The system we use to never lose context between projects — and how you can build your own.
Daily = where I start the day · TLDR = where I store what I learned · Vault = where I find everything later
Managing multiple simultaneous projects has an invisible cost: every time you return to a project after a few days, you need to rebuild context from scratch. What was in progress? What decision was made? Why?
This cost accumulates. And in an agency — where the same team handles five clients at once — it multiplies by five.
The solution we found wasn't a new tool. It was a method.
A Second Brain is an external system — usually plain text files — that stores knowledge in a way you can find, connect, and reuse what you've already thought through.
It's not a task manager. It's not a wiki. It's closer to a living archive: each project has its own history of decisions, solved bugs, discovered patterns, and next steps.
We use Obsidian — a Markdown editor that saves everything in .md files on your own computer. No lock-in, no proprietary cloud, no mandatory subscription.
→ The patterns/ folder is the most valuable long-term. Every time you solve something that might repeat, it goes there. Over time it becomes your own encyclopedia.
A vault without routine becomes a graveyard of files. Two simple rituals keep everything alive:
Open (or create) today's note. Write what's on your mind and the 3 priorities. 5 minutes. Answers: "What do I do today?"
At the end of each work session, record what was done, what's pending, and what you learned. Answers: "What did I do and what's left for tomorrow?"
Today's TLDR is tomorrow's context. Over time, no session starts from zero — the history from weeks ago is one file away.
Obsidian has a visualization called Graph View (Ctrl+G) that shows connections between your notes. Each dot is a note. Each line is an internal link in the format [[note-name]].
Heavily referenced notes appear as hubs — you can visually see which patterns and projects are most central to your work.
The graph isn't mandatory. If you never use internal links, the vault works perfectly. It's an extra visualization — useful, but not essential.
Install Obsidian. Create inbox/, daily/ and projects/ folders. Write one note per day with what's on your mind.
After each relevant work session, write a TLDR. A bullet list is enough — it doesn't need to be perfect.
When you solve something that might repeat, create a note in patterns/. Start linking notes to each other.
You'll open the vault and realize you have context for everything. Onboarding becomes trivial. New projects get faster.
A simple system you use every week beats the perfect system you abandon in 30 days. Start small. The second brain grows with you.