] How People From All Walks of Life Benefit From a Second Brain
Building a Second Brain has freed me up from needing to keep everything inside of my mind. It's made me think like a CEO and made me a better professional.
[IMG: Nivaldo Gomes]
Nivaldo GomesBusiness Development Manager With a Second Brain, the chaos now lives in an external system. Which means my first brain is free of anxieties and is a much better place to be. My relationships with others (and myself) are better for it too.
[IMG: Ariane Santos]
Ariane SantosServiceNow Architect Building a Second Brain has given me the tools to have less stress and anxiety. My tasks now take 1/3 or 1/4 of the time and I'm able to have weekends, Friday mornings, and evenings free for my relationship, family and friends. I'm even enjoying my hobbies like cooking more!
[IMG: Jayme del Rosario]
Jayme Del RosarioStrength and Movement Coach, NTP, Business Owner I loved the Building a Second Brain course. I wish I started 40 years ago. If I had, today, it would be one of my most valuable tools and possessions.
[IMG: Michael Smith]
Michael J. SmithFormer College President This is the best investment I’ve made in improving my personal output, productivity, and knowledge management. All of the materials taken together are phenomenal, and I’m really happy with what I’ve learned from the course.
[IMG: Nat Eliason]
Nat EliasonFounder of Growth Machine, podcaster, blogger Having a Second Brain has freed me from brainfog. I have a precise view of my projects and an amazing system of not just „getting things done“ but „GTD with a happy brain!"
[IMG: Erika Magyarosi]
Erika MagyarosiDipl.-Phil I feel as though I have increased my IQ by 20 points. Of course this isn't true, but it feels this way because I am thinking so much more clearly and with so much more relaxation and concentration.
[IMG: Rob Joseph]
Rob JosephFractional CFO Building a Second Brain is like a fuel injection. I'm ready to create, design, and get things done!
[IMG: Dallas Fuentes]
Dallas FuentesGerontologist & Transformation Coach The Building a Second Brain course was a game-changer. In the past, all I did was collect and lose information. Now I have a system! Data is not isolated anymore and everything connects. I can feel how my creativity flows freely and my delivery is not only faster, my content is more complex.
[IMG: Carlos Solis]
Carlos SolisTech Evangelist & Author BASB has literally changed my life. Every time I take this course I get a new job, that's more specialized and better aligned with my goals and beliefs.
[IMG: Camila Holanda]
Camila HolandaDesigner, Researcher & Futurist
[H2] Get Started With Our Free Resources
[H3] Read Our Blog
Our blog is dedicated to exploring the frontier of modern productivity. If you enjoy mind-bending ideas and practical results, if you are tired of the same old productivity advice, and if you believe work can be a source of profound personal growth, you’ll feel right at home. Explore the Blog
[H3] Watch Our YouTube Videos
Every week, we publish fresh videos around building your Second Brain, productivity, and notetaking tools. You’ll also see collaborations with other thought leaders and productivity experts. Browse Our Videos
[H3] Listen to Our Podcast
The Building a Second Brain Podcast gives you the tools to thrive in our digital world in under 10 minutes per episode. Tiago Forte teaches you how to turn your notes, bookmarks and unread articles into completed creative works. Find an Episode
[H3] Join Our Community​
Looking to meet others interested in productivity and personal knowledge management? Join our free Facebook group to ask questions, share struggles, compare productivity setups, and think deeply with others about the topics that matter most to you. Join the Community

[H1] The Forte Labs Blog
[H2] Dedicated to Exploring the Frontier of Modern Productivity
[H3] The History Beneath My Feet: Two Years in Valle de Bravo
I’ve been living with my family in a Mexican mountain town called Valle de Bravo for almost two years now, and I’ve found it to be one of the most special, unique places I’ve ever spent any length of time. The natural environment, the culture, the people, and the perspectives it offers have taught me… Read More →
[IMG: Simone Stolzhoff]
[H3] 5 Questions to Help You Navigate Uncertainty
In the early 2010s, the gaming startup Tiny Speck was a darling of the tech industry. The company had raised $17 million. The launch of its first game, Glitch, was covered by international media, including The Guardian and The New York Times. Within months of launching, it had tens of thousands of active players.  But… Read More →
[IMG: Tiago Forte and PARA]
[H3] Why PARA Is the Key to the AI Era
I recently did an experiment. I allowed files and folders to accumulate on my computer for a month – just let them pile up without organizing anything. By the end of that month, I had 222 individual items scattered across my desktop and downloads folder. The accumulated files were genuinely diverse… Financial documents: personal tax… Read More →
