Axis

Building a Second Brain

David V. Kimball — Sun, 08 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The idea of a "second brain" is simple: offload what you know into a system you trust, so your actual brain can focus on thinking instead of remembering.

Why It Matters

Most of us consume far more information than we retain. Articles, podcasts, conversations, ideas in the shower. Without a capture system, it all evaporates.

A good PKM (personal knowledge management) setup gives you:

Capture without friction
Organization that scales
Retrieval when you need it most

The term was popularized by Tiago Forte[^1], but the underlying idea is ancient. Commonplace books, zettelkasten, and marginalia all served the same purpose: extending human memory beyond its biological limits.

[^1]: Tiago Forte's book Building a Second Brain (2022) formalized the PARA method and the concept of progressive summarization.

The Tools I Use

I've written more about my specific setup in My Complete Note-Taking Workflow. The short version: I use Obsidian as my primary tool, with a vault that syncs across devices.

The key insight is that the tool matters less than the habit. Pick something, commit to it for 90 days, and iterate.

What Makes a Good Tool

Not every app works for this. The ones that stick tend to share a few traits:

Local-first storage. Your notes live on your machine, not behind a login wall.
Plain text or Markdown. Future-proof formats you can read anywhere.
Linking between notes. The ability to connect ideas is what turns a folder into a knowledge graph.
Low friction capture. If it takes more than a few seconds to create a note, you won't do it.

Connecting Ideas

The real power comes from linking. When you connect a note about one topic to another, unexpected insights emerge. This is the core of networked thought.

Your second brain becomes a thinking partner, not just a filing cabinet.

Progressive Summarization

One technique that helps: when you revisit a note, bold the most important sentences. Next time, highlight the bolded ones. Over time, the signal rises to the top without you needing to rewrite anything[^2].

[^2]: Progressive summarization is a layered highlighting technique. Each pass distills the note further without losing the original context.

Common Mistakes

[!warning] Avoid these pitfalls Perfectionism kills PKM systems faster than anything else. Don't reorganize. Don't build elaborate folder hierarchies. Just capture and link.

A few patterns that derail people:

Over-organizing too early. Structure should emerge from use, not be imposed upfront.
Tool-hopping. Switching apps every month means you never build a critical mass of notes.
Treating it like a task list. A second brain is for reference and thinking, not for tracking to-dos.

Getting Started

Pick one tool (Obsidian, Notion, even a folder of text files)
Start capturing everything interesting for two weeks
Review weekly and start linking related ideas
Let the structure emerge organically

A 30-Day Challenge

Week	Focus	Goal
1	Capture	Write at least one note per day
2	Link	Connect every new note to at least one existing note
3	Review	Spend 30 minutes reviewing and refining
4	Create	Produce one piece of output from your notes

By the end of the month, you'll know whether the system works for you. The notes you've accumulated become proof of the concept.

The principles here overlap heavily with the Kaizen philosophy of continuous improvement. Small daily deposits compound into something significant.

The goal isn't a perfect system. It's a system that makes you think better.

Ikigai

David V. Kimball — Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Ikigai (生き甲斐) is often translated as "reason for being" or "that which makes life worth living." It's the sense of purpose that gets you out of bed in the morning.

The Four Circles

In popular use, ikigai is pictured as the overlap of four areas:

What you love (passion)
What you're good at (skill)
What the world needs (mission)
What sustains you (livelihood)

The sweet spot isn't one of these alone but where they meet. Work or life that feels meaningful, useful, and aligned with your strengths.

The Western Misinterpretation

The Venn diagram version of ikigai is actually a Western invention[^1]. In Japan, the concept is broader and less career-focused. A retired grandmother who tends her garden every morning has ikigai. A child building with blocks has ikigai. It doesn't require monetization or world-changing impact.

[^1]: The four-circle Venn diagram often attributed to ikigai was created by Marc Winn in 2014, combining ikigai with a separate framework by Andres Zuzunaga. It's useful but not authentically Japanese.

The original meaning is closer to "the feeling that life is worth living." Neuroscientist Ken Mogi describes five pillars of ikigai[^2]:

Starting small
Accepting yourself
Connecting with others and the world
Seeking small joys
Living in the here and now

[^2]: Ken Mogi, The Little Book of Ikigai (2017).

Finding Your Own

The idea is less about a single "calling" and more about paying attention to the small things that give you satisfaction: a walk, a conversation, a project that uses your skills, or the rewards of continuous improvement.

[!tip] A practical exercise Write down three moments from the past week where you lost track of time. What were you doing? Who were you with? Those are clues.

In that sense, ikigai is something you notice and nurture through how you spend your time, not something you discover once and keep forever.

Ikigai and Knowledge Work

For those of us who work with ideas, ikigai often shows up in the process itself. The act of writing a clear sentence, solving a tricky problem, or helping someone understand something new. These are small moments of purpose that compound over time.

