I Built a Second Brain, Then I Burned Out

How my productivity system turned into a trap — and how I escaped it?

I Built a Second Brain, Then I Burned Out. Let me confess something.

For a long time, I believed that productivity was a puzzle — and the more tools I mastered, the closer I’d get to solving it.

Notion, Obsidian, Readwise, Todoist, Evernote, Roam, Mem, Tana, Google Keep (yes, even that). I tried them all. Built “systems.” Nested dashboards. Color-coded tags. Review rituals.

And it worked… for a while.

Until one day, I looked at my perfectly organized vault of information — and realized I hadn’t created anything meaningful in days.

• I hadn’t written.

• I hadn’t reflected.

• I hadn’t even appropriately breathed.

That was the day I knew: I was drowning in my second brain.

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It started with excitement.

The idea of building a digital second brain was thrilling.

No more forgotten ideas. No more loose threads. Just one trusted place where everything lived — articles, meeting notes, book highlights, grocery lists, dream projects.

But over time, I fell into a trap many productivity lovers don’t talk about:

I became a curator of thoughts, not a creator of meaning.

The Turning Point

One morning, I opened Notion to “plan my day” — and instead, stared blankly at my content pipeline.

I had five dashboards. Twelve task views. A swipe file of 70+ “future blog ideas.” And absolutely zero motivation.

That’s when it hit me: I’d built a machine that looked productive — but made me feel empty.

It didn’t clarify my life. It complicated it. It wasn’t helping me think. It was helping me avoid thinking.

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So, what changed? [PAID SUBSCRIBERS — KEEP READING BELOW]