[IMG: Tiago Forte]
[H3] Groundbreakers 2: Seeking the Heart of Fear
Six years ago, I attended a week-long course in Northern California called Groundbreakers. Facilitated by Joe Hudson and his wife, Tara, it was one of the most impactful experiences of my life. The experience I had there reshaped my relationship with the “voice in my head,” that is, with my own inner monologue. It helped… Read More →
[IMG: The AI Second Brain]
[H3] Introducing The AI Second Brain
In early 2023, after teaching 6,000 students over six years, I abruptly decided to stop teaching our Building a Second Brain cohorts.  Even at that early stage, with the release of the first version of ChatGPT just a couple months earlier, it was clear to me the impact this new technology would have. Almost from… Read More →
[IMG: Beyond Belief Book]
[H3] How to Create Your Own Luck: 5 Easy Practices
You’re scrolling LinkedIn during a coffee break. A course creator you know just hit $100K in their first cohort. Another founder you know just closed a funding round. And a peer you met at a workshop got invited to speak at the conference you’ve been attending for years. “They’re so lucky,” you think, closing the… Read More →
[H3] The Difference Between Claude Code and Cowork
Anthropic now offers two tools that can BOTH control a web browser AND access your local files. But they work very differently. Here’s the simplest way to think about it: Cowork is the easy option. It lives right inside the Claude desktop app — no setup, no installation, just start chatting and it gets to work. Read More →
[IMG: Tiago Forte]
[H3] My 2025 Annual Review
At the start of 2025, I dubbed this “The Year of Profitability,” and now that it’s come to a close, I can say we successfully fulfilled that intention. We ended the year with 2.15M in gross revenue, and $650,000 in net profit, for a 30% gross margin. That’s our second-best year ever as a business!… Read More →
[IMG: New book between the PARA Method and Building a Second Brain]
[H3] The Book I’ve Been Waiting to Write for 15 Years
I’m incredibly proud to share news that’s been two years in the making: my next book is coming on November 3, 2026! It’s called Life in Perspective, and it represents the culmination of a reflective practice I’ve been refining since 2008: the annual review. If you’ve read Building a Second Brain or The PARA Method,… Read More →
[H3] What I’ve Learned From 20 Years of Goal-Setting
In the summer of 2005, when I was 20 years old, I sat down and wrote one of my first personal goals: “Hold a position in the Associated Student Government of Saddleback College at start of Fall semester (August 22, 2005).” I had just dropped out of college on the East Coast after burning through… Read More →
[IMG: Beyond Acceptance book by Lauren Valdez]
[H3] Beyond Acceptance: The Transformational Journey of Applying to Grad School (or Anything Else)
My wife Lauren and I met at a co-working space in San Francisco in our mid-twenties. I was working an entry-level position at a creative consulting agency, at the bottom of the pyramid. Lauren was making $15/hour at an arts nonprofit, living rent-free with her aunt.  We both saw no pathway to climb in our… Read More →
[H3] Boundary Intelligence: Why What You Can Access Matters More Than What You Know
A new, powerful definition of intelligence is emerging out of the AI field: “boundary intelligence.” I first came across it in this excellent piece To Know Is To Stage by Venkatesh Rao, which appropriately, was co-authored by an LLM. Let me step back and explain what boundary intelligence means (mixing my own words with paraphrasing… Read More →
[H2] Topics I Write About Include
Practical tools for making your day-to-day work more productiveSummaries of the most important books for understanding modern knowledge workThe nature of human attention and the flow stateHow to build a “Second Brain” to organize your ideas outside your headInsights from cognitive science we can use to change our behaviorPractical techniques to enhance creativityHow to use design principles to create workflows that support our performanceModern education and how to best take advantage of online learning resourcesEmotional intelligence and self-awareness as learnable skillsThe role of entrepreneurship and self-employment in the future of workUsing science-fiction and futurism to predict the futureNew perspectives on traditional productivity topics like goals, habits, and time managementHow to effectively take notes and organize information to enhance your learningNew ways of thinking about marketing in the digital eraWhat personal growth looks like without mysticism and religionProject management and how it is evolving alongside new technologyDeep trends in technology and culture and how they impact business strategyThe power of curation and writing in carving out a niche and becoming a thought leaderExploring the Theory of Constraints and how it applies to knowledge workand much more…