Building a system that supports this kind of work, like a second brain, is itself a form of ikigai. The system serves the purpose. The purpose feeds the system.

Kaizen

David V. Kimball — Thu, 05 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Kaizen (改善) means "change for better." It's continuous, incremental improvement. A mindset and a practice: improve a little every day instead of waiting for the perfect plan or the big push.

Origins in Manufacturing

Kaizen emerged in post-war Japan as a management philosophy at Toyota[^1]. The idea was radical in its simplicity: every employee, from the assembly line to the executive floor, should look for small improvements every single day.

[^1]: The Toyota Production System, developed by Taiichi Ohno and Eiji Toyoda in the 1950s, is widely credited with formalizing kaizen as an industrial practice.

The principles were straightforward:

Small experiments over grand plans
Quick feedback over long review cycles
Steady refinement over dramatic overhauls

These same principles later influenced lean manufacturing, agile software development, and countless productivity systems.

Kaizen for Personal Work

The same idea applies to habits and creative work. One small edit, one short session, one clear next step is enough. Consistency matters more than intensity.

The 1% Rule

If you improve by 1% each day, after a year you're 37 times better[^2]. The math is compelling, but the real insight is psychological: small improvements don't trigger resistance. Your brain doesn't fight a five-minute writing session the way it fights a two-hour commitment.

[^2]: This is the compound interest metaphor applied to habits: 1.01^365 = 37.78. James Clear popularized this framing in Atomic Habits (2018).

Practical Applications

Area	Big change (hard)	Kaizen approach (sustainable)
Writing	"Write 2,000 words a day"	Write one paragraph after morning coffee
Exercise	"Go to the gym 5x/week"	Do 10 pushups before your shower
Reading	"Read 50 books this year"	Read one page before bed
Note-taking	"Reorganize my entire vault"	Link one note to another each day

Why It Works

The appeal of kaizen is that it's sustainable. Big, sudden changes are hard to maintain; small steps compound without burning you out. You don't need to be twice as good tomorrow. Just a bit better than yesterday.

[!note] The compound effect Most people overestimate what they can do in a day and underestimate what they can do in a year. Kaizen respects this asymmetry.

Kaizen and Purpose

There's a natural connection between kaizen and ikigai. The daily practice of improving, even in tiny ways, creates a sense of forward motion. That feeling of progress is itself a source of meaning.

Building a second brain is kaizen applied to knowledge. Every note captured, every link made, every review completed is a small improvement to your thinking infrastructure.

My Complete Note-Taking Workflow

David V. Kimball — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

After years of trying different systems, I've landed on a workflow that actually sticks. Here's the full breakdown.

Daily Capture

Every morning I open my daily note and jot down what's on my mind. Throughout the day, I capture anything interesting. Fleeting notes, quotes, article highlights, random ideas.

The rule: capture first, organize later. If I try to categorize in the moment, I lose the thought.

What I Capture

Not everything deserves a note. Over time I've developed a filter:

Ideas I might act on. Even half-formed ones.
Things that surprised me. Surprise means my mental model was wrong, which means learning.
Connections between topics. "This reminds me of..." is always worth writing down.
Quotes that resonate. But only if I can articulate why they resonate[^1].

[^1]: A quote without your own commentary is just someone else's thought. The value comes from your reaction to it.

Weekly Review

Every Sunday I spend 30 minutes reviewing the week's captures. This is where the magic happens:

Promote fleeting notes to permanent notes
Add links to related ideas
Tag anything that connects to active projects
Delete anything that no longer seems interesting

This is closely tied to the principles I wrote about in Building a Second Brain. The review habit is what turns a pile of notes into a knowledge system.

The Review Checklist

I keep a simple template for the weekly review:

Open this week's daily notes
Star anything worth keeping
For each starred item: create a proper note or add it to an existing one
Link the new notes to at least two existing notes
Check the "unlinked" list for orphaned notes
Archive the daily notes

Tools and Setup

My stack:

Tool	Purpose	Why I chose it
Obsidian	Writing and linking	Local-first, Markdown, incredible plugin ecosystem
Readwise	Book/article highlights	Auto-syncs to Obsidian
Physical notebook	Meetings and sketches	Some things are better on paper

I publish my notes using a static site generator. The same principles that make code maintainable (clear structure, minimal duplication, good naming) apply to knowledge bases too.

Folder Structure

I keep it minimal:

vault/
  daily/          # Daily notes, auto-generated
  notes/          # Permanent notes, linked
  projects/       # Active project folders
  references/     # Source material
  templates/      # Note templates

The key insight: folders are for types of notes, not topics. Topics emerge from links and tags, not from where a file lives[^2].

[^2]: This is the difference between a filing cabinet (hierarchical) and a wiki (networked). Both have value, but for knowledge work, the network wins.

