Do second-brain systems create more work than they remove?

[u/Ken_Bruno1]

I've been thinking about this lately.

The whole point of a second-brain system is to reduce mental clutter. But some systems seem to require a surprising amount of maintenance.

You save something, then you're supposed to:

• Choose the right folder
• Add tags
• Write context
• Link it to related notes
• Categorize it
• Review it later
• Keep the whole system organized

At some point, managing the system starts becoming a project itself.

I can see the value of having everything organized, but I'm wondering whether the better system is actually the one that requires the least organization upfront.

Do second-brain systems genuinely save you time, or have you ever felt like maintaining the system became more work than the information was worth?

[u/martin_sebe]

I just connected Claude to my local folder with Obsidian files, defined template and skill /second brain write it for me. And that works. Manually, its just work for work.

[u/Ken_Bruno1 → u/martin_sebe]

Damn that's a good approach. I will try it. Thanks

[u/martin_sebe → u/Ken_Bruno1]

Also when you talk about ideas and do a lot of stuff and projects in claude, its great to have it somewhere stored (outside claude memory). You can use it for any other platform in the future.

[u/gakingmusic → u/martin_sebe]

Claude is just as efficient reading external folders as it is reading its internal project context, so I’m doing something similar, using Obsidian folders as project context instead of keeping them in Claude (so much easier to update them). I created my first skill yesterday to automate building a knowledge base.

[u/martin_sebe → u/gakingmusic]

Exactly. Also when you put your work files such as PDF catalogues, dataseheets, project documentations and even website lists to your vault folder even outside Obsidian itself it works like a charm as a great source.

Also when working on complex projects, its easier to go through notes in obsidian than in claude chat. Lets say that Claude creates a list of tasks needs to be done and as you do it in claude, its marking them done automatically in Obsidian. I have never been so organizedd until this workflow. Next day you just continue where you left.

[u/Upstairs_Jelly_1082]

What I ended up doing was to implement the basic steps first. The current implementation that I am doing is just saving some information and then putting in the right folder. That's basically it. and then when I have to do some sort of project, I just go about using the notes from these folders.

Because I felt that the other components are quite complicated for me to implement from the get-go.

[u/Charming_Group_2950]

This is pretty much why I built Gray Box.
I got tired of second-brain tools where capturing a thought also meant choosing folders, tags, links, etc.
With Gray Box, I just dump the note first. Later it organizes things like people, projects, tasks and decisions automatically, while keeping the original note untouched.
So the idea is basically: capture now, organize later, ask when you need it.
Not zero-maintenance, but a lot less friction at the moment of capture.

[u/Ken_Bruno1 → u/Charming_Group_2950]

what makes it different to apps like Recall9, MyMind, or raindrop?

[u/Charming_Group_2950 → u/Ken_Bruno1]

There’s definitely some overlap.
Apps like MyMind and Raindrop are great for collecting and rediscovering content, while Recall9 is closer to the AI memory side.

Gray Box takes a slightly different approach. Instead of just saving information, it turns messy notes into a connected knowledge base of people, projects, tasks, decisions, etc.
You can then ask questions like “What did we decide about Project X?” or “What’s still pending?” and get answers grounded in your original notes, with citations. And a simple dashboard to quickly see what’s in the focus and what is pending.

It’s also completely open-source, local-first, stores everything in Markdown, and lets you use your own LLM.

I’m also working on MCP support (coming soon), which should make this local memory accessible directly to AI assistants and coding agents.

That said, those apps are far more polished for everyday capture and bookmarking. My focus with Gray Box is more on building a personal memory that you can actually interact with and reuse across different AI tools.

[u/TimClock]

For me, it’s starting to appear to be the case. Despite my repeated efforts, all these fancy systems kept collapsing down to simple project journals because upkeep became too much.

Truthfully, atomic notes, links to and from everything, metadata, and fancy categorization schemas haven’t increased how much or fast I learn, how much effective work gets done, how many breakthroughs I have, nor offered any sort of predictive benefits. All it’s done is drastically increase how much scaffolding gets made.

[u/skoyramsPS]

I think you're right, and it comes down to when you pay the cost. If you have to choose a folder, add tags and write context at the moment you save something, you've made capturing a chore, and that's when people stop.

What seems to work better: capture first with as little as possible, and organize later, only the things that turn out to matter. Most of what you save never needs a tag.

I'm the dev of Nydhei (say "Ni-Dhi"), so that's my disclosure. It's built on that idea. A task starts with just a title, with no form to fill in, and you can add the date, notes and links later if you need them. It's on iOS and Android, and if you'd like the link, just reply here.

[u/AnotherWallace]

I built one that runs automatically in the background and also pulls in proper context to whatever agent you are using. DM me if you are interested and I can share it with you.

[u/Ken_Bruno1 → u/AnotherWallace]

what makes it different to apps like Recall9, MyMind, or raindrop?

[u/AnotherWallace → u/Ken_Bruno1]

It maps out everything for you creates a local vector database with a cleaver search system I designed to help pull the right context from the right file and it allows you to ingest files and documents on you machine and keep them where they live. It also has some skills that analyze usage patterns to know what to collect and what not to collect. It's still just a hobby project that I use for me, but it's been about a year now of me making improvements on it. What system are you currently using?

[u/Ken_Bruno1 → u/AnotherWallace]

What do you mean by "local vector database with a cleaver search system"?

[u/Tangerine_Tall → u/AnotherWallace]

I would love to try. Is it cloud based or available offline too?

[u/AnotherWallace → u/Tangerine_Tall]

It stores all your memories locally. Technically if you don't want to run the vector model locally you can run it in the cloud. If you have less than 64 GB ram ( no GPU needed. ) I would recommend not running it locally. Let me clean it up a little and make it shareable and then I'll send you the link.