[H2] Explore Our Articles By Category
[H3] Series
Choosing your Second Brain appsThe Making of a Bestseller: A Behind-The-Scenes Look at the Creation of Building a Second BrainBuilding a Second Brain Book UpdatesThe Complete Guide to Landing a Book DealProgressive Summarization: A Practical Technique for Designing Discoverable Notes Just-In-Time Project Management: A Digital-First Framework for Modern ProjectsThe Rise of the Full-Stack Freelancer: A Portfolio Approach to Modern Work The Theory of Constraints 101: Applying Principles of Flow to Knowledge WorkMESA: Creating the Ideal Work ExperienceThe Untethered Soul: Roadmap of My Personal GrowthA Quest for Self-Knowledge: From Self-Help to Somatic Healing12 Favorite Problems
[H3] Types
AnnouncementsAnti-Book ClubBook SummaryCase StudiesGuest PostsHow-to GuidesInterviewsVideosPlease note that our blog posts may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.We’re committed to being transparent about our use of AI tools—you can read our full AI-generated content policy here.

[H1] The Building a Second Brain Podcast
The Building a Second Brain Podcast gives you the tools to thrive in our digital, hyper-connected world in under 10 minutes per episode. Learn how to build your “Second Brain” – a trusted place outside your head where you can collect your most important ideas and insights, and use them to do your best work. You’ll discover why many myths about the creative process hold us back, and how replacing them with a modern approach can unlock our true creative potential. You’ll be amazed at what you can create with the right frame of mind.
[H2] Listen On
[IMG: Listen on Spotify]
[IMG: Listen on Apple Podcasts]

[H2] Hi, I'm Tiago
I’ve spent more than 10 years researching and personally experimenting with a new way of organizing our digital lives.What started as a quest to survive a chronic illness turned into a life-long mission to help people like you harness the full potential of their ideas and turn them into reality. I firmly believe this is a crucial part of creating a better future for all of us.
[IMG: Tiago Forte]
If you’re here reading this, then something in your life has caused you to stop and think, “There must be a better way!” (just like my chronic illness did for me). Maybe your responsibilities have increased dramatically as you started a family, a new job, or a business, and now you need a way to do great work, despite having less time. You might feel like you’re dropping balls left, right, and center, losing track of open threads, and it’s impacting those around you. Maybe you’re dissatisfied with your current job and want to move to a more fulfilling career and get more out of life. Or maybe you have a lot of ideas and expertise but don’t know how to link all that information together to make the impact you want to make. Whatever your situation, I can tell you that…
[H2] You Are Not Alone!
The constant feeling of overwhelm caused by waves of information washing over us is so common in our modern, hyper-connected world. Same for the feeling of never making tangible progress. Or the feeling of frustration when you can’t find something you were sure you saved. I’ve encountered these feelings and challenges my entire life. Yet, I’ve always known deep in my heart that there must be a better way to learn, solve problems, and do our best work. And that technology was the key, as long as we learned how to use it properly.Over years of painstaking research and trial and error, I found better ways of learning and working that allowed me to thrive.Now, my goal is to help you resolve these challenges for yourself without having to go through everything I did. To enable you to improve how you work to make it more fulfilling and impactful. To help you think more clearly about your productivity instead of accepting how it’s always been done. To see your work as an opportunity for personal growth and self-understanding instead of a burden.The quality of your work shapes the quality of your life, and I want to help you elevate both.
[H2] How I Can Help You Reach Your Full Potential
Over the last decade, I’ve helped thousands of people build a Second Brain.It’s a trusted place outside your head where you can collect and organize your most important ideas and insights and use them to do your best work.The ultimate goal of a Second Brain is to help you lead a more fulfilling life with more ease and less stress.Sounds too good to be true? Here’s what our students say about adopting the Second Brain system: For YEARS I had searched for an outlet, some way to store, collate, manage, keep track of all of my thoughts, ideas, tabs (!), work and personal notes, and it was all-consuming and overwhelming. BASB was truly a godsend and a life changer for me.