Note Types

Not all notes are the same. I use three tiers:

Fleeting Notes

Quick captures. A sentence or two. No formatting required. These live in daily notes and get processed during the weekly review. Most of them get deleted or absorbed into permanent notes.

Literature Notes

Summaries and reactions to things I've read. Always include the source and my own commentary. "The author argues X. I think this connects to Y because Z."

Permanent Notes

The building blocks of the system. Each one is:

Atomic: one idea per note
Self-contained: makes sense without context
Linked: connected to at least two other notes
Written in my own words: not a copy-paste

What I've Learned

The biggest lesson: your note-taking system should reduce anxiety, not create it. If you feel guilty about an inbox of unprocessed notes, your system is too rigid.

[!tip] The golden rule of note-taking If your system makes you feel guilty instead of productive, simplify it. Delete the rules that create pressure without creating value.

The Kaizen approach applies perfectly here. Don't try to build the perfect system in a weekend. Make one small improvement each week. After a few months, you'll have something that genuinely serves how you think.

Keep it simple. Link generously. Review regularly. That's it.

Hello, World

David V. Kimball — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Welcome to Axis. This is a sample post. Edit or remove it and start writing.

What's Included

Axis is a premium Astro theme built for Vault CMS and designed to be configured entirely from inside Obsidian. Use Axis Settings in Obsidian for themes, navigation, custom head and footer snippets, optional cookie consent, and more; Configuration spells out the highlights.

Site Features

17 color themes with a live theme selector in the command palette
Dark mode with system-aware or manual toggle
Command palette (Ctrl+K) for searching posts, pages, projects, docs, and quick actions
Site-wide search powered by the command palette
Custom theme generation to extract colors from your Obsidian theme and create your own
OG image generation with automatic Open Graph images for every post
JSON-LD structured data for better SEO (BlogPosting, WebPage, WebSite schemas)
RSS feed and sitemap generated automatically
Configurable navigation with nested dropdown menus and external link support

Content Types

Posts for blog content with tags, cover images, and reading time
Pages for static content (About, Setup, etc.)
Projects for showcasing your work with status badges and links[^1]
Docs for documentation with category grouping and sidebar navigation

[^1]: Projects support active, wip, and archived status badges, plus optional links to a repository and live URL.

Writing Features

Axis supports a rich set of Markdown and Obsidian-compatible content features:

Feature	Syntax	Example
Headings	`## H2` through `#### H4`	This page's sections
Bold / Italic	`bold` / `italic`	bold and italic
Links	`[text](url)`	Standard Markdown links
Images	`![alt](image.jpg)`	With automatic WebP conversion
Code blocks	Triple backticks	With syntax highlighting
Tables	Pipe syntax	This table
Footnotes	`[^1]`	See the footnote above
Callouts	`> [!type]`	See examples below
Math	$inline$ or `$$block$$`	KaTeX rendering
Mermaid	Fenced `mermaid` blocks	Diagrams rendered on the page
Highlights	`==highlighted==`	==highlighted text==
Image grids	Multiple images in sequence	Responsive grid layouts

Post Features

Table of contents generated from headings, configurable depth
Reading time and word count shown on each post
Related posts suggested based on shared tags and links
Linked mentions (backlinks) showing which other posts link here
Local knowledge graph visualizing how posts connect
Previous/next navigation between posts
Cover images with configurable aspect ratios and display options
Draft support with underscore prefix or frontmatter flag[^2]
Redirect tracking via the redirects property for SEO-safe URL changes

[^2]: Drafts are visible during development (pnpm dev) but hidden in production builds. They also won't appear in the graph, RSS feed, or sitemap.

Callout Examples

Axis supports Obsidian-style callouts. Here are the available types:

[!note] A note Use notes for general supplementary information that adds context.

[!tip] A helpful tip Tips highlight best practices or shortcuts the reader might not know.

[!warning] Be careful Warnings flag potential issues or things that could go wrong.

[!important] Key information Important callouts draw attention to critical details.

[!caution] Proceed with care Caution callouts are stronger than warnings. Use them for actions that could cause data loss or breaking changes.

Configuration

Use the Axis Settings Obsidian plugin as the main way to tune the site without hand-editing files:

Themes and layout: Themes, fonts, content width, feature toggles, and navigation (including nested menus and external links) from the plugin UI.
Custom snippets: Head and end-of-body fields inject HTML or scripts at the end of <head> and before </body>—handy for analytics, extra meta, or third-party tags. The plugin writes values into src/config.ts for the build.
Cookie consent (optional): Enable a minimal EU-style banner. When it is on, those custom snippets run only after the visitor chooses Accept all; off by default.

If you prefer, edit src/config.ts directly. Every option uses [CONFIG:KEY] markers that the plugin reads and writes.

Getting Help

Documentation: docs.vaultcms.org
Community: Join the Discord
Updates: Run pnpm run update with your license key to get the latest version