[IMG: Rob Wilson]
Rob WilsonFinancial services professional With a Second Brain, the chaos now lives in an external system. Which means my first brain is free of anxieties and is a much better place to be. My relationships with others (and myself) are better for it too.
[IMG: Ariane Santos]
Ariane SantosServiceNow Architect Having a Second Brain has saved my behind. My parents passed away, and it has helped me immensely as the executor of their estates. I love this program and its amazing impact on my life.
[IMG: Scott Wilson]
Scott WilsonPast President Appraisal Institute of Canada I loved the Building a Second Brain course. I wish I started 40 years ago. If I had, today, it would be one of my most valuable tools and possessions.
[IMG: Michael Smith]
Michael J. SmithFormer College President From my heart… now, with the BASB framework as a foundation, I approach my day with a playing mindset rather than my former dreading the coming slog mindset, I take joy in the constant rain of ideas.
[IMG: Joan Jaeckel]
Joan JaeckelSocial Entrepreneur, How We Will, Co-Founder, ShadeTree Multicultural Foundation Building a Second Brain is life-changing. I feel more organized. I know where everything goes. It's cleared up my information hoarding and replaced it with buckets for distilled work.
[IMG: Barjes Angulo]
Barjes R. AnguloFinancial Planner Building a Second Brain is like a fuel injection. I'm ready to create, design, and get things done!
[IMG: Dallas Fuentes]
Dallas FuentesGerontologist & Transformation Coach The Building a Second Brain course was a game-changer. In the past, all I did was collect and lose information. Now I have a system! Data is not isolated anymore and everything connects. I can feel how my creativity flows freely and my delivery is not only faster, my content is more complex.
[IMG: Carlos Solis]
Carlos SolisTech Evangelist & Author BASB has literally changed my life. Every time I take this course I get a new job, that's more specialized and better aligned with my goals and beliefs.
[IMG: Camila Holanda]
Camila HolandaDesigner, Researcher & Futurist
[H2] Now imagine how much more organized, effective, calm, and creative YOU could be if you had a Second Brain
Want to find out? We’ve created a quiz to help you test your productivity potential and identify how a Second Brain could help you. Test My Productivity Potential At the end of the quiz, you’ll receive my free Second Brain Quickstart Guide to help you apply my best techniques for leading a more productive and fulfilling life.
[H2] Want to dive in straight away? Here’s my most popular content to kickstart your learning
Whether you prefer to read, watch, or listen, we have something for you in every format.
[H3] From the Blog
Organize your digital world with my groundbreaking PARA MethodUse the tools available to you more effectively by building your Personal Productivity StackGo from chaos to clarity in 30 minutes with a Weekly ReviewImprove your reading habits with The Secret Power of ‘Read It Later’ AppsPeek into the future of work with The Rise of the Full-Stack Freelancer
[H3] From the YouTube Channel
Choose a digital notes app as your Second BrainAchieve inbox zero consistently Learn how to capture, organize, and share your knowledge using digital notesOrganize your life in NotionSee how I take useful digital notesCatch all session replays of the Second Brain Summit 2022Hear what students have to say about Building a Second Brain
[H3] From the Podcast
Learn about the 10 principles of Building a Second BrainUnravel the 9 biggest myths about Building a Second Brain
[H2] Don’t Miss Out On New Content!
To stay connected and updated, I recommend subscribing to the free newsletter that I send to over 125,000 readers every Tuesday. You’ll receive my latest articles, videos, guides, and special announcements straight in your inbox. 100% free and 100% useful.
[H2] Join Our Community of Productivity Geeks
The Forte Labs community is a thriving network of thinkers and doers. Join us for free on Facebook to connect with others who are as curious and ambitious as you. Join on Facebook
[H2] A Final Word
I am honored to be a part of your journey of learning and growth. Your time is precious, and I will do my very best to ensure that every minute here is well spent.TiagoP.S. For more about me, read my origin story to learn how a chronic illness and a passion for teaching led me to the world of personal productivity and knowledge management.